On November 8, 1942, I turned eighteen. Early the next year, I received a nice letter from Uncle Sam: "Congratulations, you have been selected to serve your country." I was drafted, and I counted it a privilege to serve. Loyalty for our country was at a peak. In April 1943 I was inducted in Atlanta, Georgia, and sent to Camp Barkley, near Abilene, Texas, where I finished my basic training as a medic and clerk.
From August of 1943 to March of 1944, I attended Bradley Tech, in Peoria, Illinois, in the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) to be a civil engineer. We were in training to be post-war officers to help rebuild countries after the war.
While at Bradley Tech, I met Ralph Legant, a son of a missionary couple in Bolivia, South America. He was a former student at Moody Bible Institute and had committed to return to Bolivia after the war.
The military hastily abandoned the ASTP program when additional troops were needed in both the European and Pacific theaters of war. Five or six thousand of us were sent to Oregon to become part of the 96th Division. The 96th Division had already been organized, except for additional riflemen needed to bring the division to combat strength.
After further training in Oregon, we took amphibious training in California and Hawaii before joining thousands of other personnel as part of the armada assigned to liberate the Philippines from the Japanese.
At each base at which I had been stationed, I sought out fellow Christians in churches and Servicemen's Centers.
CAH
