The Draft and Deferments

All during the time I worked at Wilmington, or rather until the end of the war, which was somewhat more than a year before I was transferred to San Francisco, I was in continuing contact with my draft board which was the one in Webster county. Wherever you initially registered was the place that determined your draft status.

I was first deferred as a student, and while I was working I was periodically re-classified, the usual sequence being 1-A by the draft board, an appeal by Shell for deferment, then an altered 2-A or some other classification. The process would recur every six months or so.

When the war ended, or maybe it was even later on, I was again ordered to appear for a pre-induction physical but this time it was canceled. From that time on I had no further contact with the draft board. I kept all the classification notices I received during the war — it must have been a couple of dozen or so — and I have them somewhere. Mementoes of a period of uncertainty.

I was just a little older than the age limit below which even Shell’s asking for a deferment would not have been effective. Several of the younger engineers ended up in military service — either by being drafted or by enlisting and perhaps getting a commission. There were times during the Wilmington years when I wondered if I would have been wiser to go in the navy as I had considered.