PEO ACWA Program News

Program Executive Officer Michael S. Abaie, center, poses for a photo with the Honorable Deborah G. Rosenblum, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Programs and the Honorable Douglas R. Bush, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition Logistics and Technology, after receiving the Department of the Army Distinguished Civilian Service Medal during his retirement ceremony Nov. 15 at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.

Program Head Retires with Honors and Recognition

Federal officials, family members and other well-wishers gathered Nov. 15 to celebrate the retirement of Michael S. Abaie, the man responsible for guiding the U.S. program to successfully destroy the remaining declared U.S. chemical weapons stockpile.

Col. Lewis McBride is shown holding a tear gas gun, 1924. Behind him is the 4.2-inch chemical mortar he refined at his machine shop, Edgewood Arsenal, 1924. (Photo contributed by the Army Chemical Review).

Army Colonel Remembered for Refining the 4.2-inch Mortar

Thousands of chemical mortar rounds in Colorado are on the brink of destruction, nearly a century after an Army colonel revolutionized the way they would be used to defend troops on the battlefield. While never used, the capability to retaliate with chemical weapons was viewed as an effective deterrent for decades.

Craig Campbell, principal director, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Programs, Threat Reduction and Arms Control, speaks to Suzanne Milchling, program executive officer, Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives, during a tour of the Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant March 29, 2018.

Steady State Operations Key to Achieving Program Vision

Chemical weapons free by 2023, the vision and goal of the Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives program, can be achieved if its destruction plants can maintain steady state operations, said the programs’ leader.

Infographic: Mission to Eliminate 523 Tons of Chemical Agent

Near Richmond, Kentucky, hundreds of trained technicians are testing a pilot plant designed and built to methodically disassemble and destroy a portion of the U.S. chemical weapons stockpile which contains the blister agent mustard and nerve agents, GB and VX. This stockpile consists of thousands of projectiles and rockets and has been safely stored at the Blue Grass Army Depot since the 1940s.

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