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Mustard neutralization begins at ABCDF

Spring 2003

Edgewood 

Chemical Stockpile 

Outreach Offi ce

1011 B Woodbridge 

Center Way

Edgewood, MD 21040

(410) 676-6800

Outreach Offi ce Hours

Monday–Friday

8:30 a.m.–5 p.m.

Other hours by appointment

U.S. Army 

Aberdeen 

Chemical Agent 

Disposal Facility 

Public Affairs Offi ce

(410) 436-5253

Bechtel Aberdeen 

Public Outreach Offi ce

(410) 436-9507

Reach Highlighting

the U.S. Army’s

Chemical 

Demilitarization 

Program

U.S. Army

Chemical Materials Agency 

(Provisional)

Edgewood

The process of destroying the bulk mustard agent 

stockpile at Aberdeen Proving Ground began 

April 23, 2003, under the accelerated program 

implemented by the Army following the Sept. 11, 

2001, terrorist attacks.

“We are safely accelerating the destruction of 

the mustard agent stockpile by more than two 

years,” said Kevin J. Flamm, Project Manager for 

Alternative Technologies and Approaches. 

Destruction was scheduled for completion by the 

year 2006, but security concerns after the terrorist 

attacks led to “Speedy Neut,” which reordered the 

original neutralization process. Now the Aberdeen 

Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (ABCDF) is 

removing the greater risk by destroying the mustard 

agent fi rst. After the agent has been destroyed, the 

empty steel containers will be decontaminated, 

then recycled off-site. 

“This plan was made possible because of the 

dedicated team already in place working on the 

original destruction facility,” said Joseph Lovrich, 

ABCDF site manager. “The team reworked the 

existing plans to fi nd a solution that would dispose 

of the agent sooner, without compromising safety 

or security.”

The diverse team includes government personnel, 

such as the Army Corps of Engineers, and 

contractors. Bechtel Aberdeen, the contractor 

responsible for the project, heads a team of more 

than 400 people to destroy the mustard agent, a 

syrupy blister compound with the consistency of 

molasses. It has been safely stored and monitored 

for more than 60 years at the Chemical Agent 

Storage Yard, under the supervision of the 

Edgewood Chemical Activity (ECA). 

“Every team member has received extensive 

training and is ready to execute this critical 

mission in an extremely safe and highly competent 

manner,” said Lt. Col. Gerald L. Gladney, ECA 

commander. “Each individual has a personal 

responsibility for considering safety fi rst and 

safeguarding the workers, our community and the 

environment always.”

The U.S. Army Technical Escort Unit, with 

60 years of experience in the movement of 

hazardous chemicals, moves the steel containers of 

mustard to the neutralization facility. 

The Army worked closely with representatives 

from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 

and Maryland Department of the Environment, 

who approved the facility’s plans and procedures. 

Employees will work around the clock for six 

months to destroy the agent. Following a gradual 

ramp-up, facility workers are expected to drain and 

neutralize an average of 12 containers per day. 

Bechtel Aberdeen Project Manager Lee Smith said 

the plant has been operating on a 24-hour-a-day, 7-

day-a-week schedule of test, training and evaluation 

since early December, with workers compiling 

thousands of hours of hands-on experience.

“We take worker safety seriously,” he said. 

“Everyone who works here is not only profi cient 

at their job, but also in maintaining the highest 

standards of personal and plant safety. Our 

goal is to perform our mission while protecting 

our workforce, our community and the fragile 

environment of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.”

For details on the process, call the Edgewood 

Chemical Stockpile Outreach Offi ce, 

410-676-6800, or go to www.cma.army.mil, 

for information and fact sheets.

www.cma.army.mil

Photo courtesy of U.S. Army

John Ford of Abingdon, a ton container specialist, 

demonstrates how the containers that store mustard agent 

will be drained at the Aberdeen Chemical Agent Disposal 

Facility, located at the Edgewood Area of Aberdeen Proving 

Ground, Md., as assistant ton container operator 

Wayne Stratemeyer of Essex looks on.
2

Gladney assumes command of ECA

Takes responsibility for Edgewood’s mustard agent stockpile

Continued on page 4

New

Faces

“This is the fi rst 

[change of 

command] where 

truly we can start 

to see the end of 

what we started 

many many years 

ago. The legacy 

of the Edgewood 

Chemical Activity 

is going to come 

to an end.”

—Maj. Gen. John 

C. Doesburg, 

commander of 

Aberdeen Proving 

Ground and the 

U.S. Army Soldier 

and Biological 

Chemical Command

Maj. William P. Huber passed the Edgewood 

Chemical Activity (ECA) colors to Lt. Col. Gerald L. 

Gladney on Jan. 8, during what may have been the 

organization’s last change of command. The chemical 

agent stockpile for which ECA is responsible is slated 

for destruction this year, concluding more than 60 

years of service as a deterrent against aggression.

Maj. Karl Gerhart narrated the ceremony at the 

Edgewood Area Conference Center, welcoming 

family members, friends, and civilian and military 

personnel, including Maj. Gen. John C. Doesburg, 

commander of Aberdeen Proving Ground and 

the U.S. Army Soldier and Biological Chemical 

Command (SBCCOM). Command Sgt. Maj. 

Billy Lewis, U.S. Army Technical Escort Unit, and 

Mary Jo Civis, civilian executive assistant to ECA’s 

commander, represented the signifi cant role of the 

enlisted soldiers and the civilian work force in ECA 

and SBCCOM missions.

“This is the fi rst [change of command] where 

truly we can start to see the end of what we started 

many many years ago,” Doesburg said. “The legacy 

of the Edgewood Chemical Activity is going to 

come to an end. I think each and every one of you 

understands the symbolism and importance of this 

particular change of command and what it’s going to 

mean, not just to the Army and to the Soldier and 

Biological Chemical Command, but what it’s going 

to mean to the community.”

Doesburg presented Huber with the Meritorious 

Service Medal, citing his “vision and desire for 

excellence,” and thanked Huber for his “command 

presence, but more importantly, service to this great 

nation and this community of ours.”

Huber thanked the command, ECA staff, his family, 

members of the community and representatives from 

federal, state and local organizations.

“Aberdeen Proving Ground is blessed to have great 

leadership on the Citizens’ Advisory Commission 

and the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness 

Program,” Huber said. “You all truly are the best 

a commander could ask for in support of off-post 

emergency operations, and we could never have 

accomplished so much in the past 18 months 

without your dedicated support.”

His next assignment takes him to Kuwait City, 

Kuwait, where he will serve as a senior chemical 

advisor to the Kuwait National Defense Force.

Doesburg welcomed Gladney, as “the right person 

for the right job at the right time, who has the 

leadership, the skill and the ability to do great 

things for our nation, for our Army and for this 

community.”

Gladney’s wife, Deidre, and the couple’s son, 

Brentley, 12, watched as he addressed the audience 

for the fi rst time as ECA commander.

“I am deeply humbled by the fact that I have been 

given this ‘once in a military career’ opportunity to 

command this organization and continue its legacy 

already fi rmly established by so many great former 

commanders,” Gladney said. “I will try my very best 

to continue to maintain the lofty standards set by all 

of my predecessors and carry the legacy forward.”

A native of South Carolina, his most recent 

assignment was as deputy corps chemical offi cer, 

III (Armored) Corps, Fort Hood, Texas. Gladney’s 

military education includes the Chemical Offi cer 

Basic and Advanced Courses, the Airborne 

Qualifi cation Course, the combined Arms Services 

Staff School, the U.S. Army Inspector General 

Course, the Army Command and General Staff 

College, and the Joint and Combined Staff Offi cer’s 

Photo by Conrad Johnson

Maj. Gen. John C. Doesburg, right, passes the Edgewood 

Chemical Activity colors to incoming commander Lt. Col. 

Gerald L. Gladney during the Jan. 8 change of command 

ceremony at the Aberdeen Proving Ground Edgewood Area 

Conference Center.
3

Public Outreach and Information Offi ce 

Chief Marilyn Daughdrill proudly displays the 

Department of the Army’s fi rst-place award in 

the On-going Programs Category of its 2002 

Community Relations Awards Competition. The 

award was presented Feb. 6, 2003, in recognition 

of the U.S. Army Program Manager for Chemical 

Demilitarization’s public outreach program for 

“Project Speedy Neut,” the accelerated destruction 

of the mustard agent stockpile currently stored 

at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. PMCD is 

now part of the Chemical Materials Agency 

(Provisional).

Photo by Nancy Hofmann

“Project Speedy Neut” wins award

“With a Congressional mandate, the Army embarked 

on this mission in 1985, further supported by the 

U.S. signing the Chemical Weapons Treaty in 1997. 

As the Army moved further into the destruction 

phase, it became clear that this realignment would 

best position us to fulfi ll our mission.”

Parker noted that the partnership with communities 

surrounding the stockpiles will continue to be “a 

cornerstone of this program.”

“I have learned that establishing and promoting a 

cooperative working relationship between a broad 

spectrum of stakeholders can and will yield positive 

results,” Parker added.

He emphasized that safety remains the Army’s 

number one priority in destroying the weapons 

held at eight stockpile sites and found at numerous 

non-stockpile locations. The cornerstone of the 

destruction program has been and remains the safety 

of the public, the workers, and the environment.

In 2002, the Army accomplished much in its 

chemical weapons destruction effort, including the 

acceleration of the neutralization program for APG’s 

mustard agent stockpile. The stockpile of nerve agent 

GB was destroyed at Tooele, Utah, a destruction 

facility was constructed at Pine Bluff, Ark., and 

testing efforts at a facility in Anniston, Ala., were 

completed. Destruction technologies were selected 

at Pueblo, Colo., and Richmond, Ky., and the 

program at Newport, Ind., was accelerated, using a 

technology similar to APG’s.

So far, the Army has destroyed 8,082 tons of 

chemical agent, more than 25 percent of the original 

U.S. stockpile.

New organization combines chemical functions

“The CMA brings 

all the parties 

under one roof 

necessary to carry 

out the mission of 

the safe storage 

and elimination 

of obsolete and 

aging chemical 

weapons in the 

United States.”

—Michael Parker, 

Acting Director for 

Chemical Materials 

Agency (Provisional)

The U.S. Army has 

created a provisional 

agency designed to 

enhance the safe storage 

and elimination of 

the nation’s aging 

chemical weapons. The 

new organization, the 

Chemical Materials 

Agency (CMA - 

Provisional), combines 

the demilitarization and 

storage functions under a single director. 

Formerly, these functions were operated separately 

under the Program Manager for Chemical 

Demilitarization (PMCD) and the U.S. Army 

Soldier and Biological Chemical Command 

(SBCCOM), both headquartered at Aberdeen 

Proving Ground (APG), Md.

CMA, also headquartered at APG, is part of the 

program reorganization directed by then-Secretary 

of the Army Thomas E. White, who requested that 

Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, 

Logistics and Technology Claude M. Bolton, Jr. 

assume overall responsibility for chemical 

demilitarization for the Army.

The acting director of CMA is Michael Parker, who 

currently serves as SBCCOM’s deputy commander. 

The agency is expected to become an offi cial Army 

entity by Oct. 1, 2003.

“The CMA brings all the parties under one roof 

necessary to carry out the mission of the safe storage 

and elimination of obsolete and aging chemical 

weapons in the United States,” said Parker. 

Michael Parker, Acting 

Director, Chemical Materials 

Agency (Provisional)

Photo by Conrad Johnson
Edgewood Chemical Stockpile Outreach Offi ce

c/o U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency (Provisional)

Public Outreach and Information Offi ce

E4585 Parrish Road

Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD 21010

Reach

Continued from page 2

Gladney assumes historic last command

Photo by Nancy Hofmann

Edgewood Chemical Activity commander Lt. Col. Gerald L. 

Gladney and Edgewood resident Bangtam Rose exchange 

thoughts on accelerated disposal of Aberdeen Proving 

Ground’s mustard agent stockpile, following the Jan. 21 public 

meeting at Harford County’s Edgewood Senior Center. 

Course. Gladney holds a master’s in administration 

from Central Michigan University and a bachelor’s 

degree in biology with a minor in chemistry from 

South Carolina State University.

In previous assignments at Fort McClellan, Ala., 

Gladney served as chief, Resident Training Branch; 

aide-de-camp for the U.S. Army Chemical School’s 

commandant/deputy commanding general; 

S-3 operations offi cer, 84th Chemical Battalion; 

commander, Company C, 84th Chemical Battalion, 

and deputy inspector general, U.S. Army Chemical 

and Military Police Centers and Fort McClellan.

In Germany, he served as a regimental chemical 

offi cer, 11th Attack Aviation Regiment; and as an 

S-3 operations offi cer for the 7-159th Aviation 

Intermediate Maintenance Battalion. He later 

served as chief, Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical 

Operations, J38 Readiness Division, North 

American Aerospace Defense Command, Peterson 

Air Force Base, Colo.

“I am deeply 

humbled by 

the fact that I 

have been given 

this ‘once in a 

military career’ 

opportunity to 

command this 

organization 

and continue its 

legacy already 

fi rmly established 

by so many 

great former 

commanders.”

—Lt. Col. Gerald L. 

Gladney, Edgewood 

Chemical Activity 

commander