ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW
Alan S. Wilder
March 18, 1987
by Barbara Higgins Aubrey

0:00:26	Employed at the Armory 1955 through 1957.
0:00:54	Went to work in Research and Development.
0:01:31	27 officers and 1 Sergeant he lived off base.
0:01:45	Lived on Pearl Street with another Lieutenant.
0:02:37	He was the newest and youngest 2nd Lt. and was given charge of the officers club.
0:03:09	Hired Jack Mackie, who was the only enlisted man, to run the officer's club under him.
0:04:34	Had happy hour 2 days a week at the club.
0:05:28	Had problems sometimes when there was an open party because they had a very good whiskey and people did not realize what they were getting.
0:06:01	Hired the man who ran the cafeteria to cater the parties.
0:06:38	Remembers having 13 Christmas parties on thirteen consecutive nights for different organizations in the Armory.
0:07:39	Had a pool table and a refrigerator with beer.
0:08:17	Began to make money on the parties so they put it back into the club by buying new furnishings.
0:08:55	Not only the officers but also employees over G.S. 13 were allowed to be members.
0:09:23	Talks about Lossnitzer and how well he got along with everyone.
0:10:14	Rebuilt the bar in the club.
0:10:34	Had a lot of dates a1.most all the 2n<1 Lt. s were single.
0:10:57	Talks about Col. Rail, Maj. Snow, Capt. Tower.
0:11:21	Major Snow would insist on a poker game when he was duty officer.
0:12:23	Had grown up in Weathersfield, south of Hartford.
0:12:50	Felt he was given throwaway jobs as a 2nd Lt.
0:13:24	Remembers having to write a report justifying a number on a returning machine gun because one of the numbers had been worn through.
0:14:24	Talks about the people from Armalite who came to the Armory to test a 30 cal. weapon.
0:15:33	He was instructed to keep them out of the Armory operations but also to be a liaison between them and the Armory.
0:16:11	Arranged to pick them up and bring them home and they treated him to dinner for three weeks in exchange.
0:17:07	Talks about the testing of the Armalite gun.
0:18:13	Remembered the arctic testing.
0:18:32	Talks about the barrel bursting on the Armalite during one of the tests while Murphy was holding the gun.
0:19:17	The Armalite people felt bad and bought Murphy a box of good cigars.
0:19:51	Barrel burst because they had made the barrel out of stainless steel.
0:20:17	Talks about Stoner being an aircraft designer and gun nut.
0:20:43	The Armory did not like the Armalite gun because it did not look like a weapon.
0:21:28	The stock had to be wood and the rest had to be made out of conventional materials.
0:22:08	Talks about the Fort Benning mud test where the gun was left in mud for 10 minutes and then was expected to fire.
0:23:04	He was impressed with the job that the 10 people at the Armalite company did. They had come up with a fine design.
0:24:00	One of his jobs was to kill off the T48 by not doing too much with it because the Armory wanted to promote the T44.
0:25:05	Remember testing the hand grip on the T48.
0:26:27	Never encountered John Garand but heard plenty of stories about him.
Side B
0:26:57	John Garand was extremely polite and would not be interrupted until he had finished talking with whomever he was speaking with.
0:27:40	Garand went to work for Savage Arms as a consultant for 2 or 3 days until he found out that they had government contracts then he quit.
0:30:00	He had the privilege of taking out any weapon and firing the weapon at the test branch.
0:30:44	Took one of the 58 cal. muskets out of the stand and fired it.
0:31:35	At the time there was a lot of unusual ammunition in the test branch.
0:32:28	Guesses that there were 100 people in Research and Development.
0:20:33	Had analog computers but no digital computers.
0:33:59	Had a test range in the basement.
0:34:27	Soon became the best shot on the team.
0:35:13	Shot pistols on the teams.
0:35:39	Most of the competition came out of the Smith and Wesson.
0:35:55	Became the statistician for the team.
0:36:30	Had a degree in engineering from Rensselaer.
0:36:47	Normally 2nd Lt.s were not sent to the Armory.
0:37:09	Talks about going to the Pentagon because his orders had not come through.
0:37:36	Talks about talking with a man at the pentagon to find out where their orders were.
0:38:31	There were no orders for him so he asked to go the Armory.
0:38:59	The Col. asked him if he had taken the small arms test.
0:39:23	Later he found out that he had been signed up to take the small arms course so he knew where he was going.
0:40:02	Six months later the Col. Campbell who he had talked with at the Pentagon followed him to the Armory.
0:40:42	In the museum building, Bldg. 13, the officers would go and play volleyball.
0:41:18	Remembered giving blood and then going to play volleyball.
0:41:39	Does not remember eating lunch at the cafeteria.
0:42:18	Production was down at the Armory.
0:42:32	They were canning some of the weapons at the time.
0:43:00	They were putting both Ml and 45s through National Match cognitions.
0:43:36	Started at college before the Korean War and joined ROTC so that he was able to stay in school for 4 years.
0:44:44	Remembers a lot of paperwork.
0:45:00	He was not entitled to have a secretary take shorthand for him.
0:45:40	Has three sisters.
0:46:01	Talks about 2 people who worked here during his stay.
0:46:34	One of the 2nd Lt. married a girl who worked here.
0:47:21	Remembers a New Years Eve party.
0:48:04	Talks about how he became interested in guns.
0:49:22	Worked making nuclear fuel then at age 39 bought a small business in Vermont that produces log houses.
0:50:19	Remembers the Armalite project as the highlight of his stay at the Armory.
0:50:45	Thinks Gene Stoners picture should be on display in the museum.