Glenn’s Job at the Depot

Grandpa worked at the Savanna Army Depot, which sometimes they called the Savanna Ordnance Deopt. He was a manager, I think. He seems to have participated in some sort of photo shoot here, documenting the work they did. There were a bunch of photos that I didn’t scan that didn’t have Grandpa in them. I’ll get around to them next time.

Dad ’hired on’ at the Savanna Ordnance Depot at age 19. His dad was done farming then. Before long my dad was drafted for WWII. When he returned from the war he went back to work at SOD. With army experience he was now a leader. Leader was a job classification. Then he became forman. He was a forman when he met my mom. His next promotion was into supervision. He was a supervisor when he retired after thirty three years of employment.

After showing these pictures to Dad he commented he was a foreman at this time and normaly would not physically do this work. He would train and supervise. The rounds on the cart are 90mm anti-aircraft artilary. The bucket going onto the trolly contains ’shaved’ TNT. This was more stable for storage. In this operation the TNT would be heated to a liquid state and poured into the artilary shell. Dad commented this was dangerous work but his crew did not have any accidents!

This picture was labelled “11-078-27-12/AL-54 11 Feb 54 Plants; Assembling TNT splash tray overfunnels prior to pouring. U.S. Army Photo by: V. Phifer Photographic Lab, Savanna Ordnance Depot, Ill.”

My mom was terrible at hemming pants. Dad’s overalls appear to be victim of her needle and thread skills.

This one was labelled “11-078-27-5/AL-54 2-11-54 90MM Operation; Attaching trolley to container of screened TNT. US Army photo by: V. Phifer Photographic Lab, Savanna Ordnance Depot, Ill.”

This one was labelled “11-078-27-3-AL-54 2-11-54 90MM Operation; Preparing packaged TNT for transfer to screening building. U.S. Army Photo by: V. Phifer Photographic Lab, Savanna Ordnance Depot, Ill.”