Sarasota News Leader

05/23/2014

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Interestingly, my wife's father and grandfa- ther also served in those two world wars as members of the Belgian Army. Their grandson and great-grandson — my son — never faced a draft, or even the threat of a draft, because in 1973, the draft ended, though young men still had to register on their 18th birthdays. But the draft mechanism has not been used in 41 years. Despite that, my son is in uniform today, an officer in the U.S. Navy. And on this Memorial Day we will go together and find my father's This sheet music cover dates to 1917. Image via Wikimedia into the Great Depression. In the late 1930s, times were even darker than they had been five years earlier. My pa tried to enlist in the Armed Services and was told the government was not tak- ing anybody. But then "Tojo" bombed Pearl Harbor and, eventually, 10 million men were drafted into the Armed Services to serve in World War Two. My pa recalled his pre-in- duction draft physical: "They told me I was qualified for the Army, the Navy, the Marines and the Air Corps." By then my father was beyond prime military age, but he was drafted and sent to help Gen. George Patton win the Battle of the Bulge as a combat engineer. AND ONE ON EITHER SIDE My mom's father was a draftee, too, in World War One. All I know is that he survived to die in a car crash when I was a little kid. Of the six children in his family, one of my aunts or uncles received whatever military sweepings remained from his service. Nothing was passed down to me except his name, Stanley. Of all the possible hand-me- downs, that was not so bad. It is a safe bet he was a soldier, because the enormous majority of draftees ended u p a s c a n n o n f o d d e r f o r t h a t a w f u l meat-grinding war. OPINION Sarasota News Leader May 23, 2014 Page 100

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