I always enjoy the magazine's articles, but I have to take the smallest of pause with one of your assertions. In the June 2025 issue, page 20, in the column “What the Army Has Given America”, it seems as if you are asserting that the Army gave America the iconic Pringle’s Potato Chip. To be fair, the machine for creating the beloved chip was patented in 1968 by Robert Galbraith MacKendrick Jr., then an engineer working for Proctor and Gamble. (See Patent 3,520, 248 dated September 30, 1968.)

But before you weep bitterly and pound your breast in shame, please know that there is more. Robert G. MacKendrick Jr. (or, as I proudly call him, “Cousin Bob”) was an Army veteran, having enlisted proudly in the Army on March 3, 1943, in Philadelphia. He went on to serve in the 43rd Infantry Regiment, earning a Bronze Star in the Philippines and in Japan before separating on 8 February 1946 in Indiantown Gap, Pa. Not only that, he was the son of Robert Galbraith MacKendrick Sr., who enlisted in the 2nd Pennsylvania Infantry (National Guard) on June 5, 1907. He was commissioned in 1908, served along the southern border during the forays of Pancho Villa, served in Battery “D”, 2nd PA Field Artillery, commanded the 1st BN, 107th Field Artillery and earned the Croix de Guerre in Belgium. Oh, yeah, and he helped found John Wesley Cross American Legion Post 507 and was elected its first commander. Man! All that and Pringle’s, too!

Very sincerely,

John M. Ickes
LT, USN (Ret.)
Billy Mitchell Post 85, Arlington, Va.