Chris Whorton (far right), supervisor of the 155 mm demilitarization facility at McAlester Army Ammunition Plant, Okla., talks to key officials from McAlester about how obsolete and unserviceable artillery rounds are demilitarized and the casings are...
Chris Whorton (right), supervisor of the 155 mm demilitarization facility at McAlester Army Ammunition Plant, Okla., shows the visitors the tube to which the mini-grenades are transferred from the 155 mm artillery round before they are taken to the r...
Col. Sean M. Herron, commander, McAlester Army Ammunition, talks to the visitors about the use of colored hats throughout the Industrial Operations Division used to designate each employee's position and level of experience. Chris Whorton's red hat d...
Col. Sean M. Herron, commander, McAlester Army Ammunition, talks to McAlester City Manager Pete Stasiak, Mayor John Browne and Chris Whybrew, chief development officer, McAlester Regional Health Center, about the process of pushing the grenades out o...
McALESTER ARMY AMMUNITION PLANT, Okla. -- McAlester Army Ammunition Plant, a major employer in southeast Oklahoma, hosted several key officials from the community for a tour and information exchange, June 9.
Newly elected McAlester mayor, John Browne, City Manager Pete Stasiak and Chris Whybrew, chief development officer for McAlester Regional Health Center, spent several hours gaining first-hand insight about the plant's mission and talking about partnering opportunities.
Col. Sean M. Herron, commander of McAlester Army Ammunition Plant, or MCAAP, began the visit with the command briefing, explaining the Army's major commands, and how the plant fits into the structure through the Army Materiel Command and Joint Munitions Command.
He also talked about the plant's core competencies of storage, distribution, demilitarization and production of munitions, and its participation in public-private partnerships, current workload and future prospects.
"We say we're always open to looking at new opportunities, but we have to ensure we have the flexibility and capacity for whatever the future holds," Herron said.
Through the overview, Herron repeatedly referred to MCAAP's strategic plan, which he said is an important document that provides a governing structure for its business operations.
"We're not waiting to be fed appropriated funds," Herron said. "We're a $200 million business. We charge a fair price for our products and services, and revenue drives our operations. We are thriving and I want to sustain that."
The visitors were also given a brief tour of the 155 mm artillery round demilitarization and general purpose bomb production facilities, and an outload pad on the installation.
While driving by the fire department, Herron mentioned the importance of the mutual aid agreement between the plant and the city.
"When our ladder truck was down for four months, you were our entire support for the city and we appreciate that," Stasiak said about the support.
At the conclusion of the tour, Herron and Chief of Staff Brian Lott met separately with Whybrew to discuss partnering opportunities with MRHC.
Lott said that while the plant has an industrial medical clinic, employees are occasionally referred to MRHC for services that cannot be provided on post. He asked if the hospital would participate in the plant's annual mass casualty and disaster preparedness exercise.
Whybrew acknowledged the exercise would be useful for hospital staff, particularly if MCAAP officials provided relevant incident response training. He said an active shooter scenario is a concern and asked if MCAAP officials could provide some insight on security measures.
He also asked if the MCAAP certified Lean Six Sigma master black belt could work with the hospital's black belt to provide some reciprocal training.
"We can start with incident response team training to break the ice and start the partnership, and then expand it," Herron said. "This is going to be good for both of us."
"McAlester Regional Health Center is very excited about the potential collaborative opportunities with MCAAP, including the possibility of providing services more accessible to MCAAP employees than having to drive across town, as well as other collaborative opportunities such as disaster preparedness and performance improvement training, and most importantly, emergency services planning with MRHC's new Emergency Center," added Whybrew.
Browne and Stasiak's visit was part of the regular quarterly breakfast meetings with city officials that started on May 7, 2014. It was Browne's first official visit since being sworn in as mayor on April 12.
It was also the first for Whybrew, who began work at MRHC on March 31, 2014.
MCAAP is one of 14 installations of the Joint Munitions Command and one of 23 organic industrial base facilities under the U.S. Army Materiel Command.
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