How did you you get chosen to go overseas or stay in the U.S.?

Pardon if this was asked already, I could not find anything with the search option.

I'm looking over my Great Uncle's discharge papers and realized he never served completely overseas. His only "action" was patrolling the Gulf of Mexico off of the Texas coast on his LSM. I remember him telling me they kept coming across Mexican fisherman and searched for anything suspicious in the area. He entered the Navy, March of 1944. He was 18 at the time. I figured since he went to USNTS Sampson then to Amphibious Training Base in Little Creek and was trained as a Signalman, he would have been used more overseas.

The only conclusion I can come up with is that he injured a disc in his back and spent some time in San Diego and Banning at the hospitals. Maybe that prevented him from doing more? His memory is fading a bit so he can only help so much.

I don't hear too many stories about all the military personnel that stayed on the home front so to speak. Would anyone know how common it was to stay back? I figure if your unit or specialty was needed, they would send for you.

Aaron

 

The objective during the "hot" period of the war was pretty well defined as to "who went" to serve outside of the American borders and sphere of influence. There were age and infirmity judgments, marital status was also considered as were number of dependents (not just kids but aging parents as well). It seem to have been different by year and by individual. At one time being a convicted felon removed the person from draft status, but that was relaxed as the war progressed, physical infirmity was a 4-F right off the bat early on, but as the need for men increased they too were either allowed to enlist or were drafted. Some might have been put in less "dangerous" stations because of their physical condition.

Hard to say exactly what was the case in your Great Uncle's deployment. WW2 was (to the best of my knowledge) the only time that the USN used draftees to fill their ranks rather than all volunteers.

 

The Navy had draftees during Viet Nam.

 

Both sides “drafted” men during the Civil War; my grandfather and his father were both drafted during WWI; the draft stayed active thought-out both the Korean and Viet Nam War’s.
I was actually drafted into the USMC in 1966 - another guy with family Marine history took my place and I went into the Army.

 

I can only add this and it may not have applied in WWII but....."needs of the government". At least that was one of the reasons I usually heard from other family members who also served post WWII

 

Jeff, you reminded me of something I read once upon a time that might have a bearing on this topic. Your relation who seemed to almost have a civilian job made me think of it. For every American on the front lines, there were between ten and twelve who were supporting them.