Bapa Harold's Draft Story During WWII | Whitney Beth Photography
Bapa Harold's Draft Story During WWII | Whitney Beth Photography
As the self appointed family historian, I decided it was time I write down another story of my family's history.
As I was pondering and thinking about what family story I wanted to write down next, the story of how my Grandpa Jones (aka Bapa Harold and/or Jonesy) was drafted into WWII came to mind. Maybe it was just the leftover patriotism from memorial day, but whatever the case it seemed like a good place to start.
Bapa Harold was born January 14th, 1925. When World War Two hit men born before 1924 had to register for the draft. Jonesy was scared of being drafted into the front lines so he decided to enlist himself into the Navy. He felt like having control over how he served was better than randomly getting assigned to the thick of battle.
On his 18th birthday, January 14th, 1943, my grandpa went to enlist in the Navy, but by the time he got there, they were full for the day and couldn't sign anyone else on. Thinking about what to do he went and sat on a bench. While sitting there he saw a couple of guys walk passed in their dress blues and thought they looked pretty sharp. So he turned around and enlisted in the Marines instead.
It was a good thing he enlisted in the Marines, because my grandpa quickly learned on the boat ride over, that he got extremely sea sick and hated being on the ship!
MY little brother, Thomas looks so much like my dad, who in turn, looks so much like my grandpa. I thought it’d be fun to tly and recreate Bapa Harold’s enlistment photo. Too bad we didn’t have my grandpa’s hat, or uniform for that matter, but I think it turned out nicely - all things considered.
