As a member of the Corps during WW2 I think that the second most desired
item for most of us guys was a tall cool one. Surely you are thinking of the same
brew that I am because many of them were consumed during those years. It was not
a problem during my early years in San Diego or even at Ewa MCAS on Oahu.
However it was when I was sent to Midway with MAG-22 to work in the 6th Defense
Battalion's Paymaster's Office that I became aware of the lack of refrigeration for
a cool one. The Navy Exchange was generous enough to send a truck around
where you could buy a case for a buck. Four guys with four quarters could end up
with a six-pack each, warm ones that is. It was drink it warm or become a teetotaler.
Many became warm beer drinkers at that time.
As I staged with the 4th Marine Air Wing to Samoa and then north through many
small atolls, it was apparent that warm beer was a way of life on many of them.
Fortunately on Majuro the Navy had a big area for the men of the fleet anchored
in the atoll to come ashore for a cool one. With us being there on shore we could
have ours when we wanted to.
Later I was to run on to what I thought was the most ingenious of way of
"cooling the brew". The Paymaster sent me to Makin Island, the scene of the raid by
the Marine Raiders earlier in the war. Here I was to pay the troops of a fighter
squadron the next day, but the Supply Officer told me to come with him to the
operations area. There were troops standing around having a cool one and I was
invited to draw my ration.
Why I am telling this is because of the novel way
they had to cool the brew. They cut open and hinged a drop tank that could be filled
with the brew and then the duty pilot, flying a Navy F4U, took it to the proper altitude for the correct
amount of time for chilling. I am sure that this called for close calculation so as to
not get too high or stay too long for it to freeze and break open.
Possibly there were others that used this way of cooling, but I had never
heard of it in my wandering around most of the atolls in the Ellice, Marshall and Gilbert
groups. I hope that all that were responsible for that morale builder were not disciplined for being so ingenious.
CWO Don Henson USMC
dnhnsn@cox.net
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