Monday, February 15, 2021

The Christmas Bomb Scare

Swiss Musical Ornament
“The Christmas Bomb Scare,” part One
Chester T. Van Cleave and Major General Honeycutt
Dad being presented a certificate for outstanding achievement of duty as Equipment Specialist (Ordinance), by Major General Honeycutt of the Defense Atomic Support Agency (DASA) on Sandia Base, circa 1966.

“The Christmas Bomb Scare,” part Two

I was able to bring the brass music box mechanism back to life by carefully removing the regulator whirly-gig and cleaning all the gunk from between the grooves of the brass gear teeth with a fine razor knife, aided by a magnifying loupe. My brothers told me the bomb squad had "defused" the device by dunking it in water, which probably didn't do the mechanism any good.

While visiting my brothers, they also brought out a number of envelopes of ephemara from Dad's WWII and civil service, which I'm now in the process of sorting through and documenting. My grandson Noah was very interested also, as I knew he would be.

Several weeks ago I presented this story of the Christmas ornament bomb-scare in video format, link below:

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5 Comments:

Anonymous Gregory Short said...

This has to be one of your best stories! Every family should be so lucky to have such a tale to tell.

1:02 AM  
Blogger Bill M said...

Great Christmas story to pass on to future generations.

5:53 AM  
Blogger SteveK said...

Nice fable about a bauble!

9:49 AM  
Blogger SteveK said...

Nice fable about a bauble!

9:49 AM  
Blogger DonN said...

Hilarious! I can see this as an episode of The Honeymooners, or I Love Lucy!

1:42 PM  

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