Full Transcript: Solomon McCormick on Being Drafted Twice
Interviewer: You said that you were drafted into the Korean war?
Solomon: Drafted into the service?
Interviewer: Mhm.
Solomon: Well that was my second draft. During WWII I was in, while I was in college in florida, I turned 18, three months later I was drafted into the Navy. I served honorably in some place in Georgia, can’t remember the name of it. But then I was transported to [?] Maryland Naval Base on the Susquehanna River. I completed that training soon enough I was transported back to Florida to the Pensacola Naval Base, Pensacola Air Naval Base and from there I was on an aircraft carrier called the USS Ranger. After serving there, back to Pensacola and at a later time separated.
Interviewer: What was your reaction to being drafted?
Solomon: I don’t think you really want to know. I was incensed. I, I tried to avoid it. I appealed four times. Three times they deferred it and the forth time even with a pregnant wife I was inducted. So you may have some sense of how I felt about that matter having served before.
David Shelton, Solomon’s son: Theres the issue of only very few people were— in the United States very few people were drafted twice.
Solomon: Twice, oh yeah.
David: There’s I think 150 total people were ever drafted twice into military service as he was.
Solomon: Never thought of that.
Interviewer: The first time that you were drafted, you just went and then the second time--
Solomon: Oh yeah, nothing to do but go. I was 18 and the draft was there and it was all legal, not a problem. But having been drafted and served and honorably discharged and then drafted a second time into a different service— I was not pleased with it. I had been in college only a few months when I was drafted into World War II, when I was drafted into the Navy. I was a long way from, from finishing, I was in my second year there.
Solomon: I served in North Korea.
Interviewer: What was that like?
Solomon: Remote. Difficult. My MOS there was fire chief, I was in the fire department. And it [?] headquarters and just like anything else there are times when you go like hell and there are times when you sit for months and seemingly time backs off and that’s war, that’s the way that goes.
Solomon: Drafted into the service?
Interviewer: Mhm.
Solomon: Well that was my second draft. During WWII I was in, while I was in college in florida, I turned 18, three months later I was drafted into the Navy. I served honorably in some place in Georgia, can’t remember the name of it. But then I was transported to [?] Maryland Naval Base on the Susquehanna River. I completed that training soon enough I was transported back to Florida to the Pensacola Naval Base, Pensacola Air Naval Base and from there I was on an aircraft carrier called the USS Ranger. After serving there, back to Pensacola and at a later time separated.
Interviewer: What was your reaction to being drafted?
Solomon: I don’t think you really want to know. I was incensed. I, I tried to avoid it. I appealed four times. Three times they deferred it and the forth time even with a pregnant wife I was inducted. So you may have some sense of how I felt about that matter having served before.
David Shelton, Solomon’s son: Theres the issue of only very few people were— in the United States very few people were drafted twice.
Solomon: Twice, oh yeah.
David: There’s I think 150 total people were ever drafted twice into military service as he was.
Solomon: Never thought of that.
Interviewer: The first time that you were drafted, you just went and then the second time--
Solomon: Oh yeah, nothing to do but go. I was 18 and the draft was there and it was all legal, not a problem. But having been drafted and served and honorably discharged and then drafted a second time into a different service— I was not pleased with it. I had been in college only a few months when I was drafted into World War II, when I was drafted into the Navy. I was a long way from, from finishing, I was in my second year there.
Solomon: I served in North Korea.
Interviewer: What was that like?
Solomon: Remote. Difficult. My MOS there was fire chief, I was in the fire department. And it [?] headquarters and just like anything else there are times when you go like hell and there are times when you sit for months and seemingly time backs off and that’s war, that’s the way that goes.