Call to Active Duty

I received a letter in answer to my written request for active duty (see Note: above) which ordered me to report for Active Duty at Camp Yaphank, NY on 23rd March 1943. Naturally, my parents were quite upset, especially my mother! I guess if I'd waited I would have "chickened out" altogether and would surely never have experienced the adventures which follow here below. After I arrived at Camp Yaphank at the appointed time I was processed there and officially became a uniformed member of the Army of the United States. I remember that my AGCT score was 149. Someone told me I had a good chance of becoming an officer after Basic Training. I didn't think much about it because we were shipped out soon afterwards, by train, to "parts unknown". After a long ride westbound (we could tell by the location of the Sun in the sky) through St. Louis, Missouri, we turned south and kept riding till we arrived at Camp Wolters, Mineral Wells, Texas. It took me a few days to learn the real name of the town, i.e., Mineral Wells, as all the GI's at Camp Wolters always called it "Venereal" Wells!