While talking to my grandfather, an Italian American, about his experiences in the war, I found myself thinking a little bit about the book A Separate Peace that we read in English Class because when I asked him about how he got into the war, he said that he volunteered because he could have a choice of what he did instead of waiting to be drafted where he would be a "pawn," having to do anything that he was ordered to do. In the book, the kids were pitched different jobs that they could choose for before they were drafted somewhere. I didn't even think about that as being a true thing, but I guess that it is/was.
Anyways, he chose to enlist as a weather officer and went to Reed College in Oregon to train/work. A weather officer was sort of like a meteorologist working in the army air force core, telling the pilots what sort of weather to expect when they are out flying.
He didn't work there very long though and later he was transfered/went to Yale to train to be a Communication Commissions Officer. From there he worked as a counter intelligence officer for the rest and majority of his war career.
I have always thought it very cool that I have family who have been in the counter intelligence and while I don't know exactly what specific jobs he did, I'm not sure whether that is on purpose or due to lack of good questioning, it is still cool to know that I have relations to someone in that area.
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