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John Hollenhorst ReportingA worker in Tooele County has reached a strange but impressive milestone. He's the first person in history to suit up 1,000 times and venture into one of the deadliest environments in man's creation. John Hollenhorst joined him as he suited up for the 1,001st time.
They call him Iron Man Dan. He might look like an astronaut, but he launches his missions in a delivery van. He's headed into a place most people would run away from, if running were possible in a suit like this.
Dan Aldrich, "Iron Man Dan": "I've never been one to get claustrophobic so being in the suit does not scare me. Being in tight places does not scare me."
He works in the Army's Chemical Weapons incinerator plant, where toxic nerve agents and deadly mustard are part of the routine. Aldrich now has a trophy for going in a thousand times.
Reporter: "Do you think anybody's ever going to break his record?"
Rusty Thomas, Co-worker: "Nope, I don't think too many people want to."
A typical mission begins with a briefing by the entry coordinating team. Then he and a buddy suit up. There's always a buddy.
Dan Aldrich: "If anything happens to me in there, or anything happens to him, that's our best resource."
The first layer is an ice-vest.
Dan Aldrich: "That's to keep us cool, because it gets quite hot in there."
In fact, on most missions he loses several pounds from sweating under a heavy backpack inside the suit. A radio package keeps him in touch. An air-hose keeps him alive.
Dan Aldrich: "IF that should go out for some reason, then I have a 10-minute backpack that gets me to an airlock to get me out."
He's sealed inside a mountain of PVC. The whole outfit weighs 75 pounds. We spoke by intercom.
Reporter: "Do you feel as though you're on your own when you're in there, or do you feel like you've got a lot of support?"
Dan Aldrich: "You have a control room that's watching, you have a medic that's keeping track of what you're doing."
What they're doing in this case is sampling the air around waste drums to make sure there are no deadly nerve agents.
Gary McCloskey, General Manager: "These are really highly tended people going into a very dangerous environment, but it's dangerous if you're not protected and they're well protected."
Dan Aldrich: "I think the risk is pretty minor, but pretty important."
So far, the incinerator plant is about halfway to its goal of eliminating the nation's largest stockpile of chemical weapons. No one is even close to Aldrich's record of one-thousand entries. The closest competitor has gone in 547 times.
