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Show Robert E. Irion pt mber 201 \ 20 2 an elaborate system, and all of it was done by written instructions - where they would meet, and pass other trains. You'd have a system of time tables, train priorities - passenger trains or first class, second class trains, extra trains - so you had a system, and all this thing is handled through written orders of the train dispatchers issued. It was very interesting working with the train dispatchers. So anyway, I did that- and like I say, when you're nineteen years old and you're working four to twelve, it does kind of interfere withromance in your life. It was a little hard to find a date that wanted to start the date at midnight. So, for ten months I was tied into that. BEN: You were of age to be drafted, right? ROB: Yes. BEN: So you had a deferment from the railroad company? ROB: No, I didn't. During this time, I was trying ·to figure out after June came around I thought, "Well, I've invested six months on the medical deal now. How am I going to get- to an enlistment point- how am I going to get to do this?" The job I was on, if I left it or gave it up, I couldn't go back to it, and I loved what I was doing there. It was very interesting telegraph work, and you had to work real hard to keep up with the people that were sending stuff to you, and they were- their time was valuable too. So anyhow, finally in October of 1942, a friend of mine that had been in high school in Axtell, and one of the clerks in the office there, the three of us got together and went down to Fort Riley, Kansas, which was about sixty miles - left early in the morning 16 |
