Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/433799
S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S 7 7 r a f t s m e n C Doug Painter A hardy and long-season cultivar, Brussels sprouts continued to thrive on English farms through the hard years of World War II. Much to the chagrin of U.S. servicemen stationed in Britain, these little cabbages became the war-torn island's ubiquitous vegetable du jour, served in mess halls not only seven days a week but also ladled out at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. At war's end, many a returning G.I. With only a surplus bullet press in a rented garage, Joyce Hornady began building a company that produces some of the most innovative ammo on today's market. vowed to never eat one of these mushy globules again. Selling Brussels sprouts to America's veterans was, in a sense, the challenge faced by Joyce Hornady when he and his partner, Vernon Speer, decided to begin manufacturing a line of bullets shortly after the war. "The Harvard Business School," chuckles his son, Steve Hornady, "should have written up my father's idea as a classically flawed business premise that worked. Who would think that all those guys, after four years of combat, would want to do more shooting? There's no way it should have worked at all." Nonetheless, it did. America had paid a heavy price during World War II, but in peacetime, our nation Steve Hornady (right) has been president of the company since 1981. His son Jason has been vice president of sales and marketing since 2009.