Colonel
Benjamin S. Mesick

Benjamin S. Mesick was born on 9 December 1901 in Claverack, New York, and graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1924. He wanted to join the Ordnance Department, but first had to serve in the combat branches. Choosing Coast Artillery as most likely to provide experience in heavy ordnance, Mesick served in the 62nd Coast Artillery at Fort Totten, New York, and the 92nd Coast Artillery in the Philippines.

In 1929, Mesick was detailed to the Ordnance Department, completed the two-year Ordnance School of Application at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), and officially transferred to Ordnance in 1931. He was assigned to Watertown Arsenal, Massachusetts, as Assistant Ordnance Officer, where he learned about cannon production while also completing a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering at M.I.T. and beginning work on a Ph.D.

Mesick next served, from 1934 to 1938, as an instructor in the Ordnance and Gunnery Department at West Point, where he continued to work on his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, which M.I.T. conferred in 1938. He then attended the Industrial War College and was assigned in 1939 as an ROTC instructor at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. In 1940 Mesick was summoned to the Office of the Chief of Ordnance (OCO) in Washington, D.C., where he was assigned as the Secretary to the Ordnance Committee, which determined the specifications for new equipment and oversaw the testing.

When the United States entered World War II, Mesick requested troop duty and in 1942 was given command of the newly forming 21st Ordnance Battalion at Fort Benning, Georgia. In December 1942, with his battalion now stood up, he was ordered to Camp Sutton, North Carolina, to take command of the 303d Ordnance Base Regiment. Mesick deployed his regiment to England in 1943. In early 1944, he was assigned as Ordnance Officer of the Advance Section (ADSEC), Communications Zone. Mesick planned and carried out the deployment to France of ADSEC's 22,000 Ordnance soldiers, who provided fourth and fifth-echelon maintenance support. In October 1944, Mesick was called to the G-4 Section of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces in Versailles, France, to establish the Enemy War Material Branch, which determined procedures for handling captured German equipment and supplies.

In late 1945, Mesick returned to the United States to find himself involved in the Ordnance Department's growing guided missile program. He was assigned as Officer in Charge of the Research and Development Sub-Office (Rocket), Pasadena, California. He was instrumental in the development and test firing of the "Bumper WAC," the first successful multi-stage rocket. From 1949 to 1950, he commanded the Sierra Ordnance Depot in California. He then served as Chief, Research and Materials Branch, Research and Development Division, OCO, from 1950 to 1951, playing a key role in developing uses for titanium alloys.

Mesick's final assignment, from 1951 to 1954, was as Commander of Watertown Arsenal. The arsenal developed the 90mm Skysweeper anti-aircraft gun and the 280mm atomic cannon. Benjamin Mesick retired in 1954 after 30 years of service, having displayed an unparalleled range of skills and talents. He died in 1989 in Tempe, Arizona.