his being an underage recruit? Unless my math is off he was at most 17 when he joined the Marine Corps, and possibly 16. I know his dad had been gone for years and as I recall he mentioned that he learned years latter that his dad had been KIA on Saipan.

I've always wondered if his mom signed a waiver or he lied about his age. One of the guys in my American Legion post enlisted in 1944 at the age of 15, so it wasn't that uncommon. However I don't ever remember him writing about his MC time.

his being an underage recruit? Unless my math is off he was at most 17 when he joined the Marine Corps, and possibly 16. I know his dad had been gone for years and as I recall he mentioned that he learned years latter that his dad had been KIA on Saipan.

I've always wondered if his mom signed a waiver or he lied about his age. One of the guys in my American Legion post enlisted in 1944 at the age of 15, so it wasn't that uncommon. However I don't ever remember him writing about his MC time.

Yes, read his writings. He also wrote religious text, centered on his love of the K22. Its second only to John Wayne movies for inspirational thought.

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Dick Burg

Nutty,
I was a mere 17 when I joined the Corps. At that time they were trying to fill the voids left over from the war in 'Nam and their standards were a little lower than today. I quit school at the end of the 11th grade and got my GED in Iwakuni less than a year later.

I was an E4/Corporal by the time I was 18 too. I stayed that rank until I got out as my field was full of E5/Sargent.

AIRC he entered soon after his HS graduation.

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Front sight and squeeze

My father finished high school at age 16 in the very early 1930's and went in the navy the next year at age 17. They didn't require any birth certificate. I don't think he had one anyway since he was born at the family home in NC. Coming form the impoverished rural South, the navy offered him wonderful new things like a heated place to sleep when it was cold and regular meals and clothes. It was a paradise for him and many others in those times. It became his home for life.

I'm almost certain that Skeeter wrote that he enlisted at 17. I believe that Audie Murphy also enlisted underage.

I joined the Army in 1967 at age 17-two weeks out of high school. Back then you could enlist
at age 17 with parental permission, age 18 on your own. And underage enlistement was under 17 and hence fraudulent.
I recall Skeeter writing "Dad died when I was 12", Skeeter was born in early 1928 so that would have been in 1940.

I knew a guy who entered the service at the end of WWII at the age of 16. It was always implied that he lied about his age, though he never really said that. He went to Japan on the "clean up" missions. Sounded kind of messy.