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Big Enough, Old Enough: Recalling Our Underage Service Members |
| Section: CULTURE / HERITAGE |
| Author: Peter Slavin |
| Publication: The world & I online |
| Issue Date: 1/1/2002 |
| Size: 1,789 Words, 10,034 Characters |
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John Seymour was 14, in the sixth grade, and dirt poor when he enlisted in the wartime Navy in 1943. A recruiter let him join up after he stated he was 17 and his mother gave written consent. Seymour had told her he could send part of his pay to help the family and had gotten the recruiter to say there was little chance of his seeing combat. He also threatened to run away unless she signed.
Seymour figures those with him at boot camp realized how young he was (he didn't shave, for one thing) but looked the other way. He recalls a commodore coming through the barracks and asking another sailor, "How old are you?" The sailor replied, "Fifteen, sir." The commodore walked on.
"If you were big enough and willing, you were old enough," Seymour observes today.
He wound up in the P...
. . .
...ruitment and an influx of Korean War veterans. Still, the clock is working against it. The World War II members at its core are dying. And with underage enlistment almost unheard of today, the long line of such veterans is coming to an end. "When we're gone," says one VUMS member, "there won't be others like us." The Veterans of Underage Military Service can be contacted at 1-800-OLD-VUMS.
(818 of 10,034 characters)
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