Evening star., 1948-11-02
I 7|nducted Here
AsFirst Under.
New Draft Law
Reactions Vary
From It's Fute' to
Wonderful Chance
By John A. Giles

by John a. SiieS
Jesse S. Bowen began his Arm,
"o"eer today an hour late, but th'
-clihood was that he would no
>7e the privilege of sleeping lat,
" the next 81 months.
Mr.. Bowen was one of a group O.
Zen District men to be inductec
Ito the Army under the Nation.
,cond peacetime draft. Their re.
ctions to being drafted ranged
r-om "It's fate, I suppose" to III
will be a wonderful opportunity
While District draft officials anc
Army and Air Force recruiting sta.
tons waited on the tardy inductee
sergeant finally raised Mr.. Bower
on the telephone.
Get taxi and get down here
right away ordered the sergeant
The inductee will hear many orders
like that in the months to come.
Misses Preliminaries.
When he finally arrived, it seemed
that Mr.. Bowen had taken advan-
tagc of his last moments of civilian
freedom by working at his job as a
drugstore delivery man until ! am
He'd missed the preliminaries, in
Guiding the picture taking.
Il just didn't have anybody to
wake me this morning and worked
mighty late," he said. Officials ac-
cepted his excuse with a smile.
Mr.. Bowen, who lives at 1881
Twenty-second street NV, prom
ised he would 'try to be good SOL
dier" and accepted his call as fate. >
One of the. inductees, Aurelio B.
Collado. BIS Quesada street NV.
is q Mexican citizen who came te
this country four years ago He
looked forward to his Army life with
great anticipation.
Wonderful Opportunity"
ut will be a wonderful opportu-
nifty and I think every one should
have such training" he said.
Recruit Collado-for that was his
title after 1t. Col. Raymond Kenny
commander of the recruiting sta
tion, asked the group to take a step
forward and then intoned You are
now in the Arny"-was born De-
cember 4, 1922. at Ciudah, Victoria
Tamaulipas, Mexico.
He worked for the American Con-
sulate in Mexico before coming here
as an accountant with UNRRA
Lately he has been a salesman in
the electrical department of Sears
Roebuck g. Co.
All the group had been rejected
by the draft for physical reasons
during the war except Recruit Col
lado, who had been examined and
accepted, but was never ordered to
report for duty. The var ended be-
fore he got his orders, he said.
1t was hard for William M.
Mumaw Of PAST Tunlaw road NV,
grocery clerk. to understand why
he was being called now.
They wouldn't take me during
the war, and I don't know why they
want to now" he commented
Maybe it's fate"
Physical Standards Lower.
Leonard L. Lewis, 1927 Kalorama
road NV, who has been a post
office clerk. said he had decided to
make the best of it," but he, too
could not understand why he was
being taken now. when he was
passed over during the war for
physical reasons.
William E. Leahy, the District
draft director, who was on hand for
the inductions. said that virtually all
the s. men to be called from the
District this month would be those
who had been rejected for one reason
or another during the war. He
pointed out that standards were
higher during the war and that
many of the 25-year-olds were just
not got around to before the war
ended" Seventy-six more men will
be drafted from the District in
December.
The Army life will be nothing new
to Charles A. Reese, 1927 Massachu-
sets avenue NV, who has been q
clerk in the Army Public Informa-
ton Division at the Pentagon ano
he hopes to make it his career.
The Army has just announced
new public information career plar
and I hope to get into that" he SAID
1T really will give me a chance
and I imagine few Of the otherl
here, too-a chance to get out Of &
rut."
Express Amazement.
The other inductees-William !
Lee, 1924 s street NV, a bartender
and Quentin A. Hill, 1853 Willard
street NV, clerk-had little com.
ment to make, although both ex.
pressed amazement that they wert
being called in peacetime when they
had been rejected during the war.
The new recruits will leave fol
basic training tcmorrow-Mumaw
Collado and Reese for Camp Pic.
kett, Va.-and the rest for Fort Dix
N. j. White recruits frcm this are;
will be trained at Camp Pickett ant
Negroes at Fort Dix.
After roll call there was an orien
tation talk, medical inspection, tn,
filling out of forms, including on
on loyalty, and routine fingerprint
ing
Then Col. Kenny officially in
Quoted the men by ordering them t,
step forward. Each got his Arm,
serial number.
The next order of business wa
the oath of allegiance for the Unitet
States citizens and the oath O
obedience for Recruit Collado. tn
articles Of war-which govern Arm
personnel-were read.
The first men were thus in tn
Army and were given overnigh
passes to their homes. They Wi
begin their trip to Camp Picket
and Fort Dix at $3.50 am. tomorro,
where they will start eight week
of intensive training before joinin
units.