BG Rollo C. Ditto
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Born in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, in 1886, BG Rollo C. Ditto was the first Commanding Officer of Huntsville Arsenal. He was a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and the U.S. Army War College. General Ditto enlisted in the Regular Army on 18 March 1907. He served as a private, corporal, and sergeant in the Coast Artillery Corps until 9 November 1909, when he was commissioned as a second lieutenant. During World War I, General Ditto participated in a number of defensive and offensive actions.
After the war, he served with the 17th Infantry at Camp Meade, Maryland, and later at Fort Benning, Georgia. In 1921, he was transferred to the Chemical Warfare Service and served at Edgewood Arsenal until 1922, when he became a student at the Command and General Staff College. After graduating, he was reassigned to Edgewood Arsenal as Assistant Commander of the Chemical Warfare School. General Ditto also served at the Ninth Corps Area at the Presidio of San Francisco, California, and attended the Army War College. After graduating from the Army War College in 1927, he served a 4-year detail on the General Staff in Chicago, Illinois. He became Chief of the Operations and Training Division, Office of the Chief, Chemical Warfare Service, Washington, D.C., on 15 October 1931 and Executive Officer in 1934.
In January 1936, General Ditto was assigned as the Chemical Officer at the Third Corps Area Headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland. On 22 September 1939, he was transferred to Pittsburgh as the Executive Officer, Headquarters of the Pittsburgh Chemical Warfare Procurement District. General Ditto (then Colonel) became the Commanding Officer of Huntsville Arsenal on 4 August 1941, a position he held until 24 May 1943. Huntsville Arsenal's first production facility was activated in March 1942, just 7 months after General Ditto's arrival. The arsenal became the sole manufacturer of colored smoke munitions and was also noted for its vast production of gel-type incendiaries. It also produced toxic agents such as mustard gas, phosgene, lewisite, white phosphorous, carbonyl iron, and tear gas. During World War II, more than 27,000,000 items of chemical munitions having a total value of over $134.5 million were produced. Huntsville Arsenal personnel won the Army-Navy "E" Award four different times for their outstanding record in the production of war equipment.
For service during World War I, General Ditto received the Silver Star (with Oak Leaf Cluster) and the Purple Heart. He also received the Treasury Department's Silver Life Saving Medal for saving two officers from drowning near Edgewood Arsenal in 1922. General Ditto died on 7 January 1947.