U.S. Army newsletter from the Watervliet Arsenal

SALVOU.S. Army Watervl iet Arsenal

February 2017

Allies' purchaseshelp fill in the gaps

Story on Page 3

Page 2 Salvo Feb. 28, 2017

The Arsenal Salvo is an authorized monthly publication for members of the Department of Defense. Contents of the Salvo are not necessar-ily the official views of, or an endorsement 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: [email protected]. The editor reserves the right to edit all information submitted for pub-lication.

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: http://www.defence.gov.au/

Colonel Joseph R. Morrow

Commander’s Corner

Every time I walk around the arsenal I can’t help but be in awe of the importance of all that we have done through the years to support our troops. Remnants of the Erie Canal, which was the catalyst to our endur-ing use of technology to advance our capability and capacity, to the Big Gun Shop, where we were trans-formed from a maker of saddles to a maker of cannons, are just two of many symbols of our rich history that is the fabric that binds us today. But when I get back into my of-fice, I sometimes wonder if the workforce is also touched by the achievements and sacrifices of those who have served here before us. After all, there are some in the community who do not pay much atten-tion to our presence here because the arsenal has in many ways become part of the community’s land-scape. And so, as arsenal employees’ employment tran-scends from months into years, I wonder if our his-tory has also become part of the landscape to some here? If this has happened to you, I hope you will now take a second look at what is around you, because knowing our history should help give you a sense of understanding, and hopefully a sense of purpose, as to why we are still in operation today. When you take a renewed look at what is around,

you will quickly notice that today’s arsenal looks nothing like it did in 1813 when it was established on just 12 acres of land. Nevertheless, if you look beyond the buildings and the land, you will see something that those who worked here 203 years ago saw. Uniforms have changed. Ma-chines have changed. But the one thing that has not changed is the dedicated and selfless service of those who work here. You, and those who served before you, are the reason why the arsenal still provides

critical war fighting capability to our troops. After every military conflict since the War of 1812, we have had to redefine who we are and map a new road to where we were going in order to remain relevant to our community and to our nation. To do this, the arsenal worker has sometimes gone without pay and some have even given their lives to an ef-fort that meant more to them than their job security. Despite all odds, the arsenal workforce has not just survived, it has thrived. To ensure that our historical sense of purpose does not become part of your daily landscape, please take time to renew your understanding of our history and appreciate your importance to our destiny. Having served with you these last seven months, I strongly believe that you will not allow the arsenal to fail on our watch.

mailto:[email protected]


Story continues on page 4, “FMS”

By John B. Snyder

Watervliet Arsenal turns to

allied armies to sustain its critical skills

As decreases to the Army’s budgets in recent years has reduced the requirements for military hardware, the arsenal is now finding great success selling its products to allied armies as a way to sustain its critical manufacturing capability.

In order for the arsenal to retain its worldwide status as a center of technical excellence for large caliber weapons manufacturing, it must maintain a highly trained workforce that can execute all critical manu-facturing skills at any time. In recent years, however, the arsenal leadership has found it very challenging to maintain a high level of expertise in core critical manufacturing skills due to the reduced workload that came from declining defense budgets.

As an effort to counter any erosion of skills, the ar-senal aggressively worked with the Army’s weapon program managers, the Army’s Security Assistance Command, and private industry to help fill in the gaps to workload by looking at overseas markets. And the

results of these teaming efforts have been staggering.

This month, the arsenal finalized a $4.4 million con-tract to provide the Australian army with nearly 200 mortar systems, adding to a $47 million contract that was announced last month to provide the Indian army with 145 howitzer cannon systems. Since the Indian order was announced, the arsenal has received another contract, valued at $2.9 million, to support the Indian army with additional spare parts.

To put the size of these foreign contracts into perspec-tive, the arsenal achieved only $1.7 million in foreign military sales for fiscal 2016, which ended last Sep-tember. It now has obtained more than $55 million in foreign military sales contracts in just the last 30 days.

“Although we have supported foreign militaries for decades, the recent arrival of $55 million in foreign

For decades, the arsenal has provided our allies with common operating weapons systems. But these foreign military sales are becoming more important to the arsenal in the retention of critical skills given the decline of U.S. military budgets in recent years.

In 2013, the Department of Defense turned to the arsenal to provide a rapid fielding of 60 mm mortar systems to the Afghanistan Army. In a matter weeks from the receipt of the order, the arsenal began shipment of the mortar systems, as seen in this photo.

Photo by John B. Snyder


FMS Cont.

U.S Soldiers assigned to Charlie Battery, 1st Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division fire a M777A2 Howitzer in support of Iraqi security forces during the Mosul of-fensive at Platoon Assembly Area 14, Iraq, Dec. 6, 2016. Charlie Battery conducted the fire mission in support of Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve, the global Coalition to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Christopher Brecht)

The arsenal has a new contract to manufacture 145 of these cannon systems for the Indian Army with the first delivery in 2019 and the final delivery in 2020.

military sales contracts speaks volume about the arse-nal’s coming of age on the world’s stage,” said Joseph Turcotte, the arsenal’s deputy commander. “We are hopeful that we will land more multimillion-dollar contracts with allied armies as they learn more about our highly-specialized capability and capacity.”

According to Thomas Pond, the arsenal’s director of operations, these sales will significantly contribute to the arsenal’s long-term viability by sustaining highly skilled jobs that are required to support the needs of U.S. forces.

“The value of large-scale contracts cannot be overstat-ed,” Pond said. “The size and scope of these foreign military contracts will help ensure that critical manu-facturing skills are maintained here for future U.S. defense requirements.”

Due to the long-lead time to get raw materiel, the arse-nal will not deliver its first mortar system to Australia until fiscal year 2019 and will complete the order the same year. The first cannon shipment for India will not occur until fiscal year 2019 and final shipment will be in fiscal year 2020. The fiscal year begins on Octo-ber 1 of the previous year.

The U.S. State Department manages the foreign mili-tary sales program and works closely with the Depart-ment of Defense to resource the requirements. These proposed sales will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping

to improve the security of the nation’s allies.

The 81 mm mortar system is used primarily by the infantry as an indirect fire weapon when a high angle trajectory is required to hit enemy troops, materiel, and positions. It has a maximum range of about 5,700 meters.

The arsenal’s contract for 145 howitzer cannon sys-tems is part of a $737 million foreign military sales contract that BAE Systems has with the Indian gov-ernment. Under the contract, the arsenal will manu-facture 155 mm barrels and associated parts that will become an integral part of the M777A2 lightweight howitzer system that India will purchase from BAE.

According to BAE, the M777A2 howitzer is highly portable by land, sea and air, and the system has a maximum indirect fire range greater than 30,000 me-ters.

The Watervliet Arsenal is an Army-owned-and-oper-ated manufacturing facility and is the oldest, continu-ously active arsenal in the United States having begun operations during the War of 1812.

Today’s Arsenal is relied upon by U.S. and foreign militaries to produce the most advanced, high-tech, high-powered weaponry for cannon, howitzer, and mortar systems. This National Historic Registered Landmark has an annual economic benefit to the local community in excess of $90 million.

Watervliet: Where custom machines must support

custom machining


Story continues on page 6, “New”

What arsenal leadership may not have envisioned in 1813 when the small Army post in upstate New York opened its gates was just how much their manufactur-ing center would eventually rely on the support from foreign countries and businesses to ensure its long-term viability. After all, two centuries ago the arsenal was considered a forward outpost against an invading British army.

Fast forward to today, one cannot walk through the arsenal without being touched by something foreign, whether it is shipping mortar systems to the Iraqi army or production workers planning the manufacture of howitzer cannons for the Indian army. Interestingly, many of the machines here that manufacture the parts for U.S. and allied armies are made by a foreign man-ufacture.

By John B. Snyder

Whereas, using foreign-made machines in 1813 may have been an act of heresy, today it makes good busi-ness sense, said Frank Salvatore, an arsenal equipment specialist.

“The decision-making criteria we use when we pur-chase a manufacturing machine goes beyond the old adage that the Army only buys from the lowest bid-der,” Salvatore said. “The machines that we buy must be custom made to support our unique machining pro-cesses that are required in the manufacturing of weap-ons systems that deal in extremely high pressures and temperatures. There are not many manufacturers who can make the customized machines to our tight toler-

the manufacturing of every machine,” Salvatore said. “Due to our tight production schedules, we don’t have time to get a new machine in and then try to make it fit our manufacturing requirements. It (machine) must be ready to start production within a week or two of installation.”

One of the interesting and quite visible phenomenon that occurs when a new machine is placed on line has

nothing to do with cutting metal chips.

“This is a great morale build-er,” said George Pusins, an arsenal machining supervisor, as he observed the arrival of the new lathe in his building. “Because this is the first new machine in this production building in at least 10 years, my guys are excited because it is a symbol that their efforts have not been forgotten.”

Pusins added that thanks to the great design work by Sal-vatore, the new lathe will ac-tually replace two machines.

“This machine will allow us to conduct two major opera-tions on one machine, versus having to use two separate machines,” Pusins said. “Ad-ditionally, having a state-of-the-art machine will require less maintenance than the 35-year-old machine that it replaced, thereby, increasing

our production capacity and flexibility.”

The arsenal has four main production buildings that house nearly 600 machines. When new machines may cost up to $2 million or more, it is understandable why one building may not see much change. Nevertheless, in Pusins’ production building there have been mil-lions of dollars invested to improve, not replace, exist-ing capability in recent years.

ances and at a cost that is beneficial to the American taxpayer."

What many here may not appreciate, however, is the art and science that goes into the purchase of each new machine. The arsenal’s manufacturing center is not going to receive any money to build new structures to house new machines and so, plan-ners must do extensive re-search and design to bring in new capability that will fit in the same footprint as the old capability. In essence, an old machine must be pulled off line, new foundation poured, and electrical systems updated before the arrival of a new machine into the same space.

Earlier this month, Salvatore was working with representa-tives from an Italian firm as they were installing a new hollow-spindle lathe here to support howitzer and tank manufacturing. This is the fourth multimillion-dollar machine that this company has installed at the arsenal in recent years.

Salvatore explained that it took years of planning and coordination before the new Italian lathe was brought here. For this lathe, Salvatore and machinist Brant Wert traveled to Italy to work with the manufacture to en-sure that the machine would meet the scope of work. Once they had the technical aspects of the new lathe worked out, then the foundation here to support the new machine could be designed.

“When it takes years and millions of dollars to bring on line new capability, we must be closely involved in


New Cont.

There is an art and science to the planning and installation of new machinery. The arsenal cannot build new infrastructure to house new machines and so, new machines must fit into the same footprint as the machines they replace.

Photos by John B. Snyder


At Watervliet, random acts of kindness are nothing less than

"mentoring"

Story continues on page 8, "Mentor”


In a nondescript-corner room in the arsenal’s head-quarters there is a remarkable transformation being planned for the workforce, albeit centuries late. Since the arsenal opened its gates in 1813, its workforce has always had an informal and important culture of nurturing. In essence, those who have less experience and knowledge being guided by those more experienced in the ways of manufacturing, Army procedures, and in personal development. Why is this nurturing important? Because success here helps ensure that U.S. and allied forces are more successful on the battlefield. After all, for more than

200 years the arsenal’s weapon systems and military hardware have helped hundreds of thousands of the nation’s servicemen and women to safely come home from battle. But today, there are threats to this informality as tenured civilians are retiring in significant numbers, taking with them tens of thousands of hours of experi-ence, knowledge, and insights of Army manufacturing and in life, said John Bianchi, the deputy director of

Every day, great deeds are occurring here that often go unnoticed. On the arsenal production floors, informal mentoring is one of the things that makes people and products great here. Captured earlier this month, machinist Peter Northup, center, is talking to, or what the arsenal calls mentoring, apprentice Stephen Pawlik, right, and newly arrived machine tool operator Dwight Collin. Good job, Peter!

By John B. Snyder


Mentor Cont.

Industrial Operations and Production. “We almost have the perfect storm develop-ing with our workforce,” Bianchi said. “Due to inconsistent defense budgets in recent years, high turnover of well-experienced personnel, and workforce demographics transitioning from a Baby Boomer heavy workforce to one being backfilled by Millennials, we must change our workforce development now to prevent a per-sonnel crisis in future years.” Tony Urban, the deputy director of Installa-tion Management, and Bianchi are co-leaders of a Lean event that was recently initiated to ad-dress these challenges. Now, getting back to that nondescript-corner room. Arsenal leadership in January launched a workforce development team initially made up of Jen-nifer Walkley and Brant Wert. Walkley brings experience from her previous posi-tion in Installation Management, while Wert offers the experience from his previous position in Operations as a journeyman machinist. They report to the arse-nal’s chief of staff to develop and implement several workforce development programs that should benefit all arsenal employees. Their first task is to make sense of a recent arsenal survey where several aspects of workforce develop-ment were rated as deficient among the respondents. One of the areas identified as being a shortfall was that the arsenal did not have a formal mentorship pro-gram. Something interesting was identified in the results in a second, more recent survey that was tailored just for the topic of mentorship, Walkley said. More than 45 percent of the survey respondents had stated that they had a mentor here even though there has not been a formal mentorship program at the arsenal in any one’s memory. “Given such a high rate of mentoring already oc-curring here, it only makes sense that we try to tap into that process to make it better,” Walkley said. “I believe that people want to engage each other, espe-cially after their recently going through sequestration,

inconsistent workload schedules, and now a hiring freeze.” Wert said that although they are only in the pro-gram development stage, there is one key aspect of the informal mentorship that will definitely be a part of the formal program. “We envision a spirit of volunteerism where per-sonnel readily offer their experiences and insight to others,” Wert said. “Additionally, mentorship will transcend the path of skill development to a broader aspect called ‘professional development.’” Ideally, the arsenal mentorship program will enlist volunteers who will then be armed with the tools, such as mentor guidelines and standard procedures, to make their mentorship efforts more productive, Wert said. And, those who want to be mentored will have a place to find a mentor if they so desire. One thing to keep in mind is that mentorship is not leadership. Leaders are already tasked, as well as ex-pected to help develop those under their supervision. To not give the impression of favoritism, mentors typ-ically do not come from the individual’s direct chain of command. Mentors could be peers, people who are more experienced in manufacturing or in life; or even subordinates who have unique experiences that they might want to share. Bianchi said he believes the mentorship program will launch later this year.

As early as the week that apprentices make their first machining cut, they are coached by senior machinists, such as seen here with machinist Jonathan Morehouse, left, assisting apprentice Todd Herold last September.


By John B. Snyder

Paying Back? Or...Investing in the future?


Story continues on page 10, "Sullivan”

As most Baby Boomers here have reached retirement age, the arsenal is aggressively trying to backfill that talented group when they retire with a younger genera-tion of workers who will also want a career here man-ufacturing military hardware for the nation’s troops.

One of the challenges, however, is that research shows that the prime generation for recruitment, who are called Millennials, aren’t interested in manufacturing jobs. The other potential challenge with hiring Mil-lennials is that they, according to a recent Gallup Busi-

ness Journal survey, tend not to stay very long at a job. Millennials were born between 1981 and 1997.

And so, is the future of the historic Watervliet Arsenal at risk because of the challenges it is facing trying to build the workforce for the future?

If one considered that last month more than 900 peo-ple visited a job fair that was hosted on post, the short


Sullivan Cont.

answer would be no. Given the success of that job fair, there seems to be no lack of interest in working at the Army’s oldest, continuously operating arsenal.

Nevertheless, the arsenal is not taking any chances given that U.S. manufacturing will be crit-ically short skilled workers in the near future. According to a recent report from the National Association of Manufactures, over the next decade, nearly 3.5 million manufacturing jobs will likely be needed, and 2 million are expected to go unfilled due to the skills gap.

One key effort the arsenal is taking is viewed as an invest-ment by Apprentice Program Supervisor Robert Day, albeit an investment that may pay off many years from now.

Day has for years participated in career fairs at local high schools to talk to students about the wonders of a career in manufacturing. He took that ef-fort a step forward Feb. 16, by hosting here seven high school students from the Sullivan County Career and Technical Education Center who are enrolled in a two-year preci-sion machining technical program.

“Although I love to tell the arsenal story to students in the local schools, I love it even more when I get to show them exactly what we do here,” Day said. “To know that I have caught their attention when I show them the machines that forge 30-foot howitzer barrels is truly an unbelievably good feeling.”

Day further explained that his excitement goes beyond trying to encourage students to consider a career in ma-chining.

“Besides simply conducting these tours as a potential recruiting effort, I also believe that we have an obliga-tion to pay back the community for its 200 years of sup-port to the arsenal,” Day said. “And what better way to

do so than to participate in the education of our youth.”

It is one thing for Day to get excited about hosting the students, but at the end of the day it is all about the stu-dents. So, what did they get out of this visit?

“This is my first year in the pre-cision machining program and I never realized until visiting the arsenal just how large manu-facturing machines could be,” said Britany Clark, an 11th-grade student. “Additionally, it is one thing to create a design on paper, but to see how designs are ma-chined into products was a great experience.”

Clark said she is taking the preci-sion machining course so that she will have experience in design and machining before she goes to college to obtain a degree in Bio-medical Engineering. This visit, according to Clark, also provided her a better sense of the variety of careers that are available in manufacturing, as well as a better sense of how difficult it is to pro-duce a product.

Michael Mullally, the Precision Machining Technology Program instructor, said that beyond the value of education, the visit to the arsenal was also a great op-portunity for him to recruit for the

future.

“There is unbelievable value taking a student who has been learning about machining in a classroom out to a large-scale manufacturing center,” Mullally said. “These tours truly open up the students’ eyes as to the variety of opportunities that are available in manufac-turing and I’m hopeful that the students share some of this visit’s excitement with their friends and families.”

As the students departed, Day wondered if he was able to inspire and excite the students toward a career in manufacturing. Just maybe, Day will find out when one of these students applies for a job here upon graduation. In the meantime, Day will host two classes of students in the next few weeks from a local community college in an effort to not only tell the arsenal story, but also to recruit for the future.

Eleventh-grade student Britany Clark is in her first year of the Sullivan County Precision Machining Technology program as preparation for future collegiate studies in Biomedical Engineering.

Photos by John B. Snyder


By Heather Durr

Get SHARPMore than just a hotline: Sexual Assault Victim

Support & Prevention Efforts around the Capital District.

Although arsenal employees have received information on sexual assault hotlines hosted by each of the surrounding counties, they may not realize all the services that are out there. In the next few articles, we will explore services that local organizations offer – starting with the St. Peter’s Health Partners Sexual Assault and Crime Victims Assistance Program that serves as the Crime Victims Assistance Program for Rensselaer County.

In existence since 1979, The Sexual Assault and Crime Victims Assistance Program provides comprehensive, specialized services to victims of sexual violence, victims of stalking, older adults, homicide survivors, as well as other victims of crime, their family members and friends, or significant others. The program is committed to reducing the trauma of sexual assault, crime, and violence, as well as providing community education for its prevention.

Here are some of their services:• St. Peter’s Health Partners provide specially trained counselors to meet with survivors at a

hospital, clinic, or private physician’s office. They can help victims/survivors with gathering evidence; obtaining medical services; receiving counseling or therapy; and advocating with police, courts, and crime victims’ agencies.

• They also can make referrals for services not provided by our program and can teach per-sons how to avoid re-victimization.

• Their Senior Crime Victims Assistance program helps older victims of crime, including phys-ical, sexual and emotional abuse, financial exploitation, fraud, neglect, and abandonment.

• As part of their community outreach, The Crime Victims Assistance program features pre-vention officers that speak to the community on various topics, and provide training for al-lied professionals. On several occasions, these prevention officers have trained Watervliet Arsenal Supervisors on the prevention of sexual assault.

• They operate the Sexual Assault 24-hour hotline is (518) 271-3257.

Here are other Capital District County Sexual Assault Hotlines:

Albany County: 447-7716 Schenectady County: 346-2266 Saratoga County: 584-8188


Goals: The Missing Link between Strategy and Execution

By Joshua O'Leary

Earlier this month, a reminder was sent to my office that it was time to give John Snyder another article for the Salvo’s Lean Corner. Once again, I’d been given the honor of completing the task. No problem, right? The problem was, like a dog spotting a squirrel, my attention was soon pulled in eight different paths once I began to research one of my ideas. One path led me to a video by Donald Sull, a Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLoBb0XulcQ

Don’s lecture, “Goals- the Missing Link between Strategy and Execution” (available on YouTube, for anyone with 40 minutes to burn), focuses on how goals influence execution- the linkage between strategy and results. His research states that goals drive execution through four distinct elements:

Blinders - Goals focus individual/team attention to motivate and drive performance. Goals allow the workforce to filter out the day-to-day noise and focus on what’s truly important to the business. He states that goals should be specific and ambitious. While an ambitious, or “stretch”, goal should be difficult to achieve, he warns that it’s delusional to strive for one without a rigorous process in place to achieve it.

Links – Goals are a mechanism to link strategy to activities and resource allocation decisions at every level of the organization (strategic alignment). Directorate, division, department and individual goals should be bottom up, autonomous, and align with the top priorities of the business. In order to be effective, it requires that unit level leaders understand how their organizations link to the overall business strategy. Additionally, goals should be transparent and shared for maximum organizational coordination.

Bold Hypotheses – Goals help companies envision how they can break out of the status quo (complacency). If an organization sets unambitious goals, that organization will search very narrowly for how to achieve that goal. Ambitious goals trigger broad search. “More of the same,” or incremental innovations, will not get the organization to its goal. Organizations are instead forced to look for the creative solutions that drive true innovation.

Signals – Goals transfer critical information across the organization. They allow organizational leaders to test what they think is going to happen, and course-correct based on feedback. This performance feedback guides process and operational iteration when effectively managed. To maximize the potential of goal iteration, Don suggests that leaders revise their goals more than once per year, meet with their subordinates regularly to discuss progress, constantly analyze variance from goal, and discuss difficult issues openly and honestly. Organizational leaders must be able to effectively structure and lead discussions on setting and revising performance goals in an environment their employees feel “safe” to participate in.

Arsenal employees – Do you feel like you personally share in the responsibility of achieving organizational goals? Supervisors – Are your subordinates aware of, and unified in pursuing, organizational goals? How do your daily activities feed your department’s goals? How do your department’s goals feed your Division’s goals? Division to Directorate? Directorate to our top strategic goals? It’s been said that knowledge is power, but only when shared.

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