Salvo 30 November 2012

Vol. 12, No. 11 U.S. Army Watervliet Arsenal, Watervliet, New York Nov. 30, 2012

SALVO“Service to the Line, On the Line, On Time”

Story on page 3

Photo by John B. Snyder

Think about this, we have thousands of troops forward deployed in a combat zone, while at the same time, similar combat-experienced troops are providing food, fuel, medical, and more important, stability to New York City’s disaster areas within a two hour drive of here.

No other military in the world can do this! And we have that capability today due in large part to the

sacrifices of those who have served before us.

For the last century, we have celebrated our Veterans on November 11th. And since World War I, each Veterans Day seems to blend old Veterans with new. Just since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, almost three million American men and women have stepped up and answered their nation’s call to duty and now they, too, line our streets on Veterans Day

Watervliet parades through the streets in honor of our nation’s Veterans

By John B. Snyder

Ever since the Arsenal restarted its community parade program in 2009, it has been supported by the Hudson-Mohawk Military Ve-hicle Collectors’ Club. Here is one of eight vehicles from the club that was part of the Arsenal’s contingent this month in Albany.

Page 2 Salvo Nov. 30, 2012

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: [email protected]. The editor reserves the right to edit all information submitted for publication.

Commander, Col. Mark F. MigaleddiPublic Affairs Officer, John B. SnyderEditor, John B. SnyderPhotographer: John B. Snyder Arsenal Facebook Page @http://on.fb.me/sq3LEm

Commander’s Corner

Mark F. MigaleddiCommanding

Manufacturer 6

This time of year, like most of our society, we take some time and reflect and find the many ways of saying thanks. The month of November started off by saying thanks to all of our Veterans and we conclude the month by giving thanks for the many things in our lives that makes living in America a dream for many around the world, as we transition in the season of giving.

For those who have supported the Arsenal in many of these events, you have done so out of your personal ob-ligation or out of your sense of duty to support our com-munity. But for whatever reasons you have lent a hand to build a float or marched in a parade, your efforts have not gone unnoticed.

Thank you!

Although we conduct community events throughout the year, the months of May and November continue to be the high point for our engagements with the commu-nity. For November, we will have participated in eight community events and for the year, nearly 60 community events.

I cannot attend an event without a civic leader, elected official, or a local resident coming up to me and saying how great it is to see the Arsenal involved in the community. This is important! If we do not engage the community, our community will not know much about

what we do or the value of keeping an Army-owned and –operated manufacturing center in the Albany area.

And so, I greatly appreciate all the hard work that many of you put into the planning, coordination, and execution of the events. It is important that we support these types of events not only for the community, our Veterans, and for our servicemen and women, but also for the Arsenal.

I also greatly appreciate all that you have done to en-sure that we ship every product with unequalled quality, on time. From those who manage our accounts to those who drive the trucks to those who machine our tubes, all of us rely on each other to make our jobs easier or to make our products better. Each of you is a valued part of this team and we could not provide high quality products to our servicemen and women without everyone giving 100 percent.

As we approach this holiday season, I know that many of our thoughts will be about family and friends. But please keep in mind that we must remain focused on safety.

Don’t let the element of time, or the lack of time, drive you to do something you know you shouldn’t do. Wait until you have help to put up the outside lights on your house, don’t drive beyond the speed limit, and if you drink, don’t drive. You are all too important to your families, to the Army, and to the Arsenal.

I wish you the best for a great, safe Holiday Season!


to also be remembered.

Although we thought we had fought the “war to end all wars,” history has proven that we still needed those very few who would step up and serve our country and New York’s Capital District has been no different. It too has answered and still answers the many calls to duty.

New York’s Capital District is not a military community such as Watertown, N.Y. is to Fort Drum or Lawton, Okla. is to Fort Sill, but the Albany area is a community rich in military service.

Dan McCoy, the Albany County Executive, said after the City of Albany’s Veterans Day parade that there are more than 18,000 Veterans in the Albany area.

New York’s Capital District is also home to New York’s Division of Military and Naval Affair where the State Adjutant General, Maj. Gen. Patrick Murphy, provides command and control of New York’s military forces. More than 7,000 New York troops have recently been deployed to the New York City area providing much needed disaster relief.

And tucked into the Albany area along the Hudson River is a local icon called the Watervliet Arsenal. The Watervliet Arsenal has since 1813 manufactured the products that have helped hundreds of thousands of servicemen and women in combat to come home safely.

As the only active Army post between West Point and Fort Drum, Watervliet helped excite the community to honor our Veterans by its participation in two parades this year. The first parade was for the Village of Menands on November 10, which was the first Veterans Day Parade for this community, and the Arsenal followed up leading the City of Albany Veterans Day Parade in Division 1 on November 12.

Yes, a position of honor. But it was our honor to be in the company as those who have served on the beaches of Normandy or in the mountains of Kandahar. Photos by John B. Snyder

Veterans cont.

According to BAE Systems: The revolutionary M777, weighing in at less than 4200kg (about 9259 pounds) is the world’s first artillery weapon to make widespread use of titanium and aluminum alloys, resulting in a howitzer which is half the weight of conventional 155mm systems. The M777 can fire the “smart” Excalibur round, co-developed by Global Combat Systems up to 40 km (25 miles) accurately enough to target individual rooms within a building, reducing the chance of

innocent casualties and allowing supporting fire to be brought down much closer to friendly troops. It can hurl a standard 43.5 kg shell almost 30 km (21 miles) at 2.5 times the speed of sound. The projectile takes just over a minute to fly this distance and reaches a maximum height

of 12km. The shell reaches its maximum speed of 2900 kph (1800 mph) by the time it exits the muzzle of the gun.


Arsenal receives $7.8 million contract to supply Australian Army with new lightweight cannons

By John B. Snyder

The Arsenal announced this month that it received a $7.8 million contract to provide the Australian Army, via BAE Systems, with 19 M776 155mm cannons as part of the U.S. State Department’s Foreign Military Sales program. “This multimillion dollar order will add to our current workload more than 16,000 hours of direct labor,” said Jake Peart, the Arsenal’s chief of Production Control & Program Management. “We will begin shipping in the fall of 2013 and we will complete our production in the spring of 2014.” Hugh McNamara, the Arsenal’s program manager for the 155mm cannon, said that this is a follow-on order for the Australian Army as the Arsenal had previously worked with BAE Systems to manufacture 35 tubes and subassemblies for the M777A2 howitzer in 2011. The M777 howitzer, which was fielded in the U.S. military in 2003, is replacing the much heavier M198 155mm towed howitzer system currently in use by the Royal Australian Artillery, McNamara said. “This order will require a wide variety of specialized machining skills because the order is for the complete cannon system, which includes such parts as the 155mm barrel, breech block, breech ring, and muzzle break,” McNamara added. This is the second multi-million dollar contract awarded to the Arsenal in the last month. In October, the Arsenal received a $4.2 million contract for a new lightweight 60mm mortar baseplate for the U.S. Army.

It may seem to some that we have shifted our production lines to support mortar systems. Nevertheless, during the last 10 years we have continued to manufacture significant numbers of cannons...

M256 120mm Tank Cannon ... 1,300M776 155mm Howitzer Cannon ... 1,300M284 155mm Howitzer Cannon ... 2,600M119 105mm Howitzer Cannon ... 800

The M776 155mm cannon that Watervliet will manufacture for the Australian Army will be used on the M777 Lightweight Howitzer seen here being fired by Bravo Battery, 2nd Bat-talion, 11th Field Artillery.

Photo by Spc. Aaron L. Rosencrans


By John B. Snyder

The old adage “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around, will it make a sound,” may be a good metaphor for the recent removal of the largest crane assembly on the Arsenal. Towering some 53’ high and 140’ long, the gantry-yard crane has met its quiet demise just as other technological marvels of their time, such as the Erie Canal and belt-driven presses. But did anyone notice? Purchased in 1980 for about $750,000, the crane was part of the $150 million Renovation of Armament Manu-facturing or REARM program that began in 1979. This five-year modernization program was not only important to the Arsenal’s long-term viability, but also to the nation’s security. Former U.S. Rep. Samuel S. Stratton said at the 1979 ceremony that launched the modernization program that brought the crane to Watervliet, “When it comes to asserting the strength and determination of this country, Watervliet is go-ing to be in the lead not only in the Middle East, but also in NATO…and as we look at this project getting underway, you can sleep soundly tonight because Watervliet Arsenal is awake.” And so with great fanfare, work began to replace an Arsenal rail-yard crane that some believed to have been put into operation just after World War I. “When we started pulling up the rails this month as part of the crane removal process, we found that the date printed on the rails was 1919,” said Tom Sansone, who retired from the Arsenal in 1999 and who now works for Government Liquidation, the exclusive contractor for the sale of surplus and scrap assets of the U.S. Department of Defense. “Trying to find a buyer for 250 tons of material is a chal-lenge all by itself, but finding a buyer who must disassem-ble the crane and then cart away all of the material made this project even harder to find a buyer,” Sansone said.Sansone said the Arsenal first offered the crane to the Fed-eral Government and to New York State. But after several months of effort, there was no interest. That is when the

Arsenal turned to Sansone and Government Liquidation to find a buyer. Sansone said that when the first buyer backed out, he had to re-post the contract solicitation. “In a way, it worked out better for everyone involved because through the rebidding process a local Watervliet company called Metro Metal Recycling won the contract,” Sansone said. “Any time we support the local community with work, it is a win-win event for all involved.” This contract was a huge, challenging job, said Charlie Van Hall, the owner of Metro Metals. “Because we had to drop the crane between ongoing op-erations, we had to take extra efforts to drop the parts of the

crane, some of which weighing nearly 110 tons, without doing any damage to the surrounding areas,” Van Hall said. “If the crane was in an old factory or remote location, we simply would have

used shears to cut the crane into pieces and then let the pieces fall.” What assisted the near flawless disassembly of the crane was the fact that the two local rigging companies that sup-ported the crane removal, D.A. Collins Construction Co. and John M. Mullins Rigging & Hauling, had previously worked with Metro Metals on other challenging jobs, Van Hall said. “Because of our vast experience of working with each other, we were able to execute this job safely within very tight tolerances,” Van Hall said. The crane is no longer required to support the produc-tion mission as all products are now shipped via truck transportation. After weeks of effort, the crane finally came down this month and at the time of this article; the last re-maining pieces of the crane are being carted off. Although the crane motors, copper and scrap metal have been sold, there may be new life to the Arsenal’s gantry-yard crane. According to Van Hall, he has kept two large beams for future sculpture work. And so, the crane may live on pro-viding future generations a piece of the Arsenal’s history.

Erie Canal, belt-driven presses, and now, the gantry-yard crane ... all gone

Photos by John B. Snyder and Billy Martin

The crane may live on pro-viding future generations a piece of the Arsenal history.


The Army has always done everything possible to prevent the loss of life to its workforce. Constant upgrades to equipment and better training have saved countless lives. Not all lives are loss to combat though, the rise in suicides in the Army is staggering. In an effort to stem the rise in suicides, the Army recently conducted a world-wide suicide prevention stand down day to make everyone aware of the programs available to assist someone that is facing trouble and con-templating suicide. Although the Arsenal does not have a large Soldier population, we cannot fall into a sense that we are im-mune to suicides or suicide attempts. So, here is how the Arsenal is doing its part toward protecting its force. A group of Arsenal volunteers have received specialized training, called Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training or ASIST, to identify and to provide assistance to high risk individuals. Through a two-day interactive workshop, each person participated in various scenarios, received training on triggers and visual clues that a person may be considering suicide. And as a result of this training, the Arsenal’s ASIST team is trained as a sort of a suicide first responder. If anyone is contemplating suicide, knows someone whom may be suicidal or just needs someone to talk to, please feel free to contact anyone on the ASIST team. You do not have to go to some-one within your directorate; we are here to help anyone at any time.

OD IM COMMAND STAFF OUTSIDE AGENCIES

Seth Frank Sandra Smith Dawn Whelan Jodi RoyDiane Nelson Josh Roy Donald Haberski Jen PusatereHal Metzier Gary Freeman John Whipple Daniel FishMary Burniche Rocco Granato Ken Haviland Joe Evans Bernadette Palmieri Mary Ellen Hobson Susan SharpDonald Granger Jesus GuerraRobert Dobbs Marc Kaufman

It is always good to “ASIST” others By Josh Roy

Haunts of Watervliet... No, this wasn’t one of the Arsenal’s Board of Directors meetings, but a haunted house that was set up by the MWR folks for Halloween. Through-out the year, MWR conducts a variety of programs, from summer camp to holiday parties, for families and especially for kids. Trying to get an interview during the haunted house was tough given all the screeching. Never-theless, one person found time to say a few words once she was in the safety of her vehicle. From Christina Livolsi ,“Truly, truly AWESOME job with this year’s Halloween party. The haunted house was a HUGE success. My son went through three times - he loved it! Everyone’s efforts and hard work really paid off - I have heard nothing but positive feedback throughout the Arsenal on the day’s events.”

Arlea Henkle and her 5-year-old daughter, Jennikah Henkle. They are the family of Sgt. Joshua Henkle, who is an Army recruiter at the Green Island recruiting station.

Photo provided by Kyle Buono


Largest electrical job in 30 years is now

completeBy John B. Snyder

Top: View provides a good sense of the size of job that the Arsenal electrical engineers managed.Middle: Jim Uram, an electrical engineering technician and who is the right-arm of the Arsenal’s elec-trical engineer, is discussing the work with a Pichardo Development Corp. supervisor. Uram was at the site every day of operation.Bottom: Benjamin Dedjoe, second from the left and who is the Arse-nal’s electrical engineer, is taking a minute to discuss the results of the concrete testing with the contractor’s leadership.

When the Arsenal leadership agreed to invest $1.7 million for a new electrical substation that would feed power to one of the most critical manufacturing processes called the rotary forge, little did they know that the Arsenal may be venturing into uncharted waters. But thanks to two, no, three Arsenal employees, this huge undertaking was accomplished without any degradation to production. “This was the largest electrical upgrade the Arsenal had experienced in 30 years and the biggest job that I have ever personally designed and managed,” said Benjamin Dedjoe, who is the Arsenal’s electrical engineer. “We replaced 1970s technology with state of the art, computer-driven electrical power equipment that has the capability to provide power to 450 homes a day.” This was an extremely complex job that had the potential to set production back if it wasn’t accomplished on time, or simply did not work after the substation was installed, Dedjoe said. “We had a 31-day window to remove the 1970-era substation, build a new foundation, install the new substations, test the circuitry, and then run the first 120mm tube through for production,” Dedjoe added. This was no small task for the Arsenal’s lone electrical engineer and his staff of one, Jim Uram. While this upgrade was ongoing, Dedjoe and Uram still had to deal with other jobs such as replacing more than 12,000 feet of damaged underground cables, providing power to several new machines on a production floor, and installing digital fire alarms in five buildings, Uram said. The third, critical person involved in the successful installation of the substation is Connie Turner, the contract representative for this project. “This project was three years in the making,” Turner said. “It began with the Army Corps of Engineers contracting a private firm to design the substation, then the project moved to a bidding process where more than 30 potential bidders visited Watervliet, and work finally began last August.” To add to the difficulty of the project, there were seven modifications to the contract, Turner said. Some of the modifications came from the challenges

that a business has when attempting to connect a state-of-the-art system to 40-year-old technology. While other challenges came from a design that looked great on paper but required some minor tweaks in order to make things work. The biggest challenge, however, came from the discovery of an old oil sump under the original foundation. “To correctly remove the old oil and storage tank correctly, took about two weeks and it was time that wasn’t budgeted for,” Turner said. “Despite that huge challenge, the contractor, Pichardo Development Corp. from New Jersey, was able to stay on task and complete the contract on time.”


CPAC Corner: Flexible Spending AccountFSAFEDS—Flexible Spending Account

As a Federal employee, your health insurance premiums are taken out of your pay before taxes are deducted. This is a big benefit to employees, considering the rising cost of health insurance premi-ums; but did you know that your child care expenses and other health costs (i.e. co-pays, prescrip-tions and over-the-counter medications, dental costs, orthodontics, etc.) can also be deducted from your pay before taxes?

This is the function of FSAFEDS. FSAFEDS is a flexible spending account used to reimburse you for your out-of-pocket health care expenses. Why pay taxes on expenses you know you will incur each month if you don’t have to?

How does it work?

You must enroll in FSAFEDS during open season or at the time of a life qualifying event. Once you’re enrolled, you decide how much you would like to put into your account for that year. If you have pre-dictable medical expenses, such as co-pays or prescriptions, you may want to calculate these costs for the year and put that amount in your account. The amount you choose will be deducted in equal increments from your pay each pay period so that the full amount is deducted by the end of the year. You can allot up to $2,500 per covered employee for medical expenses and up to $5,000 for child care expenses. You can then submit claims for reimbursement through the mail or the new online submission system. Keep in mind that FSAFEDS is a “use or lose” program, so calculate carefully. You are given a grace period after the end of the year (March 14, 2014 for the upcoming enrollment year) to incur expenses and submit claims for reimbursement. However, after that deadline, you will lose any money left in your account.

How much can I save?

You can calculate how much you’ll save by enrolling in FSAFEDS by entering your pay information in the calculator found here: https://www.fsafeds.com/fsafeds/fsa_calculator.asp

As a basic example, if you are a FERS employee making $45,000 a year and claiming 0 Federal ex-emptions and you allot the full $2,500 to your FSAFEDS account, you will save $988 in taxes. That’s a 40% discount on your out-of-pocket medical expenses that you would have incurred anyway!

What else?

You can find additional information on the details of the program as well as qualifying medical/child care expenses at: https://www.fsafeds.com/fsafeds/index.asp

You can also call a counselor at the number below:FSAFEDS Benefits Counselors: Toll-Free: 1-877-FSAFEDS (1-877-372-3337) Monday-Friday 9am-9pm or send an email to: [email protected]

Remember: Open Season ends December 10th!


Lean Corner: The power of being single

Have you ever heard of SMED? Yes, it’s another Lean concept and acronym to tax your mind.

SMED stands for Single-Minute Exchange of Die. And, as with many Lean concepts, it applies to office process setups just as well as it does to shop floor setups. The idea of SMED is to reduce setup time to a single digit number of minutes. For example, 60 minutes down to 8 minutes.

It sounds impossible, right? But it’s not. There are a lot of case studies where reductions like this happen. And it really isn’t all that hard and so, here is how to do it:

1. Assemble a cross-functional team of experts in their fields.2. Carefully observe the current set-up process. Determine which steps are internal and which are exter-nal. Internal steps are those done with the machine down. External steps are those “set-up” steps that can be done while the machine is still running the last of the old parts/products.3. Eliminate any steps that are pure waste.4. Convert internal steps to external steps.5. 6S the process area. Make sure all needed tools and equipment are kept handy and organized – or available exactly when needed. Make sure the area is clean, uncluttered, safe and easy to move through. 6. Streamline the remaining internal steps. Use intermediate fixtures to eliminate long, precise position-ing requirements. Eliminate long, tricky adjustments. Use quick clamping techniques and eliminate fasteners. There is a lot of ways to streamline if we tap some of the brainpower around here.7. Improve all external set-up steps.8. Ensure supporting functions provide their inputs to the process in a timely fashion.

One of these days, you will be asked to be on a SMED event team. Consider it a compliment because the team leader, process owner or facilitator recognizes you as an expert in what you do. Help the team perform what might seem like a miracle...getting to be single....and you can be on the cutting edge of Continuous Improve-ment here at Watervliet Arsenal.

By Mark Ripley

When a good idea brought more than two cents

James F. Schlegel, an assembler in the Manufac-turing Division, Industrial Operations and Produc-tion Directorate, submitted an idea to change the marking procedure for the M9 baseplate.

His suggestion will save $46 per unit by having the vendor stamp the parts before they are delivered. His suggestion will result in $24,684 in tangible savings and was granted an award this month of $1,450 for his suggestion."


Defender of coasts, here and abroad By Mark Koziol

Photo provided by the Arsenal MuseumTwo men were required to load a projectile on a cart into the gun breech at Fort Frank. Then seven men used a ramrod to push the payload into the gun. Troop strength for the Fort Frank batteries totaled 11 officers and 349 men divided to 3 officers and 67 men per 14-inch gun.

By coincidence, shortly after I started research for last month’s article about Col. Adelbert Buffington and the disappearing gun carriage, I was given a CD of close to 300 photos of large seacoast guns that once protected the entrance to Manila Bay in the Philippines. There are many wonderful photos showing the different guns and mortars being loaded and fired by gun crews. The 14-inch gun and disappearing gun carriage photos were interesting because, most likely, at least one of the big guns being fired was made at Watervliet Arsenal. According to research into the History Letter Books housed at the Arsenal Museum, Col. William W. Gibson’s June 30, 1912 Annual Production Report stated that work had been completed on manufacturing three 14-inch guns. The War Department’s Annual Report for 1913 stated about defense of Manila Bay, which include Corregidor, that: “On Carabao Island the emplacements for the 14-inch batteries and mortar batteries are practically completed. The guns and carriages will be shipped in the fall (1912) and mounted probably before the close of the fiscal year (June 30, 1913).” According to the Seacoast Defense Study Group index cards, the 14-inch big gun, Model 1907, came from Watervliet Arsenal and the disappearing carriage was made at the Watertown Arsenal in Massachusetts. The cards record

the number of times the gun was test fired in 1917; twenty-one times. The 14-inch big guns eventually made the long trip to Fort Frank at the Philippine’s Carabao Island. In early 1942, the Japanese started bombing Fort Frank and the Corregidor defenses from high altitudes. There were more than 40 coastal guns defending Manila Bay. After the last of the reserve forces had been committed, some 500 U.S. Marines, Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright, on May 6, 1942, sent out two officers from his field headquarters waving a white flag of surrender. From January 1942 to the fall of Corregidor on May 6, 1942, the defenders of Corregidor suffered about 800 dead and 1,000 wounded. The 14-inch guns were destroyed by U.S. forces prior to the Japanese occupation of Fort Frank. Gen. Douglas MacArthur would not return to the Philippines until Oct. 20, 1944.

Coastal Defense

On Feb. 1, 1906, Maj. Gen. John P. Story, as chairman of the National Coast Defense Board, submitted to William H. Taft, Sec-retary of War, a final report outlin-ing a proposed coastal defense system for the United States and its possessions. Ten stateside and one overseas port, Subic Bay, were declared “ports of first impor-tance” for armament with modern coastal defense weapons. A further eight United States forts and six overseas ports were designated “ports of secondary importance” for armament. Second from last on the list was the entrance to Manila Bay. In order to quickly develop a workable defense of Manila Bay, first priority was given to fortifying Corregidor and Carabao with the now designated Fort Mills and Fort Frank respectively. Armament for Fort Franks consisted of two 14 inch disappearing guns mounted in two separate batteries.

Information from Charles M. Bog-art, Corregidor Historical Society.


TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, HE LIVED ALL ALONE, IN A ONE BEDROOM HOUSE MADE OF PLASTER AND STONE. I HAD COME DOWN THE CHIMNEY WITH PRESENTS TO GIVE, AND TO SEE JUST WHO IN THIS HOME DID LIVE. I LOOKED ALL ABOUT, A STRANGE SIGHT I DID SEE, NO TINSEL, NO PRESENTS, NOT EVEN A TREE. NO STOCKING BY MANTLE, JUST BOOTS FILLED WITH SAND, ON THE WALL HUNG PICTURES OF FAR DISTANT LANDS. WITH MEDALS AND BADGES, AWARDS OF ALL KINDS, A SOBER THOUGHT CAME THROUGH MY MIND. FOR THIS HOUSE WAS DIFFERENT, IT WAS DARK AND DREARY, I FOUND THE HOME OF A SOLDIER, ONCE I COULD SEE CLEARLY. THE SOLDIER LAY SLEEPING, SILENT, ALONE, CURLED UP ON THE FLOOR IN THIS ONE BEDROOM HOME. THE FACE WAS SO GENTLE, THE ROOM IN SUCH DISORDER, NOT HOW I PICTURED A UNITED STATES SOLDIER. WAS THIS THE HERO OF WHOM I’D JUST READ? CURLED UP ON A PONCHO, THE FLOOR FOR A BED? I REALIZED THE FAMILIES THAT I SAW THIS NIGHT,

OWED THEIR LIVES TO THESE SOLDIERS WHO WERE WILLING TO FIGHT. SOON ROUND THE WORLD, THE CHILDREN WOULD PLAY, AND GROWN UPS WOULD CELEBRATE A BRIGHT CHRISTMAS DAY. THEY ALL ENJOYED FREEDOM EACH MONTH OF THE YEAR, BECAUSE OF THE SOLDIERS, LIKE THE ONE LYING HERE. I COULDN’T HELP WONDER HOW MANY LAY ALONE, ON A COLD CHRISTMAS EVE IN A LAND FAR FROM HOME. THE VERY THOUGHT BROUGHT A TEAR TO MY EYE, I DROPPED TO MY KNEES AND STARTED TO CRY. THE SOLDIER AWAKENED AND I HEARD A ROUGH VOICE, “SANTA DON’T CRY, THIS LIFE IS MY CHOICE; I FIGHT FOR FREEDOM, I DON’T ASK FOR MORE, MY LIFE IS MY GOD,

MY COUNTRY, MY CORPS.” THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER AND DRIFTED TO SLEEP, I COULDN’T CONTROL IT, I CONTINUED TO WEEP. I KEPT WATCH FOR HOURS, SO SILENT AND STILL AND WE BOTH SHIVERED FROM THE COLD NIGHT’S CHILL. I DIDN’T WANT TO LEAVE ON THAT COLD, DARK, NIGHT, THIS GUARDIAN OF HONOR SO WILLING TO FIGHT. THEN THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER, WITH A VOICE SOFT AND PURE, WHISPERED, “CARRY ON SANTA, IT’S CHRISTMAS DAY, ALL IS SECURE.” ONE LOOK AT MY WATCH, AND I KNEW HE WAS RIGHT. “MERRY CHRISTMAS MY FRIEND, AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT.”

Anonymous

During your holidays, please do not forget

about our customers!


W A T E R V L I E T A

R S

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A L

1813

A PROUD TRADITION SINCE 1813WATERVLIET ARSENALFOR

YEARS

Watervliet Arsenal200th Anniversary Cookbook

Have a great family recipe?Share it with your Arsenal Family!

We need your help – We are seeking entries for the fi rst ever Arsenal cookbook

to commemorate our 200th anniversary featuring recipes from our workforce.

Whether it is an appetizer, dessert or main course, we want to hear from you!

Cookbooks will be available for pre-order on the 200th Anniversary Memorabilia

order form.

Fill out and submit your recipes online at: www.wva.army.mil/recipe

Entries will be accepted from November 1, through December 31, 2012

Salvo 30 November 2012

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