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Just over a decade after opening, the Guard played an important role in sending dozens of local troops to World War II. A document dated January 17, 1941 at the Shelby County Public Library Genealogy lists names, addresses and next of kin for those “taken to serve.” Among many others, those names included John McKenney, John Haehl, Ralph Disser, Robert Chappelow, Richard Mann, Floyd DePrez, Emerson Sipes, Jesse James Weaver, Earl Isgrigg, Daniel Wray DePrez, Carl McNeely, John Mardis, and James Monroe McKeand.nnA few years following the war, the Armory expanded to include construction of a $35,000 motor division facility at the intersection of E. Franklin St. and McLane Ave., near the J.E. Evans concrete block plant. Shelby Construction Co. began in late January 1950 and the Armory occupied the building in May.nnPerhaps the most tragic memory of the E. Washington St. building occurred on September 9, 1969 after an Allegheny Airlines plane collided mid-air with a small aircraft, killing over 80 near Fairland. Victim body parts were transported to the Armory, set up as a temporary morgue, late in the evening as identification teams arrived. A week after the crash, a mass burial was held for over 30 of the victims at Forest Hill Cemetery.nnBy that time, the National Guard had decided to expand operations and eventually moved to a 46,293 square foot structure near I-74, leaving the city in charge of the building.