Stanley "Steamy" Thompson served in the US Army from 1954 to 1956

Stanley "Steamy" Thompson was a Guided Missile Electronics Repairman stationed in Fort Lewis, Washington.  The missiles he repaired were short range, specifically designed to work with radars that could "see" and destroy enemy planes up to 60 miles away- approximately the distance from Seattle, Washington to Victoria, British Columbia.  The main missile site was located in Magnolia, Seattle.  This site could locate enemy aircraft, then send the information to the Nike sites (During the Cold War Washington state received substantial defenses against enemy bombing attacks. These included the supersonic Nike missile system emplaced around Seattle, Spokane / Fairchild Air Force Base, and the Hanford nuclear facility. The first generation Nike Ajax became operational in 1956).

Short range Nike sites operated 24 hours a day and tested the sites 3 times a day.  Steamy Thompson was responsible for repairing acquisition radar and computers.  He had 6 sites (Port Townsend, Poulsbo, Winslow, Olla, Gig Harbor and Silverdale) to monitor.  If a breakdown occurred at one of those sites, the sergeant had 2 hours to fix the problem, then would contact Fort Lewis and Steamy would be sent out.  Each site was in competition with the others sites for the time they were operational.  At Fort Lewis he had a private room and access to 24 vehicles plus an expense account to go to these sites.