Old metal plates with signal flags on them - military use?

One of many naval magazines ashore that are under US DOD:

http://www.cnic.navy.mil/regions/cnrnw/installations/naval_magazine_indian_island.html

 

Were I in a taller building.... I could see Indian Island.
Odd that II is termed a magazine but Naval Weapons Station Earl (NJ) is just that.

 

I'd bet money the rust aka iron oxide on it if analyzed would reveal a high concentration of chlorides or sodium chloride, from which would make it fairly certain the corrosion was caused by either sea water or highway salt from roads in winter. Little more testing would tell you which of those two was more likely. Yes I'm a fan of TV nonfiction show "Forensic Files."

 

Ive been to II many times the designator is correct because they are exclusively a weapons storage replenishment facility, ie. same as magazines onboard ships. Bunkers store much more, trust me. Bookatooh, understood, the source cannot be confirmed, but did you get them or was the collector overseas?

OK, Ill bite Bookatooh, need to know the source of call sign, its cool.

 

You seem to know an awful lot about this stuff so maybe you could get our government to start using the correct terminology. As you can see here BATFE has it all wrong, and they aren't the only part of govt that's got it wrong, driving now but I can get you lots more examples and you can start fixing them!

https://www.atf.gov/file/58711/download

 

Then you should straighten out the Navy, they define six types of magazines for storage of explosives ashore but not a single mention of "bunker." So you've got a lot of work ahead of you! Ref pp. 12-5 here to see how screwed up the Navy is on your favorite topic!

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/navy/nrtc/14313_ch12.pdf

 

Unsure why my origal post did not post, so I will try and recall/repost it. In hindsight is that we have veered of course on what the main topic was identifying the use / origins of the plates. Now (Dunno what your call sign is now bc it seems to have changed to sprinfield arsenal) nevertheless, I like the way you are trying to educate yourself, keep going and have fun. There is a main rule I learned while serving in the Navy/Corps ,,,,, beleive none of what you read or hear and half of what you see. Oh and BTW you do realized there is a difference between Departments (DoN, DoD, DoJ, DHS etc.) and MAJCOMS right?

 

Spring is Spring......there's only one Spring..!

 

Yes you are correct there, for once! Just kiddin! We're glad you are participating there, Boats! I probably need to 'splain why I gave one example from BATFE and another from USN, to show that the use of the term "magazine" meaning any land-based structure or even open area set aside for storing explosives is a pretty widespread thing. Bunkers are for people or earlier, for coal. Magazines are for explosives. And yeah we beat the s--t outta that topic, didn't we?

Do keep participating and I don't mind at all being challenged on anything I write here, but the chances of beating me down on the topic of military Ordnance are I think small, I spent 34 years combined active USN and Civil Service, much of it involved with Ordnance, then spent another 12 years selling Ordnance in my small business, so I picked up a few tidbits of knowledge here and there. Well back to driving, was going to get a motel but wasn't quite tired enough but now at 3am I wonder if that was a good idea!

 

I didn't see where the Chief offered his rating.
Unless the Chief was a Boatswains Mate then it isn't proper to call him 'Boats'. Chief is always correct though Senior Chief or Master Chief is proper if he was either.

 

Zakly! I tried to guess what his rating might have been and quickly eliminated Yeoman and a few others, and knew if my guess was wrong he'd straighten me out, unless he doesn't care to reveal that, which is ok too.

Maybe he'll have some advice for the crew of USS Zumwalt, which seems to be dead in the water somewhere today, I don't know details.

 

Uh oh!!!!
Wonder where she is....

 

Panama Canal, seems to be a severe shaft seal leak. They spent all the engineering bucks on the super induction (or whatever) ultra hi tech propulsion motors and had nothing left for the watertight integrity study (I made that up but I may not be too far off.)

 

Ah. The '50cent' part fails.

 

My Senior Chief was a Yeoman on board ship and then Reserves. I don't think he had much experience with Ordnance, unless you count throwing typewriters at someone!