Hide Article Text (OCR)
Redstone Arsenal marks 75 years in northern AlabamaBy Shelly HaskinsHUNTSVILLE ime Arsenal turnsRed-mrThat’s cause for major celebration in Huntsville, and all of Alabama for that matter. Redstone is one of the state’s major economic engines, and could be described as the Pentagon South.It’s home to the headquarters of the Army Materiel Command, Aviation and Missile Command, Space Missile Defense Command, Missile Defense Agency, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and training and development centers for the FBI and ATF, and on and on.Since opening in 1941 as the Army's chemical weapons development site, it transformed Huntsville from the watercress capital of the world to the Rocket City we know today.But did you know that, if not for a general literally getting on his hands and knees at the Pentagon, none of that may have happened?Armydown chemical weaponstions here and was planning to auction off the property where Redstone sits.Maj. Gen. Holger Toftoy, the architect of Operation Paperclip that brought Wemher von Braun and his German rocket team to Fort Bliss in Texas after World War II, wanted to put all rocket and missile work in one location.pie work on Redstone Arsenal daily, and tens of thousands more support its work outside the gatesin Cummings Research Park, at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and Alabama AfrM University and all across the Tennessee Valley.Redstone’s economic impactAlabamaWithand charts ofmapsHuntsville and Redstone arsenals spread on the floor of Gen. Matthew Ridgeway’s office, Toftoy made his case for Huntsville.lmAmerica44and space exploration are immeasurable.On June 30th, Huntsville’s mil-General, you can see I’m on itary and civilian leaders will donblack tie and gather for a galaaboutw ^--— j ' -7 — —toy told Ridgeway, according to a Huntsville Times article from 2011.There were many empty build-900 of them. What’scelebration of Redstone Arsenal’s 75th anniversary during the city’sArmed forces Week celebrationAllmgsHuntsville000limitsthe research and development of rockets and missiles.Toftoy’s pitch was successful, and the rest, as they say, is history. Von braun and his team wereas a defense and space industry mecca should have our own celebration, and perhaps get down on our hands and knees and thank Gen. Holger Toftoy for going to the mat for us.Had it not been for his vision,transferred here, and Huntsville Huntsville might still be knownfor watercress and cotton, nottransformed Today, more than 30,000rocket science.
Newspaper Details
Athens News Courier
Athens, Alabama, US
Sat, Jul 16, 2016
Page 22
Full Page
Clipped by
Scottsdale P.
AZ, USA 06 Nov 2021
Other Publications Near Athens, Alabama
Athens Post
Athens Limestone County Shopper
Athens Limestone Democrat
Athens News Courier
Athens Alabama Courier
