Weapons of Mississippi

11. SHIPS, AIRCRAFT, AND ARTILLERY: WEAPONS OF MISSISSIPPI’S POST–WORLD WAR II MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

188 SHIPS, AIRCRAFT, AND ARTILLERY WEAPONS OF MISSISSIPPI’S POST–WORLD WAR II MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX Building on the tradition of BAWI and the industry brought to the state by the two world wars, Mississippi continues to host a variety of weapons manufacturing, testing, and training activities for the U.S. military. In Pascagoula, Ingalls carries on its shipbuilding tradition as an operation under Northrop Grumman Ship Systems (NGSS), which produces amphibious assault ships and guided-missile destroyers for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. In Hancock County, the John C. Stennis Space Center serves as the training ground for the navy’s Special Boat Team 22 (SBT-22), which uses the impressive array of machine guns, grenade launchers, and miniguns that can be mounted on the Special Operations Craft–Riverine (SOC-R) to support SEAL operations. In Hattiesburg, the defense firm BAE Systems produces the M777 towed 155 mm howitzer for the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, a state-of-the-art weapon that is the world’s first artillery system to incorporate large-scale use of titanium and aluminum alloys, resulting in drastic weight reductions and increased deployability. In Columbus, EADS North America produces the UH-145 11 SHIPS, AIRCRAFT, AND ARTILLERY 189 military helicopter, which has been selected by the army as its next-generation light utility helicopter (LUH).Whether for land,sea,or air,Mississippi continues to make significant contributions to the weapons of the U.S. military and shows the steady march of technology in weapons production. This high-tech weapons industry also demonstrates how far Mississippi has come from its largely agrarian roots in the early twentieth century. Mississippi is an enthusiastically pro-military state with a history of senators and congressmen who have championed a strong defense-contractor presence in their constituencies. The result is an industrial base that produces some of the most sophisticated weapons in the U.S. military’s arsenal and a strong testimony to the role weapons have played in Mississippi’s economic, labor, and industrial sectors. STENNIS SPACE CENTER When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the world’s first satellite, on October 4, 1957, many American citizens and politicians were gripped by panic. This Soviet achievement in the midst of the Cold War provoked a deepquestioningofAmericanexceptionalismandsuperiority.Inanaddress to Congress on May 25,1961,President John F.Kennedy responded,asserting his belief that “this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth.” Mississippi senator John Stennis shared Kennedy’s vision and became a staunch advocate of the space program. Building on the tripartite partnership between the aviation industry , the military, and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics that had emerged in the South during World War II, the United States designated a “Space Crescent” of facilities that stretched across the Gulf States, connecting Houston,Texas; Huntsville,Alabama; Cape Canaveral, Florida; and a new test site located in Hancock County, Mississippi, on the Pearl River. The new site was called both the NASA Mississippi Test Operations and the Mississippi Test Facility (MTF) until 1965, when the MTF designation became official. SHIPS, AIRCRAFT, AND ARTILLERY 190 Before selecting the Hancock County site, NASA had considered locations in New Orleans; Brownsville and Corpus Christi, Texas; Cumberland Island, Georgia; and Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. The final report concluded that the Mississippi site was the best choice because of its location on navigable water, its proximity to the Michoud plant in New Orleans where the Saturn rocket was fabricated, the sparsely populated area, and the closeness to support communities, although many consider Senator Stennis’s influence to have also been a deciding factor.1 The decision to locate the site in Hancock County was an economic boon to the area. During 1961 and 1962, more than $260 million was committed to construction of the site. The facility also created approximately 9,000 new jobs, generating an annual income of $65 million in southern Mississippi and Louisiana.2 However, the move also disrupted local communities as NASA acquired easement rights to about 128,000 acres surrounding the test site, taking in 103,000 acres in Pearl River and Hancock counties, Mississippi, and 25,000 acres in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana.3 For many residents of the small communities of Gainesville,Logtown, Napoleon, Santa Rosa, and Westonia, the process...