As everyone else did, I signed up for the draft when I reached the mature age of sixteen. Things were somewhat quite on the international front at that time, consequently, very few people were being drafted.

There were several of us boys in Edison whose number were close to the top of the list, including Bud Culbreth, Marvette Lewis and myself. Of course, we had discussed our situation and decided what we would do when the letters came. As it so happened, the three mentioned above got our draft notice at the same time, in late December 1945.

I got my notice first, it was not really a shock but a real attention getter. Next day, Bud and Marvette got their letters also. I put my letter back into the box at the Post Officer. Bud and Marvette never took theirs out.

We had agreed that we would go into the navy rather than the army. So the next morning, we packed a suitcase and went to Albany. There we enlisted in the navy. We spent the night in Albany and the next morning the navy sent us to Macon for our physicals. We passed the physicals, took the oath and boarded a train to the boot camp in San Diego, California.

We spent three months in boot camp. undergoing all the physical and mental torture the Navy could devise. We finally had our final dress parade, moved into the transit barracks and awaited for our next assignment.

We were each assigned to "A" School in Memphis, Tennessee. We completed the three week course designed to familiarize the student with the various occupations in the Navy. The three of us chose the Aviation Machinist School,

We held our dress parade and awaited our next assignment.

I was assigned to the flight line as a Plane Captain. That's not as impressive as it sounds. My primary job was washing and polishing the plane, handling the chocks, assisting the pilot into and out of the cockpit, helping the mechanics and unsecuring the plane prior to flight and securing it for the night. A little more than a flunky, but not much.

Being raised in Southern Georgia, I didn't realize that the weather could be so cold. We were issued heavy clothing, boots, fur lined hood, gloves and a face mask with a nose cover. We were warned that bare skin would immediately freeze to any metal. Ice cycles were hanging everywhere.

The ship was rolling and pitching so that flight operations were few and far between. At times we were taking waves over the flight deck as the bow would sink into a trough. I can still vividly remember slipping and sliding on the flight deck as we repositioned planes, handled chocks and tie down reels. How the pilots were feeling when told to take off and fly under those conditions, is hard to imagine. Fortunately, there were no serious accidents and no one was injured.

However, I think everyone on board was sea sick. You can't imagine the problems that caused.

After three weeks, we put back into Norfolk, Va. The ship anchored in the bay. We loaded our gear onto a barge for the trip to the dock. The weather was cold and damp with the wind blowing a good 25 knots. As cold as it was in the Artic Circle, we were just as cold on the barge ride across the bay. Since we had turned in our foul weather gear, we only had our dungarees and a P coat. This is one Georgia boy who was glad to get back to the sunny South, even if was in December.

We spent a few months back in Jacksonville training and getting ready for a Mediterranean Sea Cruise.