STENNIS SPACE CENTER — The last whimper comes today for a facility that once employed hundreds of people and was a major economic underpinning to the local economy for years.

At 9 a.m. today, Col. Charles W. Kibben will officially deactivate the Mississippi Army Ammunition Plant, which was commissioned in 1977 and began massive layoffs in 1990. The plant was originally built on more that 7,000 acres provided to the Army by NASA.

The plant had three separate manufacturing facilities that produced projectiles for the military.

It had been the last munitions plant built since post-World War II days.

At its peak, the plant employed more than 1,800 people. Employees lived mostly in Hancock, Pearl River and Harrison counties, as well as in Louisiana’s St. Tammany Parish.

“They were good-paying jobs,” recalled former Bay St. Louis City Councilman Tab Black, who worked at the munitions plant for 21 years.

“It was a hell of an employment service for South Mississippi.”

The plant itself has been idle for a number of years. The Joint Munitions Command Facility is now deactivating the plant as a result of a decision by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission.

The plant became an industrial facility in late 1992. About 650 people are currently employed there by companies working in technology, computers, environmental services and other businesses.

During his time there, Black served six years as local president of United Auto Workers Local 2222, the plant union. At its peak, the plant had a $1 million payroll, he said.

“It was sad,” Black recalled of the plant’s decline. “Between April and August of 1990, we watched 1,400 people lose their jobs.”