Orville A Cochran
DAC Post Historian
Fort Huachuca, Arizona
16 April 1962
For years there has been a story told as Gospel at Fort Huachuca that a Chinese Restaurant operator, either Sam Kee or his nephew Mar Kim (who succeeded Sam Kee) once provided the money to pay off the troops at Fort Huachuca when the Federal shipment of cash failed to arrive for this purpose.
No one ever seemed to know any of the details as to when this occurred or which troops were involved. Veteran officers and enlisted men of the 10th Cavalry (Fort Huachuca, 1911 to 1931); and the 25th Infantry (Fort Huachuca, 1929 to 1953); have been interrogated. Each was positive that the story was true but each, reporting service to back before World War I, said that it happened before he came here.
Two persons continued to seek an answer to this inquiry. Colonel Clarence O. Brunner, writing a history of Fort Huachuca; and Mr. Orville A. Cochran, the Post Historian, both actively searched the records and made individual personal inquiries of veterans who had served at Fort Huachuca.
In December 1961 and March 1962, two witnesses appeared who were positive that this event occurred in 1911- when the 12th Cavalry was at Fort Huachuca – and on both independently corroborated each other.
Major General John B. Brooks (Retired), who reported to Fort Huachuca as a 2nd Lieutenant, with the arrival of the 10th Cavalry Regiment on 19 December 1913, visited the post on the 48th anniversary of his arrival-19 December 1961. He said he recalled the story of the Chinese Restaurant operator, Sam Kee having paid off the troops, and that it had occurred prior to his coming to Fort Huachuca. He was certain that this was two years before – in 1911.
In April 1962, there visited Fort Huachuca, a former Sergeant Roy L. Innes, who said he reported to Fort Huachuca as a newly enlisted Private, 12th Cavalry, in 1911. That when the money failed to arrive to pay off the troops of his regiment stationed at Fort Huachuca, the Chinese Restaurant Operator of the post, loaned the money to make this payment. When the money came in later, the Chinese was repaid.
Records indicate that Troops I and K, 12th Cavalry, reported to Fort Huachuca on 16 February 1911, and departed the post on 4 December 1911.
The obituary of John D Kim (Arizona Daily Star, Tucson, Dec 28, 1960), who died at Tucson 26 December 1960, contains this paragraph: “A native of Nogales, Arizona, (John D.) Kim moved to Fort Huachuca as a boy with his father (Mar Kim), who operated a restaurant on the Army Post. His grandfather, Sam Kee, won fame and the permanent right to a restaurant concession on the post when he paid off troops stationed there when the Army payroll from Washington was delayed during the 1800s.
