Editor's note: In honor of Anniston Army Depot's 75th anniversary, TRACKS is looking back at the installation's changes through the eyes of those who were present.
ANNISTON ARMY DEPOT, Ala. -- Rosemary Rollins, who turned 75 earlier this year, began her career at Anniston Army Depot as a supply technician in November 1984. She is proud to admit she is older than the depot -- if only by a few months.
Rollins was in supply from 1984 to 1986 when she transferred to the finance department as a teller. She served as a teller until 1995, when the finance department was reorganized due to consolidated into the Defense Finance Accounting System.
She then accepted a position as an accounting technician, a job she remained in until she accepted her current job as a civilian pay services representative in 2013.
"Almost all my time has been spent in the Managerial Accounting Division," said Rollins.
Her longtime friend and co-worker, Judy Lewallen, also started her career at ANAD as a supply technician in February 1983.
Four months after Lewallen began her career, she accepted a position as a production clerk, where she remained for a short time before transferring into finance as an accounting technician.
"When we were in the finance department, everything was manual," said Lewallen. "All calculations for payroll, commercial vouchers and travel vouchers were done manually."
The only automation in the entire process were the machines, located in the Directorate of Information Management, which printed the checks and stuffed envelopes.
Because the process was manual, employees triple checked every calculation, to ensure no errors were present. This added time, meaning employees were paid two weeks after the close of each pay period.
Automation, to a degree, came to the finance department in the late '80s, even then, according to Lewallen, it wasn't true automation. The computer programs could add, subtract or divide.
"But, it did print for us, so we thought it was the greatest thing," said Lewallen.
Rollins worked in the cage where the vault was located and was one of the employees responsible for disbursements to those traveling for the installation.
She was allowed to give cash up to $300, but, any amount more than that had to be dispersed in traveler's checks.
The women remember the depot's response to Operation Desert Storm well. Mechanics were needed overseas to add armor to tanks and run depot operations and ammunition specialists were also needed.
Lewallen recalls coming in on a Sunday to determine the amounts needed for some of the ammunition employees who were deploying that day in support of the troops overseas.
The money couldn't be dispersed that day, because of a time-locked safe, but one of the supervisors in the finance department flew the next day to all areas in the U.S. where the employees were preparing for their deployments to deliver the funds.
Lewallen also was deployed during that time.
"I went to Desert Storm as a representative from finance," said Lewallen, explaining that someone from the depot's finance operations had to be in theater to assist in payroll activities. At the time, being single and without children, she felt it would be best if she volunteered.
In the mid-90s, the Defense Finance Accounting System began to consolidate all the finance offices throughout the Department of Defense. Employees in finance at Anniston Army Depot worked for DFAS on the installation for three years until the consolidation process was complete and DFAS was ready to move to Indianapolis, Ind.
As a result, employees who could be maintained by the installation were dispersed into several areas -- Lewallen went to a clerical position in the industrial area and Rollins moved into the accounting department.
"We were lucky, we got to stay," said Lewallen. "Fort McClellan absorbed some of the employees, maintenance absorbed some, as well as accounting. But, some lost their jobs."
Lewallen moved from the clerical job to material management before accepting a job as a mechanic. In 2002, just to see what her résumé looked like, she applied for a job as a material maintenance specialist in the Directorate of Production Management and was surprised when she was chosen.
Her initial reaction was to turn the job down, but she accepted the job on the terms that she would see what it was like for 120 days then decide if she would keep it or return to being a mechanic.
She stayed.
Over the years, Rollins and Lewallen have seen an increasing degree of automation come to the processes and procedures on depot, especially in the office areas as computers and printers went from being housed only in certain locations to being on everyone's desk.
E-mail and automation have also helped the depot become more environmentally friendly, according to the women, who recalled the reams of paper once used to document travel expenses and how much of it was shredded and then thrown away. These days, pages are recycled after shredding and e-mails and digitized information have eliminated many of the hard copy files.
The first computers used by Rollins and Lewallen also taught them about ergonomics. When the equipment arrived and was set up on their existing desks, it immediately began to bother their wrists. Placing keyboards in the center drawer of the desk helped, but it was obvious new furniture would be needed.
The supervisor over finance at the time looked at his budget and told the staff they could afford the new furniture, but only if there was no overtime at the end of the year.
According to the women, the department ordered the new desks, putting them together themselves and, instead of working overtime at the end of the year, took compensatory time.
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