Photo By Jill Pickett | Kevin Glaser, chief steward for ironworkers at Arnold Air Force Base, Tenn., leads a...... read more read more
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. – Two weeks before Christmas a little more than a half-century ago, John T. Hill and Alvin D. Overman were charged with carrying out a routine job inside a small building behind the Arnold Engineering Development Complex Model Shop at Arnold Air Force Base.
It was there that both of their lives ended.
Hill and Overman have not been forgotten in the decades since, and their deaths serve as a reminder that potentially dangerous work is carried out across AEDC.
Team members in the Manufacturing Group at Arnold AFB gathered at the site of the tragedy on Dec. 9, the eve of the 50th anniversary of the deaths of Hill and Overman, to memorialize the fallen machinists. Throughout the ceremony, attendees were urged to keep safety paramount.
“Just take a few minutes and ponder, what if I didn’t go home today? How would it affect my family? It would be devastating,” Warner Holt, Test Operations and Sustainment contract group manager for manufacturing, said to those gathered for the memorial.
Hill and Overman were tragically unable to return home from their shifts on Dec. 10, 1971. That day, the men were tasked with performing preventative maintenance on the heat treat furnace located in Building 446. This work would require entry into a pit area, more commonly known at Arnold as a confined space.
Hill, 41, entered the furnace pit first. He quickly fell unconscious.
“You see, just a few seconds after he entered the confined space, Mr. Hill was unexpectedly overcome by argon gas that had unknowingly settled in the bottom of the confined space,” Holt said. “No one knew it was there.”
The 51-year-old Overman, who was serving as Hill’s lookout, saw his co-worker fall to the pit floor. He reacted quickly, entering the pit to aid his colleague. He met with the same fate as Hill.
“Like John, Mr. Overman quickly lost consciousness and fell to the pit floor within seconds of entering the furnace area,” Holt said.
Attempts to revive both men were unsuccessful.
Both Hill and Overman fell victim to argon asphyxiation. Due to having a higher density than air, the odorless, colorless and tasteless argon gas had settled in the pit and displaced the oxygen in the low-lying area.
Holt pointed out that Hill and Overman did not have access to equipment now available and safety standards were not as stringent as they are presently.
“At the time, we didn’t have the technology and the knowledge that we have today about safety,” he said. “We didn’t have an OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] program. We didn’t have O2 meters. We didn’t have the requirement to follow detailed confined space requirements and procedures. We didn’t even have a lot of the confined spaces marked at AEDC during that time, so they were unknowingly in great and grave danger.”
The memorial ceremony was organized by the Model Shop Safety Leadership Committee. Jim Hereford, who chairs this SLC, said over his more than 35 years working as a machinist and safety leader, he has observed that the same question is posed any time someone is injured on the job. That question, he said, is ‘what if?’
“’What if I had cleaned up the oil spill on the floor?’ No one would have fallen and gotten injured,” Hereford provided as an example. “’What if I had warned my co-worker about the faulty electrical socket?’ No one would have gotten shocked. What if? What if? What if?
“Don’t let ‘what if’ be a factor in your safety. I would ask everyone to take charge of safety in your area. Simply, be your brother’s keeper.”
The insistence for employees to be their brother’s keeper was further stressed by Shaun Wells, with the Outside Machinist Safety Leadership Committee, who explained this means doing whatever is necessary to shield co-workers from danger and harm.
“I’ve got a family, just like everybody out here does. Let’s go home to them,” Wells said. “Just take that extra minute and look at the job or what you’re doing, the task you’re doing. Think about it.
“There’s danger all around you every day. Even when you get out of bed in the morning, there’s danger. You don’t realize it, but there is. So, when we work out here, do one thing. Just take that extra minute and look at your job and say, ‘Are we completely safe’ and ‘We want to go home at the end of the day.’”
Kevin Glaser, chief steward for ironworkers at Arnold AFB, added it is crucial for employees to maintain perspective and keep in mind that the loss of a co-worker will likely impact someone outside the gates of Arnold AFB.
“Take care of one another,” he said. “It’s one thing to just pass by and not say anything. It’s another to be man enough to walk up and say, ‘Hey, man, you better watch that.’ If they don’t like it, that’s on them, but at least I did my part to take care of somebody else and treat them the way they need to be treated.”
This echoed a sentiment Hereford shared earlier in the ceremony.
“I would like to say, ‘step up for safety,’” Hereford implored. “Just think – you may save someone’s life.”
Several years ago, a plaque bearing the names and images of Hill and Overman was affixed to Building 446. The inscription on it reads, “In Memory of the men who lost their lives in service to AEDC at the Model Shop.” The date of their deaths is also etched on the plate.
Those in the Manufacturing Group wish to ensure it is the last such display hung at the Model Shop.
“We do challenge you to please continue to do everything you can to go home safely,” Holt said to the crowd. “You are your brother’s keeper, so please keep that in mind. Nothing we do is worth someone getting injured or worse, so please, again, just keep that in the forefront as you serve here at AEDC.
“When you need to take a few minutes, take five. Take a breather. Get the job right. Get the right tool. Get the right equipment and then do the job. Do it safely.”
| Date Taken: | 12.21.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 12.21.2021 16:55 |
| Story ID: | 411717 |
| Location: | ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, TENNESSEE, US |
| Web Views: | 133 |
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This work, Members of Team AEDC remember two of their own on the 50th anniversary of their passing, by Bradley Hicks, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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