For more than a half-century, Port Chicago Naval Magazine has been a major port for shipping munitions to U.S. forces serving overseas. The Navy created the munitions-loading complex next to the town of Port Chicago as an annex to the Mare Island Naval Yard in Vallejo. The first ship pulled up to the new 1,260 foot-long dock in December 1942, and loading munitions for the Pacific campaign began. Following World War II, Port Chicago Naval Magazine became the major ordnance shipping center on the West Coast. Much of the ordnance used in Korea, Vietnam, and Persian Gulf War I passed through here. Though storage on the site has ceased, the shipment of munitions through the base continues today, and its docks could and still can accommodate the largest ammunition carriers in the world.