Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant

At the beginning of 1939, the government imposed eminent domain to purchase land for the Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant (LAAP). Handled by the attorney Harvey Locke Carey of Shreveport, then with the United States Army Corps of Engineers,[2] completed the acquisition in 1941 even before the United States entered World War II.[3][4]

LAAP was completed in eleven months under the direction of the contractor, Silas Mason. At the time, the entire area was rural and thinly settled. In May 1942, eight production lines were opened. In December 1944, the number of employees peaked at 10,754, the month of the decisive Battle of the Bulge. In the summer of 1945 production ceased with V-J Day, and the plant was deactivated three months later.[5]

In the building of the plant, nine rural cemeteries in Webster and Bossier parishes came uniquely under the perpetual care of the United States government. Existing wooden grave markers were replaced with small concrete slabs without the names of the deceased listed on the markers. The cemeteries are Allentown, Crowe, Jim Davis, Keene, Knotttingham, Raine, Richardson, Vanorsdel, and Walker. Those interred are listed with dates of birth and death and occasionally with other information in a printed survey, but individuals cannot visit LAAP grounds to look for specific graves; none would be found by the names were such a search conducted. The Crowe and Richardson cemeteries have the greatest number of individual grave listings.[6]

LAAP was restored to service during the Korean War under Remington Rand in 1951, and employment reached 5,000 in 1953. LAAP included a metals forging and machining plant area known as the Y-Line Chromic Acid Etching Facility, which manufactured 155-mm projectiles.

The plant was activated once more during the Vietnam War in September 1961 by Sperry Rand, the contractor until 1975. It produced mines, shaped charges, fuzes, boosters, bombs, demolition blocks, projectiles, etc.[7] During this time there were two tragic accidental explosions in 1962 and again in 1968.[5] LAAP had 7,800 employees at the height of the Vietnam War in 1967.[8] The Army had four production areas for classified ammunitions.[9] While in operation, LAAP was like a town unto itself, with its own 20-bed hospital, fire department, telephone line, water wells, sewerage and lighting systems, roads, staff housing, and meal services. The facility was so large that many needed a map to find their way around the grounds. There were major safety and security programs with certain employees designated as "guards"; to prevent fires employees were forbidden to enter the plant with smoking materials in their possession.[5]

Among the plant managers during the Vietnam activation was retired United States Army Colonel Thomas L. Gaines (1901-1989), a native of Dickson County in western Tennessee who fought in both theaters of World War II, left the active military in 1956 and was the LAAP general manager from 1961 until August 1969. Gaines also held the national position of chief of ammunition manufacture for all twenty-six Army munitions plants scattered throughout the United States.[10]

James E. McMichael (1932-2009) served as the LAAP employment manager for a number of years. He was a former teacher/coach at the defunct Lowe Junior High School in Minden and an administrator in vocational technical education. Applicants selected had to pass a manual dexterity test.

From 1975 until 1989, LAAP colloquially known as "the shell plant", was operated by Morton Thiokol, now Thiokol, which also managed the Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant near Marshall, Texas. In 1979, under manager Steve Shows, employment had shrunk to 1,700 people.[11] Production included 155-mm metal parts and LAP operations on M692,4.2 inch mortar, Ml07 LAP Composition B, M73 Grenade Assembly, and some 2.75 inch warheads.[7]

When the government stopped buying the 4.2-inch mortar round of ammunition people were laid off.[12] Attrition continued; in March 1992, Shows announced that 332 employees would be dismissed in phases beginning on April 1.[13]

LAAP was the largest payroll provider in Webster Parish for many years. In 1990, it was one of fourteen active munitions plants in the United States, and had 1,400 employees, half involved in production. The plant pumped $36 million into the local economy. LAAP spent $37 million per year in the purchase of materials to produce mines, grenades, mortar, and artillery rounds.[14]

In 1993 LAAP began to seek commercial clients to lease partial use of the plant facilities.[15] In the mid-1990s, the property came under the management of Lea Hall Properties of Shreveport. In addition to the National Guard installation, the former LAAP is now leased to various commercial entities.[5]

As of 2002, a $7.3 million state-of-the-art prison opened within LAAP, the Bayou Dorcheat Correctional Center, named for Dorcheat Bayou. Pushed to completion by former Webster Parish Sheriff Larkin T. Riser, the prison was constructed to house up to 340 prisoners. Because the land on which the center sits is former military property, Riser depended on then U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu to break through the federal regulations: "She was a real champion for us. She ... helped us get through everything that had to be done in Washington." In addition to the Dorcheat Center, the sheriff's department also has facilities for forty-five inmates on the top floor of the Webster Parish Courthouse in Minden.

In December 2013, a $26 million facility to house three military units in more modern facilities opened at Camp Minden. The Armed Forces Reserve Center, visible from U.S. Highway 80, had been under planning and construction since 2008. It provides permanent, consolidated housing for the 1083rd Transportation Company, the 39th Military Police Company, and the 122nd Air Support Operations Squadron. More than three hundred soldiers and airmen were impacted by the new facility. As of 2013 a second project, a Regional Training Institute, was under construction.[16] The U.S. government funded the majority of the construction costs, the state provided $1 million, with another $6 million for infrastructure improvements.[16]

In July 2014, the EPA ordered the Army to clean up the site on the grounds, that the military should not have entrusted Explo Systems to handle such a large amount of the propellant. Three private firms, General Dynamics Corporation, Alliant Techsystems, and the Ashland, Inc., unit known as "Hercules" have been participating in the cleanup.[20] In October, 2014 EPA, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and the Army agreed to dispose of explosive M6 propellant by "open burn", in "prepared trays containing a shallow layer of the material, [as] has been used in other cleanups."[21]

In May 2015, EPA in conjunction with a Citizens' Advisory Group announced, that a contained burn system in the form of an incinerator would be used. The plan was to dismantle the incinerator and remove it after burns would be finished.[22] To oversee the cleanup, the EPA charged about $8 million on top of $1.2 million which the state of Louisiana had already paid.[23] In June 2015, Explo systems executives asked a state judge to throw out charges, because M6 was not classified as explosive in Louisiana.[24] The Army intended to dispose of the explosives through "open burns".

In June 2015, after months of public controversy, the Louisiana National Guard announced a contract had been awarded to remove millions of pounds of M6 propellant from Camp Minden. A contained burn unit was to be built. The initial $19 million contract could be increased to as much as $35 million to account for additional requirements set forth by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, which approved the cleanup.[25] The spokesman for the National Guard said that "Explosive Service International" of Baton Rouge, Louisiana was to oversee the operation. The company received notice from the Louisiana Office of State Procurement to begin work.[26]

Eventually a private facility in Colfax, Louisiana 95 miles south, operated by Clean Harbors was chosen. It is "the only commercial facility in the nation allowed to burn explosives and munitions waste with no environmental emissions controls."[27]