Ernest A. Mettenet, Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by Becky B. Lloyd, June 22, 2004: Saving the Legacy tape no. 665

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R E T A. METTENET J 22 2 04 unday afternoon and the tragedy that occurred to the Pacific fleet. Half of our mal faculty enlisted. They were gone by June of that year. I wanted to do something. My big goal was to fly for the Navy. Th y had a fantastic program. They called it a V -5 Program. They sent you to school for a while. Then you'd fly an airplane. When I was seventeen years old, I bagged school one day and went to Philadelphia to enlist in the Naval Air Corps. I went there with a friend. The principal called my mother. He asked my mother, "Where's Ernie?" She said, "I don't know, Mr. Cummings. They left here with their lunches." Actually, we were in Philadelphia enlisting. I didn't pass the physical because of an eye problem I did not know I had. My buddy, who kind of went along with me for the ride, said, "I think I'll do that too." He ended up being a Marine pilot (laughs). It's funny the way it turned out. Anyway, I wanted to do something other than just be in the Army and I wanted to do something quick. The Army had a good program that they called Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP). I always brag Henry Kissinger and I were in the same class. It required a pretty good aptitude, an IQ of over 130. The whole program was, we'll send you to college, primarily two or three professions. The program professions were engineering, medicine, or law. I took the test and passed it. It was a mental IQ-type of thing. This was at age seventeen in the spring of '43. I graduated from high school in June and went to basic training in July. I spent seventeen weeks in Texas for basic training. It was at the IRTC, Infantry Replacement Training Center. Infantry? What's that? I knew what it was, but, "Hey, I'm a school guy. I'm going to school." BEC: Right. 7