On Jun. 25, 1950 North Korean troops with Soviet-made weapons crossed the 38th parallel, invading South Korea. The next day, President Harry S Truman authorized the United States Navy and Air Force to aid South Korean troops operating south of the 38th parallel. Two days later, the U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution calling for armed intervention in Korea.
Although Redstone Arsenal in 1950 was becoming the mainstay of the Army's consolidated rocket and guided missile missions, the command's Ammunition Division production lines, according to Col. Holger N. Toftoy, "still contributed heavily to the country's defense." In operation since Mar. 1942, most of the installation's production line work between 1945 and 1950 consisted of reconditioning Ordnance ammunition returned from overseas (ARFO). Five years after the halt of chemical munitions production and the layoff of thousands of employees at the end of World War II, the arsenal once again aided national defense by accelerating the completion of the existing ARFO program and initiating plans for the new production of various types of chemical ammunition.
Additional funding starting in Sep. 1950 made possible the rehabilitation of older manufacturing facilities and increased employment. Despite the loss of former ammunition production buildings--such as Line 5, which was made available for contractor rocket research activities--the Ammunition Division quickly transformed another group of buildings in use as an automotive maintenance shop into the new Line 8, which was rehabilitated for the manufacture of medium caliber chemical ammunition. By Jun. 1951, the renovated facility proved capable of producing 600,000 rounds per month.
Redstone Arsenal reactivated another four ammunition lines from standby status before the end of Jul. 1951. For the next five years, Redstone Arsenal's Ammunition Division manufactured over 38.7 million complete rounds of chemical artillery ammunition. By the end of 1955, the installation's output represented a major portion of chemical ammunition in use by all U.S. armed forces in that period. Among the major items produced were 4.2-inch mortar shells, 3.5-inch rockets, 105mm and 155mm howitzer shells, and 81mm illuminating shells. Another important mission agency located on the installation was the Redstone Depot, which received, stored, and shipped a large volume of ammunition, Ordnance general supply items, industrial reserve machine tools, as well as strategic and critical raw materials.
After U.N. representatives and North Korean officials signed an armistice on Jul. 23, 1953 establishing a ceasefire, the Army's need for ammunition decreased, resulting in a change in priority on all scheduled items being manufactured at Redstone Arsenal. Less than a year later, in Apr. 1954, the Ordnance Ammunition Command (OAC) in Joliet, Illinois, assigned the Redstone Arsenal Ammunition Division a special project to prepare manufacturing descriptions on certain ammunition items processed at the installation. The project's primary objective was to produce documents describing the manufacturing methods and equipment in such detail that another industrial plant could establish a loading, assembly, and packing chemical ammunition production line in the shortest possible time and at minimal expense.
On Oct. 5, 1955, OAC officials began a two-day visit to Redstone Arsenal to study the installation's ammunition production activities as part of the decision process concerning the possible transfer of the installation's assembly work to another plant. Despite the strenuous objections of the arsenal's Commanding General, the Chief of Ordnance relieved the command of its then-oldest mission on Jun. 30, 1956. At the same time, the Ammunition Division was abolished and responsibility for performing the organization's remaining functions transferred to the Redstone Depot.
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