U.S. Army Watervliet Arsenal June 2015

THE SALVO

$27M investment to improve efficiency, reliability of critical resources

Story on Page 3

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The Arsenal Salvo is an authorized monthly publication for members of the Department of Defense. Contents of the Salvo are not necessarily the official views of, or an endorse-ment by the U.S. Government, the Department of Defense, the Department of the Army, or the Watervliet Arsenal. News may be submitted for publication by sending articles to Public Affairs Officer, 1 Buffington Street, Bldg. 10, Watervliet, NY 12189, or stop by office #102, Bldg. 10, Watervliet Arsenal. The editor may also be reached at (518) 266-5055 or by e-mail: john.b.snyder.civ@mail.mil. The editor reserves the right to edit all information submitted for publication.

Commander, Col. Lee H. Schiller Jr.Public Affairs Officer, John B. SnyderEditor, John B. SnyderPhotographer: John B. Snyder Arsenal Facebook Page @http://on.fb.me/sq3LEm

ColonelLee H. Schiller Jr.

CommandingManufacturer 6

Commander’sCorner

As I near my second year in command, I can’t find the right words to tell you how truly honored I am to have become part of the Arsenal’s history, tradition, and its heart and soul. Suffice it for me to say that one day, many years from now as I look back on my life here, I will recall the great-ness of the Watervliet Arsenal with a fond sense of rever-ence and respect.

Now, don’t read anything into my comment because I haven’t checked out from this command nor am I preparing to walk into retirement. I simply like to reflect, from time to time, on where I have been and the two-year mark of command seemed like the right time to do so.

As we begin to enter the summer months, I need you to not to check out either.

The summer months bring a wealth of pent up demand for time off, especially given the long winter we just suffered through. We also have the Arsenal shutdown week the end of July to contend with. All of this has the potential to negatively affect the level of production, the quality of our products, as well as the safety of our workforce.

Despite a significant amount of time off planned for this summer, I need you to not lose sight on the Arsenal’s mis-sion. We are down to the last three months of the fiscal year and we have to ramp up, versus ramp down, our pro-duction to ensure that we close out with the revenue that we had planned to achieve for this year.

So, what this means to you is that we will continue to push tight delivery schedules with a smaller workforce. Those

of you who remain at work, please stay focused and take care of each other and especially, the mission. For those of you who will take time off, good for you but know that when you come back from vacation I need you to be on top of your game in regards to supporting the mission.

Summer vacations, as well as a reduced workforce, may cause a less professional workforce to either lose focus while they are at work or to be tempted to take shortcuts. That can’t be us nor will it be.

Whatever work you do, do it safely and do it right the first time. This is more than getting a product shipped out the gate, it is also about you safely getting home at the end of the workday.

Thanks again for all that you do to ensure our troops have the right tools that allow them to safely come home from battle.

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By John B. Snyder

Story continues on page 4, see “Upgrade”

Left: Ongoing work on a $4.9 million project that will replace water lines that many believe were installed either just prior or dur-ing World War I.Right: Since 1959, the Arsenal has relied on two huge transformers at the main power substation. Leveraging new power genera-tion technology, the Arsenal has begun a $4.3 million program that will make our power supply more reliable and efficient.

Photos by John B. Snyder

From water to power, Arsenal invests $27M to improve efficiency, reliability

The Arsenal announced this month a $27 million program that will upgrade critical facilities, some of which date back to the mid-1800s, said the chief of public works.

“Trying to maintain the infrastructure of a 202-year-old Army arsenal is extremely difficult,” said Michael Wright. “But at a certain point, we had no choice but to make tough decisions to reinvest a significant amount of resources into the upgrade of the Arsenal’s critical infrastructure, such as water and power.”

There are six major projects that go into this $27 mil-

lion of investments. The projects are: replacement of the main water lines that were installed just prior to or during World War I; renovation of a building that was built in 1848 that currently houses the Arsenal’s firehouse; install a new fire suppression system and electrical upgrade in the Big Gun Shop that was built in 1888; replace the main power substation that was installed in 1959; install new backup generators for the main power station; and repairs to several family housing units that were built during the mid- to late 1800s.

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Upgrade Cont.

James Uram, pointing, will in the near future bring an end to his 34-year career here, but before he left he had one more mission to do. Uram is supervising a $4.3 million project that will replace the Arsenal’s main power substation. He said he thought about retiring last year but because he has been in the plan-ning process for this job since 2009, he wanted to see it through.

Photo by John B. Snyder

The general contractors for the two largest contracts are both New York companies. Oddo Construction Services LLC, from Amherst, is installing the new electrical power substation and Strock Enterprises Ltd., from Cheektowaga, is replacing the water lines.

Due in part to Sequestration, which is the financial burden placed on the Department of Defense as part of Congress’ Budget Control Act of 2011, the Arsenal’s annual investment in its infrastructure dropped from approximately $4.5 million in 2012 to $2.4 million a year for fiscal years 2013 and 2014. That money barely held the line on routine maintenance and repair of the 202-year-old Army manufacturing center.

Given that the Arsenal is valued at $1.6 billion, has 72 buildings, some of which are heavy manufactur-ing buildings, $2.4 million did not go very far, as it represented less than two-tenths of one percent of the Arsenal’s net value.

What makes these projects even more challenging is the Arsenal will coordinate and supervise this signifi-cant increase in public works requirements with no ad-ditions to its workforce.

“Will it be tough to execute with a limited-sized staff,” Wright said restating a question posed to him. “Abso-lutely, but I have a well-experienced team who truly understand that this size of investment does not come

very often and therefore, they will do everything they can to make these projects successful.”

Some of these contracts will flow into fiscal year 2016, which starts on October 1, Wright said. And, these

projects came about only after years of planning and were ready to implement once fund-ing was approved.

For example, the $4.3 million main power generation substa-

tion project was first conceived six years ago, said James Uram, the Arsenal’s lead electrical technician who has oversight of the project.

“We knew that when the main substation hit its 50th year of operation in 2009 that it was time to have the old technology replaced,” Uram said. “The new sub-station will increase the reliability of the power sup-ply, improve efficiency of the flow of electricity, and will give us more flexibility in how we provide power to the Arsenal.”

The plus-up funding was mainly due to a decision this year at the Arsenal’s four-star headquarters, the Army Materiel Command, to fund critical infrastructure needs across the command that were, in federal terms, shovel-ready to execute. Because some of these Arse-nal projects were very costly, they have languished in one planning phase or another for years. The Arsenal simply could not afford to execute those plans without additional funding.

Less than two-tenths of one percent of the Arsenal’s net value went to

infrastructure repair and maintenance in Fiscal Year 2013 or 2014.

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Story continues on page 6, “Visit”

Top Army adviser tours, challenges the Arsenal

Katherine Hammack, who has been the assistant secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy, and the Environment since 2010, made her first visit to the Watervliet Arsenal this month.

Photo by John B. Snyder

By John B. Snyder

The Army’s top adviser for the strategic direction of all matters pertaining to Army installations visited on June 18 the most historic and critically important manufacturing center in the Army — the Watervliet Arsenal. This was the first visit to the Arsenal by Katherine Hammack, who has been the assistant secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy, and the Environment since 2010. During her visit, Hammack received up-dates about Arsenal manufacturing and met with lead-ers and the civilian workforce. Given that Hammack’s scope of responsibilities in-clude the sustainability and environmental initiatives; military construction, operations, and maintenance; base realignment and closure (BRAC); privatization

of Army family housing, real estate, and utilities; and the Army’s installations safety and occupational health programs, this visit was not about bringing workload to the Arsenal. She has been traveling throughout the Army, visit-ing installation after installation, talking about such issues as energy security, sustainability, and the need to develop resiliency to respond to and recover from a disruption of critical resources. And so, her visit here was more about how to ensure the long-term viability of the Arsenal by better positioning the command to seek greater efficiency and security of its resources and

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Visit Cont.

Photos by John B. Snyder

its operations. Hammack said that it was great to finally visit the Arsenal and that she was very interested in hearing about the challenges the Arsenal is facing. “My job is to be your (Arsenal) advocate, but I need to understand your requirements,” Hammack said. Hammack spent a considerable amount of time dis-cussing with the Arsenal’s leadership and key staff the need to look at how the Arsenal utilizes its resources — land, water, and energy. She advised the command to take a hard look at how climate change is now disrupt-ing what was once an unimpeded supply of resources throughout the Army and then, to develop strategies that will ensure the Arsenal can withstand and respond to those disruptions. The Arsenal leadership welcomed the opportunity to discuss how the command maintains critical skills and capabilities in the face of declining workload require-ments and budgetary reductions, said Joe Turcotte, the Arsenal’s deputy commander. But more importantly, Turcotte added, was the com-mand’s ability to highlight several initiatives that have brought greater efficiency to the operation of this Army-owned and operated manufacturing center. From leveraging partnerships with private industry that lower the cost of manufacturing operations, to the leasing of under-utilized space that helps ease the fixed-cost of operating a manufacturing center, to replacing 100-year-old water lines that have been leaking untold gallons of water through the years, the Arsenal is invest-ing every dollar it can to become more efficient, Turcotte said. Despite these great talking points, Turcotte still took every opportunity he could to talk about the Arsenal’s core mission, which is its role in providing the Defense Department an immediate manufacturing response to global contingencies. “Because we are part of the Army’s organic industrial base, we are an important part of the national security insurance policy that when called upon, can immediately leverage its unique manufacturing capabilities to respond to an urgent requirement,” Turcotte said. “The Arsenal’s unique skills, processes and critical capabilities are not duplicated anywhere in the United States’ industrial base and we are very proud to showcase this national treasure, which is called the Watervliet Arsenal, to Ms. Ham-mack.”

have been a blinding glimpse of the obvious. The commander called in his senior leaders, many of whom had been at the Arsenal for 25 years or more, to de-termine what happened to the Arsenal’s training and leader development programs. Cer-tainly, these two hallmarks of the Army institution did not just come of age recently and the Arsenal had yet to catch up. Lots of fingers pointed, the-ories posited, but much blame for the absence of leader de-velopment and a formal train-ing program fell on the “Peace Dividend” of the 1990s. For those who remember the first Gulf War, the United States and its allies pummeled the Iraqi military into submis-sion in less than 30 days. This great military success created an environment for political and military leaders to come to

the conclusion, or at least to a discussion, that America may no longer need such a large standing military. After the major withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq beginning in 1991, the Army’s force structure was signifi-cantly reduced by hundreds of thousands of Soldiers within just a matter of a few years. Why? Because many believed that there would never be another large-scale conflict, such as what was just fought. Given that direction of thought, why should America main-tain a large military force structure? And so, it didn’t.

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Machinists ship out to Fort Lee for good old Army training

By John B. Snyder

Photo by John B. Snyder

Story continues on page 8, “Training”

When Brant Wert, center, graduated from the apprentice program in 2013, there was no formal training program that would help him prepare for future assignments or promotions. Now, Wert is part of a team who recently received instructor training as one of the first steps toward reestablishing a formal training program.

Three months ago, the Secretary of the Army testified before Congress regarding the Army’s posture and in his clos-ing statement said, “With your assistance, we will continue to resource the best-trained, best-equipped and best-led fighting force in the world: the U.S. Army.” It is a fact that the Arsenal, via its manufacturing, directly supports the Hon. John M. McHugh’s statement about having the best equipped fighting force in the world. After all, the Arsenal has been equipping the Army since the War of 1812. But how does the Arsenal support the other two proclamations ̶ having the best-trained and the best-led fighting force in the world? If one believes that the Secretary’s proclamations transcend beyond Soldiers to include the Civilian workforce, then the Secretary’s comments do apply to the Arsenal. By the way, the Arsenal leadership believes it does. That is where the challenge lies. Col. Lee H. Schiller Jr., the Arsenal commander, re-cently said at a town hall meeting that a command climate survey administered in 2014 revealed a few remarkable findings. One, that the workforce perceived that there was no formal leader development program. Secondly, there was no formal training program. Given that the Arsenal is an Army-owned and –operated manufacturing center, how can that be true? But it was. The workforce had pointed out what should

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Training Cont.

Sound familiar? Isn’t that what was said after World War I, World War II, Vietnam… Nevertheless, in tandem with the Army reductions, the Arsenal reduced, too. From the time of the end of the first Gulf War to the at-tacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the Arsenal workforce suffered nine reductions in force that reduced its workforce from about 2,500 to less than 500 workers. As part of this reduc-tion, the Arsenal leadership restructured the organization, thereby, significantly reducing the number of staff divisions and offices. One of the offices cut was the training office, which also focused on leader development. So, here the Arsenal is many years later and there finally is great movement at the Arsenal toward reestablishing training and leader development programs. A game of catch up, if you will. Last April, Bill O’Brien, the Installation Management Director, and Arsenal Chief of Staff Barbara Hill put to-gether a team that focused on the 18 sub-program areas of workforce development through a Lean Six Sigma process. The team consisted of a good cross-section of leaders and workers who spent a week defining the problem and then mapping out solutions that will address the needs of the workforce. “After several years of reduction in force and organiza-tional restructuring in the late 1990s, several critical em-ployee programs, such as training management and leader development, got lost in the transition,” O’Brien said. “What these surveys (command climate) have shown is that our workforce today not only desires, but also demands a wholesale change to the way we currently address their professional development.” About the same time as O’Brien’s A3 effort, another Lean effort was underway being led by the Operations Di-rectorate’s Darryl Borton, Terry Van Vranken and George Pusins. The intent of this Lean effort was to address the loss of skills that the Operations Directorate had recently experienced due to the retirement of many skilled artisans. As a result of both of those efforts, last month the Ar-senal sent machinists Robert Day, Brant Wert, Thomas Heaney, and Kenneth Chirpka to Army instructor training at Fort Lee, Va. The rationale of the Arsenal leadership was to have a small cohort of top-notch employees to become fluent in Army training and then to bring that education back to the Arsenal to stand up a training program. By the way, all the folks the Arsenal sent are Veterans, as well as have many years yet to serve at the Arsenal before they be-come retirement eligible. “We believe the team that went to Fort Lee well repre-

sents most major manufacturing operations, from minors to majors to tubes to the tool room,” said Day. “What this will give us as we start building a training program is in-stant credibility as we try to change the Arsenal’s culture.” According to Wert, the team plans to start small by ini-tially focusing on machine tool operators, machinists, and machinist apprentices before it expands its training program to other sections and directorates. Although the training team has a tough mission ahead of them, it is not as if they are starting with nothing. “Although the Arsenal does not have a training office, it has been conducted training through the years,” Day said. “What we hope to have is a stake in the future development of the workforce by making training more focused, profes-sional, and enjoyable.” The training team is currently in the analysis and design phases of program development. From there, they will move to developing training plans and schedules, imple-menting the training, and then assessing the training. For-malized training should begin in the next few months. The Secretary also said before Congress, “Today and into the future, the Army must provide well-led and highly trained Soldiers organized into tailorable and scalable or-ganizations that provide our Nation’s leaders an array of options, both lethal and nonlethal, across the entire range of missions.” The Arsenal has only one recommended modification to the Secretary’s verbiage. “Today and into the future, the Army must provide well-led and highly trained Soldiers and ‘Civilians’ into tailor-able and scalable organizations that provide our Nation’s leaders an array of options...”

Photo by John B. SnyderSome have dreams of one day running production, as Tom Pond, right, does as the Director of Operations. But without a prescribed road ahead, supported by a formal training program, it is dubious as to how one might achieve such a position.

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MichaelSturgess

Hiring for any organization is very challenging, espe-cially when a job posting may have a sea of resumes flow-ing into the system. That is exactly what recently hap-pened here for an apprentice job announcement that had more than 340 applications for eight positions. But think how much easier the Arsenal’s hiring deci-sion might be if each applicant had these qualifications on his or her resume: -Will always do what is right for the organization and country. -Will keep their honor clean. -Will take care of their own. -Is a good steward of resources. -Is innovative, adaptable, and versatile. There probably is not an organization, government or civilian, that would not want someone with these proven attributes or what the United States Marine Corps call en-during principles. And that is what the Arsenal got when it hired Michael Sturgess five years ago. Mike came to the Arsenal in 2010, after serving 22 years in the Marine Corps. While in the Marines, Mike was a logistics expert who saw duty in at least eight dif-ferent locations. He is a Marine through and through and so is his wife, who was a Marine when they met. Oops…once a Marine always a Marine. She still is a Marine. Mike, who has a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts and who is currently working on his master’s degree in of all things – Law, believes that some day he will be one of the Arsenal’s logistics management supervisors. In the meantime, he is the ramrod who coordinates all incoming and outgoing transportation requirements as the

Arsenal’s transportation specialist. If one took a moment to think about how many trucks flowed in and out of the Arsenal everyday to support an operation that had more than $117 million in revenue last year, it might boggle the mind … but not Mike’s mind. According to Marissa Battisto, Mike’s supervisor, Mike is able to juggle all of the Arsenal’s transportation requirements because of his dedication to the mission, his strong work ethic, and that fact that he gets the job done. “This business is also about maintaining a sense of calmness when everyday someone’s need becomes an ur-gent requirement,” Battisto said. “Mike has the uncanny ability to do just that as he juggles phone calls among an inflow or outflow of up to 15 to 20 trucks a day.” On some occasions, Battisto added, short-notice re-quirements require the Arsenal to get shipments out within 24-hours and that is where Mike’s relationships come in. “He has nurtured a rapport with multiple carriers so that he is postured to call on them whenever there is a tight deadline,” Battisto said. “Through these profes-sional relationships, Mike has become a significant part of whether or not the Arsenal will make its delivery sched-ule.” The importance of making delivery schedules cannot be overstated. Not only is that statistic briefed to higher Army commands, it is also a reflection on the Arsenal’s credibility as a world-class manufacturing center. Considering that every product the Arsenal makes is touched by Mike’s actions, it is a good thing that we have a Marine at the helm. For all that Mike does to keep pro-duction flowing, he truly deserves to be this month’s Arse-nal’s Face of Strength.

Michael Sturgess, right, coordinates all incoming and outgoing transportation require-ments, as seen here checking in a load of tubes.

Photo by John B. Snyder

By John B. Snyder

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Just as solid as the steel the Arsenal uses to form cannons for U.S. tanks is its sense of purpose to help educate U.S. and allied troops. This was evident ear-lier this month as more than 30 members of the Cana-dian Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario, vis-ited the Arsenal to learn about U.S. military weapons research, design, and manufacturing. These majors, captains, warrant officers, and non-commissioned officers came to the Arsenal in their final month of a tough 11-month course to gain better knowledge of the science and technol-ogy that goes into large-caliber weap-on development. Canadian Army Col. Karl Michaud, the school’s director of Applied Military Science, said that this was his second visit to Watervliet and he has been im-pressed both times with the great syn-ergy that is achieved by having an Army research and design laboratory (Benét Laboratories) on the same installation and the manufacturing center (Watervliet Arsenal). Michaud said that his officers will one day be the Canadian Army’s program directors for the fielding and servicing of various soldier systems and that his NCO’s will be the ones who will set up trials and test-ing of soldier systems. It was, therefore, important that his students got a sense of the challenge that is inherent in the production of weapon systems.

“It was a fantastic experience for my students to get a sense of the degree of difficulty that is inherent in the manufacturing of a large caliber weapon system,” Michaud said. Through the day-long visit, the students were pro-vided a series of briefings and demonstrations that discussed and showed firsthand not only the history of the Arsenal, but also its role in future and legacy weapon development. Col. Lee H. Schiller Jr, the Arsenal commander, highlighted the Arsenal’s 202-year-old history of sup-porting the Army and where it is today in regards to

manufacturing tubes and subcomponents for mortar, howit-zers, and for tanks. Dave Smith, senior mechanical engineer at Benét, focused on the value being collocated with the Army’s cannon and mortar manufacturer. “Great processes and designs are born here (Benét Labs) and then are transferred across the street to the Watervliet Arsenal

manufacturing center,” Smith said. “What this unique synergy provides to the warfighter is overmatch capa-bility that will ensure that they are victorious on the battlefield.” According to the military college’s website, the aim of the land forces technical staff program that visited the Arsenal is to produce competent, technical staff officers with a broad based knowledge of science and technology and the ability to apply that knowledge to the needs of the Canadian land forces.

Arsenal builds hardened cannons, relationships with Canada

Canadian troops checking out the Flow Form mortar tube process while Apprentice Program Supervisor and Work Leader John Zayhowski, blue shirt, briefs.

Photo by John B. Snyder

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Arsenal History

1919As the Arsenal now readies itself to establish a formal training program as part of workforce development, the walls of this historic post cry out, “It is deja vu all over again.” After all, a “Find Yourself Campaign” was waged at the Arsenal in 1919, which was a pro-gram to educate the masses. A group of 135 young men were questioned to determine what they most wanted to learn. After studying the responses, the Arsenal leaders organized a foreman’s school and made plans to establish a training program for machine operators.

Farewell to

Robert “Bob” Gregware Jr.

Bob was a U.S. Army veteran who began his career in 1985 at the Watervliet Arsenal, where he was a machinist. As of the last five years, he was a Quality Control Inspector. Surrounded by his family, Bob died on Sat-urday, April 25, 2015.

The Arsenal conducted a memorial service for Robert “Bob” Gregware Jr. on June 5. From right to left: Col. Lee H. Schiller Jr., Bob’s wife, Debbie, Bob’s daughter, Laurol Bartlett, and Bob’s son, Robert Gregware III.

Photo provided by Billy Martin

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Arsenal Appreciation Night with the ValleyCatsSaturday, 1 August, at 7 p.m.

• The Arsenal has coordinated with the Tri-City Valley-Cats baseball organization for the:

7th Annual Arsenal Appreciation Night.• Game is on Saturday, 1 August, at 7 p.m. • Department of the Army Civilians and Arsenal family

members may purchase a "Reserved Box" ticket for only $5.50 (42% discount).

• All Military Veterans will receive one free ticket.• You may also purchase a reduced meal voucher for

only $3.50 This voucher is good for one hot dog, small soda, and a bag of chips.

For Tickets: Contact John Snyder, Building 10, at 266-5055 orMelissa Ryder, Building 40, at 266-4829

Ticket sales begin on

July 7th