We were all subject to re-call for 20 years.  So when I got out in 1949, the Korean war started. 

So they re-called me and gave me three days to report to active duty to Fort Knox, Kentucky. 

And I didn't do it.  What I did, I went and joined the Navy.  And the FBI was looking for me!

I didn't report to active duty.  Back in those days they didn''t have computers or anything.

I joined the Navy.  And I got in trouble.  A lieutenant in the Navy would have two bars like a captain in the Army.  I would call that guy a captain.  Well, a captain in the Navy is like a colonel in the Army.  They thought of me as 'Big Mr. Smartass' , I guess.   

I was very strong and very athletic back then.  I put all those sailors aboard ship to shame, and all that.  I was allowed to do things aboard ship that other sailors weren't allowed to do.  The skipper would let me paint the sides of the ship while the ship was under way.

Anyway, they finally figured out.  While I didn't have any Navy training, they sent me right aboard ship, no training or nothing, just straight from Columbus to Norfolk, Virginia right aboard ship.

They had an issue with uniforms and everything else.  The ship hadn't been commissioned yet.  It was still in mothballs. 

The officers apologized to me.  They said, "How'd you like to go to a school of some kind instead of staying aboard ship?"  So they sent me to Navy Corpsman school. 

When I got out of school, they said, oh, you know how to carry a rifle.  So they assigned me to the Marine Corps as a corpsman in the Marine Corp!