from
http://thedailynews.cc/breaking/2011/11 ... ies-at-91/"When World War II broke out in 1941, Fred tried to enlist repeatedly, but a hernia disqualified him from service. He tried to enlist so many times that he soon was nominated to lead the bus with area recruits on each trip it made to Detroit.
Fred was able to help those new to the process find out where they needed to go, tell them what to expect for breakfast and fill them in on just about everything else they needed to know. He said that during his last attempt to enlist in the Army, his doctors couldn’t find his hernia.
“So I get accepted in the Army in Detroit,” Fred remembered.
He said that as soon as they discovered that he couldn’t cook, he was assigned to the infantry.
His time in the Army was short-lived, however. A sergeant, who knew that Fred had been rejected several times due to his hernia brought the situation to the attention of an Army doctor.
“The doctor never checked me,” Fred said. “He just said, ‘throw him out.’”
That ended Fred’s one-hour stint in the Army.
He said it was both a relief and a disappointment not to be able to serve his country during World War II.
“I felt guilty looking healthy and not being in the Army,” Fred said. “One of my friends, Dan Smeed, had already been killed.”
Those mixed feelings have stayed with Fred down through the years.
“On one hand you’re happy. On another hand you’re not happy,” he said, trying to explain the conflicts he has felt. “But probably I was lucky ’cause I would have been in on the whole thing.” "
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