Just came across this in an article in my Facebook feed.
Context: The Straight Dope offers a nuanced assessment of Wayne’s decision not to enlist. The actor was 34 years old at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, had four children to feed, and had yet to become a real star. Henry Fonda was 37 when he enlisted, but he was already an established name. Wayne feared military service would end whatever momentum he’d started to accumulate in his career. Wayne’s profile steadily rose through the war years, and by 1944 he received a government deferment due to his “support of [the] national… interest.” He was later reclassified as 1-A, but his studio managed to reverse the decision and keep him stateside.
When the war first started, were 34-year-olds really the target audience for enlistment? I would have thought it would be those 18-to-25-year-olds, for the reasons specifically mentioned - by their 30’s, most men had family to support and a longer-term job, possibly in industry, that would be needed for the war effort.
It is my sense, and I’m not certain about this, that during WWII the draft included older men in their 30s. It wasn’t until later, during Vietnam, that the draft focused on men who were 18, 19.
My dad was 31 at the time of Pearl Harbor. I think, though not sure, he enlisted rather than got drafted, in “for the duration”, and he was “class of '45”.
If you wanted to serve, they’d take you. On the one hand, Jimmy Stewart flew actual combat missions, on the other, there were a lot of actors younger than Wayne that spent the first half of the 40’s on the celluloid front.
I believe my “alternative ending to Big” thread has been cited in articles dealing with the Mandela effect. I can’t imagine I have the oldest reference to that specific Mandela effect, but I have one of the older ones on the internet, apparently.