THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 22, 1996 TAG: 9602220047
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM GILLESPIE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 166 lines
IN 1942, CALVIN GRAHAM walked into his local recruiting office, raised his right hand for the oath of allegiance and became a member of the United States Navy. He was wounded at the Battle of Guadalcanal and received the Bronze Star and Purple Heart.
He was 12 years old when he enlisted.
By the time Bobby Lee Pettit was 16, he had taken part in six World War II deployments to the Pacific theater, had five major campaigns under his belt and had attained the Navy rate of Engineman First Class.
He enlisted at 13.
Earl F. Craig spent nearly four years in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps after his capture on Bataan. He was forced to work as slave labor and once was beaten so badly by his captors that he was left for dead. He almost died of malnutrition.
He was 16 when first taken prisoner.
Though Graham is now dead, the three, along with about 1,000 other veterans, have shared membership in a group like none other in the military.
``We were all liars,'' said Tom Hise, a silver-bearded Virginia Beach resident, with a sheepish grin. ``But we did it for a good reason.''
What sets these men apart is that all joined the armed forces fraudulently, underage. Most came from broken or single-parent homes; some joined out of patriotism and some to escape dead-end lives on the streets. But all joined at an age at which they were considered children.
``I didn't want the war to end without me,'' said Hise, state vice commander of the Veterans of Underage Military Service, an organization to help veterans who enlisted underage. ``But it was fraud; there's no getting around that.''
Each underage veteran tells a different story of how he or she entered the military undetected. Most are men. Most are World War II veterans who joined before their 17th birthday - the legal minimum age to enlist.
And all who were discharged dishonorably because of their age have since been pardoned by our government and given honorable discharges.
During the war, often a simple Bible entry would suffice to prove age. Some used other people's birth certificates or had parents lie about the child's age. Others tell of recruiters ``looking the other way'' or just not bothering to check facts properly.
``I forged my mother's name and they took me in,'' said Warren Bates, a retiree from Cranston, R.I., who entered at 14.
His mother, a single parent, didn't know where he was for the two months he was in boot camp. When he finally called to tell her he was OK, she immediately reported his underage enlistment to his commanding officer. Discharge procedures took almost a year.
Unlike Bates, many underage enlistees not only were never discovered but went on to full military careers. Hise served 20 years in the Navy and, according to his organization's records, became the nation's youngest military retiree at 34.
Many tell of living in constant fear of being discovered during their military stints. Other tell of never giving their discovery another thought once they enlisted. During World War II and earlier, there were no official policies or regulations for dealing with those exposed as underage enlistees, except to get them out of the service. How they were removed, once discovered, was up to the discretion of their commanding officers.
``I was afraid of being thrown in the brig if they caught me,'' Bates said. ``It was tough in the brig; they were run by Marines, but that's another story. I also didn't want to get found out because I liked the military; I had found a home.''
Most said their only regret was getting caught - for those who did - or of missed childhoods - for those who didn't.
For some of the underage veterans, lost childhoods carry painful memories, but for others, childish things were put away.
``In combat, you grow up fast,'' said George Brouse, national commander of Veterans of Underage Military Service and an Army enlistee at 15. He had tried unsuccessfully to join the Canadian Air Force at 14.
Craig talked of having never learned how to dance and of having never gone to a high school prom. ``I have to say I never had that,'' he now tells friends when talk of high school days comes up.
``Looking back now and seeing kids today, I see the things I missed,'' said Pettit, a retired electrical engineer from Leesburg, ``but at the time, I didn't even know what I was missing - high school football and social things. But I think (joining underage) saved me. Heaven knows what would have happened to me.''
Others never looked back.
``I don't feel I missed anything; I had more exciting things to do,'' Hise said. ``In fact, I gained from it. I was well trained in the Navy to do a job.''
Hise himself joined at 15 when his mother signed a document saying he was 17. His father had died when Hise was 9, and his family was financially strapped. Hise's brother was already in the Navy in the Pacific theater, and Hise wanted to join him.
``Pearl Harbor was on a Sunday; Monday I wanted to go in, but I was only 14,'' Hise said. ``I turned 15 the next May, and I worked on my mother all that time.''
Many underage enlistees were treated as less than heroes once they were discovered. The worst known punishment for underage enlistment was a dishonorable discharge, according to Hise. Others were simply discharged for the convenience of the government.
But no matter what the circumstances of their discharges, they lost all rights and benefits - no matter how honorable or heroic their service had been. Only when each service branch pardoned their own underage enlistees 30 years ago were full rights and benefits restored, provided that the only reason they were discharged was that they had lied about their ages.
John Hipkin, an underage-veterans' activist in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, is trying to establish an organization similar to Brouse's there.
Shortly after enlisting in the Royal Navy at 14, Hipkin was taken prisoner when his vessel was sunk by the German battleship Scharnhorst. By the time he turned 19, Hipkin had spent almost five years in a German prison-of-war camp.
``The Germans onboard the battleship gave me candy when they found out my age,'' Hipkin said.
If American recruiters often overlooked underage enlistees during World War II, the British completely turned a blind eye to it, according to Hipkin. Boys could legally enlist there at 16.
``(In England) there was more of a sense of having our backs to the wall,'' Hipkin said. ``There was the fear of being taken over by the Germans. When their homes are in danger, people are prepared to make sacrifices.''
Unlike many underage veterans, Hipkin would not recommend joining the armed forces to anyone underage.
``I don't regret the experience,'' he said, ``but growing up in prison camp is very unpleasant,'' he said in understated English.
Today Hipkin is working to get posthumous pardons for 307 underage World War I veterans serving in the British military who were executed for various charges.
There are still many veterans in this country who enlisted underage who are unaware of their pardon and are afraid to come forward, according to Hise. Because of this, he said, there is no way for his organization to know how many underage enlistees there are.
Hise said he never considered coming forward with his own secret until he was 60 and received a letter from the Social Security Administration. The administration, thinking he was 62, advised him of his rights to early reduced benefits to which he was entitled.
``I thought, `Oh, boy, I don't want any of this,' '' he said. That's when he started correcting his records.
All went as expected with Navy and Department of Motor Vehicles records corrections, until he sent his life insurance company his real birth certificate.
``I got a check for $600 for overpayment of premiums for 30 years,'' he said with a chuckle.
Hise said that the only repercussions to underage veterans today would be for those who accepted Social Security benefits fraudulently before they were actually entitled. But benefits based on service, not on age, remain valid, he said.
Most veterans agreed that the experience was good for them. But their advice to future ``preemies'' - as Hise called underage enlistees - was as varied as their colorful pasts.
``If they had the maturity to go in and learn a trade and use college benefits, I'd say `do it,' '' Pettit said. ``Take advantage of what the military has.''
Hise, who spoke in high praise of his military experience, mellowed. ``I'd tell them to go home and get the best education they could,'' he said. ``Then come back in when you're legal.'' MEMO: [For a related story, see page E3 of The Virginian-Pilot for this
date.]
ILLUSTRATION: CHRISTOPHER REDDICK
The Virginian-Pilot
Tom Hise, state vice commander of the Veterans of Underage Military
Srevice, with photo of himself as 15-year-old enlistee. "We were all
liars," he says. "But we did it for a good reason."
ABOVE: The sinking of the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor.
by CNB