Hawthorne Army Depot Hawthorne Army Depot ( HWAD ) is a U . S . Army ammunition storage depot located near the town of Hawthorne in western Nevada in the United States . It is directly south of Walker Lake . The depot covers or 226 sq . mi . and has storage space in 2 , 427 bunker s . HWAD claims to be the " Worlds Largest Depot " and is divided into three ammunition storage and production areas , plus an industrial area housing command headquarters , facilities engineering shops , etc . Background . Hawthorne Army Depot stores reserve ammunitions to be used after the first 30 days of a major conflict . As such , it is only partially staffed during peacetime , but provision has been made to rapidly expand staffing as necessary . The depot is run by an independent contractor under an agreement with the government . Capabilities of the center include : demilitarization , desert training for military units , ammunition renovation , quality assurance , ISO intermodal container maintenance / repair , and range scrap processing . History . The Naval Ammunition Depot Hawthorne was established in September 1930 . It was redesignated Hawthorne Army Ammunition Plant in 1977 when it transferred to Army control as part of the Single Manager for Conventional Ammunition . In 1994 , it ended its production mission and became Hawthorne Army Depot . The depot began its existence as the Hawthorne Naval Ammunition Depot ( NAD ) . It was established after a major disaster occurred at the Lake Denmark Naval Ammunition Depot , in New Jersey , in 1926 . The accident virtually destroyed the depot , causing heavy damage to adjacent Picatinny Arsenal and the surrounding communities , killing 21 people , and seriously injuring 53 others . The monetary loss to the Navy alone was $ 84 million , just over $ 1 billion today ( mostly in consumed explosives ) . As a result of a full - scale Congressional investigation , the seventieth Congress in 1928 directed the establishment of a Board of Officers to provide oversight of the storage conditions of explosives . A court of inquiry investigating the explosion recommended that a depot be established in a remote area within of the west coast to serve the Pacific area . Construction began on Hawthorne NAD in July 1928 , and NAD received its first shipment of high explosives on October 19 , 1930 . When the United States entered World War II , the Depot became the staging area for bombs , rockets , and ammunition for almost the entire war effort . Employment was at its highest at 5 , 625 in 1945 . By 1948 , NAD occupied about of the area under Navy jurisdiction . Subsequently , excess Navy lands were turned over to the Bureau of Land Management . Security for the 3 , 000 bunkers at NAD was provided by the U . S . Marine Corps . Beginning in September 1930 and during World War II , 600 Marines were assigned to the facility . In 1977 , that number had been reduced to 117 ; security is now contracted to a private company . The mission and functions at NAD remained much the same over the facility ' s history . The mission , as stated in a 1962 Navy Command History , was to " receive , renovate , maintain , store and issue ammunition , explosives , expendable ordnance items and / or weapons and technical ordnance material and perform addition tasks as directed by the Bureau of Naval Weapons . It also served as an important ammunition center during the Korean and Vietnam War s with several thousand structures on of land . Stored ammunition that had been examined and repacked was given the code HAW followed by the last two digits of the year ( e . g . , HAW 50 ) . In 1977 , NAD was transferred to the Army , and renamed the Hawthorne Army Ammunition Plant ( HWAAP ) . In 1980 , HWAAP was redesignated as a government - owned contractor - operated facility . Day & Zimmermann Hawthorne Corporation ( DZHC ) is the current operating contractor . In 1994 , the facility received its current name of the Hawthorne Army Depot ( HWAD ) . In 1998 - 1999 , the facility was used to destroy the U . S . stockpile of M687 chemical artillery shell s and separate from them their 505 short ton ( 458 metric tons ) of binary precursor chemicals . In May 2005 , the facility was included on the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure list , with closure being recommended . However , the depot was subsequently dropped from the BRAC list , primarily due to the base ' s training capability in support of pre - deployment training for OEF - bound Marine Corps units ( by MWTC ) , Navy , and Army SOF . On March 18 , 2013 , seven U . S . Marines were killed and at least eight were wounded when a mortar exploded during a live - fire training exercise . Because of the accident , the Pentagon suspended the shell pending an investigation . Following investigation , the explosion was deemed to have been as a result of human error and the suspension was lifted . Currently , Reserve Marines from 4th Marine Logistics Group ( 4th MLG ) conduct annual training exercises at the Hawthorne Army Depot as well as surrounding desert areas . Local community . Hawthorne Army Depot surrounds the small town of Hawthorne , Nevada , where most of its employees reside . Prior to the facility becoming contractor - operated , it was staffed primarily by civil service workers and military personnel , who were housed on government owned property neighboring Hawthorne , including the now - extinct town of Babbitt and military housing known as Schweer Drive . The housing in Babbitt was made up of large buildings created to be duplexes . The system of trusses allowed all interior walls to be removed without compromising their structure . Since the disposal of Babbitt many of these " Babbitt Houses " have found their way throughout rural Nevada filling a number of uses . During the peak of operations in World War II , additional housing was provided in a former Civilian Conservation Corps camp christened " Camp Jumbo " , and in a large adjoining construction camp . The local Sixth Street School ( whose building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places ) was expanded to serve the population growth .