KISS, The Desert Navy, and Calliopes

I've never been a fan of KISS.  Then a good friend forwarded this link to me  http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=5MtdIO23MKM.  When I watched it, I developed a bit of respect for this strange group and I thought about Hawthorne, Nevada.

Why would this KISS video remind me of Hawthorne, Nevada, you ask?  Watch the KISS video and you will find out (or, from reading onward, you'll realize it has something to do with the military).

When I lived in Hawthorne, it was home to the Naval Ammunition Depot (NAD) Hawthorne which was, and I believe still is, the largest ammunition depot in the world at about 237 square miles.  It was completed around 1930 after an explosion destroyed the Lake Denmark, NJ ammunition plant in 1926.  It is my understanding that NAD Hawthorne provided about 90% of the ammunition for the Viet Nam war.  And, what always amazed me is that it was done with a WW I design bomb line.  I worked there, off and on, for about 12 years as a clerk/stenographer until my then husband and I bought a locksmith shop in Reno around 1980.  It became an Army Ammunition Plan in 1977.  In 1980 it was redesignated as a government-owned contractor-operated facility and its name changed to Hawthorne Army Depot.

One of the things I remember best is when Captain Schweer was the CO.  He had been a submarine captain at some point prior to commanding NAD Hawthorne.  He had a thing for calliopes (think merry-go-round music); so much so that he built his own.  He told us how he brought his sub into port one time with some of his crew dressed as woman dancing to calliope music from his on-board calliope.  I hope I am remembering this story correctly.  But, if it is incorrect in detail, it's not a big deal; it just goes to show his love of calliopes!

Of course, calliopes had to play a part in the life of NAD Hawthorne while he was CO.  I recall one Christmas in the mid-1960s when it was decided that a group of base employees would use a Navy stake truck to travel through the base and Babbitt (government housing) singing Christmas Carols.  We all loaded into the back of the truck which already had as a passenger Captain Schweer's calliope.  I think I am one of a very small group of people who can say they have sung Christmas Carols to the accompaniment of a calliope!  

Many other Nevada memories but those are for another day.

Blessings,

Mary