I had an uncle who worked as an engineer at Douglas Aircraft during the war. His job was considered too important to draft him.
His wife did all the shopping. When he appeared in civilian clothes he would be handed a chicken feather.
One problem might be that there’s no such thing as short-term service anymore; once you’ve been in you’re a reservist who can be called up until you’re old and grey, and only careerists want to commit to that. In fact it’s looking alarmingly like the twentyfive-year Legionary of ancient Rome.
Its been this way for a long time. Like most in WWII my father actually joined the Marine Reserves with a stipulation of active service for the duration of the war plus 6 months. But after his discharge he was still subject to recall. He was sweating out the Korean War but they were only calling up combat vets.
For as long as I can recall the current commitment has been in place. 8 years total service. How long the active service is constantly shifts due to job requirements and strength. Although it is possible under certain conditions to recall those after their 8 years is up, in reality unless you have extremely rare skills that is not going to happen.
Now we only need the blond, clean-cut football player who always carries a picture of the nice girl he’s going to marry when he goes home after this one final mission …
Your uncle could be my grandfather, who was in (sorta) the same position. My grandfather wasn’t an engineer, but he was a foreman or something at Douglas Aircraft, which made him undraftable. I don’t know if he was treated badly, though.
Loach, the commitment also depends on the contract you signed. Some Navy jobs involve a six-year active commitment because you go for more intensive training and come out a petty officer. Since you’re going for a much longer training program (a year or more, depending on the job), you’ve got to serve more time in the fleet. IIRC, you’ve still got a four-year reserve commitment after that.
Thats what I meant. The commitment is in your contract. In the Army the length of that commitment is due to factors such as length of training. But that is not the only factor. Just like things like bonuses the commitment may change due to importance of the job, manpower requirments, problems recruiting into that MOS etc. Those factors can change and the commitment requirements may shift from month to month. When I joined some of those I was in training with signed up a few months later and had a 6 year full time commitment. I had a 4 year commitment. But everyone has a total 8 year commitment. The remainder of the time can be served in the national guard, reserves or inactive reserves.
That’s not true. Minimum commitment is eight years. So, you do your four years, then you’re IRR for the remaining four, where you could be called up again. Retirees have a 30 year commitment, but by time you retire, you’re already career.
My dad was 4-F during the Korean War. After college, he went straight to work in a white collar job but once had to go to the draft board on a bus full of other 4-Fs to show he was not able to serve. He was partially paralyzed on his left side by polio as a kid but it wasn’t obvious by that time. He was pretty mortified about being on the “Freak Bus.” And this was the 50’s, when the enlistment fever was way lower than WWII.
I recall reading about a some pro football players (a group from one team) who went to join the army during WWII, but were rejected because their weight/height ratio put them in the overweight category. An exception had to be made to let them enlist.
Not an issue for this guy: Pat Tillman - Wikipedia
Well Tillman was a safety. He was lean and muscular. From experience I can tell you he was well over the weight limit for his height but I’m sure he was well below the allowable body fat level. In the Army if you are over the weight limit they give you a tape test. They measure your neck and waist and calculate your body fat from that. Not very accurate. I’ve known many guys who were very physically fit, had no trouble passing the physical fitness test, but had trouble passing the tape test. One big reason why the West Point football team will never be competative. They have to pass Army height/weight standards. Something that the Navy players do not.
I worked with a fellow who was drafted in January 1945. He had been passed over several times because of his weight. He was in a shoft term boot camp, all his paperwork was stamped “Obese” and he was assigned to a base in California as an Accounting Assistant.
After the Japanese surrender, he was told that he’s be going to the Philippines. He pointed out that his paperwork was marked “Obese” which meant no overseas duty. He was told not to worry, the war was over.
He was stationed at Clark Air Base, which was then part of the Army.
His job was to stand in a little shack and check the identifications of various filipino workers. One morning, he was alone in the shack, which was a sort of a 3 walled open front shed. As he was lighting up a cigarette, a Japanese soldier came running out of an alley across the road, charging with a bayonet on his rifle. He speared my friend through his side, piercing a kidney. He pulled the bayonet out and was ready to stab again when he was shot in the head by a Filipino policeman who had seen what was happening.
He got a Purple Heart for the wound.
zombie or no
draft standards did vary at different times depending on where they wanted you.
My dad was born in 1906. In the 20’s he passes the Thirds then 2nds Assistant engineers license test with the Commerce Department for US Merchant Marine. IN the 30’s he was given a US Naval commission as an Ensign USNR. In April 1941 he was called to the 12th Naval district for a physical. He was asthmatic and had flat feet. Two months later with no explanation he received his discharge. for the first year of the war he was concerned about being called back up. But all he ever got was letters from the Coast Guard asking if he knew any licensed officers that were working ashore.
I don’t know how factual this is, and note that it was set in early 1941 before we entered WWII, but there’s a joke in (IIRC) the Abbott & Costello movie Buck Privates where someone was told by a doctor giving draftees physicals that if you weigh more than 240 pounds, you can’t be drafted. (The joke was that Costello’s character weighed 241 - at least, he did until Abbott’s character put a heater of some sort under him, so by the time he took his physical, he was 2 ounces under the limit.)
Did everyone forget the guy who bailed on the last mission? He’s needed in the platoon to redeem himself by a) throwing himself on a grenade; b) making a mad rush in the open to take out the machine gun nest that’s been pinning them down; or c) haul the wounded lieutenant back to his own lines . . . just in time for him (i.e. the late blooming hero) to take a sniper’s bullet in the chest.
No way you can leave him out.
In the extra features on the “Band of Brothers” DVD, several WW II vets were interviewed. One reported that several guys in his hometown who had been declared 4-F committed suicide.
Same war, different country. My paternal grandfather tried to enlist several times but was rejected as he was a farmer and his job of raising sheep was considered far more important than fighting.
Instead he became the captain of the local “Dad’s Army” was given a Hotchkiss light machine gun (with no ammunition) and told to defend Strathbogie from the Japanese Army. 
Who occasionally may double up by being from Brooklyn.
My father-in-law tried more than once to sign up, but they wouldn’t take him. He was in his mid-thirties with a wife and three kids. My mother-in-law always felt it wasn’t patriotism that spurred him on, but a desire to get away from it all.
My dad and his brother both served, but when my grandfather had a heart attack, my dad was allowed to come home and work the small farm to provide for his mother and three younger sisters. It was in a small town so everyone was aware of the circumstances. When my grandfather recovered, my dad went back. My uncle was sent overseas, but my dad never was.