First McDonald’s Drive-Thru Was to Let Soldiers Exploit Loophole in Strict Base Decorum Rule

The McDonald’s drive-thru, a staple in American culture, first came into being in 🌵Arizona to meet the needs of soldiers.

A walk down memory lane by the Arizona Republic noted that the first McDonald’s drive-thru to open did so in Sierra Vista on Jan. 24, 1975, to meet the needs of service members at nearby Fort Huachuca.

The story begins in 1974 when a McDonald’s regional manager in Dallas saw that other outlets with drive-thrus in Oklahoma City were doing a booming business.

Permission was granted from up the corporate ladder to design and open the first drive-thru, a four-column portico peppered with McDonald’s characters and a Ronald McDonald statue customers would speak into when giving their orders.

Out in Sierra Vista, David Rich, operator of the McDonald’s there, decided to adapt the concept.

Service members at Fort Huachuca at the time could not appear in public in their work or duty uniforms, Steve Gregory, a technician at the Fort Huachuca Museum, said. That meant walking into the counter to order was off-limits.

The base was two miles from the restaurant, and Rich wanted to find a way service members driving past could drive up, order from their vehicles and be gone with the rule intact.