Navy Property Transfer
REVIEW ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT
April 1998

Rough and Ready Island
Stockton, California

"The Navy's decision to build a supply depot at Rough and Ready Island was part of the World War II supply facilities expansion. In the early years of the war, the bulk of the Navy's supply capabilities for the Pacific Theater were its major depots in San Diego and Oakland. Beginning as early as 1941, the Navy began to explore the idea of building inland supply depots that could be accessed by rail. These depots, in addition to being safer from attack, could service multiple coastal supply depots or bases directly.

By 1944, impending victory in Europe allowed American military planners to devote essentially all military resources to the war in the Pacific. This shift to the Pacific Theater all but overwhelmed the supply depots, and in early 1944 the decision was made to build an annex at Rough and Ready Island. This facility, called the Naval Supply Annex Stockton, was to be operated as an annex to the Naval Supply Depot, Oakland (now known as the Fleet and Industrial Supply Center, Oakland or FISCO).

Development at Rough and Ready Island was based on a warehouse plan designed to maximize the use of forklifts and supplies stored on pallets. The government experimented with palletized handling as well as containers of standardized dimensions, akin to modern containerized shipping. The Navy elected to pursue the "forklift and pallet" method, and it was to that specification that the Rough and Ready Island facility was developed. The Rough and Ready Island facility was the first World War II-era depot designed to accommodate the use of the forklift and pallet method (Bureau of Yards and Docks 1946). The Navy completed the base, largely as planned, during 1946. Nevertheless, it is best considered as a World War II-era facility.

The base was brought back into service as a major supply depot during the Korean conflict. By 1956, however, the facility was largely unused. Between 1956 and 1965, the Navy gradually leased out its warehouses to non-Navy tenants, including the Army and GSA. In 1964, GSA took over about half of the warehouse space and continues as a major tenant today. In 1965, the Naval Supply Annex was decommissioned. The base was re-commissioned as a Naval Communication Center, with the communication center occupying the administrative and residential buildings outside the warehouse district and non-Navy tenants using the warehouses. The function of the base is largely unchanged since 1965 (Dames and Moore 1996). Although there are dozens of post-1946 buildings at the base, the area is still dominated by 1945-46 buildings."

Section 3-32, 3-33.