Pueblo Depot Activity ''(PUDA)'', formerly known as the Pueblo Ordnance Depot and the Pueblo Army Depot, was a

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

ammunition storage and supply facility. Responsibility for the depot fell upon the

United States Army Ordnance Corps The United States Army Ordnance Corps, formerly the United States Army Ordnance Department, is a Combat service support (United States), sustainment branch of the United States Army, headquartered at Fort Gregg-Adams, Fort Gregg-Adams, Virginia ...

, and the first civilians were hired in 1942 as operations began. The mission quickly expanded to include general supplies as well. It is a site located east of

Pueblo Pueblo refers to the settlements of the Pueblo peoples, Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, currently in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. The permanent communities, including some of the oldest continually occupied settlement ...

, Colorado at . In 1945 they began to receive mass amounts of equipment returning from the combat theaters of World War II. Therefore, the mission expanded yet again to include the maintenance and refurbishing of

artillery Artillery consists of ranged weapons that launch Ammunition, munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and l ...

fire control Fire control is the practice of reducing the heat output of a fire, reducing the area over which the fire exists, or suppressing or extinguishing the fire by depriving it of fuel, oxygen, or heat (see fire triangle). Fire prevention and control ...

, and

optical Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultravio ...

material. In 1951 the depot assumed responsibility to distribute

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its origins to 1 ...

ammunition for an eight-state area, as well as storage of

strategic Strategy (from Greek στρατηγία ''stratēgia'', "troop leadership; office of general, command, generalship") is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. In the sense of the "art o ...

and critical materials for the

General Services Administration The General Services Administration (GSA) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the United States government established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. G ...

(GSA). They were also tasked to rebuild and provide on-site maintenance support for guided missiles, ensure calibration and maintenance of electronic test equipment and radio-controlled aerial targets. They would also provide specialized training for new Army equipment as needed. In 1952,

Rocky Mountain Arsenal The Rocky Mountain Arsenal was a United States chemical weapons manufacturing center located in the Denver Metropolitan Area in Commerce City, Colorado. The site was completed December 1942, operated by the United States Army throughout the ...

in Denver, Colorado transferred chemical agents and chemical munitions to Pueblo Army Depot for secure storage. In 1974 Pueblo Army Depot was redesignated as Pueblo Depot Activity. Upon this redesignation the missile maintenance mission was transferred to

Letterkenny Army Depot Letterkenny Army Depot (originally Letterkenny Ordnance Depot), the Center of Industrial and Technical Excellence (CITE) for Air Defense and Tactical Missile Systems, was established in early 1942. Its leadership began recruiting civilian personn ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, and responsibility for the Activity was shifted from Army Ordnance, to

Tooele Army Depot Tooele Army Depot (TEAD) is a United States Army Joint Munitions Command post in Tooele County, Utah. It serves as a storage site for war reserve and training ammunition. The depot stores, issues, receives, renovates, modifies, maintains and demi ...

in Utah. The Defense Secretary's Commission on Base Realignment and Closure recommended realignment for Pueblo Depot Activity in its 1988 report. This realignment transferred most of the previous responsibilities to other installations. The only remaining mission for the Depot was the secure storage of the

chemical agents A chemical weapon (CW) is a specialized munition that uses chemicals formulated to inflict death or harm on humans. According to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), this can be any chemical compound intended as a ...

already there. Responsibility for the Depot shifted from Tooele, to the US Army Materiel Command headquartered at

Fort Belvoir Fort Belvoir ( ) is a United States Army installation and a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. It was developed on the site of the former Belvoir (plantation), Belvoir plantation, seat of the prominent Lord ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

. The empty bunkers and warehouses which used to store the non-chemical munitions and other supplies as well as repair and

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer ...

facilities were turned over to the Pueblo Depot Activity Development Authority who currently offer these properties for

civilian A civilian is a person who is not a member of an armed force. It is war crime, illegal under the law of armed conflict to target civilians with military attacks, along with numerous other considerations for civilians during times of war. If a civi ...

lease purposes.

Lethal Unitary Chemical Agents and Munitions

In 1952 Pueblo Depot Activity received its first shipment of chemical agents. These agents were trucked from

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

, Colorado. Upon receipt of these munitions for secure storage, PUDA became one of eight installations within the United States where chemical weapons are stored. The depot created an exclusion zone within its bounds specifically for this purpose. It was rather like a depot within a depot. It was designated as the Chemical Depot, of Pueblo Depot Activity. These actions would prove to save the installation from closure when it was considered in 1988. Because of the chemical stockpiles it was realigned rather than closed. It is scheduled for closure in 2022 when it completes what will be its last mission, the safe elimination of all remaining chemical stockpiles. This process began in 2015 and is being done through on-site neutralization.

References

External links

*{{HAER , survey=CO-22 , id=co0169 , title=Pueblo Depot Activity, 15 miles east of Pueblo, Pueblo County, CO , data=57 Former installations of the United States Army Historic American Engineering Record in Colorado

Lethal Unitary Chemical Agents and Munitions

See also

References

External links