This might be different in the US vs a small European country.
Were WWI vets called up for service in WWII in the US?
For example, I’ve read in Europe the prison camps and other non combat areas were often staffed with older men. Goering for example was a WWI fighter pilot.
How much was asked of the US WWI vets during WWII?
By called up, I assume you mean some version of drafted or sending WWI vets that were also in the military reserves get sent to WWII by order. It almost certainly happened in some cases but the wording of your question makes the answer tricky. The minimum distance between them (1918 - 1941 for U.S. involvement) is 23 years so that puts them slightly too far apart for very many people to have been drafted twice except for exceptional circumstances. There were tens of thousands of career U.S. enlisted and officers that served in both wars (as did Hitler) but I don’t know if you want to exclude all of those or if you are just interested in people that served in both wars involuntarily. Officers like MacArthur were just getting their career started during WWI for example but you may not be interested in those types.
I meant any WWI vet that served in WWII. I wasn’t sure if former military vets could be drafted or just called up for service.
My dad put in his 20 always said he was free and clear of the military after he was out a few years.
But a massive mobilization like WWII is unique. Guys that went into the military in 1918 or 19 had barely retired with their 20 before WWII started. I didn’t know if they got recalled or not.
I read Ernest Borgnine’s biography. He was in the Navy 8 years and got out in 1940. He was recalled after the mobilization began. He of course wasn’t a WWI vet. He didn’t leave the military again until after V-J Day.
There was a thing called the Ready Reserve. Supposedly, you were supposed to keep your duffle bag complete with all the uniforms and boots you were originally issued, for four years after discharge. At any time during those four years you could be recalled to duty at any time.
If you were recalled, and didn’t show up with those uniforms, you had to purchase them.
Some retired WWI vets volunteered for WWII service. With the way the services had to expand, some experienced senior NCOs could come in really handy for some training, administrative, and support positions. You may not want one for a platoon sergeant or first sergeant, but for a regimental sergeant major and above, could be useful.
Many retired generals and admirals reported for duty also. Which often presented personnel problems when they were unhappy with their assignments.
There were certainly a number of ranking officers like Generals Patton, Eisenhower and Montgomery who all served in WWI.
There were probably a lot of Colonels and Naval Captains who served in WWI also.
Alvin York was drafted in WWI and of course became the most well known American hero from the war. At the start of WWII he was 54. He attempted to enlist but was denied due to health issues. Instead they made him a major and had him tour stateside. Most WWI vets were in the same boat, too old to be useful. They would be better suited to continue in their jobs at home. However, a young officer who served in WWI was in the prime zone to be a general during WWII. One exception was MacArthur. He was a Brigadier General and commanded the 42nd Infantry Division in WWI. By the time of WWII he had retired and took a job as a military advisor to the Philippines. If he didn’t happen to be in the right place at the right time (or wrong depending on your viewpoint) he may have faded into obscurity.
Patton and Montgomery both served with distinction in combat during WWI. Montgomery was one tough SOB. Eisenhower was always an extremely competent staff officer but he never left the states during the war.
As part of the answer to the OP, the 1915 graduating class of West Point was known as The Class the Stars Fell On due to the number of graduates who became generals.
How about doctors? A WWI combat surgeon would probably have gone back into civilian life in 1918 and still be practicing in 1941. Were they ever called back up by Uncle Sam?
My grandfather fought at Gallipoli and Flanders in WW1 and in north Africa and New Guinea in WW2. Combat veteran in both world wars.
As a parallel anecdote my father joined the Marine Corps at 17 in 1945. He would have probably been used as a bullet sponge during the invasion of Japan if the war hadn’t ended while he was in Boot Camp. When the war in Korea broke out he went down to a Marine recruiter partly out of guilt and partly out of concern about being called up again. He was told they were only interested in calling up combat vets and he was safe. Which turned out to be true, he was never recalled. Of course the time period was much shorter between those two conflicts.
One doesn’t have to fight to have served and be considered a veteran.
As mentioned, active professional soldiers, enlisted men as well as the famous generals mentioned, served in both WW’s for the US. That was their life’s profession, and the two wars were less than a long career apart (23 yrs from 1918 to 1941). I wouldn’t consider this ‘called up’ though.
It technically might apply to men who served in the Army (typically) in WWI and then joined the National Guard between the wars, and were called up for federal service in 1940.
As to men drafted in both wars, that was theoretically possible and might have occurred but was surely much less common. The US WWII draft required registration of men up to 65 years old, and eventually some men in up to their mid 40’s, theoretically old enough to have been draftees in WWI, were drafted. I’ve never read of a specific case though. Presumably having served in WWI would be a major factor in a draft board’s decision to excuse someone, and the boards were making such decisions, and not nearly all men in that age category got drafted, only a relative few.
If the US had been desperate enough for manpower, as for example Germany was, surely it would have used more older and outright old men for military service as Germany was forced to. But by and large the US was only beginning to run low on suitable manpower ca. 1944, so it never got to the point of widespread drafting of men old enough to have been also drafted in WWI.
I saw a multipart documentary about a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital where someone was in the cavalry in WWI as was a doctor/full colonel in the Korean War.