[AT] OT Draft Exemption Exam

[HERBERT METZ]

Yes, Spencer; our paths nearly crossed.
Summer, dark night of 1955 we were operating in Mediterranean with several other USS ships. For training purposes we occasionally operated at 'darken ship and radio silence'; we maneuvered by previously determined plans. I got wet when a wave splashed through my 6' high porthole window on the main deck. Next morning at breakfast I questioned "what happened", the only modest response was "old man was on bridge". So either the Coral Sea or our ship USS Waller errored and we almost became another USS Hobson (sank at sea when cut into by an aircraft carrier). The Coral Sea was one of only a few ships that I remembered their name. Probably very few people on the Coral Sea were knowledgeable of that 'near accident'. Normal rank of destroyer commanding officers were Commanders (three strippers) and they were 'on the bridge and in charge' during all special situations; during regular activity a junior officer with considerable experience would be OOD;  on the bridge and 'in charge'.  I enjoyed when the Captain considered me being knowledgeable and mature enough to be Officer Of Deck Underway and I thought to myself "a plow jockey from KS made it"; but I never seriously considered the Navy as a career.      Herb(GA)

> On January 20, 2020 at 11:34 PM Spencer Yost <spencer at rdfarms.com> wrote:
> 
> Hey Herb,
> 
> Mediterranean? My dad served on the USS Coral Sea (aircraft carrier) in the seventh fleet in the Mediterranean during the Korean war.  Wonder if your paths crossed?
> 
> Now onto a family story of luck and timing in regards to the draft:
> 
> My dad’s father ran a small tailor shop (Yost and Son) and got a WWII deferment because he was an employer and because his tailor shop had a quota of uniforms they had to provide(doesn’t make sense to draft the folks making some of the uniforms).  I was never clear in the family lore as to what “uniform” meant:   Was it the whole uniform or just specific articles like jackets, which was his specialty.   I still have one of his wool dress overcoats.
> 
> Anyways, that quota was also why he sold it.  It was too hard to meet that quota yet still have time for enough time for other customers to make money. Several smaller shops consolidated to get the economy of scale needed to provide retail and military clothing.
> 
> He sold it in  1942 to a larger shop and went down to the draft board, signed up and they rejected him because of lesions seen in his lung X-ray believed to be tuberculosis.   He was rejected.  He remained asymptomatic (which is apparently common) or misdiagnosed till his death in 1979.
> 
> Antique tractor reference:   I use to have several old wooden boxes of his I stored parts in.
> 
> Spencer