Tracy Facility, San Joaquin Depot
The San Joaquin Depot is made up of distribution facilities at three separate locations -- Tracy, Sharpe [Lathrop] and Stockton's Rough & Ready Island. The depot receives, stores and ships supplies to military customers located mainly in the western U.S. and the Pacific Theater of operations, and in some cases worldwide. The San Joaquin Depot is one of two Primary Distribution Sites that belong to a 22-depot Defense Distribution Center headquartered in New Cumberland, PA. Overall management is provided by the Defense Logistics Agency.

Tracy Facility is approximately 65 miles east of San Francisco with easy access to I-5 from the wet, (-205 to the north, and (-580 to the south. From I-5, take the Defense Depot Tracy Exit. You will travel about 3 1/2 miles then turn left on Chrisman. Tracy Facility will be 1 mile down the road on your right. From I-205, take the Tracy Blvd exit. Turn left on Tracy Blvd and travel about 1.7 miles to Eleventh St. Turn left on Eleventh St. go 2.1 miles and turn right on Chrisman.

The Tracy Facility first entered the military supply system in 1942 as a sub-depot of the California Quartermaster depot of Oakland. It played a vital role during World War II by supplying Quartermaster items to troops and installations in the U. S. and the Pacific overseas combat areas.

Soon after World War II, Tracy became a sub-depot of Sharpe Army Depot. In the late 1950s, Tracy became part of the Department of Defense "Single Manager Supply System", receiving, storing and shipping food, clothing and textiles and medical and dental supplies to all branches of the military services.

When former Secretary of Defense McNamara established the Defense Supply Agency in 1962, Defense Depot Tracy became the first principal depot in a distribution system located near military installations and ports of embarkation. Starting with approximately 700 civilian employees, the depot's mission and size soon expanded, reaching a peak in mid-1967 with a total of 3,300 civilian employees. At this time, the depot stored about 600,000 tons of supplies, shipping and receiving a combined total of more than 22,000 tons each month. More than 900 rail cars and 4,500 large commercial trucks were required monthly to handle the workload, most of which went to support military operations in southeast Asia.

In 1973, the depot's mission was expanded to include direct support of overseas Army and Air Force commissaries by supplying name brand. semi-perishable subsistence products.

The Tracy facility is located in Central California's San Joaquin Valley, approximately 65 miles east of San Francisco, providing easy access to Interstate 5 to the west, Interstate 205 to the north, and Interstate 580 to the south. Several major airports are within 75 miles of Tracy; Oakland International and San Francisco International Airports to the west and Sacramento Metropolitan Airport to the north.

In March 1999 the Defense Distribution Center announced it would reconfigure operations at Defense Distribution Depot San Joaquin, Calif., which comprises distribution facilities at the Sharpe site in Lathrop and the site in Tracy. The reconfiguration called for an internal shift in workload from Sharpe to Tracy beginning October 1999 targeted for completion by September 2000. Tracy will focus on the receipt, storage, and distribution of fast-moving, high-demand items; Sharpe will store slow-moving, low-demand bulk items. Approximately 700 of Sharpe?s 800 employees will transfer to Tracy, located 15 miles southwest of the Sharpe facility. Roughly 100 employees will remain at Sharpe. The reconfiguration will eventually reduce personnel requirements at DDJC, but few involuntary separations are expected. However, any adversely affected employees will be eligible for buyouts and early retirement offers. Individuals not accepting or not eligible for such offers may register in a Department of Defense job-placement program. The initiative is the result of a business-case analysis revealing that the reconfiguration would boost DDJC productivity by 30 percent. As a result, more than 90 percent of DDJC?s daily requisitions will be processed at Tracy, which is 15 miles closer to the Bay Area seaports.

Tracy sprang into existence as a railroad town on September 8, 1878. Since that time, it has become a well-known manufacturing, distribution and warehousing center. located in the San Joaquin Valley, Tracy is surrounded by an abundance of agriculture, the dominant economic base. Some of the marketing/processing companies located in Tracy include: Holly Sugar, H.J. Heinz Co., Leprino Foods, and Triple E. Produce. The Tracy farming area includes the Delta, which was originally a marshland. Farming was developed around the turn of the century, and today Tracy contains over 500,000 acres of rich farmland across 70 miles of rivers and sloughs.

San Joaquin County is the northernmost county in the San Joaquin Valley. San Joaquin County has an inland seaport in Stockton and more than a thousand miles of recreational waterways along the Delta. Riverboats used to carry grain and other goods from Stockton to San Francisco. In the 1920's, the Stockton Channel was widened and dredged to allow ocean-going vessels into the port of Stockton.