San Joaquin Depot

History

The San Joaquin Depot was first created in 1942 as a sub-station of the California Quartermaster Depot. It played a large role in supplying military facilities in the western United States and service members in the Pacific Theater during World War II. During the period of 1950 to 1970 the San Joaquin Depots function was expanded several times to include new responsibilities including being a “Single Manager Supply System” and supplying overseas Air Force and Army commissary facilities. In the mid 1990’s the Depot expanded drastically as a result of base closings across the United States. 728,500 pieces of inventory were relocated to the San Joaquin Depot from facilities at Kelly AFB in Texas, McClellan AFB in California and a depot facility in Ogden Utah.

Primary and Ancillary functions

The primary mission of the San Joaquin Depot is to serve as a primary distribution point of material goods for military facilities in the contiguous western United States in addition facilities in the Pacific area of command. These material goods include but are not limited to textiles, clothing, food, electrical components and supplies, construction materials, tires for both ground vehicles and aircraft and secondary repair components.

The situation of the San Joaquin Depot places it at a crossroad of transportation hubs for air, land and sea. In an average month 360 air pallets and 490 sea going vans make their way out of the depot. This averages out to 311,000 shipments and 49,800 receipts every month. The packing of all outbound materials is done using a specific cube technique that is designed to maximize efficiency and saves several million dollars from the Army budget yearly. The large scale operation of the San Joaquin Depot has a running cost of approximately $264 million annually and allows for the employment of 2,000 civilian and military personal with an annual payroll of $87.3 million.