"Help Wanted"

Eventually,  the Personnel Division found that they needed to expand their recruitment search to include not just men but also women. 

However, the Depot still had many job openings, so the Commanding Officer Harold J. Preble started negotiating deals with other government facilities and military installations. 

He first made an arrangement with the Fort F.E. Warren Base in Wyoming to bring soldiers from the Quartermaster Training Companies, many of whom were African American, to the Depot for weekly training in ammunition handling. 

Then, the Depot received prisoners of war (POWs) from the nearby Scottsbluff POW camp. The Italian and German POWs contributed to the work at the Depot and greatly helped the Depot's operations.

But when Preble received word that the soldiers from Fort Warren would no longer be able to come to the Depot, he needed to find another source of workers. 

Washington D.C. recommended that the Depot hire Japanese Americans from the West Coast who had been incarcerated in the interior United States. They worked in all sorts of jobs at the Depot and helped to fill many of the open positions. 

While Preble was looking for more employees, he issued a memorandum that said the personnel division would hire individuals with physical disabilities. 

These laborers were placed in jobs best suited to their abilities and also became highly-valued employees at the Depot.

By the end of World War II, this diverse body of employees became "highly-valued" workers at the Depot.[1] Their stories show the national importance of the Depot during the war, while also demonstrating the significant contributions each of the employees made. 

Because of these highly-valued World War II employees, the Depot stayed open for twenty-five years and hired many other historically underrepresented groups in the post-war years. 

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

Author: Tatiana Moore Painter, UNK Graduate Student