Ravenna Arsenal News for CY 1954 - Rvaap.org
Ravenna Arsenal News for CY 1954 - Rvaap.org
Ravenna Arsenal News for CY 1954 - Rvaap.org
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Page 4<br />
3rd Anniversary Pictorial Review<br />
SANTA CLAUS was one of the main attractions at the second<br />
annual RAI Children's Christmas Party in Bolton Barn December<br />
20. An over-flowing crowd of 4,600 children and parents attended<br />
the four per<strong>for</strong>mances and over 2,300 children received gifts from<br />
Santa's volunteer workers.<br />
FIRE PREVENTION both in the plant and in employees'<br />
homes was stressed by members of the <strong>Arsenal</strong> Fire Department<br />
dw:ing Fire Prevention Week in October. Firemen put on firefighting<br />
demonstrations and gave in<strong>for</strong>mal safety talks to groups<br />
of employees. Firefighters William G. Davis and Harry J. Peters<br />
(above), demonstrate the department's deluge gun.<br />
SUGGESTION AWARDS presented to employees during the<br />
past year totaled $3,620 <strong>for</strong> 211 winning ideas. The Suggestion<br />
Department received 970 suggestions and the Board adopted 1 out<br />
of 5 "ideas" <strong>for</strong> an average of $17.11 per suggestion. Thirteentime<br />
suggestion award winner J. D. Wilhelm, an A. P. Line maintenance<br />
man, is shown "on the job" adjusting a primer head<br />
assembly machine. One of his ideas pertained to this machine.<br />
RAVENNA ARSENAL NEWS April 1, <strong>1954</strong><br />
ANTI-TANK MINE loading was started Septem ber 3 on Load Line Four, which was the first major<br />
<strong>Arsenal</strong> load line to be mechanized by a conveyor system. It was also the first time since early 1945<br />
that high-explosive ammunition began rolling off the <strong>for</strong>mer World War II bomb-loading line. Employees<br />
from Load Line Three, where anti-tank mine loading had been in production two months prior,<br />
were transferred to Line Four. The Engineering Division then began re-tooling and mechanizing Line<br />
Three <strong>for</strong> loading 155mm shells.<br />
HIGH· RANKING MILITARY visitors to <strong>Ravenna</strong> <strong>Arsenal</strong> included Maj. Gen. E. L. Ford, U. S.<br />
Army Chief of Ordnance on June 5. Discussing shell packaging operations on Line One are Col. C. K.<br />
Allen, <strong>for</strong>mer <strong>Arsenal</strong> CO; Paul Borda, <strong>for</strong>mer Gencral Manager; General Ford; M. K. Skipper, Line<br />
Superintendent; Capt. M. B. Coker, Aide to General Ford; and Lt. Col. T. H. Bradley, <strong>Arsenal</strong> CO.<br />
Other visitors during the past year were Lt. Gen. W. B. Palmer, Assistant Chief of Staff, G-4, Logistics;<br />
and Brig. Gen. W. E. Laidlaw, OAC Commander.<br />
OUTSTANDING SAFETY RECORDS were established by employees on Load Lines Three and<br />
Four, the A. P. and P. E. Lines, in the Depot and Engineering Division. They received the J. E.<br />
Trainer Safety Certificate of Appreciation <strong>for</strong> working a record number of man-hours without a losttime<br />
accident. Paul Borda, extreme right, presents the awards to Engineering and Line Three.<br />
April 1, <strong>1954</strong><br />
3rd Anniversary Pictorial Review<br />
EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION in the Summer Recreation<br />
Program reached an all-time high dw:ing the past year. Four<br />
Golf Leagues, composed of 2B two-man teams battled over two<br />
nearby golf courses and two Softball Leagues, with 11 teams in<br />
action, used the <strong>Arsenal</strong>'s diamond facilities.<br />
CIIINESE AND KOREAN writing was found on several used<br />
90mm ·cartridge cases returned from overseas to the A. N. Line<br />
<strong>for</strong> renovation. Robert R. Nance and Alva M. Davis (above),<br />
examine a cartridge case used by the Chinese Reds as a warning<br />
bell. The shell was painted "Chinese Red" and inscribed "Emergency<br />
Bell." Thousands of spent 90mm shells were renovated and<br />
reloaded during the past year <strong>for</strong> reuse by our Armed Forces.<br />
RAVENNA ARSENAL participated in Ohio's 150th Birthday<br />
Anniversary by entering a float depicting ammunition production<br />
"Yesterday and Today" in several Sesqui-centennial parades in<br />
sw:rounding communities. The float was constructed by employees<br />
RAVENNA ARSENAL NEWS Page 5<br />
STATISTICAL QUALITY CONTROL charts were posted and used in RAI production buildings <strong>for</strong><br />
explaining to all employees the purpose and necessity of maintaining a high quality of <strong>Ravenna</strong><br />
<strong>Arsenal</strong> loaded ammunition. Each time a job is done-drilling a shell, stenciling a mine, weighing<br />
a powder charge, or banding an ammunition box- <strong>Arsenal</strong> employees leave a personal mark on the<br />
product. Thus, the mark should be of the highest quality, which means better sheIls at lower prices<br />
and less income taxes <strong>for</strong> all Americans.<br />
TEN GALLON CLUB PINS were presented to <strong>Arsenal</strong> employees<br />
in recognition of their outstanding donation of eight or<br />
more pints of blood to the National Blood Program. Dr. Thomas<br />
F. Geoghegan (left), Director of the Cleveland Regional Blood<br />
Center, presented gold-plated Red Cross donor pins to five Gallon<br />
Club members-Martha Crosby, Eugene Crum, Leroy Nicholson,<br />
Capt. S. C. Casbourne and Jack R. Russ.<br />
at the Ge<strong>org</strong>e Road Carpenter Shop, with Paint Shop employees<br />
doing the finishing touches. Production employees from various<br />
departments volunteered to ride the float.<br />
TELEPHONE, teletype and radio<br />
communication was still the vital<br />
link in coordinating <strong>Arsenal</strong> production<br />
operations. Pulse center of<br />
the communication activities is the<br />
Signal Building which handles more<br />
than 18,000 telephone calls a day<br />
on a BOO-line automatic, dial exchange.
Page 4<br />
Pictorial <strong>News</strong> • • •<br />
Deai-h of a Fighter<br />
THE BATTLE <strong>for</strong> survival proved "too much" <strong>for</strong> the fighter<br />
above. Roads and Grounds crewmen recently found the deceased<br />
buck on North Patrol Road. He had become entangled in a mass<br />
of wire, and death was apparently caused from exhaustion. The<br />
Rand G crewmen staged a proper wake and laid the defeated<br />
fighter to rest on his <strong>Arsenal</strong> homeland.<br />
RAVENNA ARSENAL NEWS September 24, <strong>1954</strong><br />
53RD ANTI· AIRCRAFT ARTILLERY BRIGADE arrived at <strong>Ravenna</strong> <strong>Arsenal</strong> on September 10.<br />
The Brigate Headquarters here is a small administrative unit totaling about 80 officers and men. No<br />
guns, radar, etc., are part of the Headquarters Battery since it is simply and administrative·logistical<br />
unit.<br />
HARVEY S. FIRESTONE, JR.,<br />
Chairman, The Firestone Tire &<br />
Rubber Company (left), and Leonard<br />
K. Firestone, President of<br />
the Firestone Company of Cali<strong>for</strong>·<br />
nia, are pictured left as they in·<br />
spected one of the Corporal guid·<br />
ed missiles manufactured by the<br />
Company in Los Angeles.<br />
The Firestone brothers are<br />
standing on the base of the launch·<br />
ing device. In addition to manu·<br />
factUl'ing the Corporal guided missile,<br />
Firestmle also assembles the<br />
launching equipment required <strong>for</strong><br />
these missiles.<br />
The Corporal is a surface-to·<br />
surface weapon capable of carrying<br />
either atomic or high-explosive<br />
warheads at speeds several times<br />
that of sound. It is propelled by<br />
a powerful rocket motor. An Army<br />
guided missile battalion will soon<br />
be sent to Europe to join other<br />
guided missile squadrons and atomic<br />
cannon battalions.<br />
A GROUP of the 188 RAI and Ordnance supervisors who attended<br />
Safety meetings September 13 and 14, watches with interest<br />
as A. R. Hocking, OAC Training Officer, illustrates his<br />
discussion with the use of flannel-board technique.<br />
Therels a Wrong Way and a Right Way<br />
DALE GILLISPIE, <strong>for</strong>k lift operator from Newton Falls, demonstrates the<br />
wrong way to operate a high lift. He sits with one leg over the side of the lift, does<br />
not have a firm grip on the wheel, and shows inattention by looking in a different<br />
direction than he is traveling. The lift pallet, which is fully loaded with 120mm<br />
shells, not only is several feet off the ground but is tilted at a very dangerous angle.<br />
THE CORRECT WAY to operate a fodk lift is shown above by Dale. Pallet<br />
is not slanted and rides at the correct four inches above the ground. Dale drives<br />
with hands and feet in safe and correct positions, and eyes "glued" in the direction<br />
of the truck he prepares to load. Notice the difference between pictures-the one<br />
at the left literally spells ACCIDENT, while the other portrays a SAFE operation.
October 21, <strong>1954</strong> RAVENNA ARSENAL NEWS Page 3<br />
Nike Directive Battery at <strong>Arsenal</strong><br />
Army Adds Corporal Missile to Weapons List<br />
IN FLIGHT at White Sands Proving Ground, N. M., is the<br />
Corporal, the U. S. Army's Surface-to-Surface Guided Missile.<br />
The missile is produced by the Firestone Company <strong>for</strong> the Army.<br />
The Corporal follows a ballistic trajectory in its flight to the<br />
target and weather and visibility conditions place no restriction on<br />
the use of the weapon. Motive power is supplied by a powerful<br />
rocket motor. Essential components of the weapon's system include<br />
the missile, a mobile launcher and guidance equipment. A<br />
self propelled, hydraulically operated erector places the missile<br />
in firing position on the take-off pedestal. Equipped with either<br />
an atomic or conventional war head, the Corporal is capable of<br />
engaging tactical targets far beyond the ranges of artillery or the<br />
new 280mm gun and "Honest John" rocket.<br />
A REMOTELY controlled U. S. Army Ordnance launcher<br />
poises a partially erected Nike missile against the New Mexico<br />
sky. When the launcher has reached an 85-degree angle the missile<br />
will be in position to fire.<br />
The Department of the<br />
Army recently announced<br />
the addition of the Corporal<br />
Guided Missile to the fastgrowing<br />
list of new weapons<br />
to be used in support of<br />
ground combat operations.<br />
The Corporal is produced by<br />
the Firestone Company and<br />
delivery is being made to<br />
troops.<br />
Coincidently, about the same<br />
time the announcement was made,<br />
the 53rd Anti - Aircraft Brigade,<br />
headquarters <strong>for</strong> direction of Nike<br />
Guided Missile batteries in the<br />
Lake Erie district, arrived at <strong>Ravenna</strong><br />
<strong>Arsenal</strong>.<br />
Prime difference between the<br />
Corporal and the Nike is that the<br />
Corporal is a surface-to-surface<br />
missile <strong>for</strong> ground use, field artillery,<br />
whereas the Nike is strictly<br />
<strong>for</strong> air targets, a surface-to-air missile.<br />
WEATHER and visibility conditions<br />
place no restriction on the use<br />
of the weapons. Motive power is<br />
supplied by a powerful rocket motor;<br />
both missiles travel through<br />
space at several times the speed<br />
of sound.<br />
A longer range is af<strong>for</strong>ded the<br />
Corporal since it does not have to<br />
fight the pull of gravity as does the<br />
Nike. Both missiles follow a balistic<br />
trajectory in flight to the target.<br />
The Corporal gives the field commander<br />
far greater fire power on<br />
the battlefield and enables him to<br />
strike selected targets deep in the<br />
enemy rear areas.<br />
Within its range, a Nike missile<br />
can overtake and destroy any air<br />
target. Nike launchers actually<br />
are fired when the targets pass<br />
an invisible radar line many miles<br />
away.<br />
THE NIKE rocket is launched<br />
with a jato booster motor which<br />
disengages at a certain altitude.<br />
The sustaining rocket motor then<br />
takes over and speeds it to its target.<br />
The Corporal launcher is a comparatively<br />
simple device consisting<br />
of a light metal take-off pedestal.<br />
A self-propelled, hydraulically<br />
operated erector places the missile<br />
in firing position on the take-off<br />
pedestal.<br />
Nike was engineered in 1945 by<br />
the Bill Telephone laboratories at<br />
* * *<br />
the request of the Army Ordnance<br />
Corps, which provided the needed<br />
characteristics <strong>for</strong> future anti-aircraft<br />
fire.<br />
AS EARLY AS 1944, the Cali<strong>for</strong>nia<br />
Institute of Technology, under<br />
an Army Ordnance contract, began<br />
experiments in the application of<br />
rocket propulsion to artillery range<br />
missiles. These predecessors of the<br />
Corporal were named the Private,<br />
Private First Class, and the WAC<br />
Corporal.<br />
Much of the field test work on<br />
both the Corporal and the Nike<br />
was conducted at the Army's White<br />
Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico.<br />
* * *<br />
General Heath -- Nike Director<br />
A professional soldier, Brig. Gen.<br />
Louis T. Heath, director of Nike<br />
batteries in the Lake Erie Defense<br />
Area, has served with about every<br />
branch of the Army there is.<br />
General Heath saw active service<br />
in World War II and the Korean<br />
conflict. He was at the Inchon<br />
landing in South Korea and the<br />
Iwon landing in North Korea. He<br />
went to the Yalu and was in the<br />
long retreat and ultimate evacuation<br />
of Hungnam.<br />
Since his return to the United<br />
States in 1953, General Heath was<br />
at Swarthmore, Pa., which until<br />
September 8 was the headquarters<br />
of the 53rd AAA Brigade.<br />
A graduate of West Point and<br />
Massachusetts Institute of Technology,<br />
General Heath was awarded<br />
the Croix de Guerre with Palm by<br />
the French government <strong>for</strong> his<br />
services during World War II.<br />
Also included in his decorations<br />
BRIG. GEN. L. T. HEATH<br />
are the Silver Star, Legion of Merit<br />
with two oak leaf clusters, the<br />
Bronze Star with one cluster, and<br />
the Air Medal.<br />
THE NIKE is the nation's first combat ready Surface-to-Air Guided Missile system to be put in use<br />
in the Air Defense system of the United States. Na med <strong>for</strong> the Winged Goddess of Victory in Greek<br />
mythology Nike can locate and destroy enemy aircraft by means of an electronic "brain" regardless<br />
of evasive' action. Above, the rocket is in a horizontal position on the loading rails.<br />
A BOOSTER charge has started the Nike on its<br />
supersonic quest <strong>for</strong> a flying target. The lower portion<br />
is expended after an initial thrust, and the<br />
missile proper continues toward its target, guided<br />
by an electronic "brain."<br />
THE CORPORAL is pictured above on a<br />
launching device at The Firestone Tire & Rubber<br />
Company, Los Angeles, Cal., where it is assembled.<br />
In addition to manufacturing the Corporal, Firestone<br />
also assembles the launching equipment.