Travel:

Aberdeen Proving Ground
Tank Park and Museum

History of APG

article and photos by Russ Lockwood



The mission of U.S Army Ordnance Museum is to collect, preserve and account for historically significant property that relates to the history of the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps and the evolution and development of American military ordnance materiel from the colonial period in American history to the present. In fulfilling this mission, the Ordnance Museum will assist in research and development of military ordnance, and it will support military training and education through the exhibition and interpretation of historical artifacts and instructions of military and civilian personnel.

Needless to say, the historical value of the Museum collection is overshadowed only by its research value, for each specimen represents an engineering effort to solve a design problem. By carefully studying design features of the past, contemporary designers are frequently able to solve today's problems. It is important to note that the design of weapons that have become obsolete may be reviewed at a later date. The Gatling Gun is an example of this phenomenon; in 1902 the basic Gatling Gun was coupled with an electric motor in order to provide a more rapid-fire weapon. Tests proved that the experiment was a success, however since the military planners of the day could not envision a situation which would require such a voluminous amount of firepower and because of the high expenditure of ammunition, the project was terminated. Fourty-four years later, after the advent of jet aircraft and the Army's corresponding need to re-think its doctrine on both aircraft armament and aircraft defense, the Ord­nance Museum was requested to provide information and examples of the hardware used in the earlier Gatling Gun experiment. By 1956 a new gun, known as the Vulcan and based on the Gatling Gun principle, was developed for use in aircraft weapons; subsequently the Vulcan has also been used for air-defense purposes.

Origins

Historically, the Ordnance Museum traces its origin back to the Calibre Board which was convened in France on 11 December 1918, under BG Westervelt The mission of the Calibre Board, or Westervelt Board, as it is some­times known, was to evaluate the lessons learned in World War I in regard to the use of artillery and to make recommendations concerning future policies pertaining to its development by the U.S. Army. In the performance of its work, the Calibre Board gathered all kinds of artillery equipment and subjected these items to a tactical eval­uation. However, in order to obtain a technical evalua­tion the equipment was shipped to Aberdeen Proving Ground for careful scrutinizing by weapons engineers. After the Calibre Board submitted its report, the Ord­nance Department established an office known as the Technical Staff, to implement its recommendations. In order to stay abreast of all Ordnance developments, the Technical Staff organized a repository at Aberdeen Prov­ing Ground to store and catalogue the various equipment being acquired from France and other sources. As the collection grew, steps were taken to place it in a large shop building at Aberdeen, known as Building 314 be­came the Museum's home for the next 41 years.

After 1923 interest in the collection tended to ebb until the arrival at Aberdeen of Major Raymond C. Marsh in 1925. Major Marsh was attracted to the collection and requested that he be permitted to organize and arrange it in a meaningful way. His efforts resulted in the establishment of a system for the administration of the collection which remains in use to the present day.

On his own initiative, Major Marsh took the policy deci­sion of expanding the Museum's collection from purely artillery equipment to include small arms, military vehicles, aircraft bombs, fire control equipment and armored fighting vehicles. Between the years 1925 and 1939, the collection continued to grow at a moderate pace as new items of equipment were tested at Aber­deen and later transferred to the Museum.

In 1940, when the limited National Emergency was declared and the Armed Forces were rapidly expanded, the Museum building had to be remodeled for classroom use and the collection was stored out of doors, where they quickly deteriorated. In 1942 most of these items were scrapped.

In 1940 G. Burling Jarrett joined the Museum staff and served as curator until his retirement in 1966. In September 1942 a Foreign Material Section was established at Aberdeen to study and report on foreign equipment During the war years, enormous amounts of foreign equipment forwarded to Aberdeen for evaluation; later this equipment became the nucleus for the post-museum collection. Within a year after the ter­mination of hostilities in 1945, the Foreign Material Branch was disestablished. However, the Museum sec­tion survived and became known as the Aberdeen Prov­ing Ground Museum.

In the years between 1945 and 1950, important work was done by the Museum in the area of cataloguing Ordnance equipment In addition, a number of impres­sive manuscripts were published. Notable among these were the reports prepared by Mr. Karl Kempf, on the sub­ject of Russian equipment. Mr. Kempf, who later served as Curator during the years 1967-1971, was fluent in the German language and used captured German reports to prepare in-depth studies on Russian equipment. In 1950, Kempfs work became invaluable when U.S. Forces in Korea were called upon to confront an enemy equipped by the Soviet Union.

In the years after the Korean War, the Ordnance Museum's exhibit activities continued and each year more visitors came to Aberdeen as its reputation became better known.

In 1967, as the buildup of U.S. Forces for the commit­ment in Southeast Asia advanced at an alarming rate, facilities to house important Army agencies again became acutely short As a result, the Museum's home, Building 314, once again had to be remodeled for subsequent use as a Headquarters for the Army's Test and Evaluation Command. At that time, since it appeared that the Army might be forced to liquidate the collection in order to avoid the cost of maintaining it, a group of local citizens formed a tax-free foundation for the purpose of building and donating a new home for the Museum.

Since 1973, when the U.S. Army Ordnance Museum "reopened" to the public, the Museum staff, in coopera­tion with other elements of the Ordnance Center and School, has continued to prepare and present new dis­plays. These efforts have resulted in fabrication of meaningful and education displays that illustrate the development evolution of Ordnance materiel. In addition to providing instruction to Army personnel, it is estimated that each year in excess of 200,00 visitors are accomodated.

As the Ordnance Museum prepares to meet its future challenges and expanding responsibilities, the staff will be ever conscious of its opportunity to tell the story of Ordnance and to add to the prestige of the U.S. Army.

The Ordnance Corps

The Ordnance Corps has a history of tradition, challenge, and accomplishment. Its officers and enlisted personnel form an elite group of professionals in one of today's most specialized and challenging fields. In war and in peace, the Ordnance Corps has always been a vital link between America's industrial complex and her fighting men and women throughout the world. The Ordnance Corps dates to the early days of the American Revolution. In 1775 the Continental Congress appointed a "Commissary General of the Artillery Stores" to provide necessary ordnance material. The appointee, Ezekiel Cheever, was, in effect, the first Chief of Ordnance.

In 1777 the first Ordnance powder magazine was established at Carlisle, Pennsylvania The same year, the first arsenal and armory began operations at Springfield, Massachusetts. Other arsenals and armories were established at Harpers Ferry, Watertown (near Bos­ton), and Philadelphia The Ordnance armories pioneered the development of mass production by adopting new manufacturing techniques and improving machine tools. Historically, the Ordnance Department has been recog­nized for its significant contribution to the industrial revolution and our present way of life.

The Ordnance Department was first mentioned by name in 1778 in a Continental Congress resolution assigning responsibility for issuing supplies to troops in the field. The Board of War and Ordnance appointed a Surveyor of Ordnance, to inspect materiel, and a Commissary General of Military Stores, to keep records of purchases and stocks on hand. Formally organized by an Act of Con­gress on 14 May 1812, the Ordnance Department consis­ted of a Commissary General of Ordnance, an Assistant Commissary General, four deputies, and several assistant deputy commissaries.

The "Flaming Bomb" was adopted as the Corps' official insignia in 1832. Then, as now, it stood for the energy of those who wear it. It is the oldest military insignia of the U.S. Army. Before its adop­tion by Ordnance, the bomb was the insignia of the British Grenadier Guards, Royal Engineers, and Royal Horse Artillery.

Aberdeen Museum and Tank Park

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