World War II - Dale Enlists

Leta was always proud of her children, even if she didn’t show it. And she was especially proud of her son Dale when he telephoned to inform her that he had registered to serve their country. It was 1941, and the war in Europe was increasing in intensity. Already American boys were fighting on behalf of England and France. While the Japanese and Germans were expanding their conquests, the concern that the United States was also on the list of nations to be conquered weighed heavily on everyone’s mind.

Even Leta’s husband Bob was talking about how he could help. “You’re 47 years old!” Leta scolded. “Enlisting is for young people.”

With Dale, it was a different story. Ever since he had graduated from high school in 1935, Dale had been restless. In fact, for two years, he rode the rails throughout the Midwest and West, earning the family moniker “the vagabond.” Leta founded the nickname to be condescending and insulting, but like such things, it stuck.

Before he left, he sat her down for a chat.

“Ma, I want to have adventures,” he said. “I want to get out and see things. I want to be like Uncle Aaron and Uncle Fred. I hear California is beautiful.”

“But how will you get there? How will you eat?” Leta inquired, the desperation rising in her voice.

“I’m young, I’m healthy, I’ll figure it out,” he said.

“But we’re still in the Depression,” she protested. “You’ve read the papers. There’s not a lot of work out there. It’s just a myth.”

“Ma, come on,” he scolded gently. “The Depression is practically over, I’m not ready to settle down yet, and I feel an itch.”

Leta sighed. She understood what he meant, for she herself had at times been overwhelmed by an urge to make a change in her life. How could she reject the same trait in her son?

She gave him $100 from her secret money, and he went. She heard from him on occasion for a little over a year before he returned, worn, pale and thin and ready to settle down. Or so she thought. Work was still hard to get in Toledo, and although her husband Bob wanted to get him a position at the factory where he worked, the company wasn’t hiring.  Dale was regularly seen running with a crowd of unsettled young men, spending long hours in bars or downtown until early in the morning. Leta worried about him.

Until he told her that he was enlisting in the Navy.

He seemed excited about it. The military seemed an appropriate outlet. He could benefit from the discipline, and finally, she hoped, settle down.

“Ma,” Dale told her, “It’s my chance to be a part of something important, to do something worthwhile, to serve my country.”

Although she feared for him, but she knew that all she could do was wish him well, pray for him and hope that if the United States did enter into the expanding War, he would be stationed in some safe place.

So Dale enlisted.