October 14, 1941

The Anniston Army Depot was planned as an ammunition storage site in the Alabama foothills of the Appalachian Mountains before World War II. In February 1941, the Department of the Army began construction on 500 ammunitions “igloos,” along with warehouses and administration buildings, on 10,640 acres of land it had acquired near Anniston. The facility was named the Anniston Ordnance Depot on Oct. 14, 1941. The need for the depot’s services increased greatly after the attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States’ entry into the war. By 1942, the Army had expanded the depot to more than 15,000 acres. About 4,000 civilians worked on site receiving, processing and shipping the tons of ammunition needed by the Army and its allies. The depot continued as a storage facility and vehicle maintenance site after the war. Its mission was expanded in 1952 to include the job of overhauling and rebuilding the Army’s fleet of combat vehicles and tanks, along with its artillery and anti-aircraft artillery. In August 1962, it was renamed Anniston Army Depot to better reflect its growing maintenance role. During its history, no major units have been posted at the depot. Today, the depot maintains the entire inventory of the Army’s small arms, from pistols to heavy machine guns.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Soldiers examine engine parts on a disassembly line inside the depot’s new 142,500-square-foot Powertrain Flexible Maintenance Facility as part of Anniston Army Depot’s Operation Tell Your Story, 2009. (Photograph by Jeremy Guthrie, U.S. Army photographer, Wikipedia)

M1 Abrams battle tanks undergoing a rebuild at Anniston Army Depot. The depot is the main facility for the maintenance of the U.S. Army’s combat vehicles and tanks and serves as a weapons storage and disposal site. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of U.S. Department of Defense)

Chemical artillery shells undergoing decontamination and destruction at the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility at Anniston Army Depot in Calhoun County. The depot is a chemical weapons storage and disposal site for the U.S. Army. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of The Birmingham News, photograph by Frank Couch)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.