The U.S. Navy

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"Two weeks before I was ready to graduate high school, I got into serious trouble; I was taken before a judge and given two choices: enlist in the military or go to jail. Well, I didn’t know what the military was all about, but I had a pretty good idea what jail was all about. I was escorted from the judge’s chambers to the Navy recruiting office that was in the same building as the courthouse. It could have been any branch of the service, but the judge happened to be in the Navy during the Second World War. That afternoon I was on my way to Great Lakes, Illinois, for basic training."