1927 railroad map

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Carl had wanted to claim his manhood since high school and joining the army seemed to be just the ticket — only he was being drafted.  Drafted because in March, 1942, the country was at war with Japan, Germany, and Italy  What about Spain?  They were called the axis powers then.  The bad guys.  They wore bad guy uniforms and they looked different from us.

In those days you could ride the train from Kalispell to Missoula to Butte via Garrison Junction.  In studying a railroad map from 1927 it looks like someone would have to have taken a bus or car from Somers to Polson to catch the train to Dixon, then Missoula.

Butte had the Armed Forces Entrance Exam office, or AFEES Butte.  That’s what the orders read:  Report to AFEES Butte March 4, 1942.  All of us had to go there, even I had to, during the Vietnam war.

Only Carl had a foot deformity from an accident he sustained while firefighting in Glacier Park.  A broken first metatarsal, never reduced, healed badly and nearly disqualified him.  Would have disqualified him if he hadn’t destroyed the x-ray of his foot.  He removed it and the radiologist’s report from his medical folder en route to Butte.  Almost 30 years later in like fashion I removed a psychologist’s note with the clinical diagnosis of schizophrenia from my medical file.