Colonial period to War of Independence During the colonial era in America, each colony was responsible for its own supply of ordnance material and its own personnel to supervise it. The first written record of an ordnance officer in British colonial America was Samuel Sharpe in the Massachusetts Bay Colony appointed in 1629 as Master Gunner of Ordnance. By 1645, the Massachusetts Bay Colony had a permanent Surveyor of Ordnance officer. By the time of the American Revolution, every colony had their own ordnance organization responsible for the procurement, distribution, supply, storage, and maintenance of munitions for the colony. In July 1775, Ezekiel Cheever was appointed by General
George Washington as Commissary of Artillery Stores, soon to be called Commissary of Military Stores with
Major General Henry Knox, the Chief of Artillery. He was the civilian in charge of ordnance support for Washington's army in the field. By the end of the American Revolution, every brigade had ordnance personnel, usually civilian, providing munitions support to the soldiers in the field. In 1776, the
Board of War and Ordnance was established to oversee the conduct of the war. This board selected Benjamin Flower to be the Commissary General of Military Stores. Benjamin Flower was given the rank of Colonel and served in that capacity throughout the American Revolution. The Commissary General of Military Stores was an echelon above the Commissary of Military Stores in the field. His responsibility was to recruit and train
artificers, establish ordnance facilities, and to distribute arms and ammunition to the army in the field. In 1777, a
powder magazine was established at
Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and a foundry at
Springfield, Massachusetts. Wadsworth also took great care in establishing and supervising the training of officers who would join the Ordnance Department. Coming from West Point, these officers, such as
Alfred Mordecai and
George Bomford, were highly trained in mechanical and chemical engineering and were among the highest ranking of graduating cadets from West Point. These new ordnance officers were usually detailed to the Springfield or Harpers Ferry Armory, or to one of the various arsenals across the growing country, to conduct scientific and industrial experiments in metallurgy, chemistry, or one of the allied engineering fields. In 1832, the Ordnance Department established the non-commissioned officer rank of
Ordnance Sergeant to be in charge of the ordnance stores at any of the growing number of Army forts and establishments across the country. This rank remained until the reorganization of the Army under the
National Defense Act of 1920. During the
Mexican–American War, the Ordnance Department established the Ordnance Rocket and Howitzer Battery to service the then new M1841 12-pound howitzers and Hale war rockets, which had not yet entered Army service and were still being tested. This was the only Ordnance unit established primarily for a combat role. This unit included junior Army officers who would serve as senior leaders in the Civil War; including
Jesse Reno and
Benjamin Huger. scientists of the
Ordnance Rocket Center In August 1945, Colonel
Holger Toftoy, head of the Rocket Branch of the Research and Development Division of the US Army's Ordnance Department, offered initial one-year contracts to German
rocket scientists as part of
Operation Paperclip, a program used to recruit the scientists from
Nazi Germany for employment by the United States; 127 of them accepted. In September 1945, the first group of seven rocket scientists arrived at
Fort Strong,
New York and then moving to
Fort Bliss,
Texas, in January 1946. In 1949, the German scientists were transferred from the
White Sands Missile Range Fort Bliss Range Complex to the
Redstone Arsenal Ordnance Rocket Center.
Post-war era Per the Army Reorganization Act of 1950, the Ordnance
Department was renamed the Ordnance
Corps. With the outbreak of the
Korean War, the Ordnance Corps largely re-established its successful procedures from World War II. It reactivated the various schools and units at Aberdeen Proving Ground, which had been dis-established following the end of World War II, to serve the Korea effort. It continued its tradition of echeloned-based maintenance and increased the rapidity of maintenance and ammunition supply and repair.
Explosive Ordnance Disposal, formerly Bomb Disposal Squads, improved their procedures with a focus on Russian and Chinese ordnance. In Vietnam, the capabilities of
Explosive Ordnance Disposal became increasingly important due to the nature of a war with no front lines. EOD and other ordnance units work under the auspices of the
1st Logistical Command, which divided the country into four support zones. Despite the difficult circumstances, the operational readiness rates increased and by 1969 exceeded those of previous wars.
Post cold war In 2008, the Ordnance Corps consolidated the Ordnance Mechanical Maintenance School from
Aberdeen Proving Ground and the
United States Army Ordnance Munitions and Electronic Maintenance School from
Redstone Arsenal into a single training facility based at
Fort Lee, Virginia as a part of the
2005 Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC) decision. With an entirely new campus dedicated to the training of all ranks of ordnance soldiers and civilians, the Ordnance Corps maintains its commitment to the life-cycle sustainment of the Army's materiel from cradle to grave, providing ammunition, and protecting the Army's forces through EOD operations. ==Heraldic items and traditions==