"Highly Valued Employees"

During World War II, the nation faced a serious labor shortage. People were needed for military service, agriculture, newly-built defense industries, and essential daily businesses and services. The demand for labor created problems for places across the US, including Cheyenne County.

In early March 1942, the War Department announced the construction of the Sioux Ordnance Depot near Sidney, Nebraska. Almost immediately, this ammunition storage site experienced the labor shortage plaguing the nation. With all of the war’s demands, Cheyenne County did not have enough people to fully staff the Depot. 

The Depot’s Commanding Officer Harold J. Preble worked out several agreements to recruit employees. By the end of World War II, the Depot employed several historically underrepresented groups of people. 

The Depot’s employees included women, African Americans, Japanese Americans, Italian and German prisoners of war, individuals with physical disabilities and more. Although the nation-wide labor shortage made their employment necessary, all of these people became “highly valued employees” at the Depot because of their contributions to the World War II war effort.[1]

Using government documents, photographs, oral histories, and the Cheyenne County Historical Society’s Sioux Army Depot Collection, this exhibit presents the memories of former employees, their descendants, and community members through the lenses of gender, race and ethnicity, and ability to highlight the contributions of the Sioux Ordnance Depot’s highly-valued World War II employees from 1942 to 1946.

Published: January 15, 2025 Last Updated: January 15, 2025

Author: Tatiana Moore Painter, UNK Graduate Student