Pantex Blog

The week of October 14 was an impressive one for CNS as more than 572 employees from Pantex and Y-12 were recognized with a 2018 Defense Programs Award of Excellence.

At Y-12, Site Manager Bill Tindal, NPO Deputy Manager Teresa Robbins, and NNSA’s Dr. Mark Suriano, assistant deputy administrator for Stockpile Management, congratulated the winners at an October 15 event. At Pantex, Site Manager Todd Ailes, Deputy Manager for the NNSA Production Office at Pantex and Y-12 Bill Eckroade, NNSA Acting Assistant Deputy Administrator for Stockpile Management John Evans, and Manager of Stockpile Programs Colby Yeary honored the winners at an October 17 event.

Tindal said, “I want to thank each of you for all your hard work, your dedication, and your commitment to the mission. Our country is safer because of what you do.”

Evans said, “It’s really important that we get out and we see the work this complex can do. Here at Pantex it’s nothing short of amazing. That plaque on the wall that all roads come to Pantex that’s true. The important thing though is the capabilities that are embodied in you all allow for the weapons to go out of Pantex. Without your expertise and dedication and devotion to your jobs those weapons don’t go out of Pantex, they don’t go come back for repairs and they don’t leave in a way that they can be part of the deterrent.”

The DP Award of Excellence, established in 1982, recognizes individual and team accomplishments from across the nuclear weapons complex in support of NNSA’s nuclear weapons program.

CNS employees were recognized with awards from NNSA’s Office of Safety, Infrastructure, and Operations – or NA-50 – for the exceptional accomplishments made in support of NA-50 efforts to achieve the NNSA mission. At the September 10 Pantex event, Bill Eckroade, Pantex deputy manager for the NNSA Production Office, and NA-50 Associate Administrator Jim McConnell honored employees who worked on the projects. At Y-12 on the same day, NPO Manager Geoff Beausoleil, Y-12 Site Manager Bill Tindal, and Senior Director of Infrastructure Programs Steve Laggis handed out the awards.

“Each of our sites have old infrastructure, and that adds substantial challenges in the workforce and keeping our operations efficient, reliable, and safe,” Eckroade said. “As I’ve seen people trying to manage that infrastructure, you see workers using innovation persistence and sometimes sheer determination for making old infrastructure work to achieve the mission we’ve been assigned. But, the good news is that in recent years, we have seen enhanced allocations of resources to help us with our infrastructure.”

McConnell said Pantex is a good example of the forefront of what NA-50 does considering the combined safety implications of the site and the large amount aging infrastructure. “My job is to help you succeed, and your success is the thing that I then get to feed back into the system to allow people to bring us even more opportunities and more resources, so that the success you did in 2018 turns into the things you’re doing right now,” he said. “It was great seeing all the great work you do here.”

At Y-12, Laggis thanked team members for demonstrating excellence in “doing the right things to the right infrastructure in the right way.”

Tindal told the honorees, “Your insistence on excellence, your tenacity in doing the job right, and your understanding that teamwork is often the best solution on a project, has been recognized by NNSA as the best of the best across the enterprise in 2018.”

Beausoleil’s comments echoed those of McConnell in that CNS’s work has brought success. “Your work in revitalizing our infrastructure will help support missions for years to come. You have my sincere gratitude and congratulations,” he said.

Laggis ended the program by saying each of the winning teams were important ingredients in the success of CNS. “Without your great work,” he said, “we could not reach our goals and complete our mission.”