Picatinny Arsenal –This Arsenal in Northern New Jersey influenced the outcome of EVERY major United States war from the Revolution in 1774 through the “end”the Cold War in 1991.
While this site details the transformation of strategic nuclear to tactical nuclear weapons of the early Cold War era, the term Cold War Giants refers to workers at Picatinny Arsenal where this nuclear transformation took place.
Many assume that all nuclear innovation took place at Los Alamos in New Mexico. After all this was the secret headquarters of the Manhattan Project and where the initial testing of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan were tested. But the idea of shrinking the atomic bomb into an artillery shell was rejected by the atomic scientists at Los Alamos and the miliary scientists at the Pentagon. Only perseverance by one Pentagon Colonel resulted in a young man at Picatinny Arsenal believing he could do it. Both of these men are now in the US Army Hall of Fame at the new US Army Museum in Ft. Lee VA. Picatinny Arsenal scientist Robert M. Schwartz accepted the “mission impossible” challenge of Pentagon Colonel Angelo R Del Campo Jr. Schwartz did the initial design of the shell then assembled a group of 8 “Cold War Giants” to make the changes and review the revisions that Los Alamos recommended to his initial design.
Color pictures were rare in 1954, but I believe this was considered ground breaking work at Picatinny and below is a Picatinny photo of these eight men. Next I will post a brief, one-page history of the role that Picatinny played in the major wars of the United States.
