Baldridge Award Curse Strikes Again

For whatever reason, there seems to be a curse attached to many of the winners of the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award. You win it, and something bad seems to happen.

Appears the curse hit again.

Last November, the Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC), which also is known as Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, became the first Department of Defense organization in history selected to receive the Baldrige Award.

Last week, a 2-pound metal fragment from a routine munition test traveled over a mile instead of the predicted 1,300 feet, crash landed onto a two-story house off the base, ended up landing in a child's bed and critically injuring the cat that was lying there. The cat had to be put asleep.

The Army is investigating what happened and why, suspended further tests and has apologized to the family.

The only good news about this, if you can call it that, is at least the event didn't happen the week before when ARDEC's technical director was giving a keynote speech at the North Jersey American Society for Quality Spring Quality Conference 2008 on winning the Baldrige Award.