Glad your interest has been piqued. This msg will be a brief response and I will follow later -- probably much later -- with an essay on my Navy service.

First about Granddaddy. He was 16 when WWI was over in 1918. He was in Army ROTC at USC, from which he graduated in 1923, MS in 1924. I suspect he never was eligible for WWI draft, if there was a draft. And, of course, he was too old for WWII -- 39 in 1941.

I registered for draft, I think, in 1948 when I turned 18. I was at USC and got an academic deferment, which I held through graduation in August 1950, then kept through MS degree from UGA in Aug 1951. Then I went to work for US Army at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. This gave me an occupational deferment (the Korean War was going on), which I held for two years, which included one year of marriage. By then, I knew I wanted to go back to school for a PhD and did not want to wait any further. I asked the draft board if I could have my academic deferment back. The answer was no, you could go from academic to occupational but not vice versa. We went back to UGA anyway. Soon draft action started and I beat them by joining the Navy. Good story there, but it will have to wait.

Enlisted as Officer Candidate Seaman Apprentice and was sent to Naval Office Candidate School in Newport, RI. Two months without Mommy while she finished teaching commitment in Athens. Then, she found an apartment in Newport and we were together most weekends. OCS lasted just 4 months. Then came my only duty station, Naval Proving Ground (now called Naval Surface Weapons Center) at Dahlgren, VA. I became a Firing Officer testing rocket fuzes. My only sea duty came one night when I was Junior Duty Officer and was called upon to be the senior officer on a small Yard Craft which went out into the Potomac River to rescue a California congessman name Jackson, who had stranded his sail boat on a sand bar. Stayed at NPG for about 3 1/2 years, then to Duke for PhD.

-- Leland Williams