The Union County journal. [volume] (Marysville, Ohio) 1875-1951, 1947-03-31
DRAFT BOARD
FEATURE SUBJECT
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Mills recalled, ''his father hung
out a service flag, and from that
moment he was the noisiest faith
er in town. We had lot of proud
fathers, but he talked more than
any of them.
The boy made a pretty good
soldier, at that. He went from
private to first lieutenant"
One Of the board members vot-
ed to draft his favorite nephew
81 thought he should go. OF
course, / never would have dared
to tell his father that" Another
was approached by a desperate
parent with the argument that
the board members father, a
country doctor, had brought his
son into the world. How can you
put him in the Army?"
Our biggest job" Bigler sum-
med up last week, "was being
tough"
Farms Without Boys
1t was an especially difficult
job when farmers appealed for
their sons. "The industries around
here were very cooperative" Big
Ter asserted. "The railroad nearly
crippled itself before it asked for
man.The industries were badly
hit, but with the help of women
they managed to get along. How
ever, the farmers situation was
entirely different. Farmers need
their sons"
Always, the FARMERS arguments
were the same: "The Army needs
food. How can we fed the Army
if you take away our boys?" But
one day an order came from Sc
lective Service headquarters in
Columbus: no deferments for
farm boys between Is and 25.
There were 1870 in that group in
Union County. All were drafted.
Among them was a boy whose
father was partially paralyzed.
Soon after he left, his remaining
brother was killed in a threshing
machine accident.
1--WE came in one night" Bigler
recalled, land there was an old
farmer waiting for us very tense
and grim. He said: Gentlemen,
| have one son left. If you take
him from me, I'm sunk. It's i'm
possible to hire anyone nova
days; you know that. have 600
shocks of corn. They'll be ruined.
Il must have talked to that
farmer for an hour and half. l
told him we knew it was tough.
When Selective Service made the
ruling they knew it might shut
down hundreds of farms all over
the country. But the Army need
ed men. What could they do? l
talked and talked. Finally, l could
see him pulling himself together.
He said: All right, gentlemen. l
don't know how I'll manage, but
/ will And you can bet your
bottom dollar that he did. Even
with the farm boys we took, u
MON County still produced more
than it ever had"
A surprisingly large percentage
of the farm boys were rejected at
the induction center for physi-
cal disabilities. Usually" Bigler
declared, they were the best
looking, Notwithstanding, most
muscular boys we sent. But farm
ing is a hard life and they had
ruptures and hernias. They were
the boys we felt most sorry for.
After a while, there weren't ma
ny youngsters left in town, and a
healthy-looking kid was conspic-
uous."
One At wasn't faxed by his
rejection. He went down to Col
umbus and tried to. volunteer for
the Army. The recruiting SER
geant told him nothing doing. He
kept on going back until one day
the sergeant met him with club
and threatened to bash out his
bra ins. Still undaunted, the
youngster returned to his draft
board and asked for help.
The board redrafted him and
sent him to the induction center
with a letter, urging that his dis
ability-flat feet-be overlooked.
One of the doctors turned to the
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