Only five men have held the top civilian post on Pine Bluff Arsenal since its establishment in November 1941. These men have guided the Arsenal during different times in its history – from the mid-1950s until today. Each have had their different leadership styles, steering the installation’s many unique production missions through war and peaceful times.
C.J. Maupin was the first civilian to serve as Civilian Executive Assistant. Prior to him, the Executive Officer/Deputy Commander position was held by military personnel.
According to historical information compiled by the Commander’s Office in 1970 by Lurline Owen, who was a secretary in the office, the Arsenal had an Executive Officer but no Deputy Commander prior to 1952. The title was changed to Deputy Commander, and the function was the same for both the Executive Officer and Deputy Commander.
Maupin served from June 1956 to June 1968 as the Civilian Executive Assistant. According to historical records, biological weapons operations were being conducted on the installation during his leadership. Those weapons were destroyed in the early 1970s. The Vietnam War was also being fought.
“If you met him, you would have probably been surprised he was in this position,” said Patsy Milligan, who started working at the Arsenal in August 1960. “He was a very low key person. He never talked about his position as top civilian in conversation.”
Milligan, who worked at the Arsenal for nearly 46 years, was the Commander’s secretary. She worked in the Commander’s Office for more than 30 years. “I worked with Mr. Maupin briefly and then became the commander’s secretary, and worked for 18 commanders – all very special people,” she said.
She said Maupin never made anyone feel inferior to him. “He was always someone who would sit down and talk with you no matter what,” said Milligan. “He was a very likable person who look at you as an equal when he spoke to you. He was a very good leader.”
Milligan recalled Maupin as always wanting to lift everyone’s spirits on the installation. “He would plan events and barbecues at his house and invite people over,” said Milligan. “I was very young and insecure at the time. He always made me feel comfortable. There was no pretense about him. He was who he was.”
Maupin died in 1989, according to information from Ralph Robinson and Son Funeral Directors in Pine Bluff.
John B. Norris was the second individual to serve as the top civilian. He served from June 1969 to January 1980. The Vietnam War was still going on during this time coupled with anti-war and anti-draft protests. Civil rights, Watergate and the oil crisis were all on the national forefront during Norris’ time as the Executive Assistant.
Norris grew up in Birmingham, Ala., and Little Rock, Ark. He graduated from Little Rock High School .He graduated from Arkansas Tech University in 1940, enlisted in the Arkansas National Guard and was called to active duty in January 1941 as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He was discharged from the Army as a major in 1946 and enrolled at the University of Arkansas, graduating in 1948 with a mechanical engineering degree.
Norris came to Pine Bluff Arsenal in 1951 and retired in 1979. He died July 24, 2004 in Pine Bluff at the age of 86.
“He was a great guy. He was really crazy about his daughter, and would take time every day to tell us about her,” said Milligan. “He was very self-confident of his abilities, and had a completely different personality than Mr. Maupin.”
She said you could never get really close to Norris. “You knew who his family was and he was very much in love with his wife. She came first in his life and his job was second,” said Milligan. “He was very much a family man but he didn’t talk about it too much. He was an extremely private person.”
James L. Bacon was the third individual to serve as the Arsenal’s Civilian Executive Assistant and Chief Engineer. Bacon served from June 1979 to November 1996.
“I came to work at the Arsenal in September 6, 1960, and was upstairs here in Building 10-020. I worked for what was known at the time as Arsenal Operations, working in the Reserve Plants Mobilization office as a GS-5 mechanical engineer,” said Bacon. “This was my first real engineering job right out of college.”
Back in those days, he said the Corps of Engineers handled all the engineering positions here at the Arsenal for personnel. “At first it was totally new to me. It was a mixed engineering job with a lot of writing and administration,” said Bacon. “The design engineering was done in Facility Engineering in those days.”
His wife, Diane, worked at the Arsenal. “This is where we met,” he said. She worked for the U.S. Army for 10 years.
Bacon grew up in Chidester, Ark., and initially worked in his family’s farming and sawmill operations. He graduated from Chidester High School in 1955, and attended Southern State College in Magnolia, Ark. He graduated from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering and a Master of Science degree in Engineering.
“The draft board was on my back. I was 21 and had avoided the draft trying to finish college. They came back at me after I finished. I chose to join the Army Reserve in April 1961,” he said.
Bacon said he went to basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., and then went to advance training. “Things were starting to get hot over in Berlin, Germany and Cuba. The 489th Combat Engineering Battalion I belonged to here in Pine Bluff was mobilized, and sent to Fort Benning, Ga., however I never saw combat,” he said.
Following his military service, he returned to the Arsenal in 1962, and for the next 11 years held a number of key engineering positions. He served as a project engineer in three different Arsenal directorates, was the Arsenal’s first Pollution Control Officer (now Environmental), and in 1972 was named GS-13 Chief of the Process Engineering Division as a Special Assistant to the Technical Director at Edgewood Arsenal (the Army’s Chemical Research and Development Center in Maryland).
“Once you made it past a GS-5, you promoted pretty quickly to a GS-9 and then a GS-11. After that it got pretty competitive,” said Bacon. “In 1969, after years of professional development, I took an exam and became a registered professional engineer. I could put P.E behind my name.”
In 1973, Bacon transferred to Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., where he worked as a Senior Project Officer with the Army Project Manager for Chemical Demilitarization. He returned to the Arsenal in 1976 when he was named director of Engineering and Technology.
“Mr. Norris called me and told me several people were retiring. So he wanted me to take over E&T,” he said. “In 1979, Mr. Norris was retiring and he wanted me to replace him. It was a target position I was working towards. The Arsenal allowed me to do this. I was the CEA for 16 to 17 years.”
At the time, several military units were here at the Arsenal, said Bacon. “We had a signal corps unit dealing with communications and supply folks helping with logistics. There were quite a few military here when I came,” he said. “All the major directors were chemical officers – majors and lieutenant colonels.”
Bacon said he believes the Arsenal is here to this day because certain missions could be carried out here successfully. “We did things other places couldn’t do,” he said. “It was all related to the technology and expertise on the chemical side. Everyone knew Pine Bluff made all the colored smoke and incendiary grenades. When I was here, we recruited those types of projects like the mask and clothing lines, and various ammunition projects. Our higher headquarters supported us, and we supported them.”
The Vietnam War was still waging when Bacon was in charge. “We had to mobilize smoke and white phosphorus. These were production lines I had worked on as a project engineer,” he said. “All of the crisis in the Middle East also happened under my watch – the first Gulf War. We were moving and shaking out here with full mobilization. Every time we would start downsizing, another crisis would occur. I was able to be involved in all of it.”
A big part of Bacon’s job was the Arsenal’s ties to the local community. “They involved me in their leadership and I involved them in ours. They kept us informed and kept us in the loop,” he said. “The community wanted to make sure the Arsenal was taken care of and involved us.”
Bacon retired as Arsenal CEA November 1996. He continued his federal career, achieving a Senior Executive Service position, and retired in 2002 at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.
Following Bacon’s departure from PBA in 1996 as lead civilian, Larry E. Wright took the helm beginning July 1997 to February 2017.
Wright started his 37-year Army career as a GS3-engineering student trainee at the Arsenal during summers from 1979 to 1982. He graduated in 1983 with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
“My job when I started was part of a new cooperative program with the University of Arkansas. Jim Hayley (current PBA S3 office) and I were hired under the same program,” said Wright. “Jim Bacon came and recruited us, and signed a memorandum of agreement with the university. We were the first two co-op students.”
He said at the time, there were several hundred military on the installation. “There were military directors at the time, headquarters detachment, a large EOD (Explosive Ordnance Detachment) company and our Tech Escort (now called the 20th Support Command Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear and High-Yield Explosives Analytical Remediation Activity) were also military.
“During the summers, I had the opportunity to work with the BZ demilitarization program. I worked with Jim Stewart, the project engineer, and I really liked it,” he said. “When I finally graduated, I came on board with the BZ program, which was a hybrid demil program.”
In a 2017 Sentinel story, he said when he was a student during the summers, he worked as courier between what is now the Directorate of Engineering and Technology and the Commander’s Office. “We didn’t have mail. We didn’t have computers,” he said. “That is how I got to know Maxine Miller and Patsy Milligan (former administrative personnel). They were such professionals and maintained a well-run office. I developed a relationship with them. It was quite a privilege to be here.”
In 1988, he became the Director of the Chemical Agent BZ Demilitarization Program, and was instrumental in the successful completion of the Arsenal’s first full-scale chemical weapons disposal program. In 1994, he joined the Pine Bluff Chemical Activity as it stood up its mission as the Director of Risk Management and Remediation, where he established comprehensive programs for the receipt, storage and disposal of recovered chemical warfare material. In June 1996, he was appointed Director of Technical Operations and Strategic Planning, where his efforts were devoted to strategic planning, workload development, business and industrial process improvement and Arsenal-wide streamlining.
Wright said working under Bacon, during his transition to top civilian in 1996, was a privilege. “He was no doubt a key mentor for me. He taught me about networking and who the important community leaders were. He taught me how to maintain ongoing relationships locally, regional and nationally,” he said. “It was one of the most important things I learned from him.”
The job title from CEA to Deputy to the Commander merged in 2013, according to Wright. “It became a bit confusing. There were different names being used at other locations,” he said. “To avoid confusion, they consolidated them.”
Wright also met his wife, Renee, at the Arsenal. “Jim Bacon hired her. They were taking a graduate engineering course together. She ended up working in ammunition manufacturing for a while. In 1988, we got married,” he said. “After we got married, she went to work for the Corps of Engineers. The Arsenal has been a big part of my life – starting working there at 18, got married when I was 28 and became a CEA at 38. Things come in 10s.”
During the years Wright led the Arsenal, there were many changes. “Two things stand out in my mind – one we saw coming, one we didn’t,” he said, talking about an A-76 study in 2001 and 9-11.
“9-11 shaped how we conducted ourselves forever. It is kind of like a pandemic,” said Wright, referring to the current COVID-19 outbreak. “It changed lives. It was a trying and stressful period.”
Wright said the A-76 study was a major victory for PBA. (The study is a competition of government-operated activities and the private sector to determine whether commercial activities can be done more economically and efficiently by contract.)
“We prevailed and the Arsenal was neither outsourced nor closed,” he said. “We put a lot of energy and resources collectively in a much focused objective. It took a lot of energy and ended up being a big victory. We rallied our resources and fought for the Arsenal’s future and succeeded. This came right after 9-11, and I was proud of how we protected the installation.”
One thing Wright said he was always proud of is the strong, competent team of directors handling the various mission and support areas of the Arsenal.
“We were the envy a lot of times of other installations,” said Wright. “We got many comments and compliments about how our directors functioned as a team. Our behavior was watched at conferences or at events we hosted. It was always something to be proud of and it was a rewarding experience to have.”
Other proud moments Wright touched on were mobilizing for war times and major projects such as the modernization of the white phosphorus plant.
“This is what we are here for. We are here for the Warfighter. It is what we trained for,” he said. “We supported many military elements. The Arsenal does hard, dangerous work at times and it is good to be able to support our nation’s efforts.”
Current PBA Deputy to the Commander, Roch Byrne, stepped into the position in February 2017, taking over leadership from Wright. He is the new kid on the block.
“I started my work with our nation’s military working for the U.S. Air Force in 1986 at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia. I was hired in right after college as an electronics engineers working on the B1-B Bomber project,” said Byrne. “I wrote computer software for the project. It was interesting. The only downfall, I was far from home and didn’t know a soul.”
Four years of engineering school was tough and spending the first year out of college by himself drove Byrne to move back to Arkansas. He started at the Arsenal in October 1987 as a staff electronics engineer.
“I went from working in a really high tech building for the Air Force to working here refurbing some of the grenade lines. It was dirty. I had split knuckles and the heat would never work in the building. I rode the bus with all the other employees,” he said. “It was good for me. I got a real good education in my career at that point. It grounded me and I understand today who makes the Arsenal run.”
Byrne is a 1982 graduate of Catholic High School in Little Rock, Ark. He graduated in 1986 with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Christian Brothers University in Memphis, Tenn. He also has a Master of Business Administration degree in Management from Webster University in Little Rock, and is a 2005 graduate of the Depot and Arsenal Executive Leadership Program.
“It was hard going to work full time and going to graduate school. When I got out of engineering school, I swore I would never go back. My wife, Diana, pushed me to go back. We went at the same time while working too,” he said. “It was a good thing we didn’t have kids at the time.”
Shortly after graduate school, Byrne became the Production Engineering Division Chief for the Directorate of Ammunition Operations. “Not too many years after that Mr. Jerry Woods, the AO director, retired. I was then selected as the director,” he said, reflecting back. “In July 2016, I was selected for the position I’m in now. Don Scifres, who is the AO director now, followed right behind me.”
During his transition period with Wright, Byrne said the time was extremely helpful to him. “Watching the guy who has done the job the past 20 years has been a big asset,” he said, in a 2017 Sentinel article. “Being able to follow him around and see how he takes care of and tackles issues has been great. He was an excellent mentor.”
Byrne said he and Wright had divergent backgrounds, but he felt it was a good thing. “He and Mr. Bacon are incredibly smart people. To make up for my shortcomings, I have surrounded myself with smart people,” he said. “There was definitely a learning curve when it came to the chem bio side of the house. I didn’t know the acronyms. I didn’t know the people and the leadership, and all the products we make here. I was really familiar with the ammo side.”
He said the job was a bit overwhelming when he first took it, but he looked forward to the challenges and felt prepared. Then the pandemic hit in early 2020.
“COVID has been my 9-11. You can’t compare the two since they are very different type of events. It has been the biggest issue we have dealt with since I took this position. You have to take care of your people and the entire thing is a huge balancing act,” said Byrne. “We organized a team to work on the issues for the employees. I think we have done quite well. We are nine to 10 months in and we are still doing ok. I believe we are taking care of each other – washing our hands, social distancing and wearing our masks.”
The pandemic is frightening, he said. “Doing everything we are supposed to be doing is so important,” said Byrne.
Byrne said he is most proud of the cloth-face coverings produced here at the Arsenal in response to the pandemic. “We filled a void in the Organic Industrial Base and were able to get masks to all of our sister installations. We are helping keep them safe,” he said. “It was a quick turn around and we got product out the door very fast. You can get masks anywhere now but we were able to fill the gap at the beginning.”
Another proud moment, he said, is when the Arsenal reached two million hours without a lost time injury. “It was been a journey. I can’t take credit for this. I give Larry a lot of credit, “said Byrne. “It was almost two full years without an injury. This type of achievement instills confidence in your employees. This is a safe place to work and management cares about their well-being.”
| Date Taken: | 11.19.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 12.16.2020 09:35 |
| Story ID: | 385098 |
| Location: | PINE BLUFF, ARKANSAS, US |
| Web Views: | 230 |
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