McALESTER, Okla. -- The McAlester Army Ammunition Plant recently showed off its non-munitions production capabilities in railroad expertise to the senior leader at its higher headquarters with a ride and tour.
MCAAP earns about 10 percent of its Army Working Capital Fund revenue each year from railroad maintenance and support.
After learning about McAlester Army Ammunition Plant's bomb- and warhead-loading production capabilities during her initial visit in July 2013, Brig. Gen. Kristin K. French, turned her attention to the plant's other capabilities, particularly rail work, during her visit, Oct. 6.
"Rail is becoming a hot issue -- a hot topic in the Army," said the commanding general of the Joint Munitions Command in her opening remarks. "I keep reminding folks that JMC is probably the biggest user of rail in all of AMC."
The Army owns 2,500 miles of rail, of which JMC has 895 miles or 36 percent, and 223 miles or 25 percent of that total is on MCAAP, said Steve Cox, director of Public Works and Engineering.
"It's like container repair," French said. "It's something we do to keep our business going."
This year MCAAP rail work will generate $18 million in revenue, including $7.5 million from a major project at Pine Bluff Arsenal, Ark. Cox said that bids at six other military installations could potentially yield another $21 million.
From 2005 to 2013, off-site rail work has generated $35 million in revenue and the expectation is that the plant could bring in the same amount between 2015 and 2019, Cox said.
On- and off-site railroad maintenance and support work is currently being done by a 26-person team, although the plant has authorizations for 48.
"If I was fully staffed, we would be able to have two mobile crews and one home crew," Cox said.
MCAAP has been performing on-site rail repair since it was commissioned in 1943 and off-site repair since 1994, Cox said.
During the past 20 years, the team has provided railroad maintenance and support to the Defense Department, including the Defense Logistics Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It has even performed work at Kunsan and Osan air bases in South Korea.
The plant's rail capabilities are grade and switch tie replacement, rail replacement, vertical and horizontal alignment, tamping, regulating, profile adjustments, undercutting, drainage repair, certified track inspection, scheduled preventive maintenance, and demolition.
As a result of its rail expertise, the plant is preparing the necessary documents to obtain the Center of Industrial and Technical Excellence for railroad construction and repair designation.
Not only did French learn about rail work, she also had the opportunity to take a short ride on a locomotive from the railroad roundhouse to a storage area, where she received briefings about the surveillance, ammunition and explosives inventory and the Mobile Ammunition Renovation, Inspection and Demilitarization program.
She also visited an X-ray facility where she saw an X-ray of an Air Force 2,000-pound BLU-109 C/B penetrator bomb that was produced during first article acceptance testing on the new Air Force bomb line that opened the last week of September.
"It's a good capability for us," said Brad Black, director of the Quality Assurance Directorate, talking about X-ray work. "It keeps us viable."
French's last stop was at the Land Management Office where she learned about MCAAP's Army Materiel Command award-winning natural conservation program from Bill Starry, LMO chief.
Following the presentation, she even received hands-on training with a new automated trap used on the plant to catch feral hogs. She was even shown a small, live feral hog that was caught just three days earlier.
Before leaving the LMO, French presented the 2014 AMC Individual Natural Resources Conservation Award to Starry, who's run the program here for 35 years.
"Thank you for all you're doing," French said as she handed the award to him. "If you didn't have this passion, you wouldn't be recognized. It's well deserved."
French co-hosted with Col. Joseph G. Dalessio, MCAAP commander, a visit by William F. Moore, deputy to the commander, Combined Arms Support Command, Fort Lee, Va. It was his second visit to MCAAP, but his first time to tour some of the bomb- and warhead-loading facilities here.
Moore received the plant's executive command brief and visited the 155mm demilitarization facility, the new Air Force bomb line, and the largest outload pad, where he learned about the ammunition surveillance program.
"It was a great opportunity to show Gen. French some of our capabilities that we don't always get to show senior leaders who visit us," Dalessio said. "We were also fortunate to showcase our unmatched workforce and some of our production and shipping capabilities for Mr. Moore the same afternoon."
"I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to McAlester," French concluded. "Every time I come here, I learn more about the great work employees of the plant are doing to support the Nation and the Warfighter. McAlester employees should be proud of the important support they are providing to the Department of Defense."
McAlester Army Ammunition Plant is the Department of Defense's premier bomb- and warhead-loading facility. It is one of 14 installations of the Joint Munitions Command and one of 23 organic industrial bases under the U.S. Army Materiel Command, which include arsenals, depots and ammunition plants. MCAAP is vital to ammunition stockpile management and delivery to the Joint Warfighter for training and combat operations.
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