Spruce Production Division
| Spruce Production Division | |
|---|---|
Division soldiers posing on a spruce stump
|
|
| Active | 1917–1918 |
| Country |
 United States |
| Branch | United States Army |
| Size | 28,825 workers |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders |
Colonel Brice P. Disque |
| Insignia | |
| Signal Corps |  |
| Spruce Production Division |  |
The Spruce Production Division was a unit of the United States Army that was established in 1917 to produce high-quality Sitka spruce timber and other wood products needed to make aircraft for the United States' efforts in World War I. The division was part of the Army Signal Corps's Aviation Section. Its headquarters were in Portland, Oregon, and its main operations center was at Vancouver Barracks in Vancouver, Washington. Workers in the division were members of the Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen, a union specifically established to support the army's wood production operations.
The division produced nearly 150 million board feet (350,000 m3) of spruce in just 15 months, halting work almost as soon as the war ended. Col. Brice Disque was then put on trial for accusations that he had wasted millions of tax dollars. He was found not guilty of malfeasance.
The division had a large impact on logging in the Pacific Northwest. Logging companies adopted working conditions similar to those the division had, and they took advantage of new logging roads and rail lines that the division had built to access more timber.
From the beginning of World War I, wood products were in great demand for war production. Sitka spruce was the most important tree species because its combination of lightness, strength, and resiliency was ideal for aircraft production. In addition, its long, tough fibers did not splinter when struck by bullets. Even before the United States entered the war, the Pacific Northwest had become the main supplier of spruce for aircraft production in Great Britain, France, and Italy. Northwest lumber mills, however, were never able to meet Europe's demand for spruce. The government wanted a monthly production of 10 million board feet (24,000 m3) of spruce, but before the division was activated, only 2 million board feet (4,700 m3) were produced monthly.
...
Wikipedia