Not sure if Charlie worked at FA. The guy that trained me (Roscoe Picard) told me his background and at one time he worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs or some such name. At any rate Charlie worked at RIA.
Now Roscoe was a treasure trove to beat all. He was a crusty old bachelor about early 50s when I went to the Army Small Cal Lab at Picatinny. Roscoe had started out in small arms at Springfield Armory about 1951 and stayed there till Robert McNamara shut it down. McNamara's name was lower than (well it was very low) in the small arms community. Bottom line is small arms integrity has not returned to this day to my knowledge. Absolutely no one had anything good to say about him and up until that time I thought he was OK but when the top small arms guys in the gov't badmouth him to a man well................. if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck it must be.......................a duck.
Roscoe took the transfer to RIA in 67 and to Picatinny in 76? time frame.
Roscoe and Charlie were good friends and introduced us and I would see him when he came to Camp Perry but never had any direct work related functions with him.
Since I was a young bachelor our mutual friend Larry Moore suggested Roscoe and I might rent a place so we found a third floor of a large house built about 1900 in Milford, Pa. The landlord thought he was renting a 2 BR appt with living room but we quickly proved he rented us 2 BR, a loading room (bedroom converted) and a living room (which became a drafting area and weapons bunker as we had two gun vaults and a six foot drafting table in there with my bed.
When I walked into the Army Small Cal Lab I held a Master Card Highpower and Smallbore and had been loading for 20+ years and thought I knew something and I figured out within hours that all I thought I knew was almost worthless in that atmosphere as that was a breed you don't find except rarely. I was assigned to Roscoe who talked incessantly and I listened intently. I never asked or saw Roscoe asked a question he could not field on his hind legs.
Roscoe apparently had a photographic memory. He could quote quicker than Google the most incredible minutia of the smallest part on anything small arms had ever done.
For instance on the second floor of Springfield Armory Museum there are about 40 4 drawer file cabinets which are marked with decals identical to our office which contained about 15 of them. Starting in early 50s for entertainment Roscoe (who had no use for TVs) would take weapons files home (about 3 to 5 per night) and read them cover to cover, come back the next day and replace them and get the next load. The data in them covered 174 years of weapons engineering and Roscoe read every last folder in every cabinet from 51 to about 67.
Every part of every weapon has a separate engineering file and that will give you the complete history of the part from it's first production to date. If a change was made to that part the entire history was there from why the change was made and what the change was and some of them had as many as ten revisions.
The logic is they wanted to design weapons packages that were considered CLEAN TECH DATA Packages. When I was there Roscoe made a change on the leaf spring of the M1911A1 and he announced it was then a CLEAN TDP and that was 1979 so it only took 68 years to clean it up and the politicians dumped the M1911A1 for a 9MM.
For instance the M16 had sustained about 550 product improvements when I got there from mid 60s to 78 and I suspect it is about 700 now.
Another thing that struck me quickly, no one ever told anyone else they didn't know what they were talking about like you find on lots of forums. I figured out quickly that everyone there had different experiences in the weapons field and when something new was surfaced it was never challenged.
We would pull up chairs and 5 to 8 of us would sit in circles and talk guns and problems worked through in the past. At first I was uncomfortable as the boss would walk by to and from the head and never say anything about getting back to work and one day he explained how the round circles were beneficial. He said he liked to see such as we talked nothing but guns, guns, guns and reloading and he saw that as continual education in our field and he would never break such up.
I could go ask anyone anything in the office and they would stop and explain what I needed to know. Well let me clarify that, there was some that didn't know where they were standing much less what you needed to know which was explained by Larry Moore this way, "you will find managers in the government and you will wonder how they got to where they are with what they know." Within 30 days I called him at Rock Island and told him I then understood and he was impressed I had figured it out that quickly. haha
The only thing the boss asked that when we had a fire (something big) we all dropped everything and go flat out till it was over and then we could get back to learning and that is exactly what happened. The "fires" lasted maybe a week and once it was out of the way it was back to training so to speak.
Then the Dover Devil MG project hit (its on the internet under Dover Devil Machinegun) and we got 1.8 million to handbuild four Dover Devils as No 1 was a minimal working model guys in the lab came up with. Their group consisted of four people and when Congress gave us the 1.8 million the group went to about 15 and to my great surprise the boss picked me for the team.
To be sure I was the last one chosen as I was the "new kid on the block" but the boss and me were the first ones to go to the new area to set up so the rest of the folks could make the change of locations within hours instead of months. I would meet with the Chief every morning at 0800, get assignments and he and I took off in different directions. I would meet him back at lunch and give him a update. He initially told me I could not do it all myself and that he would get me some help but he couldn't figure out who to ask and told me not to worry if I could not get it done because he had a "6" priority which meant in those days you could get it two weeks BEFORE you asked for it. All he wanted to know was who I talked to and who was saying "NO".
As it turned out the network I had established in previous year consisted of fraternal types all over the arsenal for the most part and it was better than already having it in stock. I got 16 desks, chairs, file cabinets, security cabinets, lamps, etc delivered in 30 hours and set up to receive the rest of the crew and the group was up and functional in another 72 hours as outlined below.The chief could not believe it and told me he was hoping to have it set up and running in a month and he was really happy.
Only thing I could not get was 60" drafting tables as there was only one on the arsenal and it was in the CGs office. Boss told me to requisition them through procurement and that was stopped by transportation office. The first gas shortage was in place and we could not take a gov't truck over 100 miles and transportation office badmouthed the request for a 10 ton truck for me to go get them. I couldn't bust through so I told the Chief. He left immediately and next morning he gave me travel orders to fly to Ohare airport, get the biggest Ryder rental I could get, go to factory in Wisconsin, pick them up and bring them "home". Travel office called complaining that we ought to be able to get them locally. I handed the phone to the Chief who read her the RIOT ACT about stupid regs and the next morning the arsenal sent a truck to South Joysey and picked them up and delivered them to our office that afternoon. 72 hours later we had the new drafting tables delivered and the entire team was up and running.
Within a month I got a call wanting me to come to Crane Naval Wpns Center as the Navy POC for all marksmanship teams. I turned it down because I told them my chief was depending on me and that I would not leave him till the project was completed.
The entire team got the Army R&D Award and every member got a Commendation signed by a Major General and I cannot find anyone that has ever seen one signed by anything above a Colonel.
When the Chief retired at Rock Island there was a sniper rifle conference the same day in the morning and I was requested to come and make a presentation and did. We had the conference, agreed on what was needed and went to his retirement luncheon and he recognized me and told everyone I was the best he had ever seen at getting what was need quickly.
