The process after a discovery of unexploded ordnance on Redstone Arsenal is only a small part of the installation's overall management of munitions and safety, said Pat Vittitow, the chief of safety for the Aviation and Missile Command.
Redstone's senior commander -- Lt. Gen. Patricia McQuistion -- is the executive director for explosives safety for the Army. The Aviation and Missile Command's Maj. Gen. Jim Richardson leads Redstone's Executive Explosive Safety Council, whose membership consists of 15 Arsenal organizations -- representing the Department of the Army, the Department of Justice, NASA and private industry -- that have ammunition operations on Redstone.
The council meets twice a year to review work being done by its Explosive Safety Working Group, which meets quarterly to discuss issues and develop policies in relation to the Arsenal's explosive ordnance operations. "We are making sure we are compliant with all the Army's explosive safety standards," Vittitow said. "We must be compliant with not just safety standards but also with logistics and surveillance requirements set by the Army to ensure we have a safe stockpile of ammunition at our storage facilities, operating buildings and test ranges."
Recently, the AMCOM Safety Office completed a 100 percent inventory and assessment of every facility on Redstone that conducts operations with ammunition and explosives. The assessment was completed with the assistance of the EOD from Fort Campbell and the Defense Ammunition Center from McAllister, Oklahoma.
"Lt. Gen. McQuistion has made it clear that all of the Army's installations are going to be at the same standard with their explosive safety regulations," Vittitow said. "Our assessment, which took about seven weeks to complete, established a baseline. During the assessment we looked at 651 facilities on Redstone from something as simple at the conventional ammunition stored and sold at the Exchange to the more complex explosives training at the Hazardous Devices School and the standard missile manufacturing at the Raytheon production plant. We looked at operations at facilities such as the Missile Defense Agency and even NASA. The work we do here spans the whole gamut of ammunition and explosives."
The 15 tenants involved in ammunition and explosives are all committed to ensuring the safety of employees in their facilities. "Here at Redstone we are a model for the rest of the Army, which is taking a collective look at how we are doing to ensure the safety of employees within our borders. It is a commitment that we are making to our employees and to the communities outside our gates," Vittitow said. "We will have the same level of safety across the board whether its industry or an Army agency or a joint agency or a Department of Justice agency."
Social Sharing