The Big One - WWII

Arthur L. Manning Jr.

Since I wasn't going to join the military I quit school and got a job with a construction company building facilities at near by Fort Meade. That job soon ran out and I went to work for the U.S. Post Office where my father also worked. It was here that the Selective Service found me and sent me a nice letter that started off with the words, "Greetings you have been selected." to serve your country. You have 30 days to get your affairs in order and report for your entrance physical examination. I didn't need more than about ten minutes to get my affairs in order, I was ready now, but that was how the system worked. In due time I quit my job and reported to the Fifth Regiment Armory in downtown Baltimore for my entrance examination, My dad wanted to go with me but I said no, I wanted to do this on my own. The examination included several forms to be filled out describing my age, birth place, education, and other routine stuff, followed by a rather thorough physical examination. All this took the better part of the morning and there were about fifteen or twenty of us there. When I was finally finished I joined the others in the waiting area to find out when and where we would be inducted. The waiting grew to be rather long and tedious as we were called in one at a time. And after each was called in we never saw them again, there was a slight air of mystery about all this. I became a little concerned when I wound up the very last one called. Finally, instead of calling me in to the offices, a doctor came out and sat down beside me and as politely and softly as he could, informed me that I was physically unfit for military service. When I asked him why, he told me to go see my family doctor. I pressed him for a better answer than that and all he would tell me was that the x-ray showed I had calcifications on my right lung. I was now classified "4F- unfit for military service." For the first time in my life I really felt frightened. Did I have an incurable disease? What would I tell my parents? What do I do now? Where do I go from here? We lived eight miles south of Baltimore in the little village of Ferndale, where just about everybody knows everybody else. Instead of taking the Baltimore and Annapolis electric train, which would have had me home in twenty minutes, I walked all the way trying to sort this out in my head. Do I have a communicable disease? Will I be run out of the neighborhood? Will I wind up in a sanitarium somewhere? What will become of me? Am I going to die? This was the thinking of an eighteen year old kid with a wild imagination. I arrived home and broke the news to my family. Dad immediately called for an appointment with the doctor, and the next day I went through another examination including x-ray. The doctor could find nothing. He gave me a clean bill of health. I came to the conclusion that somebody goofed somewhere. So my next step was to go join the Navy. All went well until they checked my draft status and found out that I was 4-F, they politely asked me to get lost. The same thing happened with the Marine Corps. Even the Coast Guard wouldn't have me. I had to do something so I got a job with Westinghouse working on the manufacturing of huge trailer mounted gun laying radar. I liked the job and began to feel better about myself. About three months later in September of 1943, It looked like my dad was mistaken about the war ending soon. The Japanese were giving us a real bad time. I now received another surprise "greetings" letter and was ordered to show up for a recheck. This time they found nothing wrong and one of the doctors confided in me that during my first visit they got my x-ray mixed up with some one else, who is now probably somewhere in the middle of the war. In October of 1943 I became a buck private in the United States Army. I felt pretty proud of that uniform and was looking forward to wherever I might be going from here. To continue reading about Auts' military career, click Basic Training here, or in the frame on the left.