SALVO

Story on Page 3

When Keeping NY Army Reserves Home

pays off for NY Army Arsenal

U.S. Army Watervl iet ArsenalAugust 2016

Page 2 Salvo Aug. 31, 2016

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 endorsement by the U.S. Government, the Depart-ment 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. Joseph R. MorrowPublic Affairs Officer, John B. SnyderEditor, John B. SnyderPhotographer: John B. Snyder Arsenal Facebook Page @https://www.facebook.com/WatervlietArsenal?ref=hlCover photo: By John B. Snyder

Colonel Joseph R. Morrow

Commander’s Corner

Ever since the Army’s leadership selected me more than 12 months ago to command the Watervliet Arsenal, I took every opportunity that I could to learn about our arsenal. I will tell you that I could not be more proud or more humbled by being the commander of this historic manufacturing center. To think that this arsenal has sup-ported every major battle from the Battle of New Orleans to the Battle of Fallujah, speaks volumes about the important role that we have had since 1813 in ensuring that hundreds of thousands of our troops have safely returned home from battle. When Colonel Schiller took com-mand a little over three years ago, the arsenal was beset by the effects of some-thing called sequestration via the Budget Control Act of 2011. Although my first few weeks of command will not be tem-pered with furloughs as Colonel Schiller experienced, the Budget Control Act remains the law of the land. The reason why I bring up sequestra-tion is because the effects of the Budget Control Act may continue to adversely affect future defense budgets, as it has in recent years. Uncertainty in defense budgets may mean that future weapons programs may remain unfunded, as well as a general lack of interest by weapons program managers to solicit large orders for our products. Although we cannot change what current law man-dates, we can and must “positively” influence the actions of those who are touched by our operations.

And so, I want everyone to be an active participant in the arsenal’s quality and business development efforts. Every action that we perform, from receiving raw-stock materiel to machining a 155mm tube to installing a new

electrical substation, affects how DOD leadership, new business management relations, customers, and all visitors per-ceive us as a world-class manufacturing center. Those perceptions are critical to our long-term viability as they create or build on relationships. It is our relation-ships, as we have experienced through-out our 203-year-history, that will drive a decision maker to send us a contract, a staff officer to reallocate funding for maintenance and repair, or an elected official to learn more about how we sup-port the nation. Finally, changing commanders is not easy on any Army organization. Never-theless, what I have experienced here in my first 30 days of command is an unbe-lievable amount of professionalism, as well as a high degree of pride.

Wherever I have gone or whoever I have met has left me with a feeling that we will be just fine. I am confident that today’s arsenal is no less competent and professional than at any time during our 200+ years of history and I look forward to creating a new, lasting history with you. Thank you for the great support that you have given me and for what you do to support our nation. Have a great and safe Labor Day Weekend!

Page 3 Salvo Aug. 31, 2016

Story continues on page 4, “305th”

By John B. Snyder

What began in 1813, continues today thanks to

Army Reservists

In the hot summer days of 1813, the arsenal was built by an odd lot of untrained Soldiers who were suddenly thrust into service to ward off British attacks from Canada. This summer, Soldiers have deployed here again, but this time their mission is to help main-tain the legacy of what their predecessors built more than 203 years ago. Suffice it to say, they are much better trained and equipped for the task at hand. About 15 Soldiers from the 305th Army Reserve Fa-cility Engineer Detachment from Staten Island, N.Y., volunteered to conduct their annual training here. This is the third year that this Army engineering unit has deployed here for training and it has turned out to be a win-win situation for the arsenal and for the Reserves. The arsenal is trying to complete about $20 million of public works improvements that began in 2015,

said Robert Shadlock, the arsenal’s senior engineer who is also the liaison with the Reserve detachment. Much of the Reserves’ work involved the oversight of a major infrastructure project that will replace a 100-year-old water system, assess electrical connec-tions in several buildings, designing the removal of a rail system that hasn’t been used since the 1970s, and the development of a scope of work to enhance the value of three acres of underutilized land. “In addition to saving the arsenal about $100,000 in labor costs, these Soldiers performed critical program management and design work that we cannot do at this time,” Shadlock said. “We have several multimillion facility-work projects currently ongoing, as well as

Photo by: John B. Snyder1st Lt. Anthony Richards, center, leading his team, Sgt. 1st Class Jose Sanchez, right, and Sgt. 1st Class Julio Jimenez, to survey and check electrical panels in many of the arsenal's buildings. Richards is a licensed electrician in the New York City area.

Page 4 Salvo Aug. 31, 2016

305th Cont.

Photos by: John B. Snyder

Top: For those workers who happened to show up for work early during late July or early August, they may have seen the 305th Facil-ity Engineer Detachment conducting physical training. With just a couple of Army officers assigned, the arsenal workforce rarely hear cadence songs being called.

Bottom: During the Reserves' three-week an-nual training here, they often worked out of the public works shops.

future engineering projects that need scopes of work drafted and so, this is where the Reserve unit’s engi-neering expertise was used.” The 305th supported the arsenal last year with nine personnel and they immediately went to work, Shad-lock said. Their effort was so successful that the arse-nal invited the team back again this year. “This truly is a win-win relationship,” Shadlock said. “Not only do the Reserves enhance their critical skills, and do so while improving a historic manufac-turing center in New York, the arsenal is able to gain, at no cost, valuable expertise at a critical time that will jump-start several projects that have languished in various stages of planning.” The 305th arrived here on 18 July and completed their mission on 5 August. The 305th commander, 1st Lt. Louis Boisnier, said that he was hopeful that his team during the three weeks here established the conditions for future rela-tionships between the arsenal and his Reserve engi-neer battalion. “Some of the major projects involved identifying electrical, masonry, and minor construction work that may be completed by a follow-on Reserve construc-tion company after we leave,” Boisnier said. “If we

can pass our estimates to a fellow Reserve unit, that will provide added value to the Reserve presence here.” Boisnier’s team consisted of experts in heating, ventilating, and air conditioning or HVAC; electrical engineering; masonry; and inspectors to ensure the arsenal is compliant with the Americans with Disabili-ties Act.

Commander directs arsenal to shut down, workforce does otherwise ... but, it is all good

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After more than 200 years in opera-tion, one would think that the arsenal workforce had learned to obey its lead-ers. But in Col. Joseph R. Morrow’s first month in command here, the workforce seemed to disobey his directive this month to shut down the arsenal for one week. Or, did they? For many years, some here have argued that there is no such thing as an “annual shutdown,” which in recent years has been restricted to one week every summer. Why? Because the arsenal never truly shuts down its entire operation. There are two main reasons why the arsenal shuts down production each summer. First, it is a very good tool to manage vacation time so that the arsenal does not have a surge of vacationers at an inopportune time dur-ing production. Second, the down time allows public works and maintenance and safety teams to get caught up on the checks and services of equipment and facili-ties. And, in a very limited scope, minor machining op-erations and quality control inspections continue.

Tim Allard, who is the Chief of the Manufacturing Support Division in the Operations Directorate and who led this year’s shutdown-efforts in the production facili-ties, said about 72 workers stayed in operations while another 28 workers supported the public works division. “This was a great effort as we were able to achieve about 95 percent of the shutdown projects,” Allard said. “We still need to finish up a couple of major projects, as well as order parts for some of the machines that we per-formed preventative maintenance on.” Allard said the priorities ranged from ensuring that every area met Occupational Safety & Health Adminis-tration standards to changing air and oil filters on every machine to performing a critical rail replacement on a major crane system.

By John B. Snyder

Story continues on page 6, “Shutdown”

Page 6 Salvo Aug. 31, 2016

But if someone stepped outside of the production buildings, they would have seen just as much action out-side. David Roe, who is the chief of the Public Works Division and who was re-sponsible for shutdown activities outside of the production area, said that he had more than 60 personnel, which included augmentees from other ar-senal divisions, supporting public works during the shut-down week. “We had a handful of projects that we wanted to com-plete during the shutdown, but the top pri-orities for the week involved electrical sub-stations, storm and sanitary sewers, and building exhaust fans,” Roe said. “We were even able to solve a flooding issue along our fence line that had been bugging us for de-cades.” Through a process of dis-covery every summer, public works learns quite a bit about the arsenal’s 203-year-old in-frastructure. As the public works team this summer was trying to find out why sewer drains were backing up, it discovered that 50-year-old blueprints of the sewer lines were not correct. What showed on blueprints as connecting drainage lines was discovered, during a significant trenching action, not

to be tied into any drainage system. Thus, the flooding every year. Now, a contract will be solicited to tie the drainage systems together. “I was very pleased with the great attitudes that everyone had despite performing jobs that were, in many cases, outside of their comfort zones,” Roe said.

“Much of our success during shutdown was due to a great bunch of augmentees, in fact the best bunch of aug-mentees that I have had in my career here, as well as due to the superb leadership by our new public works supervisor, Mike Den-nin.” Both Allard and

Roe agree that the shutdown-week work efforts often carries into the next fiscal year, as parts need to be ordered and contracts solic-ited to correct some of the de-ficiencies found during preven-tative mainte-nance checks and services. And so, while some of the arsenal workforce were improving their tan lines on some forgotten

beach, placing bets at the Saratoga track, or checking out Mai Tai’s on a Polynesian cruise, Allard, Roe, and more than 100 personnel kept the arsenal open. After all, there is always work to do when it comes to maintaining a 203-year-old Army manufac-

turing center. And so, no one disobeyed the new commander. The shutdown was, as in previous years, just a misunderstanding of the term “shutdown.”

Shutdown Cont.

Photos by John B. Snyder

Page 7 Salvo Aug. 31, 2016

The Watervliet Arsenal received two con-tracts this month valued at nearly $4 million to manufacture more than 50 barrels for the Abrams tank system. “The two contracts, both from the Army’s program manager for the Abrams tank sys-tem, will fund more than 9,000 hours of direct labor to manufacturer 120-mm tank tubes,” said Adam Ford, the arsenal’s program manager for this order. “About half of the order will support the U.S. military, while the other part of the order will support future foreign military sales.” Although this is new work, the ar-senal has been mak-ing bar-rels for the Abrams tank for nearly 40 years, Ford said. “We have decades of expertise in this tank system and because we do, we alreadyhave the special tooling and processes developed to support this large order,” Ford said. “In fact, the arsenal is currently manufacturing more than 100 120-mm tubes for previous or-ders.” The contracts require the arsenal to deliv-er its first tubes in March 2018, and all manu-facturing requirements must be complete by August 2018. What makes this order stand out more from most orders is that this new work was

not part of the manufacturing schedule for 2018, said Tom Pond, the arsenal’s director of operations. “Due to the significant decline in requests for war-time products since the United States pulled its combat troops out of Iraq in 2010, large multimillion-dollar contracts that were once common are now rare,” Pond said. “And so, we truly celebrate when new, un-

forecasted work comes our way be-cause it adds a high-level of cer-tainty to our future workload and workforce requirements.”

For large-cali-ber machining

require-ments, there is typically a long-lead time

to procure the unique raw material. For

this order, it will take the arsenal up to 18 months to procure the specialized steel it uses in the tank cannon system. The Watervliet Arsenal is an Army-owned-and-operated manufacturing facility and is the oldest, continuously active arsenal in the United States having begun operations dur-ing the War of 1812. It celebrated its 200th anniversary on July 14, 2013. Today’s arsenal is relied upon by U.S. and foreign militaries to produce the most ad-vanced, high-tech, high-powered weaponry for cannon, howitzer, and mortar systems. This National Historic Registered Landmark had revenue in fiscal year 2015 that exceeded $138 million.

Army surprises arsenal with new work, adding certainty

to the futureBy John B. Snyder

Page 8 Salvo Aug. 31, 2016

BACK-TO-SCHOOL SAFE DRIVING• Please watch carefully for children near school buildings, in areas where school buses are

traveling or where there are signs for school zones or bus stops.• Remember that if you are approaching a school bus from either the front or behind, and its yellow

lights are flashing, the bus is preparing to stop.

Slow at IntersectionsAlthough the rules for obeying stop signs and traffic lights may be obvious for adults, a child who is excited to see a friend across the street or chasing a ball can be oblivious to traffic safety signs and devices. At the very least, take your foot of the gas pedal and be ready to brake if a child darts in front of your car.

Use Caution near School BusesWhen a stopped school bus flashes its red light(s), traffic that approaches from either direction, even in front of the school and in school parking lots, must stop before it reaches the bus. You should stop at least 20 feet (6 m) away from the bus. Before a school bus stops to load or discharge passengers, the driver will usually flash yellow warning lights. When you see them, decrease speed and be prepared to stop. When you stop for a school bus, you cannot drive again until the red lights stop flashing or when the bus driver or a traffic officer signals then you can proceed. This law applies on all roadways in New York State.

Drive with Lights OnDriving with your headlights on lets children see you farther away. Any additional advantage you can give yourself and children, especially in early morning light, fog, rain or cloudy skies, decreases the chances of a motor vehicle/pedestrian accident. If you aren’t comfortable tapping your horn each time you see a child or group of children, flash your lights for added safety.

Watch DoorWhen opening doors on a street where children may be present, look over your shoulder before you open the door to make sure no cyclists are riding up your side. Even if you passed a child on your right hundreds of yards back, by the time you slow, stop, turn off your engine, undo your seat belt, grab your briefcase or purse and open the door, that child may have caught up to you and changed direction to go around you on your left. A child who hits your door at a good speed can go over their handlebars resulting in a serious head injury. For additional information on School Busses and Seat Belt use search the link below from the NHTSA:

http://www.nhtsa.gov/School-Buses

By Matt Church

Page 9 Salvo Aug. 31,, 2016

SHUTDOWN 2016

Welcome back from shutdown. As you enter the arsenal, you will not see freshly painted lines in the parking lots this year. This is because we worked on a bigger projects, such as replacing new water and steam lines, which are critical com-ponents that provide essential services to enhance and sustain our living conditions. Manufacturing Support Division and Public Works maintenance teams were hard at work during this shut-down, conducting preventive maintenance and repairs throughout our facility. Maintenance is vital to the arsenal’s mission, as it generates or regenerates its combat power and preserves the investment of systems to enable us to complete our mission. One of the four elements of Voluntary Protection Programs is Hazard Prevention and Control. A sub-ele-ment of that is Preventive and Predictable Maintenance. The Watervliet Arsenal’s maintenance goal is to provide optimum availability of functional production equipment and provide a quick response to equipment breakdown. This mission does not just happen during the few days of shutdown. Much planning, scheduling, tracking, and pre-ventive and predictive maintenance is conducted throughout the year. This of course could not be done without our highly skilled labor force. Here are a few examples. Throughout the year, Dave Roe and Mike Dennin of Public Works conduct preventive maintenance on electrical substations, steam systems, exhaust fans, sanitary and storm sewers, condensation pumps, air compres-sors, back flow prevention devices, boiler plant, and at the industrial waste treatment plant. These preventive main-tenance requirements sustain our facility and most importantly, protect the safety of our employees. In addition, Public Work’s department leader’s Len Oddy and Joe Lavigne led their crews through many emergencies. They are the first responders in many cases and react to all types of calls including waterline breaks, loss of heat, and loss of electricity. Maintenance workers are essential to saving and preserving our property. Once they arrive they are tasked to assess the damage, develop a plan, and then implement the work that needs to be done. The Watervliet Arsenal may have been affected by sequestration and reduction in force, but with more than 100 years of shutdown experience among Tim Allard, Rob Jensen, and Frank Jubic of the Maintenance Support Division, we are in good shape. “Tier 1 (production machines used on a daily basis) is our highest priority along with safety,” said Allard, our Manufacturing Support Division Chief. Tier 2, re-piping work at the rotary forge, crane and material- handling equipment inspections, coolant and conveyor systems maintenance, and critical floor work were also part of Allard’s scope of work during shutdown. Machines, rotary grinders, lathes, mill, hones, CARC paint booth, and many other production support equipment will have operation/function checks, preventive maintenance, and analytical inspections. Employees are our number one resource here at the arsenal. To keep them safe, the shutdown team conducts safety huddles, identifies potential hazards and control measures, team’s new employees with experienced employees, conducts after action reports, and provides the best personnel protection equipment as needed. Congratulations on another successful maintenance shutdown. Hats off to the men and women who took time to be part of this vital part of our mission and for their talents and endless commitment as we support our warfighters!

VPP CornerBy Ken Church

Photo by Billy Martin

Page 10 Salvo Aug. 31, 2016

LEAN Corner...By Mark Ripley

The Value Stream

Value is defined by your customers and usually comes down to the best possible product or ser-vice that completely satisfies their needs at the lowest possible cost in the shortest amount of time. The value stream includes all of the activities, materials, people, and information that must flow and come together to provide your customer the value they want, when they want it and how they want it. The value stream is the series of steps you use that results in delivery of your product or service to the customer. Each step should be “value added” in the eyes of the customer. This means the step must transform the product or service in a direct path to completion and the customer, if they looked at the step being performed, they would be willing to pay some of their hard-earned cash for it. The analogy to a stream or a river is an apt one. The pictures above are useful to visualize your value stream. On the left, the river flows but is met with much resistance. Rocks, rapids, deep pools, twists and turns – all conspire to hinder smooth flow. The rocks are a visualization of defects, rework, missing tooling, bad incoming material, working without an SOP, etc. The rapids might be everything you end up doing to compensate for all the rocks - expediting, rush processing or short-cutting the proper process. The twists and turns represent convoluted processes evolved over time or excess movement without planning. And the deep pools might be where material sits around for a while getting damaged, lost, repeatedly counted and moved. All these obstructions are waste. Lean aims to eliminate waste that increases lead time and cost. The obstructions lead to variability resulting in an unpredictable process that requires a lot of fire-fighting. Six Sigma aims to eliminate variability. By contrast, the value stream on the right flows smoothly and steadily in a contained, predictable manner. Most obstructions to smooth flow have been removed. Most causes of variability are gone. This is the goal we seek with all our value streams here.

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WVA’s greatest resource are the men and women who operate the machines, plan the budget, fix the machines and the myriad of other tasks needed to keep this key strategic Industrial Base facility successful. Our children’s success helps us to be successful as arsenal employees. As our children head back to school, they see many changes: new classmates, new teachers, and new information from peers and older kids on social media and sexuality. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recently released findings from a comprehensive

study on the impact social media has on kids and families. Although there are real benefits to kids using sites like Facebook, including increased communication, access to information and help in developing a sense of self, there can be serious downsides to all this online sharing too. Social networking is on the rise, and the study found that 22 percent of teenagers log onto their favorite social media sites more than 10 times a day, and that 75 percent own cell phones. This level of engagement online increases the risks of cyber bullying, “Facebook depression” (a new phenomenon where “de-friending” and online bullying lead to symptoms of depression), exposure to inappropriate content, and sexting. Here are some tips for helping them stay safe (www.Parenting.com):

• No Underage Facebooking: No one under the age of 13 is permitted to join Facebook –but there is no real way for Facebook to truly enforce it, because anyone can lie about their year of birth. Be sure that your child stays away from Facebook until 13 AND until you are comfortable with him or her having an account.

• Check that your privacy settings for the Internet and Facebook are set to the strictest levels. Depending on which browser you are using, you can adjust the settings directly from the options tab and adjust levels around cookies, third party sites and more. This not only protects the computer user, but also the computer from the threat of viruses. Checking your Facebook privacy settings is easy as well.

• Create Ground Rules: The Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI), www.fosi.org/, encourages parents and kids to have an open discussion about what these rules mean, and offers an example of a contract.

• Know your child’s habits: You get to know the friends he’s hanging out with at school, and his online friends shouldn’t be any different. One of the contract rules should be that you have full access to his Facebook friends and can take a look whenever you wish.

• Keep the computer in a central location: It’s much easier to keep tabs on any online activity when the com-puter is located in a high-traffic zone than if your child is using a computer in the privacy of her own room.

• Urge Your Kids to Avoid Questionnaires, Free Giveaways and Contests: A pop-up ad appears and tells kids they can win a free iPad by simply clicking the link. Anyone would be tempted by this kind of offer, but kids are particularly susceptible, so it’s important to warn kids against falling for this kind of Internet trick. Many of these ruses are attempts to glean personal information. Inform kids that even if they are forwarded a fun questionnaire from a friend, it’s best to close the window and not participate.

• Teach Kids about an Online Reputation: Many kids don’t seem to understand the permanence of the online world. Make sure to stress to your kids what a digital footprint is and the impact inappropriate messages or images could have if a future college administrator or employer were to stumble upon them.

• Talk to Kids about Online Dangers: You may feel like you’re scaring your kids when talking to them about the dangers of being online, but it’s better for them to be scared than to be unaware. Having an open line of communication is crucial the minute your kids start using the Internet more independently. Parry Aftab, noted online safety and privacy expert and Executive Director of WiredSafety, www.wiredsafety.com, says, “Who’s a stranger online? Everyone is!" You need to remind your children that these people are strangers and that the standard rules always apply.”

GET SHARP: Prepare for changes as kids go back to school – Social Media Safety

By Heather Durr

Page 12 Salvo Aug. 31, 2016

Arsenal Upcoming Events

Apprentice Graduation: Friday, September 9, 2:30 p.m., Benét Labs' South Conference Room

Employee Appreciation Lunch: Thursday, September 22, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Post Restaurant

2016 FEGLI Life Insurance Open Season

Quick Facts• Dates: Sept 1-30, 2016• Effective Date: On/after Oct. 1, 2017• Premium deductions reflected on LES October 26, 2017• Enroll via EBIS/ABC-C• Info at: https://www.opm.gov/healthcare-insurance/life-insurance/open-season/

IMPORTANT: Employees should be aware that FEGLI elections made between October 1, 2016 and September 30, 2017 due to a Qualifying Life Event or due to approval after taking a physical will VOID any Open Season election made.

1. What is an Open Season?

A FEGLI Open Season is a rare event allowing eligible Federal employees to enroll in or in-crease their life insurance coverage in the Federal Employees' Group Life Insurance (FEGLI) Program without providing evidence of medical insurability or answering any health questions. Now is the time to review your current life insurance coverage to see if it continues to meet your needs. Remember, employees can decrease coverage at any time but opportunities to elect or increase coverage are limited.

2. Why is Open Season important to me?

-Outside of the initial, new-employee enrollment opportunity, an employee can normally only elect to enroll or increase FEGLI coverage due to a Qualifying Life Event (QLE) or by undergo-ing a physical and receiving approval from the Office of Federal Employees’ Group Life Insur-ance (OFEGLI). -If you are not enrolled in the maximum life insurance coverage on yourself or your family mem-bers, Open Season is an opportunity to enroll in or increase your FEGLI coverage for yourself and your eligible dependent family members without answering any medical questions and regardless of your current health status

Veterans Day Parade: Friday, November 11, 10:30 a.m., at Central Avenue and Partridge Streets, Albany

Arsenal Appreciation Game with the ValleyCats

Page 13 Salvo Aug. 31, 2016

Photos by John B. Snyder

Arsenal Appreciation Game with the ValleyCats

Photos by John B. Snyder

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