Arkansas Ordnance Seedling

The Arkansas Ordnance Plant ( AOP ) is an important factory of Munition S, located close to Jacksonville, in the Arkansas (the United States). Property of the Department of the War of the United States, this site was exploited by the firm Ford, Bacon & Davis during the Second world war to produce starters and detonators.

Chronology

1941 : June 4th, War Department announces the construction of the factory.
1942 : March 4th, starting of the production.
1945 : In August, stop of the production.
1946 : Beginning of the sale of various parts and buildings of the site.

Context

During the Second world war, Arkansas accommodated six factories of ammunition:

Arkansas Ordnance Seedling, close to Jacksonville;
Maumelle Ordnance Works, close to Walk;
Ozark Ordnance Works, close to El Dorado;
Prick Bluff Arsenal, with Prick Bluff;
Naval Schumaker Ammunition Deposit, close to Camden;
Southwestern Proving Ground, in Hope.

These sites had several functions: manufacture of detonators, starters and bombs; tests of the ammunition; loading, tests and warehouse of rockets; manufacture of chemical agents necessary for the manufacture of the bombs and the explosives. Four of the sites were of type GOCO, or government-owned, contractor-operated , i.e. they were the property of the Federal state, but their exploitation was entrusted by contract at a private company.

The leader, political and economic mediums, of Arkansas made strong pressures to obtain the establishment of these factories in their State, stressing that Arkansas had abundant coal and natural gas resources and offered a strategic position, far from the coasts, where enemy attacks were always possible, and far from the great urban centres. But labor necessary was available.

History

It is the June 4th 1941 which the ministry for the War (War Department) announced to the governor of Arkansas the nearest construction of a factory of detonators and starters of a cost of 33 million dollars, close to the town of Jacksonville, to 15 km in the North-East of Little Rock. The firm Ford, Bacon & Davis, of New York, was in charge with the design, construction as well as exploitation of the factory. It was to also train the technical supervisory staff. The AOP was one of the first factories whose construction was financed by the Federal state and the exploitation entrusted at a private company.

After a topographical survey of the site, the Federal state took of it possession by means of expropriation due to public utility. The inhabitants had then quickly to evacuate the places. The site entirely was enclosed and kept by armed patrols, safety being very rigorous. Arkansas Ordnance Plant formed almost an autonomous community. Networks of water conveyance and sewers, roads and railways were built on the site and were connected to the external infrastructures. The factory had its own hospital, its service sets fire to, its service of maintenance, the cafeterias and the equipment for the leisures of the personnel.

The site of the AOP comprised several groups of buildings and several assembly lines which manufactured propelling wicks, loads, detonators and starters. The first assembly line entered in service the March 4th 1942 and in June of the same year, the other chains entered in service. Between March 1942 and August 1945, Arkansas Ordnance Plant manufactured:

: 1062336263 detonators and relay;
: 106697860 starters;
: 328948476 elements of percussion;
: 175856066 wicks;
: 5810315 propelling loads.

Personnel

The mobilization of the young men in the armed forces forced the AOP to turn to a labor which had never worked or had only occupied of employment very badly paids: handicapped people, housewives, young people and older adults, Afro-Americans. The needs for labor were such as boys and girls of 14 or 15 years, which had lied on their age, were sometimes engaged without any checking.

The great majority of the workers of the production were women, the women ordnance workers , called WOW . In August 1943, the women represented 75 percent thus of: 12686 workers of the AOP. The quarter of the personnel was made up Afro-Americans, of which some were supervisors. If the black workers were encouraged to postulate with an employment, they worked then in workshops which were reserved to them, the racial segregation being still the rule on the work places of Arkansas at the time.

The full number of people occupied in Arkansas Ordnance Plant rose quickly. Eight month after the beginning of the production, the November 22nd 1942, manpower culminated with: 14092 workers. It still exceeded: 12800 at the end of 1944. In August 1945, at the time of the Japanese defeat, it rose with: 7000 people. Six months later, the AOP was completely closed.

One of the main issues encountered by the personnel of Arkansas Ordnance Plant was housing. The factory had engaged in priority of the local workers, but part of the personnel was recruited in a ray of a hundred kilometers and sometimes beyond. A whole of 375 prefabricated houses made it possible to place 500 families as of 1942. Certain workers were lodged in caravans or dormitories of the AOP. Others had to be satisfied with a tent or their car. At the beginning, the lack of residences was a real problem. On the other hand, the staff management as well as the families of the soldiers profited from especially built residences.

The continuation

In 1946, the Federal state put the site on sale. Several buildings were rented with companies while certain pieces were resold with their former owner. The air base of Little Rock (Little Rock Air Force Bases) occupied part of the site of the AOP in the years 1950.

Into 2004, an old building of the factory was converted into a military museum of history, Jacksonville Museum off Military History, whose section is devoted to Arkansas Ordnance Plant.

Sources

the AOP on the Encyclopedia of Arkansas on line.

History of the AOP on the site of the Chamber of commerce of Jacksonville (Arkansas)

External bonds

Jacksonville Museum off Military History on the Encyclopedia of Arkansas on line.

Site of Jacksonville Museum off Military History

the air base of Little Rock on the Encyclopedia of Arkansas on line.

Random links: