Photo By Ana Henderson | Munitions and Weapons Division Test Officer Ashley Lochetto was recently named Yuma...... read more read more
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Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) is home to Yuma Test Center (YTC) which tests military equipment from combat boots to combat vehicles.
Hundreds of employees work for months — even years on tests to ensure the test item is safe for fielding to the Warfighters. Test Officer Ashley Lochetto oversees a portion of artillery testing for the Munitions and Weapons Division and was recently named YTC Employee of The Year for 2021.
“I was a little beside myself,” said Lochetto’s after hearing the news. “I get to work with so many good people, and I don’t do the work by myself. It’s all teamwork.”
Lochetto comes from a family with a medical background and knew she was going to college but said she wanted to help save lives in another way.
“I will maybe help save people from bombs and IED’s and stuff like that. So, I was all about learning about explosives from a real young age.”
As a test officer, Lochetto says, “I’ve gotten to shoot everything from the Excalibur lot acceptance test, which is just the same as shooting your handgun and wanting to make sure the ammo works. We do the same thing on a larger scale. We want the Soldiers to know their ammunition works and it guides to the location we set it to go to and works appropriately in velocities and pressures.”
Lochetto is a mechanical engineer specializing in explosives engineering and is currently working on her Master’s in Systems and Program Management online at the Naval Post Graduate School based in Monterey, Calif.
Upon graduating from New Mexico Tech, Lochetto landed her first job with Lego Technologies based on her engineering background and her previous work with kids for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) outreach.
“I got to teach engineering concepts with Legos both the Duplos for the younger kids and regular Legos for middle school and high school ages in schools.”
The position was part-time, so Lochetto set her eyes on YPG and said, “It was a natural fit.”
Now, at YPG she uses her experience from Lego to help with the STEM outreach and also helps during the summer Gains in the Education of Math and Science free summer camps for middle school aged kids.
Between, school, work, and her STEM outreach, Lochetto stays busy but loves every minute of it.
“I get to work with the best people, truly. It’s a family out here. It’s teamwork and I couldn’t do it without them. So, this isn’t my award it’s the YPG team award.”
| Date Taken: | 05.25.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 05.25.2022 18:27 |
| Story ID: | 421072 |
| Location: | YUMA PROVING GROUND, ARIZONA, US |
| Web Views: | 178 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Ashley Lochetto: Yuma Test Center Employee of the Year, by Ana Henderson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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