My dad, George Robert "Bob" Martin, was 21 when he was drafted into the army sometime in 1951. He was somewhat surprised as he thought his blindness in one eye would prevent him from being drafted, but that didn't happen.(My dad always joked he was blind in one eye and couldn't see out of the other.)
Bob started training in the Signal Corps, which included Communication and Cryptography. His training was done in Georgia, Texas, and California, and when it was completed at Camp Gordon in Georgia in December 1951, he got a Certificate of Completion of the Military Cryptography Course #4805. This allowed him to code and decode messages on "secret equipment."[1]
The Korean War started in 1950, and when Bob was sent to Fort Stoneman in San Francisco, he figured he'd be on the next ship to Korea. At the time, my mom was expecting little ol' me, so he was naturally worried about going overseas.
It seems like he got lost in the chaos. He stood in line a couple of times, duffel bag in hand, waiting to board the ship. But the ship filled up and he was sent back to the barracks. Some of his friends went, but he still waited.
Whatever the reason, Bob never made it on a ship heading overseas and, thankfully, never served in Korea. In 1953, he was discharged from the Army and went back to Chicago, where he got a job. He commented to a newspaper reporter who was writing a short article about him, "The Army does prepare you for life. You learn life skills." [2]
[1] George Robert Martin Certificate of Complete and Separation Papers, Copy in author's possession.
[2] "Vet Recalls days in Signal Corps," Daily Southtown, 4 November 2007.Digital copy in author's possession.
