10/30/2026: The Myth of Saving The Depot

In the northern part of our district, “The Depot” is universally understood to refer to the Anniston Army Depot. It’s a big deal. Just under 4,000 people work there, most of them U.S. Government employees, and it’s a major economic asset to five counties.

The Depot was established in 1940 on more than 10,000 acres just outside the Calhoun County seat. It was built to store ammunition, and very few people outside the US Army and North Alabama had heard of The Depot until 2003, when it was designated as one of the facilities where the United States would destroy its chemical weapons stockpiles. That mission ended in 2011.

When I started campaigning, I almost instantly heard, “You know, Mike Rogers saved The Depot.” The story goes that if Mike Rogers had not been in Congress, some evil politician, probably a Democrat, would have closed The Depot, and thousands of jobs would have been lost. In a community that had already lost Fort McClellan, Rogers saving The Depot would have been a VERY big deal. There’s just one problem: it never happened.

For those of us in the defense community, the late 1980s and early 1990s were a scary time. With the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, the Defense Department downsized, and military bases were forced to close. Yet military bases are the ultimate pork barrel for a member of Congress. Efforts to close any base always failed.

Realizing they couldn’t trust the military to do its job, Congress passed a law creating the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission. Once BRAC made a recommendation, Congress couldn’t stop it, and BRAC dropped the hammer. More than 350 military installations were closed. In 1995, Fort McClellan appeared on the list; four years later, it closed.

Here’s the thing: We all watched BRAC like hawks, and I don’t remember The Depot ever appearing on the closure list. To confirm my memory, I reviewed every newspaper and defense publication article about The Depot from 1990 to 2025, and not one mentioned The Depot closing. In fact, in 1995, BRAC “realigned” The Depot, moving M1 Abrams tank engine refurbishment there. To be clear, that was seven years before Mike Rogers was elected to office, and since BRAC made that recommendation, there has been no talk of closing The Depot.

Now, The Depot is the only place in the world that refurbishes M1A2 Abrams main battle tank engines. Closing The Depot and moving that mission would leave the Army without tank engines for two to three years.

But Rogers needs to take ownership of what’s happening at The Depot today. Many of The Depot’s government employees are members of the American Federation of Government Employees and were covered by a collective bargaining agreement. Earlier this year, without warning, the government formally notified all AFGE members that it was removing them from its collective bargaining agreement and would no longer recognize their union. I have spoken with several AFGE officials and members, who say they have tried to speak with Mike Rogers about the issue. No surprise, he hasn’t been available. One of the first things on my to-do list for the day after we get sworn in is to find out why that decision was made and to make sure the workers at The Depot know we’ve got their backs.

Mike Rogers didn’t save The Depot because it never needed saving. He could help save AFGE employees’ jobs and benefits at The Depot, but he just doesn’t seem to want to. I’ve seen M1A2s in the field in Iraq. I’ve seen what they can do to the best tanks our adversaries can field. To me, The Depot isn’t just an economic asset for the district; it’s a vital national security asset for defending our country, and the people on that installation make it work.

Remember to vote on November 3. We’re not just going to keep The Depot open; we’re voting to elect someone to office who will support the people who work there.