Submitted by: ALAN N. HALL
I was drafted from Dartmouth College by my draft board in Maplewood, NJ, into the U.S. Navy in Newark, NJ, in July 1944, a month after my 18th birthday. I went to boot camp and radio school at the U.S. Naval Training Center, Bainbridge, MD. I was anxious to get into the military, worried about a turn-down because of myopia, and delighted to be assigned to the Navy (I was USN-SA, not USNR).
I graduated from radio school in April 1945 as a Seaman First Class (Radioman "striker") and joined the U.S.S. DENEBOLA (AD-12), a middle-aged destroyer tender, in Portland, ME. Because the ship had been the HQ for the Atlantic Destroyer Fleet (ComDesLant), there was a large radio gang.
In May 1945 the "Denny" left Portland, stopped briefly at Boston Navy Yard, overnight anchored in the Hudson, and on via the Panama Canal to Pearl Harbor (again a brief stay) and finally to Eniwetok, where we serviced a variety of ships until the end of the war. Returning first to San Diego and then to San Francisco, the ship was decommissioned in 1946.
Before that, I was transferred to U.S.S. PC-788, operating out of Treasure Island in training sessions with subs, planes, and blimps. We "landed" the Marines on Alcatraz Island in the spring of 1946 when there was a prison outbreak. I was discharged as Radioman Third Class in June 1946.
There were few hardships: boot camp was hot, grinding, confusing, but "a healthy outdoor life" for the most part. Life aboard the Denny was comfortable: unlimited fresh water, unlimited ice cream, laundry and dry cleaning specialists, "old fashioned" mess tables with china cups and plates, a sympathetic CRM running the radio shack. PC life was a vivid contrast but only for a few months before i was discharged (I was USN, out for good, no recall for the Korean War). Challenges? Conquering Morse code, all the "stuff" of Navy communications, accepting "the right way, the wrong way, and the Navy way" of thinking and doing.
Fondest memory: hearing that WW2 was over and that we would not have to move up north for the invasion of Japan. Most difficult? The Admiral's inspection before we left Portland: everyone was "disturbed" from the ship's Captain to lowly me!
Lessons learned: getting along with all kinds of people to get the job done, whether it was sharing a clothes bucket in boot camp or backing up an operator in the radio shack. Also, some of the unattractive aspects of military life have to be there to get the job done -- it's NOT civilian life, y'know! And at sea, even in a sedate old lady like the Denny, it's not exactly life without distractions, some of which are life threatening.
Shaping my later life? Making me neat, clean, and good repair in my twenties and later. More tolerant "of those less happy than ourselves and eager to bear the burdens of others."
Final considerations: in a chair of command there will be weak links or stubborn links. You are not in command of your daily life and future as most people like to be; your questions may not be answered, your suggestions may not be accepted, your services may not be appreciated. So it goes. Looking back on my two years 18-20, I was lucky most of the way and have lived a better life because of it.
In the late 40s I supported the idea of Universal Military Training (UMT), and I still believe a "draft" of some sort, a universal national service (like the CCC) for every young man or woman, for a couple of years would be a good thing for everyone.