Naval Ammunition Depot
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The Naval Ammunition Depot, or NAD, was the largest WWII naval munition plant from 1942-1946. Construction began in July 1942 near Hastings, Nebraska and was complete in early 1943 with over 2000 structures including buildings, bunkers, and vairous other types of structures built just for this operation.
The cost of construction was over $71 million and this facility producted over 40 % of the Navy's munitions in WWII. Contributing to the reasons why the Navy built here were the areas three railroads to move supplies, the abundance of underground water, cheap natural gas and electricity, the stabel work force, and the distance from either coast since the enemy could not fly a fighter-bomber this far inland.
Three other NAD plants were located in Indiana, Oklahoma and Nevada. During WWII the following were manufactured here: bombs, rockets, torpedoes, mines, bagged powder and all calibers of smaller ammunition.
A blast officially killed nine people and injured 53 on September 15, 1944. It was caused by human error while a train was being loaded. The loading depot and the train were totally destroyed.
