THIOKOL MEMORIAL HONOREES

Thiokol Plant Victims Survivors

Thiokol Plant Workers

Kingsland Fire Department

Georgia Forestry Commission

Camden County Sheriff’s Department

Brunswick Police Department

Glynn County Fire Department

Georgia State Police

Cecil Field Naval Air Station

Naval Air Station Jacksonville

Duval Medical Center (Shands / UF Health Jacksonville)

Baptist Memorial Hospital

Methodist Hospital

St. Luke Hospital

McCoy-Jackson Hospital

Burn Hospital (Charleston, SC)

Gilman Hospital (Southeast Health Systems- Camden Campus)

Glynn-Brunswick Memorial (Southeast Health Systems)

The cities of Alma, Baxley, Brunswick, Darien, Folkston, Hinesville, Jesup,

Savannah, Waycross, Fernandina Beach, Yulee, and Jacksonville.

Please excuse any oversight of an honoree. If after examination you find someone is

missing, please advise us.

Mission Statement

The mission of the Thiokol Memorial Project, Inc. is to remember and honor the Thiokol Workers and all those involved in the rescue effort. Towards that end, we shall raise funds to manage the planning, construction and endowment of a memorial, education center and museum to honor the workers and all those that risked their lives to save others.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

victimsmemorial020371@gmail.com

How You Can Help

As an individual, reach out to your family and friends and tell them of this project. Ask them to notify any Thiokol Workers and/or those involved in the rescue effort to contact us through the website. We need to gather eyewitness accounts, photographs, news clippings and photographs before they are lost to time. Additionally, we’ll need creative type individuals to contribute to the design process for the memorial, education center and museum. If that's you, please offer your assistance.

As a community or fraternal organization, consider the Thiokol Memorial Project for funding or endowment, as well as giving us your thoughts as to possible sites for the memorial, education center and museum. We need your help and input.

As a business, consider an ongoing donation and possibly letting your professional staff provide us guidance in legal, accounting, building or design areas.

Preserving The

History and Legacy

Of the

Thiokol Workers

Please join us at the 45th Anniversary Memorial

Ceremony on February 3, 2016.

The ceremony will be held at Wildcat

Stadium in Kingsland, Georgia.

In the early 1960s Thiokol Chemical Corporation, Inc. while pursuing its quest to build solid propellant rocket motors for NASA chose Camden County as the best site for the rocket program. Camden County was selected over 60 other locations because of its available labor supply, proximity to Cape Canaveral, immediate deep water access, community attitude, and several other appealing attributes. They acquired 7,400 acres of land at Horse Pen Bluff to build a 36 building complex with a huge rocket testing pit. In 1965 Thiokol test fired the world's most powerful rocket at the site. Despite its success, the rocket motor production was stopped when the space program budget was curtailed. The company continued other production on the site.

Thiokol was committed to its employees and this community. Their workforce had grown from its initial count of 35. They had to reinvent themselves and find other uses for the facility. Thiokol was already producing pesticides in parts of the plant. The isolation of the plant and its layout with small buildings somewhat separated made it ideal for munitions production. They began the production of the CS-2 gas, 81mm, and 40mm for our military. In 1969 Thiokol was awarded a U. S. Army contract for the production of 758,000 trip flares. Their workforce grew to 500 employees working three shifts in a 24-hour period.

During the Vietnam War, these civilian workers manufactured the ammunition and trip flares for our military fighting an enemy in a foreign land in the name of "We the People of the United States of

America." They fulfilled this nation's solemn duty and sacred obligation to support our troops. Twenty-Nine of them perished and fifty were injured in an explosion at the plant on February 3, 1971. The courageous response to this disaster by their fellow co-workers, fire fighters, military and civilian medical personnel, law enforcement, and private citizens across the southeastern region was historical. This was the worst disaster in the history of southeastern Georgia.

The lives of these workers exemplify the pure essence of the American Spirit {Pride, Dedication, Resilience, and Selfless Commitment}. Prior to the explosion, the workers endured hazardous work conditions, numerous flash fires, and evacuations daily. Yet, each time an all clear was issued they returned to their work stations and continued the task. Building M-132 was totally destroyed and three other buildings were heavily damaged in the explosion. Even after all of the destruction, pain, and sorrow the workers salvaged what they could and continued manufacturing ammunition in the remaining seven buildings. They rebuilt the buildings destroyed in the devastation within a year after the explosion. When the injured workers recovered, those that were not permanently disabled returned to work manufacturing the ammunition until the end of the war. The Thiokol Plant Workers kept America's promise to our Military. We propose to build a monument, education center, and a museum in their honor.

Thiokol History