Redstone Arsenal
Redstone Arsenal is a United States Army base adjacent to Huntsville, Alabama in the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge.[1] A census-designated place in Madison County, Alabama, United States, it is part of the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area. The Arsenal is a host to over 75 tenant agencies[1] including the Department of Defense (DoD), Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),[2] and NASA's largest field center, the Marshall Space Flight Center.[3]
Redstone Arsenal
Army post
1941
1941–present
U.S. Army Aviation and Missile LCMC
U.S. Army Materiel Command
Missile Defense Agency
U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command
Aviation & Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center
The Arsenal today contains a government and contractor workforce that averages 36,000 to 40,000 personnel daily. The base has benefited from decisions by the Defense Base Realignment and Closure Commission and has a residential population of 837 as of 2020.[4]
Established during World War II as a chemical manufacturing facility, in the immediate post-war era the Arsenal was used for research and development by German rocket scientists who were brought to the United States as part of Operation Paperclip. The team first worked on ballistic missiles, starting with derivatives of the V-2 rocket, before moving on to a series of ever larger designs. In 1956 the Army was relieved of most of its ballistic missiles in favor of similar weapons operated by the US Air Force. The German design team was spun off to become part of the newly founded NASA. The Cold War had moved to space, and the U.S. intended to compete with the Soviet Union there and across the globe. The Arsenal served as the primary site for space launch vehicle design and testing into the 1960s.
History[edit]
Pre-1941[edit]
A total of 651 prehistoric archaeological sites were archived at Redstone Arsenal to date.[7] At least 22 have components dating to the Paleo-Indian period (9200 to 8000 BC). The Paleo-Indian projectile point called the Redstone Point was named after Redstone Arsenal where it was first identified.[8]
Euro-Americans 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 war, many of the large plantations were increasingly divided into smaller parcels owned by small farmers, who included former slaves and their descendants. By the start of the 20th 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.[9]
At 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, included such small farming communities as Spring Hill, Pond Beat, Mullins Flat, and Union Hill. 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 as Redstone Arsenal cemeteries.
Huntsville Arsenal[edit]
As part of the mobilization leading to U.S. involvement in World War II, Huntsville Arsenal was established in 1941 to create a second chemical weapons plant in addition to one in Edgewood, Maryland. It was announced by the War Department on July 3, 1941.[10] Over 550 families were displaced when the Army acquired the land, including over 300 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 for the Army to use about 1,250 acres (5.1 km2) of land along the Tennessee River.
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 United States Army Ordnance Department. The name Redstone drew on the region's red rocks and soil.[11]
Established during World War II as a chemical manufacturing facility, in the immediate post-war era the Arsenal was used for research and development by German weapons rocket scientists who were brought to the U.S. as part of Operation Paperclip. The team first worked on ballistic missiles, starting with V-2 rocket derivatives, before moving on to a series of ever larger designs. Many of their tests were carried out at White Sands Missile Range and flights between the two locations were common. In late 1956 the Army was relieved of most of its ballistic missiles in favor of similar weapons operated by the US Air Force.
The German design team was spun off to become part of the newly founded National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The Cold War had moved to space, and the US intended to compete with the Soviet Union there as well as across the globe. The Arsenal served as the primary site for space launch vehicle design into the 1960s.
Education[edit]
The CDP, which includes on-base housing,[28][29] is in the Madison County Schools school district.[30]