Squadron Coffee Cups

[oose]

Too bad it only has "Joe" on it, as you might be able to track this down further.

The Commander was LTCOL Joseph J. McCabe and he also delivered the units first F-102A on 28th September 1960. It's a bit of wishful thinking on my part to connect the mug to him!

All the best
Stu

 

[PaulGT3]

I Have the 50th Anniversary Coffee cup from the 50th anniversary of the Navy's Secret City
China Lake Naval Air Warfare Center. Beautiful dark blue highlighted in gold.
I also by just chance got my portrait (generic engineer
is what they were looking for) on the COVER of the 50th anniversary magazine that the paper
and the base put together. They were showing the synergy of the Naval Aviator (who was
behing me in a flight suit) and the engineer who worked in the lab to develop weapons for
the Navy. Alot of weapons like Sidewinder Air to Air missile was developed here. The program
is still going. China Lake was built to test rockets and missiles for the Navy in the middle of
WWII. I was lucky to spend 27 years here where we were known for ignoring the bureaucracy
and getting the job done. Unfortunately the huge DOD bureaucracy finally caught up and
over whelmed the place around the year 2000. Some officer in the Pentagon wanted another
star and had just got his MBA so they started forcing stuff like Manage to Payroll, Denim System
Lean 6 sigma ad nauseum and basically neutered the engineers that managed the place. They
replaced all the great engineers with business majors and now China Lake is just another base.
Much to the glee of those in the Pentagon who were jealous of the work that got done out here.
An engineer here cant even get a computer now without filling out request forms out the arse.
At some point you just give up and fall in step. But this was a hellava place to work from the 40's
to 2000.