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.

[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 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.

Although there was no electricity, indoor plumbing, or telephones, few roads, and fewer cars or tractors, the people who lived in the area prospered enough to support their own stores, mills, shops, gins, churches, and schools.

As part of the mobilization leading to U.S. involvement in World War II, Huntsville Arsenal was established in 1941 to create an inland chemical weapons plant in addition to one in Edgewood, Maryland.

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.

[11] In the immediate post-war era the Arsenal was used for research and development by German weapons rocket scientists who had been brought to the U.S. as part of Operation Paperclip.

The use of toxic gases in warfare was banned under the Geneva Protocol of 1925, but the U.S. signed 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.

After the war, Huntsville Arsenal was briefly used as the primary storage facility for the Chemical Warfare Service, and for manufacture of gas masks and dismantling of surplus incendiary bombs.

In early 1948, several buildings of Huntsville Arsenal were leased by the newly formed Keller Motors Corporation with the intention of establishing a major automobile manufacturing complex.

The proposed sale never happened, because the Army found it needed the land for the new mission of developing and testing rocket systems.

[12] At the close of World War II, a number of key German scientists and engineers were brought to the United States under Operation Paperclip.

Colonel Holger Toftoy arranged for 127 individuals, including Wernher von Braun, to receive contracts for work on Army missiles.

This became the Ordnance Guided Missile Center (OGMC), with Major James Hamill as acting commander and von Braun as technical director.

Upon the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, OGMC was given the mission of developing a surface-to-surface ballistic missile with an objective range of 500 miles (800 km).

Starting with an upgraded Major missile, the design went through a series of improvements and ultimately became the PGM-11 with the popular name Redstone rocket.

Holger Toftoy, who had originally recruited von Braun and his team of missile specialists, was assigned to Huntsville and promoted to Brigadier General as director of the OML.

The OGMS greatly expanded through the years, occupying a large land area with many buildings and providing a wide variety of missile and munitions courses for thousands of students from the U.S. as well as many foreign countries.

[18] The Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA), commanded by Maj. Gen. John Medaris, was formed on 1 February 1956, taking over from Redstone Arsenal the facilities and personnel of OGMC.

Although von Braun had proposed in 1954 that the OML could place a satellite in Earth orbit, the Naval Research Laboratory, using its Vanguard rocket, was given this assignment.

The go-ahead was given and on 31 January 1958, America's first satellite, Explorer I, was placed into orbit using a modified Jupiter launch vehicle (a four-stage system designated Juno I).

Headquartered at Redstone Arsenal and commanded by Maj. Gen. Medaris, AOMC had several subordinate elements, including ABMA, White Sands Missile Range, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at California Institute of Technology.

Another local activity, the Army Rocket and Guided Missile Agency (ARGMA), was formed and added to AOMC in June.

[12] Six months after Explorer I, President Dwight Eisenhower created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on July 29, 1958.

This was accomplished effective July 1, 1960, when 4,670 civilian employees, about $100 million worth of buildings and equipment, and 1,840 acres (7.4 km2) of land transferred from RSA/ABMA's Development Operations Division to NASA's George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC).

[21] The U.S. Army Missile Command (MICOM) was activated on August 1, 1962 at Redstone Arsenal, absorbing all of the personnel, facilities, and projects remaining in the prior AOMC.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) examined the requirements and recommending a system, designated Nike-X, incorporating phased-array radars, high-performance computers, and separate low-altitude (Sprint) and high-altitude (Spartan) high-velocity interceptor missiles.