On 24 August 1939, as an officer in the reserve, I had to join my regiment in Potsdam.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I was a lieutenant in World War II.
I had the first integrated Army band in World War II.
In 1930 I became a member of the Reichstag.
I had repeatedly made written requests to the Fuehrer that I might be allowed to join the Wehrmacht as an ordinary soldier. He refused to give me this permission.
You know, my dad was a lieutenant colonel at Ft. Lewis on the 3rd of March, 1941. Fifteen months later, he was commanding a theater of war.
I stayed in the Navy until July of 1946.
After the United States entered the war, I joined the Naval Reserve and spent ninety days in a Columbia University dormitory learning to be a naval officer.
I received my parents' permission and went into the Navy on June 3, 1941.
It was 1943. The U.S. had already entered World War II, so I decided to join the army.
I went into the Air Corps from 1943 through 1945.