Opinion: St. Louis can once again build the arsenal of democracy

When the world was on fire in the 1940s, St. Louis hammered at the forge of freedom.

The St. Louis Ordnance Plant armed soldiers across two oceans, and McDonnell’s factory stitched fighters together on humming assembly lines. In neighborhoods across the region, workers who had never left Missouri suddenly found their hands shaping the outcome of a global war. The city became not just a witness to history, but the supplier of its arsenal.

That spirit of mobilization is not a relic, but a roadmap.

The United States again stands at a geopolitical inflection point much as it did on the eve of World War II: great-power adversaries are growing more capable, and the world is sliding toward greater conflict. Tomorrow’s battles may not be fought with the same tools, but they will be decided by t