Memoirs of my draft, induction, and military Service
in Japan and World War II from 1944-1947
by Vernon P. E. Sommerer
Henley, Missouri
I was nearing my 18th birthday and would be required to register for the draft (military service.) I/we applied for an agricultural exemption. The forms were complicated and accuracy was important. The government had mandated that federal employees were to required to assist in filling out such forms when asked to do so. Since the folks had been involved with the Farm Home Administration since the Thirties, we knew this man very well. So when he came to the question, “How long has the applicant been engaged in farming,: he thought for a while and wrote down ’18 years, of course.’“ I was 18 years old, which bring sup the subject when does a farm boy begin farming. Mahlon helped Mom gather eggs when he was one year old.
Daddy convinced Dr. Hill that he (I) was disabled or something, so he Dr. Hill, wrote a note for the government to that extent. (I’d like to have seen what it said) The Army honored it for one month, to the tune of $270.00 per month. The next month, they cut it down to $70.00 and after that it was cut to $37.00 from then on. Part of that was taken out of my pay check.
Freda Beck was a Red Cross worker during the war, and she made out the paperwork for me/us regarding the parental allotment. (I will now go back to my pre-induction physical exams at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis on December 18, 1944) The “shrink” asked me who I slept with, and Uncle Herbert was with us the, so Mahlon slept on the floor and I slept with Uncle Herbert. That’s what I told the “shrink.” I have often wondered if that was why I was given a 4F classification. The second pre-induction physical, which I passed, was at Ft.Leavenworth in August of 1945. We left Ft.Leavenworth about 4 p.m. and got to Kansas City by bus and had supper at the Mulebach Hotel which, at that time, and many years after, was one of the most famous hotels in Kansas City. We got to Jefferson City about 12 – 2 a.m. Around 2 a.m. I took the Springfield MO bus out to Brazito. At 2 a.m., no one was awake at Brazito, so I walked home and it was really dark. On the road down to the house above the barn, I had a sudden call from nature. So I stepped off the road a few steps, after which I needed tissue real bad, but knowing about the rattlesnakes in our area, I took the first thing I could feel on the ground. It turned out to be a bad choice and I thought I was going to die—the pain was so bad. Lucky for me, it didn’t last long.