Army Chemical Review presents professional information about Chemical Corps functions related to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, smoke, flame, and civil support operations.
Issue link: https://chemical.epubxp.com/i/759309
48 Army Chemical Review War resulted in additional artifacts for the collection, but also coincided with the retirement of Mr. Phelps as direc- tor. For the next 20 years, the leadership of the museum in- volved a series of military and civilian appointees, although the artifact curator, Mr. William Nichols, hired in 1948, cared for the collection until 1972. The physical separation of the museum from the U.S. Army Chemical School led to its eventual renaming as the Edgewood Arsenal Museum. 9 Finally, in 1972, the museum was relocated to Fort Mc- Clellan and the role of the museum as an instructional classroom for the Army Chemical Center School was rees- tablished. The museum, housed in Atkisson Hall (named for the commander of the 1st Gas Regiment in World War I), was officially opened by Major General John J. Hayes, Chief of Chemical, on 28 June 1972, the 54th anni- versary of the Chemical Corps. Military manpower was used to oversee museum operations until a civilian curator was hired in October 1972. Sadly, this iteration of the museum was short-lived. With the end of American involvement in the Vietnam War and the Army slated for a 33 percent drawdown in strength, the Chief of Staff of the Army, General Creighton Abrams, recommended the disestablishment of the Chemical Corps. This announcement, on 11 January 1973, less than 7 months after its opening, led to the closure of the museum. The arti- facts were packed, crated, and shipped to the Ordnance Mu- seum at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, for storage. While the disestablishment never fully occurred, the de- cision had a devastating effect on the Corps and the mu- seum. Although the museum had experienced two closures since its establishment, those were temporary; this closure lasted nearly a decade. While a small portion of the artifacts were exhibited at a much smaller Chemical Corps Museum established in a room within the Ordnance Museum in Au- gust 1976, the bulk of the collection remained crated and stored in a warehouse that lacked climate controls. Worse, in order to provide the Ordnance Museum with ad- ditional storage, a portion of the Chemical Corps col- lection was moved outdoors between 1979 and 1981. Without any overhead cover, the crates were fully ex- posed to the elements. The U.S. Army Chemical School was reestablished at Fort McClellan in December 1979; and on 2 No- vember 1981, commandant, Brigadier General Ger- ald Watson, requested permission from the Center of Military History to create a new Chemical Corps Museum. Permission was granted in January 1982; and within 6 months, the collection was shipped from Aberdeen to Fort McClellan. The museum was officially opened in Building 2299 by Brigadier Gen- eral Alan Nord, Chemical School commandant, on 4 December 1982, and rededicated as Atkisson Hall a year later. 10, 11, 12 The first of three civilian staff positions was filled in October 1982. The initial focus was on creating exhibits within the 4,000-square-foot building for up- coming veterans' reunions rather than on unpacking, sorting, and housing the collection; therefore, the artifacts remained in their crates until September 1984. Once the un- packing process finally began, the result of 10 years of ne- glect and nonaccountability became painfully obvious. Only 8,000 objects from a collection that once numbered more than 10,000 were present; and of the 8,000 artifacts shipped from Aberdeen, more than half had rotted, dissolved, or de- teriorated beyond salvage or repair. Equally tragic was the fact that no records accompanied the artifacts, so all historic provenance regarding where and when the items were col- lected was lost. 13 The museum operated at Atkinson Hall through 1999, with three civilian employees, a noncommissioned officer in charge, and a detail of assigned Soldiers providing classroom instruction on the heritage and traditions of the Chemical Corps to Dragon Soldiers. The museum was open weekdays, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. In 1990, it was noted that annual visitation at the museum was about 3,000. 14, 15 The Base Realignment and Closure Act of 1995, which mandated the closure of Fort McClellan and the relocation of the U.S. Army Chemical School to Fort Leonard Wood, Mis- souri, meant that the museum's collection would once again be packed and shipped halfway across the country. 16 A new facility, adjoining the Engineer Museum in Building 1607, was constructed to house the exhibit galleries and artifact storage areas for the Chemical Museum and the Military Police Museum, which had also been relocated from Fort McClellan. In the spirit of the center of excellence concept, common collection storage areas, exhibit construction, and artifact conservation areas were constructed for shared use by all three colocated museums, maximizing the use of space and eliminating redundant individual museum require- ments. The first portion of the new Chemical Corps Museum ex- hibit gallery was opened in 2002, with the rest opening the Exhibits in the Chemical Museum at Fort McClellan, Alabama, in 1995