b&w stories: soldier boy circa 1951

this is my dad in 1951.  the photo was taken in columbia, south carolina during basic training.  he'd volunteered for the army and signed up for three years of service.  he found out later that if he'd volunteered for the draft he would have only had to sign up for two years, but he didn't really know what he was doing.  he said that extra time turned out to be a good thing though.  after spending a little over a year in korea, he served the remainder working in a big army hospital at fort gordon outside augusta, georgia.  he was a trained medic by then and says those last 14 months working with educated people, doctors, having conversations with them, built his confidence.  when i asked him why he enlisted he said, "i don't know really.  there was a war going on.  i just thought that's what you do."