NIKE AJAX AND HERCULES ORDNANCE SUPPORT UNIT SHORT, TALL STORIES
Air Defense Artillery
The following was submitted by the listed author. The owner of this web site, Doyle Piland,
cannot vouch for the accuracy of this article.
This week Beans and Franks
Fort Sheridan, Illinois
Summer 1959
Submitted by: Richard C. McGee
After reading Charlie Hancock's story about SFC ? (whom I recognized
immediately) another story came to mind. During the time I was
stationed at Fort Sheridan, Illinois my primary duty was inspecting the
Missile and Launcher area in each Nike site within the Chicago defense
as a member of the 5th Region Command Materiel Maintenance Inspection
(CMMI) Team. These sites were located from Gary, IN, the Chicago area,
and up into Wisconsin. Many sites were located so that we could travel
to and from the site in one day. However, at other times we would spend
the entire week TDY inspecting the whole Battalion. If memory serves me
right we would inspect each firing battery Monday through Thuursday with HQ &
HQ Battery, because it didn't take as long, on Friday. It was on one of
these weeklong trips that after the in briefing from our Team Chief to
the Battalion Commander a group of us headed for the Mess Hall, as it
was known in those days, to inquire what would be served for lunch that
day. The Mess Sergeant replied that today and everyday this week we
would have Beans and Franks. We asked "every day?" And he repeated
"Beans and Franks - everyday." We found another place to eat lunch.
They must have had awfully small budgets in those days or the Mess Sgt
liked beans and franks.
Email comments and/or suggestions about this web site to webmaster(at)nikeordnance(dot)com