An EG&G Defense Materials, Inc., maintenance worker at the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (TOCDF) has achieved a career milestone that nobody else in the U.S. chemical weapons destruction program is likely to achieve: 1,000 entries into the plant's toxic areas to perform work.

Such work is done while wearing a heavy, bulky protective suit, called the demilitarization protective ensemble (DPE), which shields workers from the lethal chemical agents they are employed to help destroy.

"It's just wanting to do it and volunteering to do it, telling them I'll go anytime they want me to go," said Dan Aldrich, EG&G mechanical technician, after he emerged from a TOCDF airlock at 4:45 a.m., Wednesday, March 22, following work to replace a pump. Aldrich was met and congratulated by a dozen co-workers, including representatives of EG&G management, who presented him with a plaque to commemorate his achievement and a $1,000 bonus check.

"It's an accomplishment that more than likely will never be matched in the demil program," remarked Tim Olinger, EG&G deputy general manager, Plant Operations. "Reaching this milestone shows Dan's dedication to the job, and his commitment. It's an accomplishment for him as well as for the project and program, helping us to be successful in carrying out our mission, destroying the (chemical weapons) stockpile."

Aldrich, 58, has been known for years as "Ironman Dan," because virtually since the start of TOCDF chemical weapons destruction operations in 1996, he has led plant employees in the number of these "DPE" entries. DPE and its accompanying equipment weigh 75 pounds and two workers are assigned as a team to work up to two hours to complete their tasks.

More than 100 TOCDF workers have recorded at least 100 individual DPE entries, but to highlight what kind of accomplishment it is for a worker to reach 1,000, the next nearest TOCDF worker on the list has 547.

"A lot of guys might have gotten 1,000 entries," Aldrich noted, "but the ones who had the most a few years ago have moved on. A lot of these guys that are coming up now are making as many entries as I am, but they just haven't been here as long."

EG&G General Manager Gary McCloskey, who has more than 20 years of experience managing U.S. chemical weapons disposal plants, called Aldrich's feat "awe-inspiring."

"It's a monumental accomplishment," McCloskey said. "DPE is not something that everybody enjoys, and Dan's a unique individual in that he actually made a goal to reach 1,000. We're glad to see he's made his personal goal."

Aldrich's new goal? "Just to keep on going until the end of the project."

EG&G Defense Materials, Inc. (DMI), is a business unit of EG&G Technical Services, Inc., a division of San Francisco-based URS Corporation.

EG&G DMI, operations and maintenance contractor at the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (TOCDF) in Utah, is a premier, high integrity provider of technical and support services committed to customers, employees, performance and growth. URS Corporation offers a comprehensive range of professional planning and design, systems engineering and technical assistance, program and construction management, and operations and maintenance services for transportation, commercial/ industrial, facilities, environmental, water/ wastewater, homeland security, installations and logistics, and defense systems.

Headquartered in San Francisco, the Company operates in more than 20 countries with approximately 29,000 employees providing engineering and technical services to federal, state and local governmental agencies as well as private clients in the chemical, pharmaceutical, oil and gas, power, manufacturing, mining and forest products industries.