Joint Munitions Command preserves history of Pine Bluff Arsenal

Under threat of losing its home, the local on-site collection of historical materials previously maintained by Pine Bluff Arsenal (PBA) received a new residence at the Joint Munitions Command’s headquarters at the Rock Island Arsenal at the end of 2022.

Thanks to the efforts of Keri Pleasant, JMC’s historian, and Paul Ferguson, the JMC archivist, these valuable historical materials were sorted on site and shipped from a warehouse at PBA, located in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, to the JMC Research Library and Archives in Rock Island, Illinois. There, the materials will be digitized, physically preserved, and made available for online viewing by authorized personnel worldwide.

In June 2019, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) issued memorandum M-19-21, which required all agencies to adopt electronic recordkeeping by no later than Dec. 31, 2022, after which time NARA would no longer accept analog records for storage. All future agencies seeking to store analog records would need to pay to do so at commercial records storage facilities. In response, in November 2020, the Army issued its Transition to Electronic Records Management memorandum, which provided a timeline and required procedures for electronic recordkeeping, inventory, and closure requirements for Record Holding Areas (RHAs).

This timeline required all Army elements to submit the results of a records inventory to the Army Records Officer, Records Management and Declassification Agency (RMDA) by no later than March 31, 2021, with deaccessioned storage facilities slated for closure by Dec. 31, 2022. The taskers raised alarms among historical records administrators throughout the Army. In most cases, agencies and installations possess locally maintained collections of analog historical materials. These regularly accessed collections, which vary in size widely, are critical assets with the Army’s historical preservation mandate. The prospect of losing access raised concerns.

“Staffers throughout the JMC enterprise access these materials regularly,” Pleasant explained. “We use them to trace the evolution of ongoing projects, to help leaders learn how previous policies and plans developed, and to inform both the workforce and the American people about the legacy of their installations and agencies.”

While transitioning to analog-only records is valuable and inevitable, digitizing existing records requires a tremendous outlay of manpower and significant budgetary resources.

“JMC’s headquarters has one historian and one archivist to oversee historical records preservation for the entire enterprise. The people tasked with these duties at the installation level are often also administrative assistants, human resource representatives, and public affairs officers for their locations,” Ferguson said. “There simply isn’t the time, workforce, or money to transition all paper into digits under a short suspense.”

Ferguson and Pleasant took their concerns to the Army Material Command, and personnel there determined the taskers applied to records held in long-term storage, often only until a pre-established hold period had been reached, and that it didn’t apply to historical materials still in use by JMC offices and installations. This decision relieved the concerns of the JMC historical staff until receiving a concerned message from records holders at Pine Bluff Arsenal in September 2022.

According to Rachel Selby, a public affairs specialist at PBA, “The warehouse where our historical documents have been housed is closing. Considering how many historical document boxes we had in that warehouse, and the brief period remaining before closure, we turned to Keri and Paul for guidance.”

The historical records themselves did not fall under the tasker, but the storage facility they shared did. Ferguson and Pleasant determined that preservation of the historical materials required JMC to collect, and house them in the JMC’s archives in Rock Island. To this end, the pair traveled to PBA in early October for the arduous task of sorting through 165 document boxes (250 cubic feet) and preparing them for shipment.

Thanks to the long-term organizational standards of PBA staff, a task expected to take three full days was accomplished in one, which allowed Ferguson and Pleasant to reduce the trip and its associated costs by two days.

“The boxes were carefully labeled, so we only had to open and sort through about half of the boxes by hand,” Ferguson noted. “The folks on site did a really good job.”

“We have tackled numerous collection projects that were accomplished over many return trips to a site, I was worried how long this might take, but the PBA team had catalogued, labeled, boxed and stored their collection in the highest standards, making our job easier,” Pleasant added.

The sorting process resulted in 150 boxes of historical materials being placed on pallets for shipping and 15 boxes of non-essential records were designated for on-site destruction later that week. In mid-October, Ferguson oversaw the delivery of six pallets of boxes to JMC’s headquarters. These boxes will remain in a temporary holding area while he processes the materials and inputs their relevant data into the Archivist Tools and Metrics System (ATAMS) database.

“First, I need to sort, organize, document, list, and collect metadata for each item,” Ferguson said. “Then I’ll put that metadata in ATAMS for easy searchability, label and shelve the materials in our climate-controlled facility, and work on securing the resources to digitize the records.”

This on-going project, which will likely take many months to complete, will prove to be of great value to JMC and PBA alike.

“We could not risk anyone losing access to these materials,” Pleasant said. “The historical records couldn’t remain at Pine Bluff, so it was our duty to preserve them. Once we add item-level PDF files to our database, all relevant parties will be able locate and read them in minutes, no matter their work location.”

In acknowledgement of their aid to the Pine Bluff Arsenal, Col. Tod Marchand, PBA’s commander, presented Pleasant and Ferguson with certificates of appreciation.

“They provided valuable assistance through their historical expertise and knowledge,” Marchand declared. “Especially noteworthy, their attention to detail helped the PBA PAO conclude this task in an expeditious manner, reflecting great credit upon them, Pine Bluff Arsenal, Joint Munitions Command, and the U.S. Army.”

“Projects like this reflect the importance of HQ JMC staff to installation staffers, who are often forced to wear many hats at once,” said Justine Barati, the chief of Public and Congressional Affairs at JMC. “They need to know that we can come to their aid, and we need to be ready able to do so, for the benefit of the entire ammunition enterprise.”