September 11th, 1940

September 11th is our National Day of Remembrance. I think back to that horrific day, and also recall the unity that came to America afterwards, for a while at least. I now also have something else to think about. I recently learned my dad enlisted in the Army 85 years ago, on SEPTEMBER 11th, 1940. He was all of sixteen. 

A year or two ago, I received copies of dad’s enlistment and discharge papers from the Army. I previously wrote a couple of blogs about them and the significance of different items on the forms. For some reason, until recently, I never mentally registered the actual date of his enlistment – September 11th, 1940. He lied about his age and was still a month shy of his 17th birthday (Oct 22, 1923). My aunt vouched he was 18 at the time (on the enlistment paper, you can see he says he is almost 19.)

I never asked dad why he enlisted in 1940. Pearl Harbor was still over a year away and the nation was not yet at war. The romantic part of me says he acted patriotically. The practical part says, maybe a little patriotism, but also a big dose of reality.

 He was 16, with the depression still going on. His parents were poor, as was much of America at that time. He had already quit school and spent time out west in Wyoming in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCCs). When in the CCCs, he sent most of the money he earned home to his mother. I think he came home from the CCCs, could not get a job, did not want to be a burden at home, and decided to join up.

The reason doesn’t really matter, I guess. He signed up for a three-year hitch, not knowing war would break out a year later and he would spend five years in the Army with the 9th Infantry Division – North Carolina, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and eventually Sicily, where he was wounded.

 Yes, for September 11th, we of a certain age all remember where we were when the planes struck the twin towers and the Pentagon. We remember the death and destruction, and our own feelings – that pit in the bottom of our stomach. For me, I will also spend a few minutes thinking about dad and the courage and necessity that sent him to the recruiter’s office that day. A man at 16 years of age. 

Addendum:

Here are the two blogs I wrote about dad’s enlistment and discharge papers:

• On the 11th day of September, 1940, just over 14 months before Pearl Harbor,  my dad, William Iber Hall, enlisted in the United States Army for a  3 year stint.  His enlistment paperwork showed him to be 18 years and 11 months of age.  In reality, he was 16 years and 11 months old […] Continue here: https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2023/03/14/lying-to-enlist-in-1940/
• When discharged from the Army on August 24th, 1945, dad was 21 years old and had been in for nearly five years. His WWII service included time in Algeria, Tunisia, French Morocco and lastly, Sicily, where he was wounded. His discharge papers tell the intriguing story of those five years in one page […] Continue here: https://mnhallblog.wordpress.com/2023/03/21/five-years-in-one-page/