| Original caption: “A woman war worker checks over 1,000-pound bomb cases before they are filled with deadly charges of explosives and shipped off to Allied bases and battlefronts all over the world. Firestone Tire and Rubber Company.” A Firestone employee checks 500-pound bomb casings, that will shortly be filled with 530 pounds of explosives to make AN-M65 General Purpose bombs. Note her special rubber anti-spark shoes. The 25,000,000-dollar Nebraska Ordinance Plant, outside of Mead, Nebraska, started operations in August 1942. 500 people were employed there by April 1942, with 8,000 expected at peak production. Firestone asked their employees to move to Nebraska, where they found a shortage of housing, which also had to be built for the workers. Half of Firestone’s employees were women. Explosives were shipped in by train in 50-pound (22 kilogram) boxes. Trinitrotoluene (TNT) was slowly heated with ammonium nitrate with 50 percent of each element. Fins, boosters (an accelerant which set off the TNT) and detonators for 100-pound (45 kilograms) AN-M30 bombs were affixed at the plant; all the other bombs, which initially ranged up to 6,000 pounds (2,720 kilograms), were sent elsewhere for finishing. No air pockets could be allowed during the pouring of the explosive. The bombs had to be air cured before they were ready to be used. Russell A. Firestone (December 3, 1901 – December 12, 1951) managed the plant during World War II. Whitney R. Kerchner (July 20, 1914 – April 27, 2006), later President of the Firestone Corporation, was his executive accountant on site and later administered his family financial affairs after his death. By 1944, the maximum size of the bombs regularly produced at Mead was reduced to the 4,000 pound (1,800 kilogram) AN-M56. Mead also made 250 pound (113 kilogram) AN-M57s, 500 pound (227 kilogram) AN-M64s, and 2,000 pound (907 kilogram) AN-M66s. The detonators (fuzes) were in the nose and tail, and usually affixed on site depending on mission needs. Each department at Mead was 500 feet (150 meters) apart for safety. The casings, shown here, would arrive by train to receiving, and be taken by rubber-encased, spark-dampened forklifts to inspection. Painters would coat the steel casings. The casing would receive a nose pour of TNT 1st, then nose pellets to force out cavities, then the body pour, and then body pelleting. Then the bomb would be left to cool before being shipped out. At each step, a wire grounds the forklift against static charge. The largest 4,000-pound bombs could not be moved by forklift. They are placed nose down on wheeled skids for their nose pours. The TNT shrinks, so solid pellets are added during the pour to keep air bubbles from forming. Multiple pours and curing time allow for shrinkage and to prevent cavities. Production operated 24 hours a day. By 1944, Mead started production of 10,000-pound (4,535-kilogram) T-10 bombs, American versions of British-designed “Tallboy” bombs. Workers used a special soap that removed TNT. They were then sprayed with a yellow indicator dye, that revealed any traces of TNT. Operations were suspended in November 1945, but resumed during the Korean War. Ordinance production ceased in 1956 and military operations ended in 1960. Mead was listed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the National Priorities List on August 30, 1990. The remedy for site soils involved incineration of 16,500 cubic yards of explosive-contaminated soils in 1998. The EPA had 11 wells treating the groundwater to remove “Research Department eXplosive” (RDX) and Trichloroethylene (TCE) byproducts of late war advancements in explosive fillers. It’s not clear when RDX, Torpex or Composition B were used in place of TNT and ammonium nitrate. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0425.jpg |
| Image Size | 792.42 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2884 x 2347 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | Office for Emergency Management, Office of War Information |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | May 1, 1944 |
| Location | |
| City | Omaha |
| State or Province | Nebraska |
| Country | United States |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NWDNS-208-AA-352AA(5) |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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