The Army Years

Many say it was in the U.S. Army that Stubb actually became a cook. Stubb joined the military and was assigned to the 96th Field Artillery Battalion, in one of the Army’s last all-African-American units, as a gunner and tank driver in the Korean War. Stubb served his unit and country honorably, and was decorated with two Purple Hearts in the process. Stubb was reassigned as a Mess Sergeant where his cooking became so popular that many officers tried to have Stubb transferred to their units. In a way, Stubb’s mess hall was the first incarnation of a Stubb’s Bar-B-Q restaurant. In addition to serving great food, Stubb would play popular records and broadcast them on the field radio so his buddies could hear. Never conventional in his cooking, Stubb would fry onion peelings in the morning, letting the aroma waft through camp to whet appetites. One time, he commandeered some gelatin to make some sort of ice cream for the troops, and was known for making chili on the hot tailpipe of an army tank. While the troops enjoyed his cooking, they would listen to Stubb tell stories of Texas, and somehow, home did not seem so far away.