A true "greatest generation" war story

[Niner]

Well....sort of of a war story. My father wrote down a memoire some years before he died in 2001 as an exercise to keep busy. It was all typed out eventually by my youngest brother and I have a copy....rather...my daughter has my copy. However, my youngest brother died a couple months ago and I found some of the story that he typed out way back when in his effects. I noticed a section on what my dad remembered about being drafted. At the time he was drafted for the war he was married to my mother and was the soul support of his widowed mother....but it was WWII. Everybody was needed. It turned out better for him than expected though. He was a great story teller and I expect that is why he was the best salesman I ever knew when he moved on to be a factory rep in most of his life.

There's more to his story about his home defense fiasco but I'll let this sample suffice. It's a good story and I wanted to share it.

[Niner Delta]

I find this story fascinating as I love true stories about WWII. If there is more please post it, now you have me
hooked and wanting to hear more to this and any other stories he left. Real stories about the WWII era are the best. ..
My father tried to join but had a broken back and surgery in late '30s, the Army took one look at the scar on his back and
said he wasn't needed. He told them he could do a desk job or something else like that. They said no, if he hurt it again, he would
be on military disability for life. He ended up running a crane in a shipyard during the war.

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[Miller Tyme]

Neat story Robert, and yes they draft reached deep in WW2. My Grandfather, 35 at the time, was called up even though he had 2 sons, a son in law, a brother, a brother in law as well as having 3 young children at home. It took a very headstrong woman ( my Grandma), and a politically connected friend of her family to get him a deferment

[Niner]

Vern, since you asked, here's the rest of his brush with military service.

[Niner Delta]

That's a great story. Bomb removal no thanks. Did they give him a jacket that said, "If you see me running,
try to keep up."
My Mom did shifts in an observation tower looking for enemy planes. They had a book with pictures of Japanese planes
and a telephone to report anything. Early in the war there was worry that the Japanese would try something on the west coast
or Germans on east coast.
I still have her armband that she wore when in the tower. It was the Ground Observer Corps as part of the Aircraft Warning Service.

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[DuncaninFrance]

Here the Bomb Disposal are called ATO - Now EOD ( Slang name FELIX ) a cat with many lives.
I was chatting to one on an exercise and he said that the protective suite wasn't - just to keep all the body parts together if things went 'Bang'

https://www.army.mod.uk/learn-and-explo ... -regiment/