User:Poisonedandleftfordead

Cornhusker Army Ammunition Plant (CAAP)

A big piece of Grand Island's background lies immediately west of city limits — the Cornhusker Army Ammunition Plant. Many families were displaced in 1942 to create the 20-square mile plant to manufacture artillery shells, mines, bombs and rockets for World War II. Many worked at the plant during that phase and two others when the plant was reactivated in 1950 for the Korean War and again in 1965 for the Vietnam War.

Tracy Overstreet "The Independent" 9/2/2001

The construction of the Cornhusker Ordnance Plant, also known as the Cornhusker Army Ammunition Plant, began on March 24, 1942. The plant eventually sprawled over a twenty square mile area at its location five miles west of Grand Island.

Cornhusker Ordnance Plant workers poured the first bomb on November 11, 1942, and loading operations continued until August 16, 1945, the day after Japan surrendered. During World War II, plant workers were employed mainly in the loading of 260 lb and 90 lb fragmentation bombs, l000 lb and 2000 lb general demolition bombs, and 105 mm high explosive artillery shells.

As Grand Island's largest and most diverse industry during World War II, some 15,000 were employed at the Cornhusker Ordnance Plant during the Nov. 1942-Aug. 1945 period. At its peak, the Plant employed 4229 workers.

After the war, the plant went through a decontamination process and it was placed in standby condition. In the 1950s, the Silas Mason Company used the plant for rocket manufacture. During the Korean and Vietnam wars, 500 lb and 750 lb bombs were assembled there for the Army Air Corps and Air Force.

In the later twentieth century, the Plant was on layaway status, although it was used as an Air Force satellite ground support station during 1978-1982. For most of the rest of the 1980s, the plant and the grounds were leased to private operators on a bid basis.

RG0825: Cornhusker Ordnance Plant (Grand Island, Neb.)

Scrapbooks, 1942-1944 and 1949-1960 Grand Island, Hall County, Neb.: Munitions plant Size: 2 volumes on 1 microfilm reel