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Show Robert E. Irion eptember 201 h, 2002 real well and he kept growing things, and they praised him for his tomatoes and whatever. BEN: Let's see, in school, were you kept to speed on world affairs, or did you think more about farm and sports? Were you aware and concerned with what was happening around you on the world level? ROB: Yeah in fact in 1939 when we moved to Axtell, Kansas, was when World War II ' started, and I can recall- I was sixteen years old, and thinking, "Wow, we're going to get caught up in this thing, and I'm right at the right age that at eighteen or nineteen years old, I'm going to be involved in this without a doubt." You could see the way it was going, that the U.S. was going to be involved. BEN: Did your father speak this way? Was it a topic of open discussion? ROB: Oh we talked about it. He didn't encourage me to join the service particularly, but he knew I was going to, fairly early on. BEN: Did he- as far as you know, from your young man's opinions, do you know if he was kind of an isolationist? Did he want America to stay out, do you think? ROB: I don't think so. I think he realized that it was imperative that we be involved. BEN: Was there anything done in the high school? Like, you moved in the middle of your high school year, so I guess in your last two years is when the war really started over there in Europe anyway. how did the high school deal with the war? Did they try to prepare you, an ROTC type- ROB: No, there wasn't any military type training, but people from our city were being-a small town, were being drafted or called in to service, or enlisting, particularly in 1940. By that time, the draft went into effect and local boys were starting to get called and 8 |
