CHEMICAL TESTING FACILITY OPENS AT PB ARSENAL

By Wilson Brown/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Friday,  July 8, 2005 

The Pine Bluff Arsenal unveiled its recently finished $18 million state-of-the-art chemical and biological weapons testing facility Thursday amid crowds of Army officials and two congressmen.

Funded through 2001's Defense Department appropriations, the more than 33,000-square-foot, two-story building will be home to laboratories designed to test gas masks, protective clothing, armor and filters normally used by soldiers to protect themselves from chemical weapons in the war on terrorism.

Arsenal scientists will test gas mask filters and large charcoal filters used in tanks and submarines to see how long the equipment can filter out toxins.

Part of the testing includes exposing gas mask filters to a simulant nerve gas, less harmful than regular nerve gas, to see how well the filters hold up.

"It will give us a significant increase in meeting the demands of the war fighter," said Col. Tom Woloszyn, the outgoing commander of the Arsenal.

Testing at the site should begin in the next 30 to 45 days, Woloszyn said.

The Quality Evaluation Facility will allow the military "to test equipment to the fullest," according to U.S. Rep. Mike Ross, D-Prescott, who along with Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Little Rock, tried several times to include funding for the facility in defense budgets.

"It's the people who work in facilities such as these that keep our men and women in uniform safer," he said.

Arsenal officials will be working alongside chemists from Battelle Memorial Institute, a Columbus, Ohio-based company that develops technology and runs laboratories.

Battelle announced its partnership with the Arsenal at the Economic Development Alliance of Jefferson County earlier Thursday.

The Arsenal has permission to lease out property to private sector companies such as Battelle through the 2000 Department of Defense Authorization Bill, said Larry Wright, civilian executive assistant for the Arsenal.

According to Wright, the contractors reside in the area and perform the same tasks as Arsenal chemists. With seven Battelle chemists at the new facility, the Arsenal and Battelle will maintain a half and half balance of employees at the testing facility.

Ross and Snyder helped to secure the authorization and funding for the facility almost five years ago, according to Snyder.

Arsenal officials originally conceived the idea of a testing facility in March 1987, Wright said.

Those ideas were given a push after the first Gulf War and attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Referring to the terror attacks in London on Thursday, Snyder said the new facility will have increasing importance in the struggle against terrorism.

The new facility, along with the weapons incineration on post, will also "help secure the future of the Pine Bluff Arsenal," as the government plans to close many military bases, Ross said.

Meanwhile, the new facility was dedicated to Annie M. Young, a "real-life Rosie the Riveter" who rescued Arsenal co-workers twice after their clothing caught on fire while making weapons during World War II. Young saved her co-workers by putting out the flames with her bare hands both times. Young, who died in 1980, was the first woman recipient of the Exceptional Civilian Service Award, the highest citation a War Department civilian can receive.