Secretary of War

The formation of the Ordnance Department resulted from four events following cessation of hostilities in 1784. In 1785, the Secretary of War was charged with taking into his care all military stores, equipment, and supplies of the US Army. Second, a Surveyor of Ordnance was authorized in 1789. Third, Congress provided for the erection and repair of magazines and arsenals, and for the establishment of national armories. Fourth, in 1795, a Purveyor of Public Supplies was appointed to conduct the procurement of all military and naval stores necessary for the service of the USA. Finally, the establishment of the Ordnance Department as a separate corps was effected by Congressional Act of 14 May 1812... 

In 1879 (Congress appropriated funds for the establishment of a powder depot near New York. Major F.H. Parker of the Ordnance Department inspected nine possible ates within 100 miles of Manhattan. On the basis of those attributes already mentioned, the Picatinny Valley site was chosen. On September 6, 1880, the War Department purchased 1866 acres in the valley for 62,750. The Secretary of War designated the reservation as the Dover Powder Depot. Four days later he issued an order changing the name to the Picatinny Powder Depot. Six days later, on September 16,1880, Major Parker was named the first Commanding Officer. In June 1883, the name was again changed to the U.S. Powder Depot... 

I made my usual morning visit to the snack bar to get a cup of coffee and pick up the Stars and Stripes. The lead story prolonged my recess. It was a blast by Representative George Don-dero of Michigan against Secretary of War Patterson for his "failure to ferret out Communist sympathizers " who had "infiltrated into key Army posts."... 

Yet there were other pharmacists who did not use the exemption clause to avoid military service and asked for it only as a last resort. Consider the case of pharmacist William E. Besson of Eufaula, Alabama. The Secretary of War appointed Besson hospital steward of the Eufaula Light Artillery late in 1862.4 By 1864, however, Besson received word that his drugstore could no longer be managed by his partner, curiously an invalid widow [his mother ] who had become ill.5 The townspeople pleaded as hard for Besson s case as Besson himself. 

Report of a Committee Appointed... to Prepare a Paper on the Use of Quinine As a Prophylactic Against Malarious Diseases, Sanitary Commission, no. 31 (New York Wm. C. Bryant, 1861). The commission happily reported the surgeon general s concurrence with the committee by the end of the year. See its December report in A Report to the Secretary of War, p. 50. 

The ramifications of the atomic bomb project reached such proportions that in August 1943 it was decided to establish a Combined Policy Committee, composed at the outset of Secretary of War Stimson, Dr. Bush, Dr. Conant for the United States, Field Marshall Sir John Dill and Colonel J.J. Llewellin, for the United Kingdom and Mr. C.D. Howe for Canada. Col. Llewellin was later replaced by Sir Ronald I. Campbell who in turn was succeeded by the Earl of Halifax the late Field Marshal Dill was succeeded by Field Marshal Sir Henry Maitland Wilson. The United States members have had as their scientific adviser. Dr. Richard C. Tolman the British, Sir James Chadwick and the Canadian, Dean C.J. Mackenzie. 

President Truman and Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson made the first announcements of the new weapon, declaring that the atomic bomb had an explosive force such as to stagger the imagination. Improvements were revealed as forthcoming which would increase several-fold the effectiveness accomplished at that time. The schematic sketches based on the photographs of the bombs dropped on Nagasaki ( Fat Man Bomb ) and Hiroshima Little Boy Bomb ) are shown in Figs. 8.5 and 8.6. The detailed information about the mission summaries and strike aircrafts are shown in Table 8.1, while the details of the mission summaries for instrument and photo aircrafts are shown in Tables 8.2 and 8.3. 

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