This story showed up on my Facebook news feed today. Is there any truth to it?
Any naval/social historians here familiar with this story?
Given this thread is the first result on google, seems unlikely it’s more than a joke.
A similar joke about airlines can be found here: Redirecting to Google Groups
A version of this story is in Asimov’s Treasury of Humor (on page 297) - that time, it’s “Sergeant Cohen” (link to excerpt Isaac Asimov's Treasury of Humor: A Lifetime Collection of Favorite Jokes ... - Isaac Asimov - Google Books)
I’ve been in the Navy for almost 30 years. I’ve never heard of it. But issues I’d have include:
Not sure we had a Naval base their in 1958. Could have. Not certain of it though.
The Navy was a bit lily white back then. I don’t think on a small base there would have been four black junior Officers. Might have been, but there were not a ton of them.
On the whole, I’d vote ‘no.’
Based on what little I know about Mississippi society families, you could sub in 2008, and the joke would be equally funny and accurate.
Sounds unlikely. While it might have been a good way to get back at the Ainsleys it would be a lousy thing to do to the black sailors (unless they were in on it as well).
Nitpick: the Captain didn’t get comeuppance, the socialite got her comeuppance.
As far as I know the only military facility in Biloxi proper has ever been Keesler AFB (which it would have been at the time of this story; before the independent USAF, it would has Keesler Army Air Field).
Nearest naval facility is NCBC Gulfport, 13 miles from the heart of Biloxi. The place is old enough to fit the story, but I dunno… demanding SeaBee officers to escort your debs? Seems like of blue-collar to me. But the base is commanded by a Captain, so that much fits.
Only if you want them pregnant.
*nitpick: it’s “Seabee”, not “SeaBee”. And actually the officers of the Seabees are Civil Engineer Corps (CEC) officers.
I heard the story in the eighties. It was a kindly southern lady wanting to invite some soldiers from an Army base over for Thanksgiving dinner. The captain in the tale was O.O.D., not the base commander. Other than that, the story proceeded as given in the OP.
I never took the story has being true.
It’s much funnier with a non comissioned officer. The dichotomy between the socialite and the guy who works for a living.
snopes has traced it back to a newspaper article as early as 1919.
The story in the OP sets the date as 1958.
The USAF was created from the USAAF in September, 1947.
Indeed. Thanks for confirming my assertion:
I’m retired Air Force. There’s no conceivable way I could have gotten through 21 years of enlisted Profession Military Education* without a functional grasp of Air Force history.
*including training stints at Keesler, to bring it back on-point. 
I believe that that’s where the “on” in the title of the thread comes into play.
This could be a thread of its own – I don’t think can “get” a comeuppance “on” someone else. But I think you can give someone their comeuppance.
You forgot the ending:
And 3 years later Barack Obama was born.
The story sounds pretty obviously fake. No military officer can order his men to attend a civilian social event just because a woman called him and says “send some men to my house”.
And in Mississippi in 1958, any black who tried to crash an upper-class socialite event would be risking getting lynched. Blacks couldn’t enter through the porch, anyway…they would have had to go around back through the servants entrance.
Now, a historical question:
Were there any black officers in 1958?
The “colored people” usually worked in low-level jobs, both in civilian life and in the military. In 1958 there were virtually no blacks in senior positions anywhere in the country, whether as officers in the military, or managers in civilian jobs.
58 black men became naval officers during World War 2. By 1950 19% of the African-Americans in the navy were officers.
Even if the base commander couldn’t order men to the party, he could certainly ask for volunteers and give them time off for the event.
Yes, in fact, they could, so long as they had functioning legs. There’s a difference between “can” and “may”. They would not have been permitted to enter via the front porch, but that’s the entire point of the anecdote.