Brig. Gen. Kevin O'Connell Visits Tooele Army Depot

By Ms. Linda K Loebach (AMC)July 5, 2012

Brig. Gen. Kevin O'Connell Visits Tooele Army Depot
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Brig. Gen. Kevin O'Connell Visits Tooele Army Depot
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Brig. Gen. Kevin O'Connell Visits Tooele Army Depot
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Brig. Gen. Kevin O'Connell Visits Tooele Army Depot
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TOOELE ARMY DEPOT, Utah--The new commanding general of Joint Munitions Command, Brig. Gen. Kevin O'Connell, recently paid his first visit to Tooele Army Depot, which is one of Joint Munitions Command's nationwide network of facilities where conventional ammunition is produced and stored.

First, TEAD's team gave O'Connell an overview of the facility.

"Real good rundown," said O'Connell. "I like your focus."

Then, the team took O'Connell on a whirlwind tour of the 24,000 acre facility.

Workers demonstrated ammunition peculiar equipment, which is equipment specially designed to work in an ammunition environment and is all safety-inspected and certified.

O'Connell viewed a pilot model shop and a new, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility. He was able to view a super pull-apart machine, also referred to as SPAM, which demilitarizes unusable ammunition.

O'Connell took an opportunity to operate TEAD's super stacker where he moved railroad car containers, empty for his practice, from one stack to another for storage.

A tour of nearby Deseret Chemical Depot was on the docket, too.

DCD's mission of demilitarizing chemical ammunition was completed in Spring 2012. In Summer 2013, TEAD will take over operations. TEAD intends to use the storage capabilities of DCD's 208 storage igloos and 34 above ground magazines on its 19,000 acres of land.

In fact, 10 igloos have already been cleared of any chemical residue and are being readied for use by TEAD for storage of rocket motors from the Missile Defense Agency. TEAD will generate revenue from this project by safely storing and monitoring the motors for MDA. And, TEAD's business development specialists are working to procure additional projects for DCD, which will be renamed Tooele Army Depot South.

Upon returning to TEAD, O'Connell expressed his appreciation for an informative look at Tooele Army Depot's capabilities.

TEAD's mission is to support Warfighter readiness through superior receipt, storage, issue, demil and renovation of conventional ammunition and the design, manufacture, fielding and maintenance of ammunition peculiar equipment.