[Milsurplus] Surplus stores, then and now

[aGEnuine Ham]

San Antonio:

One of the larger DRMO operations was at East Kelly Field, adjacent to
Kelly, the home of SAAMA. Plus HQ 4th (later 5th) Army at Ft. Sam
Houston.   There were so many surplus places in San Antonio over the
years, I doubt any one person ever saw all of them.  And names??????  One
of the better ones in the 50s we referred to as "The little old lady on
Dolorosa St.".  I suppose it had a real name, but who knew it?  Later
discovered this was the good (read more expensive) stuff, and there were
numerous barns full of other stuff on the guy's place about 5 miles south
of Kelly.  Made lots of trips out there.  There were a couple in the
vicinity of International Airport, and scattered around the near west
side, where the scrap metals dealers also congregated.  Then there was
the one across the street from USAF Security Service with all the sundry
antennas from HF to dishes aimed at their building.  Hmmmm???   One of
the few names I remember, L & R Surplus, which used to be at one of
Kelly's gates moved south 30 miles or so to the small town of Natalia. 
All the rest are history, along with my memory of their names.  Oh, and
Alamo Aircraft is still there, when they are not in court fighting
various FBI investigations.

Now, somebody write about Dallas, which had Cryin' Charlies at the bitter
end of Industrial Blvd, on the banks of the Trinity River, Special Sales
on North Central Expy., and the Collins Surplus store, where you could
buy Teflon Coax with double silver plated shields for 8 cents a pound,
and modern test equipment for 10 cents on the dollar.  Plus, in later
years, some of the early and better chip surplus places, if you could
find them as they changed names and locations frequently to stay one step
ahead of _______ (fill in the blank).

73,
George
W5VPQ

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