Name/Title
Book, InstructionEntry/Object ID
2016.011.0003Scope and Content
A booklet on "Customs of the Service" written by Colonel S. P. Meek for the use of officers assigned to Raritan Arsenal. There were only a limited number of copies made and this one is number 16. The book gives details of how officers should behave in various situations. It talks of local customs and mentions a custom at the Benicia Arsenal. It says that if an officer has 5 misses out of 5 shots on the firing range this is called "laying a pelican egg". The officer must then buy a case of beer for the other officers.
The author is Sterner St. Paul Meek (April 8, 1894 in Chicago, Illinois – June 10, 1972) an American military chemist, early science fiction author, and children's author. He published much of his work first as Capt. S.P. Meek, then, briefly, as Major S.P. Meek and, after 1933, as Col. S. P. Meek. (The book says he became a colonel in August 1935.) He also published one story as Sterner St. Paul.
Col. Meek retired on January 31st, 1947. He was in Benicia as of the 1930 Census Record with his wife Edna and his newborn son Nobel. In 1940 he and his family are in Corozal, Balboa, Panama Canal.Collection
Benicia Arsenal Collection
