Redstone Arsenal

Redstone Arsenal is a U.S. Army post and a census-designated place (CDP) located next to the city of Huntsville in Madison County, Alabama, United States and is part of the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area. The primary tenant organizations are the United States Army Aviation and Missile Command and the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. The Redstone CDP has a population of 2,365 as of the 2000 census.

Geography

Redstone Arsenal is located at 34°41′03″N 86°39′15″W / 34.684166°N 86.654031°W / 34.684166; -86.654031.^[1] According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Redstone CDP has a total area of 7.9 square miles (20.4 km²), all of it land.

Redstone Arsenal contains extensive wetland areas associated with the Tennessee River and several local springs, much of which is maintained by the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge.

History

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There is a total of 929 prehistoric sites recorded on Redstone Arsenal to date according to the Redstone Arsenal Base Archaeologist. At least 22 of these sites have components dating to the Paleoindian Period (9200 to 8000 BC). The Paleoindian projectile point called the Redstone Point was named after Redstone Arsenal where it was first identified.

Euroamerican settlers began to establish homesteads on the land that is now Redstone Arsenal by the first decade of the 19th century. Prior to the Civil War, the landscape was dominated by several large plantations, the remains of which survive as archaeological sites. The land played a peripheral role during the Civil War with activity limited to the posting of pickets along the Tennessee River bank. Following the Civil War, many of the large plantations were increasingly divided into smaller parcels owned by small farmers which included former slaves and their descendants. By the turn of the century, many of the farms were owned by absentee owners, with the land being worked by tenants and sharecroppers. The remains of hundreds of tenant and sharecropper houses still dot the landscape around the Installation.

In the beginning of the 20th century, the approximately 57-square-mile (150 km²) area of rolling terrain, which contained some of the richest agricultural land in Madison County, comprised such small farming communities as Spring Hill, Pond Beat, Mullins Flat, and Union Hill. Cotton, corn, hay, livestock, and various fruits and vegetables were the primary agricultural products cultivated by the area’s inhabitants. Although there was no electricity, indoor plumbing, or telephones; few roads; and fewer cars or tractors, the people who lived in the area that one former resident recalled as being “nearly out of the world” prospered enough to support their own stores, mills, shops, gins, churches, and schools. A total of 46 historic cemeteries including slave cemeteries, plantation family cemeteries, and late 19th to early 20th century community cemeteries are maintained on the Installation.

Huntsville Arsenal

The Arsenal was established in 1941 as part of the mobilization leading up to US involvement in World War II. Over 550 families were displaced when the Army acquired the land. Over 300 of these were tenants and sharecroppers. Most of the landowners were allowed to salvage their assets and rebuild elsewhere. The remaining buildings were almost all razed by the War Department. A land-use agreement was arranged with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) for the Army to use about 1,250 acres (5.1 km²) of land along the Tennessee River front.

The military installation was originally composed of three separate entities: the Huntsville Arsenal and the Huntsville Depot (later the Gulf Chemical Warfare Depot), which were operated under the auspices of the Chemical Warfare Service, and the Redstone Ordnance Plant operated by the Army Ordnance Department. The ordnance facility was renamed the Redstone Arsenal in 1943.^[2]

In the early years, the Arsenal operated as a production and stockpiling facility for chemical weapons such as phosgene, Lewisite, and mustard gas. The use of toxic gases in warfare was banned under the Geneva Protocol of 1925, but the US agreed to sign only with the reservation that it be allowed to use chemical weapons against aggressors who used them. The facility also produced carbonyl iron powder (for radio and radar tuning), tear gas, and smoke and incendiary devices.(Reed and Langdale 2001) The Redstone Army Airfield was established for the 6th Army Air Forces to test the incendiary devices in preparation for the firebombing of Japanese cities, which began in February 1945. In recognition of its production record, the Arsenal received the Army-Navy ‘E’ Award four times, the first on October 31, 1942.

Three days after the announcement of the Japanese surrender, production facilities at the Installation were put on standby. After the war, Huntsville Arsenal was briefly used as the primary storage facility for the Chemical Warfare Service, manufacture of gas masks, and dismantling of surplus incendiary bombs. Most of the wartime civilian workforce on the Arsenal was furloughed, dropping to 600 from a wartime high of around 4400.^[3] Much of the Arsenal land began to be leased for agriculture, and many of the buildings were leased for local industry. By 1947, the Installation was declared to be excess, the first step toward demilitarization.^[3] The Air Force abandoned a bid to use the Huntsville Arsenal, however, and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army directed that the post be advertised for sale by July 1, 1949. The proposed sale never happened, though, because the Army found it needed this land for the new mission of developing and testing rocket systems. Thiokol Corporation moved operations to Redstone Arsenal from Maryland in the summer of 1949 to research and develop rocket propellants while Rohm and Haas began work on rockets and jet propulsion. Huntsville Arsenal was consolidated with the other two entities to become Redstone Arsenal.

Ordnance Corps

In 1948, the Army Chief of Ordnance designated Redstone Arsenal as the center for Ordnance rocket research and development. Then in April 1950, the Ordnance Research and Development Division Sub-Office (Rocket) at Fort Bliss, Texas, arrived at Redstone Arsenal and became the Ordnance Guided Missile Center (with Major James Hamill acting as commander and Wernher von Braun as Technical Director), which first developed a tactical missile, the "Major".^[4] By November 1951, the Experimental Missiles Firing Branch, headed by Kurt H. Debus, was established and the Redstone (rocket) program was taking shape. In January 1953, the branch was redesignated the Missile Firing Laboratory and had three sections: Mechanical headed by Albert Zeiler; Guidance, Control & Networks headed by Hans Gruene; and Radio Frequency (RF) & Measurements headed by Karl Sendler. The first Redstone launch took place August 20, 1953, conducted by a team of 30 from the laboratory.^[4]

In 1954 at a meeting of the Spaceflight committee of the American Rocket Society, Wernher von Braun proposed the idea of placing a satellite into orbit^[5] using the Redstone with clusters of small solid-fuel rockets on top. The proposal, Project Orbiter, was rejected in 1955, and the Laboratory became part of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) on February 1, 1956. Nevertheless, the ABMA laboratory successfully launched Explorer 1 on February 1, 1958, and the Army Ordnance Missile Command (AOMC) was formed the next month. Six months after Explorer 1, President Eisenhower created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and on July 1, 1960, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (the first NASA facility) was established in the heart of Redstone Arsenal, and ABMA's scientific and engineering staff (Wernher von Braun's team) were transferred to MSFC.

Demographics

As of the census^[6] of 2000, there were 2,353 people, 487 households, and 446 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 300.8 people per square mile (116.2/km²). There were 879 housing units at an average density of 111.8/sq mi (43.2/km²). The racial makeup of the CDP was 56.53% White, 31.67% Black or African American, 0.42% Native American, 2.03% Asian, 0.80% Pacific Islander, 3.34% from other races, and 4.82% from two or more races. 9.30% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 487 households out of which 79.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 79.7% were married couples living together, 8.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 8.4% were non-families. 7.8% of all households were made up of individuals and none had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.48 and the average family size was 3.67.

In the CDP the population was spread out with 32.9% under the age of 18, 19.2% from 18 to 24, 43.2% from 25 to 44, 4.6% from 45 to 64, and 0.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 24 years. For every 100 females there were 150.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 170.1 males.

The median income for a household in the CDP was $35,435, and the median income for a family was $40,208. Males had a median income of $29,053 versus $24,063 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $14,860. About 9.0% of families and 10.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 11.7% of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.

Military facilities

Redstone Arsenal became such in 1943, as a result of plans to create a second chemical weapons plant in addition to the existing plant at Edgewood, Maryland. Workload was heavy during World War II, leading to construction of the Huntsville Arsenal nearby. Activity curtailed quickly after the war and in 1947, Redstone was placed on standby. Huntsville Arsenal was deactivated in 1949 with the remaining staff transferred to Redstone. That same year the Army's Ordnance Rocket Center was transferred to Redstone. Redstone was the home of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency when it was founded in 1956, but lost a number of facilities and personnel, including all space-related programs, to NASA in 1960.

Redstone Arsenal remains the center of testing, development, and doctrine for the U.S. Army's missile programs. Besides the Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone houses the Tactical UAV Project Office, Ordnance Munitions and Electronic Maintenance School [1], Redstone Technical Test Center (RTTC), and other operations. Redstone Arsenal also hosts the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, NASA's center for propulsion analysis and development. The Saturn V moon rocket was developed here by Wernher von Braun's team of rocket engineers.

See also

• Redstone Army Airfield
• United States Army Aviation and Missile Command
• Marshall Space Flight Center
• Titan Rain

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References

1. ^ "US Gazetteer files: 2000 and 1990". United States Census Bureau. 2005-05-03. http://www.census.gov/geo/www/gazetteer/gazette.html. Retrieved 2008-01-31. 
2. ^ Redstone Arsenal Complex Chronology: The Pre-Missile Era, 1943. Redstone.army.mil
3. ^ ^{a b} Hughes 1993
4. ^ ^{a b} McCleskey, C.; D. Christensen. "Dr. Kurt H. Debus: Launching a Vision" (pdf). http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/history/docs/pdf/debus.pdf. Retrieved 2008-10-07. 
5. ^ Bate, Roger R.; Mueller, Donald D.; White, Jerry E. (June 1, 1971). Fundamentals of Astrodynamics. Dover Publications. pp. 152. ISBN 0486600610. 
6. ^ "American FactFinder". United States Census Bureau. http://factfinder.census.gov. Retrieved 2008-01-31. 

External links

• Redstone Arsenal official website
• U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command official website
• Marshall Space Flight Center official website
• Redstone Arsenal installation history
• Redstone Arsenal Relocation and Community Info website
• Redstone Arsenal Campground Information

Coordinates: 34°41′03″N 86°39′15″W / 34.684166°N 86.654031°W / 34.684166; -86.654031

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