The Frontier Kid

April 1st, 1942 (inducted into the Army ) I'll mention here that this was after the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. We got on a bus and left for Fort Custer, MI in Battle Creek, and we were there for a couple days until we took the allegiance. Then, we took a physical, and mental examination. I found out that I was more suited for the armored force training than anything else. So, I was sent to Fort Knox, Kentucky, which was the armored force training center. I was there for 13 weeks with several visits by Ardis and by her family. Then, each of us were assigned a permanent position with a Army, and a regiment in the Army. It so happened that I was transferred to the Fourth Armored Division in Pine Camp, New York. However, I'll go back a little bit… Prior to my permanent position, I was training in Fire Direction in the artillery. In so doing, I had to be able to ride a motorcycle to deliver messages and so forth to other regiments and artillery battalions. So, one afternoon, when I had to go from Shelbyville, Tennessee to Manchester, Tennessee with a message, I didn't have anything to do until the following Monday morning. (This was a Friday afternoon.) So I got the bright idea to ride the bike home to see Ardis. She was living on a farm at her folks at the time. So, I took off at about 4:00 in the afternoon, and it must have been about 450 mile. Anyway, I arrived up there in the wee hours of the morning. I stayed about four or five hours, then had to start back to be back Monday morning. So, I took the same route back that I did coming, because I knew that I was going to have to have gas. I didn't dare stop at a civilian gas station. I had to get it at an Army Camp. So, I stopped at Attabury Camp in Indiana coming and going, and got enough gas to get back. The next day, I telegraphed Ardis and told her that I got back ok. I was AWOL for about a day and a half, but nobody found out. When I arrived in Pine Camp, New York with the Fourth Armored Division, I telephoned Ardis and told her to get on a train and come to Watertown, New York. That was the biggest town as close to the camp as we could get. So, she made arrangements, and notified me when she would be at the train station. I picked her up and had a room in Black River, NY, which was just outside of the camp, at the mayor's house. She stayed there while I was in camp. We were there for five or six months. She got a job, eventually, at the dime store in Watertown and rode in to the town every day with someone else that worked there. So, we got along pretty good, until I got orders to move out.