re: My dad told me about getting drafted in the army

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My dad at age 33 was drafted in last call of 1943. When he got to the induction center in New Orleans, the Navy asked for volunteers, So he volunteered for the Navy. When he got on the navy side, the navy asked for welders to volunteer into the Marines.

He volunteered into the Marines. He had a wife and 3 children. The allotment for the wife was $60/ a month & $20 fro each child. Total income was $120. a month, to feed clothe etc.

There were no freebies in those days.

The reason why he was drafted ,was because he quit a job as a welder at the Orange Tx ship yard, after working 2 years on the midnight shift, working 7 days a week

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How old are you, sir, if you don't mind me asking? I always picture people in their 20s and 30s posting on this site, so it's interesting that we have a poster who is probably at least 70-75 years young.

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They told him congratulations he had just been drafted. He served in the Korean War.

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My post was pretty tongue in cheek, but I also never said or implied no one willingly joined back then. A lot, however, did join a specific branch to avoid the draft.

My dad was in the 82nd Airborne during the Korean War. No 82nd Airborne units saw combat in the Korean War. The 82nd was kept in reserve as a ready force that could mobilize quickly to respond to any Soviet incursions anywhere in the world. Luckily, nothing happened where they were sent into combat. But my Dad said that it was understood that if they had to respond to a Soviet incursion, they were to hold out until more help arrived. As they didn't have a lot of heavy weapons, because they were so mobile and could respond in a matter of days.

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Out of all the veterans I've spoken to, the Korean vets always have the craziest, most disturbing stories. A lot of them don't talk about it. I'm sure its tough, being a veteran of "The Forgotten War."

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My father was a Korean War vet and used to get all worked up about all the attention Vietnam vets were getting. When they built the Vietnam Memorial, he was always asking, "Where's our fricking wall? Why don't we get a wall? Do you know how many Americans died in Korea? Of course you don't! Nobody does!"

It used to piss him off. He relaxed a little bit when they got around to building the Korean War Memorial about 10 or 15 years later.

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Seems like there are more pussies today than there were 50 years ago, and fewer real men.

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Says every old curmudgeon in every generation.

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I believe the younger men of today would rise up and kick some arse if the US was being invaded or attacked by a foreign country. At least I want to believe that.

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They would, considering those young men are volunteering to go fight and die in a god forsaken desert for no reason

My Uncle (Alton “Chappie” Carpenter) was a Combat Chaplain during WWII participating in 3 Amphibious landings (including Omaha Beach in France), and 9 combat campaigns. He was a prolific note taker and completed numerous dated entries in his diary and in his own words: “I wrote in my tent with the aid of a candle, by the light of dawn in my foxhole, or riding along in my jeep while my driver drove. He earned a BA degree from LSU and also had a Bachelor’s and Master degree in Theology.
His diary laid hidden for 32 yrs. and forgotten among his books on Religion that he had written and when the Vietnam protests started, he decided to honor the young men he served with by detailing what they actually went through based on his actual experiences.
He died in 1993 at the age of 87 before the book could be finished. His daughter (my cousin) finished his book from his detailed notes and published it. It’s available on Amazon. LINK