<Begin Segment 16>

TI: So after high school, so you went to high school and you're working for your dad but then... let's talk about your military service.

RH: Okay. Back in '46 when we went into the big business starting and then all that stuff, and then Truman was starting that draft again. So I told my dad, "Now Truman wants to start the draft again and so I could get drafted into the army," one way or the other I didn't really care. Okay so he says... I said there was a way that we could, my brother and I were in that time period, so we can join the National Guard, then we can go once a week to the Guard and we can stay home and work on the business, keep it going. So he says, "Okay, that sounds good. So we did that and we were able to stay out of the draft and we worked the business 'cause that was a really a hard time for us. And then the Korean War came on, we volunteered to go into the Army, our division wanted to go into the army. And my dad wanted me to get out of the Guard at that point. I says, "Well, the only way I could think of is if we move out of the state, if I move out of the state." So he sent me to California, to work in California, but I couldn't find anything in California so I came back and asked if I could be reinstated with my old rank because I was a sergeant at the time. And he says, okay, so anyway, we went on and on and on and then in 1955 I think, '55 or '56, my brother fired me.

TI: But you're still part of the National Guard at that time?

RH: No, I dropped out in '52 I think.

TI: And so the unit that volunteered to go to Korea, did they end up going to Korea?

RH: No, we never did. The 40th Division, California division was called up and then three others but I don't remember who they were. I know the 40th because my cousin was in the 40th.

TI: But the National Guard for Illinois never went to Korea.

RH: No.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.