I wrote to Prof. Loyal Gould in reply to his mail (Please read the article on Oct. 2):

…. It is incredible that you were recruited at the age of 15 and exploded a German submarine?!   ....

 Here is his reply: (I was amused as well as touched by his warm-hearted bravery.)

I was not drafted. I ran away from home, west palm beach, Florida, and hitch hiked the 75 miles to
Miami where I found an alcoholic to whom I promised a bottle of whiskey if he would go with me to the office of the navy recruiter, tell the man we had lost my birth certificate and that I was 17--the legal age to enlist with parental permission--and take an oath that he was my father. We did just that. but when the alcoholic was told to sign the parental form stating I was 17, it turned out he could not write. The recruiter then told the old fellow simply to write an X where his name belonged but when he tried, his hand was shaking so he could not hold the pen. I then grabbed his right hand, pressed the fountain pen into it, held on to the hand and scratched out an X. I then took the loyalty oath and I was in the Navy, was told to return the next morning at 9 a.m. and I would be shipped to the recruit training base at great lakes naval training base on lake Michigan in Chicago. The old fellow and I left, found a liquor store where he could buy a bottle of bourbon whiskey. I was too young to enter the store so I gave him 10 dollars for the bourbon, thanked him and said goodbye. The recruiter knew we both were lying but all the military wanted were warm bodies.  All the best and cheers, Loyal