My father, William Glen Cornwell, got his Army commission as a second lieutenant in 1937 from Iowa State College and joined the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1938 as a junior officer. He moved his family to Washington, D.C., in 1940, where my mother worked for the Census Bureau and Dad worked for the U.S. Post Office.

In 1942, there came a knock on the door: "You are being drafted." Dad said he had a medical deferment but couldn't find it right away. The Army moved Dad and family to Keesler Field in Biloxi, Miss., as a postal officer.

Another knock on the door. The Army found Dad's medical deferral papers, and said it was going to send him and his family back to civilian life in D.C. "No, you won't," Dad said. "I've just moved my family and don't want to put it through another move." The Army agreed, and didn't discharge him. He was eventually transferred to Amarillo Army Air Field to serve again as a postal officer, He was promoted to captain and was discharged after the end of World War II, but not before he went on leave just long enough for a military doctor to deliver me on St. Patrick's Day, 1946.

Col. Larry P. Cornwell, U.S. Air Force, retired