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had been schoolteachers; a couple of them had been in personnel work
as civilians. I was the only one in the entire 27 man group who was mar-
ried.
We worked long hours. After breakfast, we cleaned the toilet fa-
cilities and the barracks. About 7:15 a.m., we usually practiced march-
ing. By 8 a.m., we were at work. Each of us had a tiny cubical sepa-
rated by drapes from our neighboring interviewers. We each had a tiny
writing table. We recorded the interview information by hand printing.
We worked as many hours per day as was necessary to interview the
recruits. At least 400 recruits a day and often 600 recruits or more a day
were processed. There was a theater at Fort Douglas but I only got to
one movie there in nine months. We often worked until 9 p.m. At one
point we worked seven days per week for seven weeks without a day
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I walked to the Lakin’s to see Jean whenever I was free for the
evening – which was not often. If I was free on Sunday, I would go to
the Lakin’s to see her on Saturday night, and sleep on an old bed in the
basement and visit her on Sunday. One Sunday I was able to take Jean
and spend the day with my parents, eat my Mom’s good cooking and we
slept in a real bed. I thought I had died and gone to heaven.
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provide some recreation for the troops. In those days there was a radio
program called “Information Please.” The program involved a group of
experts who were queried on a variety of subjects – literature, geogra-
phy, entertainment, etc. Copying the radio program, at Fort Douglas a
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of several hundred new inductees. Most of the questions were not all
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The Draft Boards were really “combing the woods” by the spring
of 1942. A few fellows who had been drafted were so crippled, such as
having foot disabilities that hobbled their walking, it was incredible that
the doctors had ever passed them. The more obvious of these cases were
discharged from the Service after having only served for a couple of
weeks.

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