Watervliet Arsenal's Newsletter: Salvo 30 September 2012

Vol. 12, No. 9 U.S. Army Watervliet Arsenal, Watervliet, NY Sept. 30, 2012

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

Story on page 3

Who BuiltWatervliet?For nearly 200 years,

there has been a man or a woman

behind every product made.

Their stories are in the Arsenal’s DNA.

Page 2 Salvo Sept. 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

You have often heard me say during my tenure “You are too good to be ignored.” In a perfect world, that statement requires no further explanation or qualification. The problem is, however, we don’t live in a perfect world.

Throughout our nation’s history, wars start and end, economies rise and fall, and defense budgets go through ebbs and flows. Given those statements of fact, our future workload and viability are unknown because we are entering an environment where each one of those statements is impacting our lives.

And so, I ask you that if you truly believe that we are too good to be ignored, who else knows this?

The Arsenal public affairs officer is working very hard to tell your story to internal Army audiences, as well as to a broader world audience via such communication efforts as social media, press releases, and community events. But at the end of the day, he is only a power of one … one voice.

Just as our manufacturing capability is based upon the synergy and integration of all of our efforts, from machinist to mail clerk, our communications capability should also be based upon all of our efforts and not on one person.

So, how can you become part of this communications effort to tell our story?

Many of you are engaging a variety of audiences via social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Join the Arsenal’s social media sites and relay and share the Arsenal’s postings to your sites. But you don’t have to wait until something is new on the Arsenal’s social media sites, you can tell your personal story of your daily experiences on the Arsenal.

The fact that we machine cannons, mortars, and associated materiel to hundreds of thousandths of an inch, that we use the highest quality steel, that we just shipped 100 percent of our product on time, and that we have just added a new machine is not classified information. But should you have any question or are unsure of what information is sensitive in nature, give the public affairs officer a call. If he doesn’t know, he will check with our security folks.

Many of you are involved in community events, from coaching football to participating in Veteran’s organization events; take every opportunity to tell our story to some of the folks you meet.

These are just a few ideas to ensure that your story is told. After all, you are too good to be ignored.

Page 3 Salvo Sept. 30, 2012

Many people might believe that having supported our nation’s uniformed men and women continuous-ly since the War of 1812 is a pretty significant event, but that statistic may pale in comparison to the fact that two former Arsenal employees will soon turn or have recently turned 100-years-old. Given that the life expectancy of someone born in the early 1900s was only about 50, living to 100 is truly a remark-able achievement. It is amazing that as the Arsenal prepares for its upcoming 200th anniversary, which will occur in July 2013, powerful stories are flowing back to the Arsenal from the living rooms of former Arsenal employees. These stories are not only helping to-

day’s workforce get a better understanding of the Arsenal’s history, but also to get a renewed sense of appreciation for what they do today will affect future generations of Arsenal workers. Ernie Blanchet from Troy, N.Y., and Frances Brooks from Schenectady, N.Y., stepped out of re-tirement this month in hopes that their stories will help inspire today’s workforce to better understand that what they are doing today is bigger than them — it is about maintaining the Arsenal’s rich history and tradition. Ernie said that his father was once a machinist on the Arsenal during World War I and as a kid, he re-calls walking along the Erie Canal that once flowed

Even at 100, Arsenal pride has never been forgotten

By John B. Snyder

Story continues on page 4, see Centenarians

Ernie Blanchet, who began working at the Arsenal in 1941, will turn 100-years-old June 2013. Although very proud of his World War II military service, he is just as proud of his service at the Arsenal.

Frances Brooks joined the Arsenal’s World War II work-force after her husband enlisted and deployed. She turned 100-years-old this month. She was one of the Arse-nal’s “Rosie the Riveters” whose pride still shines bright.

Photo by John B. Snyder Photo by John B. Snyder

“They were some of the best years of my life. They were truly the

good old days!”

Frances Brooks


through the Arsenal. The Arsenal filled in its part of the Erie Canal more than 80 years ago. As one of 12 children in his family, Ernie found that he had to go to work at an early age to help sup-port his family. He worked in local textile mills for $12 a week and was even a caddy at the Troy Country Club. But he said that those jobs never provided him a sense of purpose as he went from job to job until 1941. At age 28, and just months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Ernie landed a job at the Watervliet Arsenal. “Things were quiet when I first arrived, but on Dec. 7, 1941, everything changed,” Ernie said. “The first day I came to work after the Japanese attack there were armed guards at the gate and ac-cess between buildings had been tightened.” What the attack did to the workforce, however, was that it brought everyone together as a team, Ernie said. Within a few months, the Arsenal workforce went from a few hundred to several thousand workers. As the workforce grew from one shift to three shifts, working seven-days-a-week, Ernie said there was a high sense of pride because everyone knew that each cannon made meant that more of our Soldiers would come back home alive. He said that not everyone had an important position at the Arsenal during World War II, but that everyone was important. Ernie enlisted in 1944 and served on a U.S. Navy Destroyer Escort ship until he was discharged after the war. He came back to the Arsenal after his discharge where he worked until he retired in 1971. During those years, his expertise was in quality control but somehow found time to start up an Arsenal Art Asso-

ciation, as well as run the Arsenal’s pitch and put golf course. Frances was the epitome of the American icon, Rosie the Riveter. When World War II broke out, she and her hus-band, Carl, ran a beauty salon and barbershop in the Capital District. Business had slowed due to the war and when her husband enlisted in 1943, Frances said she felt compelled to do her part to support the war ef-fort, as well as to provide for her family. Although she did not have any mechanical train-ing, Frances was quickly accepted as one of the more than 3,000 women who worked at the Arsenal during

World War II. As can be understood, there was a shortage of able-bodied men in the Albany area to support the Arsenal’s production line and therefore, women, from all walks of life, were welcomed into the Arse-

nal’s workforce. They still are today. After a short training period, Frances said she was rushed into the production lines as a machine tool op-erator. There was no time for apprentice training back then and whatever training she acquired came from the experienced machinists who worked side-by-side with her. After the war ended, Frances joined her husband and reopened the beauty and barber shops. Although she closed her beauty shop in 1977, she continued to work into her 90s. When asked how she would define her Arsenal years, she said, “They were some of the best years of my life. They were truly the good old days!” From the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 to the Normandy Invasion in 1944, Ernie, Frances and the more than 9,000 Arsenal workers manufactured nearly 23,000 cannons with an on-time delivery rate of 99.6 percent. Those statistics would never be equaled.

Centenarians cont.

It’s Coming...287 days and

counting until our 200th Anniversary


Top: Kevin Chase packaging spindles for immediate shipment. According to Chase, no matter the intensity of workload, his operation has never been backlogged.

Left: Kevin Chase, left, and fellow box operation handler Sam Hinton are unpacking box-making material brought over from another building. They moved much of the box opera-tion during the Arsenal’s annual shut down in August.

Photos by John B. Snyder

Not a day goes by that you can’t read about FedEx, UPS, or the U.S. Postal Service employing some money-saving technique that will make their organizations more competitive in the field of shipping. At a small, but important, Ar-my-owned and -operated manufac-turing center in upstate New York, they too are looking hard at their shipping process to squeeze more value out of its operations. “In an era of declining defense budgets, we are reviewing each cy-cle of the production process, from procurement to shipping, to look for efficiencies that may be quickly attained with little or no cost to production” said Tim Allard, the Watervliet Arsenal’s Chief of Man-ufacturing Support Division. One of Allard’s lines of oper-ation is packaging, or more spe-cifically, the box shop operation. The box shop operation touches each one of the 700 line items or product lines that are shipped out each month from Watervliet. But for as long as Allard can remember, and he has worked at the Arsenal for more than 25 years, there has never been a re-design of the box shop operation process. Having recently been trained on the Lean Six Sigma process, Allard said he knew that if he could find waste in the process that true sav-ings could quickly be realized in regards to time and money. So, he and Steve Koza, the Arsenal’s su-pervisor of the box shop operation, started looking at the transportation involved to move components to the box shop from the production lines that were in separate build-ings.

Eureka! Or was it a blind-ing glimpse of the obvi-ous? After some analysis, they believed that if they moved the fiber box opera-tion from one building into the main production build-ing, a savings of one-quar-ter mile of transportation could be achieved from the process. This quarter-mile trans-portation savings would translate to about one-half man-hour of direct labor per product line. Keeping in mind the box operation handles about 700 product lines a month, this move has the potential to have a cost savings exceeding $100,000 a year, as well

as move items through the Arsenal more quickly. And so, Koza directed his box team during the Arsenal’s annual shut down last month to begin the relocation process. One month lat-er, the fiber box operation is up and running in the new location. Kevin Chase, one of the box team members, said the move may actually be saving more man-hours and other resources than may have been estimated in the original anal-ysis.

“In addition to getting the prod-uct faster from the production lines, there is now no need for special banding or packaging to get the product to our location,” Chase said. Given today’s uncertainty in how future defense budgets will play out, there can be no doubt that even at the smallest of Army installations there is a dedicated workforce who are doing all that they can to save the Army and the American taxpayer money.

Arsenal joins the shipping wars By John B. Snyder

Watervliet Arsenal called Benét Laboratories. During these past 50-plus years, Benét Labs has been very good to him, Giuliano said. “The Benét and Arsenal leadership, such as Dr. Bob Weigle and Fred Class, took great care of me in the 1960s to not only give me more challenging work at every opportunity, but they also gave me a better education,” Giuliano said. “Benét fund-ed my master’s and my doctorate degree in Mechanics from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.”

His work while at Benét Labs has been rich with ac-complishments from writing numerous publications, attain-ing five U.S. Patents related to improving gun systems, to ex-tending his service to forward-deployed troops. Giuliano said that although his work at the Arsenal has been very challenging and ex-citing, his service to overseas troops have been some of the most memorable and reward-ing of his career. “I have been Benét’s eyes

and ears for forward deployed troops on three occasions,” Gi-uliano said. “I have served

twice as the science advisor for U.S. commands in Italy as part of the Army’s Southern European Task Force and the U.S. African Command, as well as served as the Directory for the U.S. Army Far East Research Office in Japan.” Giuliano listened to the troops’ needs and brought to them “fixes” and new technologies such as the new aviation general mechanics tool box needed by the 502d Regiment and later ad-opted by the U.S. Army and industry, and a small-unmanned aer-ial vehicle named Pointer and later renamed Raven that became part of the U.S. Army arsenal. Two of his latest projects deal with the modernization of a large caliber recoilless rifle system and the fielding of a Waste to Energy Portable System to remedi-ate waste and create energy at forward operating bases. In 1981, Giuliano was promoted to the position of Director of Research for Benét Labs and held that position until 2011 when he accepted the new Benét Labs Foreign Science & Technology Science Advisor position. Although Giuliano has been continuously employed at the Ar-senal since 1961, he doesn’t sound as if he plans to slow down.“I will never retire as long as I love doing what I am doing,” Gi-uliano said. For his more than 50 years of professional, personal support to our nation’s servicemen and women, D’Andrea is truly a Face of Strength at the Watervliet Arsenal and in our Army.


What this photo does not capture is the strong sense of pride that Dr. Giuliano D’Andrea has from the more than 50 years of awards and coins that were on display. Each award on this table represented some form of support to the warfighter.

By John B. Snyder

Photo by John B. Snyder

From immigrant to Watervliet’s Face of Strength, a 50-year journey

For nearly 200 years, most Arsenal employees began their ca-reers here and ended them here. Given the unique and special-ized skills required of the Arsenal’s workforce, few have sought the opportunity to venture off to work at some other Army arsenal or depot, nor may the Arsenal leadership want them to. Some might have thought that being able to raise families at one location was a blessing, while others might have won-dered what life would have been like if they had worked at some other installation. There is one current employee, how-ever, who is living the life of both extremes and has been for more than 50 years. The year of 1961 was an in-teresting year: the first Ameri-can to be launched in space, Navy Cmdr. Alan B. Shepa-rd, shoots up 115 miles into the atmosphere; approximate-ly 1,200 U.S.-supported anti-Castro rebels invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs and are either killed or captured; the Organi-zation of Petroleum Exporting Countries or OPEC is constituted; and a young Italian immigrant began work at a research facility that would soon become Benét Laboratories. Giuliano D’Andrea, who is the Foreign Science & Technology Science Advisor for Benét Laboratories, lived most of his youth in Italy. But when his father immigrated to Connecticut in 1952, Giuliano followed in 1956. His dad worked in a foundry, which was tough, backbreaking work, and he would sometimes bring Giuliano to the foundry and say, “This is what you will do if you don’t stay in school.” Giuliano didn’t need much encouragement after that and so there was little doubt that he would go to college. The question was, what should he study given that he spoke little English?He said he was always good with math and thought that mechan-ical engineering might be the best college route for him. After all, how much does one need to speak to do well in engineering classes, or so he thought. He breezed through his mechanical engineering studies at the University of Bridgeport, Conn., and after graduation began work at a U.S. Navy weapons lab in Dahlgren, Va., earning about $5,000 a year. But in 1961, Giuliano said he yearned to get back to the Northeast and was delighted when he learned about a job open-ing at a future Army research center that was standing up on the


From Watervliet to AntietamBy Mark Koziol

During the American Civil War, the Watervliet Arsenal was very busy manufacturing a variety of items such as saddles, ammo box-es, cannon carriages, and traveling forges. Stored at the Arsenal Museum is a ledger book written during the war recording in detail what items were made at the Arsenal. For ex-ample, the April 1861 record show eight pages of data of production numbers such as: 100 sponges for the 24-pound howitzers; 18 horse bridles, collars and halters; 650 canisters filled for 8-inch seacoast defense guns; and thousands of linen cartridge bags used to secure the ammo fired from the 12, 18, 24, 32, and 24-pound artillery pieces. In late summer of 1862, the Arsenal was in full production employing close to 2,000 people. On Aug. 18, 1862, Arsenal Com-mander Maj. William A. Thornton wrote to the Chief of Ordnance in Washington, D.C., Gen. J. W. Ripley, about the Arsenal activity. Included in the letter was this para-graph:

“Our men were strenuously en-

gaged yesterday and last evening and they are now, Sunday, hard at work in the filling of ammunition chests for 3” guns, in making of implements and equipment and in packing the supplies, etc.”

Which 3-inch gun was the com-mander referring to? Most likely it was the lightweight, yet power-ful Griffen 3-inch rifle gun. These wrought iron guns were sleek, strong and reinforced artillery tubes bought in large numbers by the federal government. They proved to be more accurate, mobile and superior to larger guns such as the 10-pound parrott rifle. The unique quality of the Griffen was that it was a rifled gun when most artillery units in the Civil War used smooth bore guns. Like the infantry’s Springfield ri-fles, Griffen’s rifling grooves meant it fired its projectile with accuracy, efficiency, and with deadly conse-quences. The 3-inch guns were used ex-tensively at the Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg) on Sept. 17, 1862. Antietam, the last major engage-ment of the Maryland Campaign, began on August 16th with the

Second Battle of Bull Run (Sec-ond Manassas), and was one of the bloodiest days ever in American military history. When the Confederate armies commanded by Gen. Robert E. Lee met the armies commanded by Union Gen. George B. Mc-Clellan, there were many different types of artillery pieces brought to bear, including the 3-inch rifle. It is estimated that the Union had 93 three-inch rifles firing against the 48 three-inch Confederate rifles. It is a logical assumption that much of the ammo made at the Watervliet Arsenal was on hand that day and used by the Union artillery batteries. The 3-inch rifle gun performed well at Antietam, firing accurately and often upon the advancing Confederate forces. The Union victory came at a heavy price with high casualties suffered on both sides. The follow-ing listing underscores the heavy toll:

Total casualties: 23,582Confederate Killed: 1,512; Wound-ed: 7,816; Captured, missing: 1,844Union Killed: 2,108; Wounded: 9,549; Captured, missing: 753

From left: The 3-inch rifle gun was one of the most widely used and reliable Union guns during the Civil War and a sepia-tone illustration of a Maryland artillery battery depicts the battle of Antietam.

Photos provided by the Library of Congress and CivilWar.net


When coloring problem areas is goodBy Mark Ripley

Visual Control of work and processes is a subject we have been talking about a lot lately at the Arsenal. It is a common technique used in Lean companies and the theory behind Visual Control is that if something is clearly visible or in plain sight – when it’s actually happening - then it will be seen and addressed quickly. Proper Visual Control should highlight that a problem exists, even to someone unfamiliar with the specifics of the process. Colors help – green = good, yellow = possibly going bad, red = bad. There are several categories of Visual Control:

Visual Controls that make a process more efficient with fewer defects -

• Tool storage that includes all needed tools and shows when a tool is missing.

• A posted “Key Points” sheet that lists the criti-cal steps in a process with helpful hints.

• Lines on the floor or wall showing the best place to put things.

• Reorder points for raw materials or parts.

Visual Controls that show the status of a process -• Hour-by-hour comparison of planned produc-

tion to actual production with issues encoun-tered and corrective actions (by machine or by line).

• Overview of the area with machine status, part number/operations expected to run with expected times of completion (with actual operations/times).

• Machine status lights – red, yellow, and green.

• Operator attendance and assignments.

• Routine maintenance or 6S checklists with sign-offs and Supervisor validation.

Visual Controls should be designed to make manage-ment of a process easier and the process itself easier for the operator. Most Visual Controls should be worker-managed. Employees performing the work should be engaged in the design and upkeep so they can work steadily unless something goes wrong. This is called “management by exception.” You don’t have to man-age the system when it is working; you just have to deal with the issues that come up that interfere with the process.

With the application of Visual Controls comes great responsibility. Managers must respond to abnormali-ties quickly and try to ensure they will not occur again. Managers must routinely visit their workplace to re-view the visual controls. Also, we all must be sensitive to the fact that a processes “dirty laundry” is out there for all to see. An abnormality indicated by a Visual Control is an opportunity to see and correct a problem you would otherwise never notice until its impact is felt.

We all have a responsibility to take action to pre-vent suicide. One of the most critical things we must do is to defeat the stigma associated with asking for help regarding suicide. The Army has established September as Suicide Prevention Month. On October 10th, the Arsenal will conduct a Suicide Stand-Down Day. The Stand-Down theme is “Shoulder to Shoulder, We Stand Up for Life.”

Agenda:Commander’s RemarksMWR Programs to Promote WellnessSubstance AbuseSafety/VPP - ResiliencyBreakEmployee Assistance ProgramApplied Suicide Intervention Skills TrainingSuicide Refresher Training (Dr. Hunter, VA Hospital)

Suicide Prevention Stand Down Day - October 10th8 a.m. to 12 p.m. -- Building 110 (Town Hall area)


Arsenal History TriviaSALVO: Oct. 1999

Elected officials meet on the future of the Arsenal

Elected officials representing the region and state met with AMC and Army leaders to discuss the future of the Watervliet Arsenal. The Army Materiel Command’s command-er, Gen. John Coburn, told the delegation that, “Closing the Arsenal is not an option.” A U.S. Senator said, “Today, I reiterated to Gen. Coburn my belief that the Arsenal should remain open and that maintaining a government workforce at the Watervliet is vital to the community.”

Practice makes perfect ... well, almost The Watervliet Arsenal’s Softball team, Howitzers, placed 2nd Sept. 15. in a North-east Region Softball Tournament that took place at the Picatinny Arsenal. Competi-tion was fierce as teams from New York City and Pennsylvania competed. Kyle Buono, the Arsenal Fitness Pro-gram Specialist, said the team practiced for four weeks leading up to the tournament. One practice a week focused on fielding, hitting, outfield, double plays, pitching and situational hitting. They played four back-to-back, round-robin games leading up to the single- elimination tournament. They made it to the championship game but lost in the finals and got 2nd place with a large trophy. Everybody on the team also received 2nd place plaques and two players on the team received all tournament team plaques (Kyle Buono and Matt Marsh).

The other teams that competed were:

Fort Hamilton Devil DogsBrooklyn MarinesPicatinny Arsenal Thunder (Champions)Picatinny Arsenal Lighting

Players in the picture from left to right: Jordan Selin, Kyle Buono, Matt Marsh, Josh Desnoy-ers, Zach Kirsch, Tom Pond Jr., Rob Cavanaugh, Chad Peters, Chris Ryan, and Alex Ratigan.

Photo provided by Kyle Buono


Life at the Arsenal sometimes flows into the community

The Watervliet Arsenal Fire Department provided mutual aid support to the City of Cohoes on Sept. 20 from 1:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. With the recent placement of the Arsenal’s ladder truck, the Arsenal team was able to help save 75 percent of the structure. The Arsenal’s ability to integrate and work closely with local mutual aid partners and other first responder organizations from the surrounding communities was successfully tested in this real-world, 5-alarm fire event.

Photo provided by Arsenal Emergency Services

Arsenal Town HallThe Honorable Mae D’Agostino, U.S. Dis-trict Court Judge for the Northern District of New York, was our guest speaker this month and she talked about the importance of the Role of Women in Federal Govern-ment. There were also updates on work-load, safety, strategic planning, and Public-Private Partnerships. Photo provided by Billy Martin


Arsenal Family Day Photos by John B. Snyder


Albany County’s Veterans’ Day ParadeMonday, 12 November

If you missed your opportunity to support our nation’s Veterans and the Arsenal during Memorial Day, you will have another chance to join us this Novem-ber. As you read this, the Arsenal parade committee is already working hard to prepare the Arsenal for the Albany County’s Veterans’ Day Parade down Central Avenue. In addition to two Arsenal floats, we will have several vehicles from Emer-gency Services, and about 10 vehicles from the Hudson-Mohawk Military Vehicle Collectors Club.

We need folks to march with us on Monday, 12 November. More info to follow!!!

IF YOU WISH TO SUPPORT...CALLJohn Snyder at 266-5055 or

Jim Grenier at 266-5605

Photos by John B. Snyder

Watervliet Arsenal's Newsletter: Salvo 30 September 2012

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