I was there during the period 1960 - 62 with the 3d Missile Battalion, 61st Artillery, the Army Air Defense battalion which provided air defense of the area. The battalion headquarters and air defense control center were on Loring; the four firing batteries surrounded the base and were at Connors; Limestone; Caribou; and Van Buren. Later, when the Nike Hercules replaced
the smaller Nike Ajax, Limestone and Van Buren were closed, and only Connors and Caribou remained.
The 27th FIS had a squadron bell, which was regularly carried on Friday evenings and other special occasions at the officer's mess by the junior officer present. Every time an officer of the 27th FIS bought a round or proposed a toast, the Bellman would ring the bell loud and long. In a crowd, and over time, that got to be somewhat annoying to many people. One Friday evening, after happy hour had been running for some time, the 27th FIS "Bellman" found that the bell was so bulky and awkward to control he was unable to get through the crowds at the bar to get a drink. One of the Army officers noticed his plight and offered to hold the bell while he pushed his way to the bar and re-filled his glass. Naturally, when the 27th FIS "Bellman" returned, neither the Army officer nor the bell were anywhere to be found. There was a major uproar in the officer's mess that night, which continued in several instances of revenge during the following week, but the bell was nowhere to be found.
Several weeks later, the chaplain of the 27th FIS was walking in Caribou when he passed a pawn shop window. There, in the window, was the squadron bell of the 27th FIS, but now it also sported the regimental crest of the 61st Air Defense Artillery. It's reported that the chaplain went into the shop and distracted the shopkeeper to the extent that he was able to "spirit" the bell out of the shop. However, we were all shocked at this reported action by a man of the cloth, so naturally we discounted the report altogether. From that time on, the officer who carried the bell found it secured to his wrist by handcuffs.
There are a number of other similar stories of the rivalry between these two units. Somehow, the <gravitas> of SAC and of the 42d Bomb Wing seemed to prevent such colorful activities by their personnel. Life in the missile units and the interceptor units always seemed to be less structured and to have more of a spontaneous nature than in the bomb wing. It made time pass much more quickly. By Pete Moriarty
