Welding experience

submitted by: Alva Matheson




Competence: McDonnel Douglas Experience Jan 2023

Following a pleasant week with Dwayne and Lance at Construction Exposition (CONEXPO), Dwayne and I returned home, and for reasons unknown I elected to take the Nevada Highway through Caliente to Cedar City. It gave us a chance to discuss events in our lives after Dwayne’s return and subsequent marriage. We had spent little time together. With long open roads ahead of us, we fell to discussing events in our lives and the experiences we had each had. In the course of conversation, Dwayne asked me if there were any events of which I was particularly proud. Since in much of my life we had been separated, there were many stories to be shared. One of them, I revealed my experiences while in Missouri at a time he would have been about six years old.

During my academic years I had been mentored as a welder by my father, high school teachers, and eventually by an instructor at Utah State University that lead me into a career in welding. Before my graduation, I had already been hired by Chicago Bridge & Iron in Salt Lake City where I began work as a welding engineer upon my graduation. One of the assignments I had was to work with and then become a welding instructor for the factory. That opportunity led me to certify in a number of welding processes including tungsten, inert, gas (TIG) processes in which I had become quite proficient. When I joined the Air Force, I never expected to use any of those skills. Until my AFIT assignment at McDonnel World Headquarters in St Louis, Missouri. It was a rare opportunity and one of the finest experiences of my life. I had full access to any and all divisions of the company with the authority of an engineer with no reporting authority. On one occasion I was working as an understudy to MCAIR, the Air Force manufacturing facility for F-4 and F-15 aircraft. During that association the plant manager, Bill, gave me the opportunity to attend several aircraft division meetings and staff meetings. On this occasion, there was great concern because the foreman for the welding shop had come in for work inebriated and was summarily fired and terminated on the spot. Concern was voiced about a replacement for supervising continuous production activities. He turned to me in the group, having singled me out since no one knew why I was there, and simply said, “Al, will you take the shop until I can get a replacement?” Full of surprise and appreciative, I said, “Yes,” and he turned to the staff in their consternation and simply said, “You’re now foreman of the welding shop until I can get a replacement.”

News traveled fast. Within an hour when I hit the floor and walked into the welding shop, all eyes were upon me. It was not that I was new because I had spent many hours meeting and working with the employees out of curiosity and out of working and speaking somewhat their language. As things were developing, I elected to wander down the welding area where all of the hand welding was being done in encapsulated argon tents, i.e. small cubicles that maintained an atmosphere of inert gas for welding on large pieces. One of the components being worked on was the drag hook on the ventral side of the F-4 that was used in carrier operations and emergency landings to grasp a cable to bring the airplane to a stop. It was an Inconel channel about four feet long and three inches in thickness. It was forged into a U-shaped channel and prepared with a machine shaped groove to accommodate a long “lid” of similar material shaped on the edges with a groove to permit welding the cover in place along either of the two sides. As I was observing the process over a workman’s shoulder without his awareness of my being there. I picked up an inspector’s visor to watch him at work. When he came to the end of the TIG filler rod, he became aware of my presence and turned around with a smile and said, “What do you think?” I think I responded something like, “You do good work, but it could be better.” With first a look of consternation and then a face of indignation, he scowled at me and simply said, “If you can do better, do it!” In my naivite, and flushed with my new responsibilities, I simply said, “OK”, took off my coat and hung it over an argon tank, took off my tie, and rolled up my sleeves. I settled into his position and prepared to close the curtain. Before doing so, I turned to my counterpart and said, "You're a great forehand welder, but a backhand would be more productive and yield a better quality weld.” “What’s that?” he asked. I said, “In a backhand weld, the TIG flame precedes the rod application allowing the full heat of the arc to be in the direction of the previously welded material allowing better control of the arc itself and faster application of the filler rod.” I then closed the curtain and proceeded to lay down by dumb luck the most perfect bead I had ever welded in my life. At the end of the rod, I pushed back from the argon tent and just turned and said, “Like that.” His face was completely aghast, and he said nothing. I put my tie and coat back on and continued down the line. By the time I had made my rounds and lunch was over, as I said, word gets around fast. In the next afternoon I asked the group for any questions or any problems they might be experiencing. One of the quality inspectors said, “We always have problems with the F-15 shoulder fairing for the GAU cannon. I asked them to walk me through the process. Then I shut down production temporarily, called all the operators together, and asked them individually and collectively how we could make it better--what improvements they could make. Falling back on my engineering background, I suggested they try several techniques and change the weld fixtures. And together, by week’s end we were delivering a quality product with a time of manufacture being reduced from 187 man hours to 67 with no adverse impact on the quality or function of the F-15 fairing.

By week’s end, he came to me and indicated, “If you ever need a job, I’ll hold one open for you, but Joe Varney has a problem on the F-15 assembly line, and I think he needs your help.” But that’s another story.

There is no substitute for being capable, competent and proficient in leadership