World War II: 6th-8th Grade
Background Information
The following is an excerpt from Johnson County, Kansas: A Pictorial History 1825-2005.
Home Front
World War II changed the daily patterns of nearly every American citizen. President Roosevelt inspired a national sense of purpose that emphasized delivering weapons and supplies to the battlefronts. Nationally, over sixteen million men and women left home to serve in the military. Between September 16, 1940, and June 30, 1946, 4,850 Johnson County men and women patriotically enlisted for military service.
No area of life was left untouched: taxes were collected based upon one’s ability to pay; building materials and consumer goods were rationed; the government froze prices on homes and rents. Young, old, rich, and poor were asked to stretch their resources to the fullest capacity to meet the unprecedented challenges. Citizens supported the war effort by buying savings bonds and collecting scrap metal. Any item deemed necessary for the soldiers fighting the war was available to civilian Americans only in limited quantities: food, clothing, gas, and rubber were some of the items rationed by the federal government. Families were also encouraged to plant “victory gardens” so that all the produce grown on farms could be used to feed the soldiers and the Allied Forces. In Johnson County, more than three thousand farm families and nine thousand townspeople planted gardens. Beginning in 1942, citizens rallied to organize scrap drives. In 1943 alone, they collected 815 tons of iron; 14,000 pounds of fat; and 150 pounds of silk stockings. In rural areas, schoolchildren and 4-H clubs collected 2,500 bags of milkweed floss to make life belts for servicemen.
During this time, many women worked outside the home for the first time. Encouraged by federal government campaigns like Rosie the Riveter and her “We Can Do It!” slogan, over two million women responded to the call to work in home-front industries. By 1942, nearly eight thousand women were working in Kansas City’s aircraft industry, including the majority of the twelve thousand workers at Johnson County’s Sunflower Ordnance Works.OlatheNaval Air Station: Runway to the Future
By 1942, the military needed a new site for aviation training in the Kansas City area. Increased production at the North American bomber plant in Kansas City, Kansas, and heavy air traffic at nearby Municipal Airport made naval air training at the Fairfax location hazardous. Once again, Johnson County’s open land and proximity to existing urban facilities served their needs. In 1942, a 640-acre tract southwest of Olathe was selected to train one thousand cadets and house the needed runways, hangars, and barracks. By March 1943, an additional 120 acres was acquired.
The Naval Air Station boomed Olathe’s economy and put the rural town on the road to future industrial development. Swenson Construction Company served as the main contractor for the station, which was built for $12,234,537. In addition to providing construction jobs, the defense activity helped secure funds to improve Highway 50 between Olathe and the state line. The modern highway facilitated postwar development and eased traffic flow between Olathe and neighboring cities. When the war escalated in 1944, the station also served as a central point for transporting war supplies.
During World War II, 4,550 cadets pilots received initial flight training from 287 flight instructors and tracked 463,220 flying hours. Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, commonly referred to as WAVES, were commissioned by the U.S. Navy in 1942. The first group arrived in Olathe in July 1943, and numbered only 15; at their peak, in August 1944, 228 WAVES served in Olathe.
The Flying Jayhawk, first published on October 9, 1942, served as the weekly publication for the station. It was distributed each Friday and reported the events, promotions, arrivals, and departures of the cadets. Off the base, local entertainment was available for the enlisted men. The second issue of The Flying Jayhawk reported that the Olathe Community Center offered table tennis, chess, checkers, bridge, and dancing parties. The Dickinson Theater offered movie tickets to enlisted men for ten cents on Saturdays and 15 cents Sundays through Friday. And the U.S.O. at 32nd and Main Street in Kansas City, Missouri, hosted dances and offered lodging for twenty-five cents to men in uniform.
The Olathe Naval Air Station operated continuously for twenty-eight years, and despite a three-million dollar renovation of the station in 1969, it was formally decommissioned May 31, 1970. The Johnson County Airport Commission acquired the site in 1973 and renamed the facility the Johnson County Industrial Airport. The name was changed to New Century AirCenter in 1995 to better reflect the facility and the advanced technology industries now located in the New Century Business Park.
War Arsenal on the Prairie
With the Olathe Naval Air Station well underway, the area’s flat terrain, proximity to railroad connections and access to a strong labor force secured Johnson County another wartime industry: the Sunflower Ordnance Works. In February 1942, the U.S. government acquired 10,747 acres, part of the rural community known as Prairie Center. Production at Sunflower Ordnance Works began just one year later, on March 23, 1943, and the plant became the world’s largest producer of powder and propellant, comprising nearly five thousand buildings. The plant, while government owned, was operated by private contractor, Hercules Powder Company, and operated twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
Workers flocked to secure employment. Many came from Lawrence, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri, to work at the plant located south of De Soto, but workers also relocated from eighteen states. The rapid population growth quickly proved too much for the community of De Soto, and soon, housing shortages and lack of sufficient transportation had to be addressed. Within the first nine months of operation, workers began to be bused in, and onsite housing became available when the federal government built a 350-unit housing project known as Sunflower Village on the northeastern section of the site. A post office, hospital, schools, and children’s daycare facilities were also made available.
Engineers, maintenance personnel, line workers, health care professionals, landscape gardeners, and security guards all secured jobs at the plant. Women made up the majority of the workers, many of whom were entering the work force for the first time. In 1945, men and women were employed at the plant, representing the plant’s all time peak level of workers.
Sunflower’s workforce gained praise from the U.S. War Department for its unmatched safety record – over one million man hours without an accident – and its high production levels. In September 1946, when the plant was placed on standby, 202,889,529 pounds of powder had been produced by Sunflower.
The Sunflower Plant was reactivated during the Korean and Vietnam wars and remained on standby status in the intervening years, during which time a minimal crew remained on site. Production ceased in 1992, and in 1990, the U.S. Army deemed the facility “excess property” and began planning for re-use. Before any viable redevelopment can take place, land needs to be cleaned of toxic contaminates, which according to The Kansas City Star could cost from forty-one to eighty-five million dollars. Business, residential, and industrial development is planned under the Sunflower Redevelopment L.L.C. In addition, acreage is owned by Kansas State University and the University of Kansas for research purposes and by the Johnson County Park and Recreation District for the development of parkland.
