 |
|
30th Infantry, Fort Crook, Nebraska, 1905. Houses for officer's quarters~ Offutt Air Force Base Photo. Graphic restoration by Al Barrus
|
Omaha District's military assignments predated the
attack on Pearl Harbor. Until 1940, the Construction
Division of the Quartermaster Corps had carried out
all military construction. This mission expanded
dramatically in the late 1930's and severely strained
the resources of the Quartermasters. In the fall of
1940, General George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff of
the Army, transferred airfield construction to the
Corps of Engineers. Although the change significantly
reduced the workload of the overburdened
Quartermaster Corps, it also created an anomalous
situation in which the Quartermasters still handled
two-thirds of military construction and the Engineers
managed the rest. Congress consolidated all of the
work in the hands of the Engineers just before the
United States entered the war. The Army had a new
construction agent.
Some risk attended the transfer because many of
the projects were in advanced stages of construction.
The change took place gradually. The District's
first military construction assignment, Lowry Field` in
Denver, came during December of 1940. By 30
March 1941, the Engineers had assumed
responsibility for 81 Army Air Forces projects.
Quartermaster Corps personnel worked effectively
to make the transition, and many of them transferred
to the Corps of Engineers as it moved into a
totally new field of construction work.
On the administrative level, a rapid succession of
Omaha District Engineers presided over a burgeoning
staff and a rapidly increasing wartime workload.
On 15 February 1942, Swenholt was relieved by
Colonel Lewis A. Pick. Then came Major E. W.
Niles, who was in turn relieved by Colonel Ole G.
Hoaas on 24 February 1942. On 17 September
1943, Lieutenant Colonel Delbert B. Freeman
assumed direction of the District and continued as
District Engineer into 1947.
 |
| Lowry AFB World War II buildings. Chapel is in background. |
In addition to gaining experience in airbase construction
at Lowry Field, District personnel learned
of industrial construction when they constructed a
bomber plant in Omaha for the Glenn L. Martin
Company. The project served as a school that
taught new construction techniques. Approval for
the plant came in January of 1941. Ground breaking
for the Fort Crook Bomber Assembly Plant, the
official name, took place 2 months later.
The Fort Crook Plant was one of four assembly
facilities to which the automobile manufacturers of
the Nation sent parts to be made into combat aircraft.
The other facilities were built at Kansas City,
Kansas, for North American Aviation; Fort Worth,
Texas, for the Consolidated Aircraft Company; and
Tulsa, Oklahoma, for the Douglas Aircraft Company.
The Omaha plant initially built the B-26 medium
bomber.
The plant duplicated Martin 's Baltimore facility,
designed by Albert Kahn Associates of Chicago. A
three-firm joint venture contracted to build the
factory. The consortium, which operated on a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract, included the Peter Kiewit
and Sons and George W. Condon Companies of
Omaha and the Woods Brothers Construction Company
of Lincoln, Nebraska. District employees who
had little heavy construction experience were augmented
by personnel from other Districts and began
to move 5 million cubic yards of soil to lay the
plant's runways.
The main assembly building was 600 by 900 feet
with a full basement and two stories. The plant included
two 150- by 400-foot modification hangars, a
powerplant, several small buildings, and parking ways were provided, each with 24-inch base layers
compacted by runway tractors and sheepsfoot
rollers. The center 150 feet received an asphalt
covering and the aprons and taxiways received a
concrete surface. The building was so large that it
needed a transverse expansion joint to compensate
for temperature differentials. Seventy giant
floodlights illuminated exterior areas, and 11,550
 |
|
Fort Crook Bomber Assembly Plant for Glenn L. Martin Company, Offut Air Base
|
At the start of the war, the Army Air Forces
assumed that sod fields would accommodate any of
its aircraft except the heaviest bombers. Aircraft
such as the heavy B-17C and huge XB-19 rolled
down existing runways and caused cracks, bends,
and furrows. Stunned civilian designers, Army Air
Forces officers, and Engineers watched as the great
aircraft plowed up runways and left them close to
useless.
The growing bomber fleet required hundreds of runways.
The Corps, fliers, and civilian engineers set
out to learn how to pave them. Experience in building
in a variety of soils with diverse drainage conditions
came from failures and success at dozens of
fields. In Montana, for example, some of the lessons
came from working in the winter. Frozen base
course material was placed to support the runways.
With the spring thaws, the ground and the base
course melted and the runways sagged, heaved,
and disintegrated. The experience clarified the
necessity for the understanding of climate, foundation
material, artificial surfaces and their bearing
capacities, and the complexities of soil drainage.
In the course of building Army Air Forces bases, the
Omaha Engineers developed an expedient process
for surfacing runways. Over reinforced concrete,
they used a mixture of soil and cement. First they
dumped and spread as much as 9 inches of borrow
pit material. Then they dumped sacks of cement at
intervals, mixed the materials, added water, and
turned the mixture. Rolling and curing completed
the process. This method produced as much as
10,000 square yards of 7-inch wearing surface per
day.
All of the training facilities were rushed to completion,
as evidenced by the tar paper shacks that
passed for bachelor officers' quarters at the Sioux
Falls, South Dakota, airbase. Nevertheless, runways,
lighting systems, and utilities at the airbases
received careful attention so that training could
proceed safely.
 |
|
1918 aircraft at Fort Crook, Omaha.
|
Most of the District's airbases, including those at
Bruning, Fairmont, and Harvard, Nebraska, trained
heavy bomber crews. Responsibility for the training
fields passed from the Kansas City District to
Omaha on 27 January 1943, and the District completed
them the following June. The Omaha District
constructed additional heavy bomber training bases
at Ainsworth, Kearney, Grand Island, and McCook,
Nebraska; Sioux City, Iowa; and Mitchell, South
Dakota. Both Grand Island and McCook started as
satellite bases with minimum facilities where
fledgling aviators could practice takeoffs and
landings. The facilities subsequently evolved into
fully operational bases. The District built more
satellite fields at Scottsbluff, Nebraska, and
Watertown, South Dakota.
Not all of the bases trained heavy bomber crews. At
the District's training field at Pierre, fighter pilots
learned the maneuvers necessary to survive encounters
with enemy aircraft. At Alliance, Nebraska,
the Army Air Forces trained paratroopers and glider
pilots. Many graduates of Alliance swooped noiselessly behind the German seacoast fortifications in
the predawn hours of D-Day, 6 June 1944.
The Army Air Forces also worked through the
Omaha District to build an unusual airfield at Scribner,
Nebraska. Omaha carried out an experiment in
concealment there. Paint and texturing were utilized
in an attempt to make the base resemble a typical
series of Nebraska farms. Frame and chicken wire
structures covered with chicken feathers gave the
appearance of rolling land. A painter, armed with a
spray gun and wearing snowshoes, walked over the
structures and painted them. The camouflage is
said to have worked so well that it even deceived
some Army Air Forces generals who flew over the
base.
 |
|
Fort Crook Bomber Assembly Plant initialily built the B-26 medium bomber.
|
The District, lauded for its work, anxiously wished to
turn the project over to the Army Air Forces. With
summer turning to fall, it became evident that the
camouflage would have to change with the season.
The District wanted to get the Scribner field off its
hands quickly. The chameleon-like airfield demanded
literally truckloads of paint to change its
color, and the District did not relish making the expensive
seasonal changes.
The District also improved eight civilian airports.
These were located at Bismarck, North Dakota;
Grand Island and North Platte, Nebraska; Laramie,
Wyoming; Pierre, South Dakota; and Minneapolis,
St. Paul, and Rochester, Minnesota. The work involved
grading and paving runways, building
hangars, laying out lighting systems, improving utilities,
and installing drainage systems so that the Air
Transport Command and newly developing heavy
civilian aircraft could utilize the fields.
At Lincoln, the District built a mechanics' school for
Army Air Forces maintenance personnel, and at Sioux Falls it created an entire technical school for
ground personnel. On the Rapid City airbase, two
simulated trainer buildings were built along with a
bombardment training building, a target range, gasoline
storage facilities, and an extensive lighting
system for night flying. This experience, gained as
the construction agent for the Army Air Forces, put
the District in good stead in future years.
The matter at hand was not planning for the future.
Instead, there was the war that had started with the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Wilfred G. Hill, an
employee of the Construction Division of the Quartermaster
Corps came to Jackson Street on 16 December
1941 when 10 partially built Quartermaster
projects were turned over to Omaha for completion.
The men and women of the Quartermaster Corps
helped the District build several training bases for
Army ground forces. Hill worked in the Architectural
Design Section, and his initial work involved the
construction of barracks. In most instances, the barracks
were designed for a useful life of 3 years.
Architects were sorely needed, so Hill and his colleagues
sometimes worked 72-hour weeks.
The Omaha District began or built training facilities
for Army ground forces at seven installations. The
principal work included construction of reception
centers for new inductees at Camp Dodge, Kansas,
and Fort Logan, Colorado, and a technical school at
Fort Logan. Camp Carson, Colorado, began as an
infantry training facility, later became Fort Carson,
and grew to be one of the Army's major posts.
Camp Hale, isolated high in the Colorado Rockies,
was used to train ski troops. The work at Fort
Snelling, Minnesota, involved the renovation and reconditioning
of existing buildings and the erection of
an industrial storage facility for the Reconstruction
Finance Corporation. At Fort Francis E. Warren, Wyoming, the District built warehouses, a dental
clinic, and a motor repair shop.
 |
|
Heavy B-17C bombers cracked the runways. US Air
|
The Omaha Engineers also built the language
school at Camp Savage, Minnesota, where many
American soldiers received their first introduction to
Japanese culture. District forces built nine school
buildings, barracks, messhalls, recreation facilities,
housing for civilian instructors, and a whole utilities
infrastructure. Graduates of the school became the
backbone of the Nation's intelligence effort in the
Pacific theater.
World War II was not fought by men alone. Many
young women also joined the military. With the
Army's 7th Service Command, the Omaha District
helped make Fort Des Moines, Iowa, the major
facility for the Women's Army Corps. The Des
Moines garrison was composed of only a few hundred
soldiers at the outbreak of the war. By June of
1943, the population grew to 12,000, mostly women
at the fort for training. To facilitate the rapid expansion
of this mile-square post, the District leased and
converted three hotels into barracks in downtown
Des Moines. For additional instruction space,
Omaha modified the Orensky Building on the Drake
University campus and refurbished the women's
gymnasium. After the war, Hill had to make adjustments
and recommend payment to the hotel owners
for the wear and tear on the buildings during their
heavy wartime use.
While facilities for training were important, one of
this country's greatest contributions to the Allied
victory rested in the ability to retool industrial facilities
and create new factories. The Omaha Engineers
constructed some of the plants; the output
literally overwhelmed the enemy. The District
assisted the Brown and Bigelow Company, which
built a plant that manufactured fuses for explosives.
The National Can Company used its experience with
tin containers to make shell casings in a District-constructed
plant. The District also built the Como
Forging Plant for 155-millimeter shell casings and
rehabilitated two buildings at the Quad Cities Tank
Arsenal for the manufacture of tanks. In St. Paul,
the District converted a set of buildings into a propeller
manufacturing plant with a capacity of 10,000
blades a month. Farther west, in Cheyenne, Wyoming,
the District 's Cheyenne Modification Center
refit and modified aircraft for the Army Air Forces.
Omaha District employees worked at other manufacturing
or river tasks to aid the war effort. The
river was kept clear in front of the Peterson and
Haecher Company's shipbuilding ways in Blair,
Nebraska. District employees improved the Omaha
Steel Company's waterfront facilities for the United
States Navy, which employed Omaha Steel to build
landing craft. The peripatetic Hill was loaned to
another District to work on war projects in St. Louis.
Arthur Cognard, one of Captain Young's original
Omaha District staff, inspected bulldozer blades fabricated
by Omaha Steel, as well as water purification
units built by another supplier.
Large military and industrial construction projects
were not the only wartime projects that absorbed
the District's energies. Late in 1940, the District
found itself with a mission to procure supplies for
the military. At that time, the District purchased 200
flatbed machinery trailers, which were manufactured
in the Omaha area. Before the war was over
the District bought a host of products for the
fighting forces. The items included brooms, sandbags,
electrical transmission equipment, oil heaters,
snow fences , and dragline buckets.
 |
|
Damaged runways
|
District employees had little experience in the construction
of ordnance manufacturing facilities when
war broke out. They did have one project underway,
the Nebraska Ordnance Plant in Fremont. The site
was chosen from among 2,000 possible locations
across the country. Fremont was far enough inland
to be out of the range of enemy bombers and safe
from any invading force.
The essential features of the Nebraska Ordnance
Plant were four bomb manufacturing lines, a
booster line, and an ammonium nitrate production
facility. The plant could manufacture 90-pound fragmentation
bombs for use against infantry or
4,000-pound blockbusters for the British. Over 2.8
million bombs were assembled at Fremont during
the war with 8,000 individuals employed at the peak
of operations. The plant, managed by the Nebraska
Defense Corporation, a subsidiary of Firestone Tire
and Rubber Company, achieved full production on
18 March 1943 after Omaha District personnel
helped start the lines one by one. In addition to construction
of the main plant and its complex utilities
systems, District personnel built 15 staff houses,
dormitories for 600 men and women, 54 warehouses,
and 219 magazines with an enclosed area
of some 233,066 square feet.
The Omaha District completed another ordnance
plant located in Iowa. The Des Moines Ordnance
Plant was transferred to the Omaha District from
the Rock Island District when construction was only
one fourth completed.
In March 1942, the District broke ground for the
Cornhusker Ordnance Plant at Grand Island. The
factory started production the following November.
The rapid creation of such a complex facility demonstrated
the hectic pace of wartime construction
and illustrated some of the methods used to meet
the war's demanding schedules. The Ordnance
Corps of the Army furnished standardized plans
used at other facilities. Such uniform plans were
used in the District's war work wherever possible. Standardization eliminated many potential problems
but required adaptation of the plans to individual
sites. The Corn husker factory had the standard four
loading lines, booster line, and ammonium nitrate
line for production of 105-millimeter ammunition and
bombs. The complex sprawled over 12,788 acres,
with 15 staff houses, 5 dormitories that contained
440 rooms, and 6 barracks for 240 people. An eight-bed
hospital, 2 recreation rooms, and 10 cafeterias
were available for the workers.
 |
|
Camp Hale, Colorado. Old World War II Army Ski Camp. U.S. Army Photo
|
District personnel also built machine, carpenter, and
maintenance shops; four motor vehicle sheds; and a
laundry to service the giant plant. To store the
deadly products, 41 warehouses that enclosed one half
million square feet of space and 219 magazines
that covered 280,800 square feet were built. The Q.O. Ordnance Company, a subsidiary of the Quaker
Oats Company, managed the factory.
Because the Nebraska and Cornhusker Ordnance
Plants were located nearby, the Sioux Ordnance
Depot was begun by the District on 15 March 1942
and completed the following December. The depot
covered 20,000 acres and became one of the
largest ammunition support depots for the Pacific
theater. The 33 warehouses covered 2 million
square feet; 815 magazines enclosed 1.7 million
square feet.
The District built the Sioux Depot from the ground
up. The depot managed the continuous flow of packaged
explosives from the ordnance plants to the
training camps and the frontlines. Facilities for 51 officers and 1,314 enlisted men included a 54-bed
hospital, a movie theater, a library, and a sports
complex for off-duty use.
Adjustments of construction responsibilities meant
facilities were sometimes started by one agency but
completed by another. The Iowa Ordnance Plant
was transferred to Omaha District jurisdiction by the
Quartermaster Corps when almost complete.
Located at Burlington, the facility manufactured
bombs up to 6,000 pounds and artillery projectiles
of various sizes. The Denver Ordnance Plant, which
manufactured small arms ammunition, was transferred
to the newly formed Denver District in May of
1942. The St. Paul District transferred its Twin Cities
Ordnance Plant to Omaha jurisdiction along with its
Gopher Ordnance Plant at Rosemount, Minnesota.
The Gopher factory manufactured black powder and
renovated defective powders under the management
of the E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company.
The St. Paul District's construction of the Gopher
plant came to a virtual standstill in the summer of
1942 when the heaviest recorded rainfall in the area
inundated Rosemount. The plant was slowly completed
and put in a standby status. The Omaha District
then received orders to double the plant's
capacity. After a flurry of construction, the greatly
increased plant opened and production began on 7
July 1944.
The Omaha District also did construction work at
two major Army medical centers. These projects at
Fitzsimons General Hospital in Denver and Schick
General Hospital in Clinton, Iowa, originated the
same way. The Army wanted to establish a tuberculosis
hospital in the cool, dry, invigorating climate of
Denver. The Denver Chamber of Commerce learned
about this and bought 599 acres of land and leased
it to the Army for a dollar a year as the site for the
hospital. In 1942, the Clinton Chamber of Commerce
purchased 12 acres of land and donated it and a
38-acre park as the site for Schick.
The Quartermasters started the 608-bed main hospital
at Fitzsimons in 1937. They completed it just
prior to the transfer of construction responsibilities
to the Engineers. On 17 December 1941, the first
patients were admitted. Omaha started wartime expansion,
but the new Denver District took over in
May 1942. Fitzsimons General Hospital was later
assigned back to the Omaha District.
 |
|
One of the larger prisoner-of-war camps for Axis prisoners.
|
The medical center at Clinton was designed and
built by the Rock Island District, which completed
the 1,000-bed facility in December of 1942. Responsibility
for Schick was then transferred to the
Omaha District on 31 March 1943. Omaha received
orders to begin construction of a 516-bed addition,
which was completed in less than 4 months.
The District performed much of its construction
mission for the 7th Service Command. This organization
supervised many of the Army's housekeeping
chores in an eight-state area that included Minnesota,
Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, the Dakotas, Wyoming,
and Nebraska. As the representative of the
user commands of the Army, the Service Command
worked with the various Corps of Engineers Districts
and Divisions within the region and provided
standardized plans for various facilities.
One aspect of this cooperation came about as
victory in battle led to the capture of enemy soldiers.
The Omaha District built prisoner-of-war
camps at Algona, Clarinda, and Indianola, Iowa; Atlanta,
Scottsbluff, and Fort Robinson, Nebraska; and
Douglas, Wyoming. These camps were built from
standard plans approved and modified by the Adju-tant General 's Office. The surrender of large numbers
of enemy soldiers coincided with the development
of labor shortages in the United States. The
District built facilities to house prisoners where they
would be most useful. At Algona, for example, 65
percent of the prisoners worked in food canning
plants, 15 percent cut timber in the north woods,
and 10 percent worked on farms.
The Algona camp, set on 200 acres of farmland,
consisted of 200 standard dimension buildings. The
main camp housed 121 captured officers and 3,222
enlisted men. Algona had a 2,000-volume library and
a 328-seat post theater which doubled as a church.
The prisoners were also furnished a soccer field.
The 3,000-prisoner Clarinda camp alleviated industrial
and agricultural manpower shortages. The
camp was activated on 24 January 1944 and had 12
branch camps. The branch camp at Independence,
Missouri, supported agriculture; at Wadsworth,
Kansas, War Department construction; at Hannibal,
Missouri , industry; at Wapello, Iowa, both industry
and agriculture; and at Lexington and Chesterfield,
Missouri, Corps of Engineers river work.
The Atlanta camp housed 3,000 enlisted prisoners
and 71 officers. It had a 113-bed hospital, an indoor
theater, and a soccer field. As with many installations
the Omaha District built, there was no public
transportation to the facility. Only a Government-owned
busline served the camp.
 |
|
Memo for the President.
|
New evidence of the onward march of Allied arms
came to Clarinda in February 1945. At that time,
almost all of the 3,000 German prisoners there were
moved elsewhere. A small contingent stayed and
did repair and maintenance chores before it too was
removed. The first Japanese prisoners entered Clarinda
on February 4. The Japanese were intensely
hated by the American public. At first, they were not
sent out of the camp to labor at essential tasks.
However, as victory came nearer, the policy was reversed.
By that time, the District had come a long way in
military construction. The initial lack of experience,
supplies, and skilled labor had often caused problems.
At first, architect Hill did not fully understand
the wide variety of builders' hardware. To master it,
he searched for information and knowledge on the
subject. The best he could do was to enroll in the
Stanley Hardware Company's correspondence
course for its salesmen. The course proved helpful
but Hill augmented his knowledge with conversations
with local hardware store owners. Once he
knew the most efficient uses of the metal fittings
and the best methods for their installation , he could
arrive at more realistic estimates of project costs
and recommend the best pieces of hardware.
The District also began to use continuous progress
charts during the war. With these, Omaha and its
contractors monitored daily construction progress,
set practical goals to speed construction, and
watched costs. The District could tell a contractor
that he should have a given number of foundations,
walls, or roofs completed in a week based on the
charts and goals. With such methods, the District
managed schedules that often called for the completion
of complexes with over 100 buildings in 3 or
4 months.
The war caused several Government agencies to
locate or expand in Omaha, and the District was
given the responsibility to house them. In 1942, the
Missouri River Division relocated from Kansas City
to Omaha and needed quarters. The 5th (V) Army Corps
also came to town, ousting the Internal Revenue Service from its offices in the Federal Building at
15th and Dodge Streets. The District arranged to remodel
portions of the Masonic Temple and to move
the Internal Revenue Service into the building.
The District's headquarters building at 1709 Jackson
became inadequate with the influx of new employees
who joined the District to help in the war
effort. The old first-floor pressroom of the Omaha
Bee News was remodeled to provide space for
some of the employees. Rooms were also leased
next door to the Farm Credit Building and on the
second and third stories of the bus depot at 16th
and Jackson Streets. The need to rapidly increase
the work force resulted in hasty assignments of
space. New employees were scattered throughout
the building, separate from their sections and
branches, and a normal workflow was impossible.
Hill formulated a plan that brought the components
of the District together in a workable spatial
arrangement.
While tending to its own work, the District sent the
332nd Engineer General Service Regiment to build
and fight its way across Europe. Colonel Swenholt
was relieved as Omaha District Engineer and
ordered to form the regiment, which consisted
mainly of civilian engineers and construction workers
from within the District's boundaries. Swenholt
commanded the regiment from early 1942 until late
1943. The 332nd spent the war in Europe building a
number of facilities for the Army.
Despite the emphasis on military construction, work
on the 6-foot channel proceeded during 1942 at the
rapid rate established during the late thirties. Captain
Niles, who had been Swenholt's executive
assistant, became a major and District Engineer in
1942. He reported that the reach from Kansas City
to Rulo was 94 percent complete; the reach from
Rulo to Omaha, 98 percent; and the reach from
Omaha to Sioux City, 75 percent.
 |
|
1944 - B-20 shown on a Nebraska airfield. the Enola Gay was a modified B-29. National Archives Photo
|
The Federal Barge Line's vessels were sent from
the river for use elsewhere, and the War Production
Board curtailed work on the 6-foot channel. In 1944,
only five lumber mattresses with a total length of
7,283 feet were woven and a single l,306-foot
length of bank was reveted. A 945-foot revetment
was placed in 1945. Prisoners of war helped maintain
the work, which nonetheless deteriorated after
the drought at last broke.
In 1942, the District transferred much of its military
construction work to the new Denver District, which
encompassed the watershed of the South Platte
River above its junction with the Cache la Poudre
River as well as the Arkansas River above La Junta,
Colorado. Along with the military work went the
Cherry Creek flood control project, on which only
planning had been done.
Colonel Carl H. Jabelonsky was the Denver District
Engineer from the time the District was founded
until 30 September 1943. On that date, Lieutenant
Colonel S. R. Hamner assumed the position of District
Engineer. He had the responsibility for the completion
of a large number of military construction
projects begun by the Omaha District, among them
Buckley and Lowry Fields and the Cheyenne and
Laramie Airports. Training facilities at Camps
Carson and Hale and Fort Francis E. Warren were
also assumed by Hamner. The induction center and
technical school at Fort Logan were completed by
the Denver District and ongoing projects at
Fitzsimons General Hospital added to the District's
workload. Hamner's District also took over
construction of the Denver Ordnance Plant and built
the Douglas prisoner-of-war camp.