Toftoy, Holger N. (Holger Nelson), 1902-1967

Major General Holger Nelson Toftoy (Oct. 31, 1902-Apr. 19, 1967) was born in Marseilles, Illinois. He began his military service as an ROTC cadet at the University of Wisconsin in 1920. During his second year there, he was appointed to the U.S. Military Academy and was graduated in 1926. After taking basic flight training, he transferred to the Coast Artillery and served three years in Hawaii as a battery commander before returning to West Point as an instructor for five years. In the mid-l930s he was assigned to command the mine defenses of the Pacific approaches of the Panama Canal. In 1938 he was transferred to the Submarine Mine Depot, Fort Monroe, where he served for six years as Chief of the Industrial and the Research and Development Divisions. He directed the design and development of a new type of controlled submarine mine system widely used in World War II. In 1944, he became Chief of the Army Ordnance Technical Intelligence teams assigned to Europe to seek out and evaluate captured enemy Ordnance weapons and equipment. During this time a series of historic events occurred that have had a profound effect upon the U.S. missile and apace programs. The technical intelligence teams were asked to make a full report on and send home specimens of two of the most spectacular German weapons of the war, the V-1 and V-2 rockets. These weapons were developed by a group of scientists under direction of Dr. Wernher von Braun at Peenemunde. While the search was underway for these rockets an assistant to Toftoy, Maj. James P. Hamill, made contact with Dr. von Braun and members of the Peenemunde team who had retreated to the Harz Mountains in advance of the Allied armies. Toftoy knew the U.S. Army was planning to add guided missiles to its weapons program. He first cabled then went personally to Washington to recommend that the German scientists be brought to the U.S. for interrogation and possible employment. By September 1945, the first group of scientists, including von Braun, had arrived in the U.S. Toftoy was then transferred back to Washington and assigned responsibility for direction of the Army guided missile program. In 1952, Toftoy was assigned to Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, as Director of the Ordnance Missile Laboratories, which was responsible for planning, technical control and supervision of what had become the nation-wide Army guided missile and rocket development program. Within two years, Redstone Arsenal had become recognized as one of the Army''s most important technical centers, and General Toftoy, first as a Brigadier General, then as Major General in command of Redstone Arsenal, had laid the foundation of today''s huge complex. During the period of his command, 1952 to August 1958, RSA became responsible for the research and development, procurement and production, storage, maintenance and issue of the entire Army family of missiles and rockets including, but not limited to the Nike Hercules, Hawk, Lacrosse, Honest John, Little John, Corporal, and Redstone. In March 1958, Toftoy became Deputy Commanding General of the Army Ordnance Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal. He remained at RSA until July 1958, when he was named the Commanding General of Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, in August 1958. In 1960 General Toftoy retired from the Army due to ill health. He died on April 19, 1967, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. He was inducted into the Ordnance Corps Hall of Fame in 1969.

From the description of Toftoy, Holger N. (Holger Nelson), 1902-1967 (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration). naId: 10678289