Workers at the Umatilla Ordnance Depot, 1943

This photograph shows workers at the U.S. Army’s Umatilla Ordnance Depot stenciling and inspecting 155-millimeter artillery shells. It was taken by an Oregon Journal photographer in April 1943. During World War II, women workers made up a substantial part of the depot’s work force, the great majority of which was civilian. In 1943, 27 percent of the workers at the depot were women, and an Oregonian article noted that the “ordnance department hopes to increase the percentage, because they are doing a good job and because they are draft-proof.” Women also formed about a quarter of the work force in other important war industries in the region.