Francis T. Chickene

Francis Chickene, also known as Chick, was born in March 1919 in Harrison, New Jersey. He worked at his family’s funeral home prior to volunteering for military service. Chickene decided to join the army when he heard that there were draft notices being sent out. He was told by the recruiter that, if he joined before he was drafted, he would only have to serve for a year. Shortly after his enlistment in February 1941, however, this was changed, and Chickene ended up having to stay far longer.

Chickene was sent to Fort Dix, New Jersey for basic training and was then sent to Fort Bliss, Texas, where he trained in vehicle maintenance with the 72nd Ordnance Battalion. While at Bliss, he went to Louisiana for maneuvers, and then returned to join a unit baseball team as an outfielder. Chickene traveled to Arizona while on the team, and they won the division title. He was promoted to Corporal, and in July 1942 went to Ordnance Officer Candidate School at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. He graduated in October 1942 as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Ordnance Corps. Chickene was then sent to Fort Bliss, Texas and became a platoon leader in the 854th Heavy Automotive Maintenance (HAM) Company.

In July 1943, Chickene was sent overseas as a first lieutenant in the Headquarters Company of the 72nd Ordnance Battalion advance party. He arrived in Scotland on the HMS Queen Mary, which carried around 16,000 troops across the Atlantic Ocean. From Scotland, Chickene traveled to England, where he stayed for several weeks. During his time there, he was sent all over the place, because his senior officers had not arrived yet. There were no camps in England at the time, and American soldiers had to stay with civilians in their homes. When his company finally arrived, Chickene was assigned to a depot in England established to waterproof vehicles. He was later awarded a medal for taking the procedure time for waterproofing from three days down to one. Chickene, along with others, also ran a school for teaching different units how to waterproof their vehicles.

Promoted to captain, Chickene was sent to St. Lo, France in the fall of 1944, where he ran a vehicle issue point. When a unit representative arrived, he would hand Chickene a list of vehicles needed, and he issued them. Chickene recalled having particularly good living conditions initially in France and said, “it was good, excellent, we had what they called an old Chateau.” After moving out of the town, he lived in the woods of France for about a month with his company. Towards the end of the war, Chickene recalled everyone counting their points, which would define their date of discharge, as they were eager to return home. He sailed from Camp Lucky Strike in France on an Italian ship to New York. Chickene was discharged with the rank of major in February 1946 and transferred to the Army Reserves.

In 1948, Chickene transferred to the New Jersey National Guard ‘s 50th Armored Division’s Ordnance Battalion as executive officer. He took the battalion, headquartered at Port Newark, to Camp Drum in New York for annual training in May of 1948. Chickene was appointed battalion commander in 1951, which he recalled as being “a little awkward” due to there was already a major who was senior to him in the unit. Promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1952, Chickene commanded the battalion for the next fourteen years, during which he also commanded the 50th Armored Division ‘Trains’, or supply units, for eight months.

Chickene was transferred to the 119th Group in 1964. The group had two ordnance battalions, one truck battalion and a dental detachment. He was promoted to Colonel in 1965. During his time in the Guard, Chickene remembered that many of his friends asked his help to get their children into the Guard, thinking that they would never be deployed. Sometimes they would get deployed; however, and their parents would get angry at him. Thankfully they all made it back safely.
When the 119th Group was disbanded, Chickene was transferred to NJ National Guard headquarters, where he served as Inspector General, and was a member of the NJ Department of Defense Think Tank.

Chickene retired from the New Jersey National Guard in 1972, after 31 years of military service. He went to college using the GI Bill, and then took over his family’s Funeral Home where he worked until the mid-1980s. Chickene joined the American Legion and many other veterans’ groups, along with he created his own group of retirees who were also veterans from his local area in New Jersey. He received several medals including the Bronze Star Medal and the Order of St. Barbara Medal. 

Francis T. Chickene, after a brief illness, passed away surrounded by his loved ones on September 30th, 2015.