I have always read the exact opposite. Wayne kept telling Ford he'd enlist but never did. Ford reportedly resented that Wayne did not enlist as he (Ford) did. I have read two biographies of Wayne and one of Ford and they all agree on that.
BTW, Ford was an asshole. Great director, but an asshole nonetheless. During the filming of They Were Expendable Ford really rode Wayne hard finding fault with everything he did. Presumably this was due to the resentment Ford still felt over Wayne not enlisting.
Wayne repeatedly wrote to John Ford saying he wanted to enlist, on one occasion inquiring whether he could get into Ford's military unit.[36] Wayne did not attempt to prevent his reclassification as 1-A (draft eligible), but Republic Studios was emphatically resistant to losing him since he was their only A-list actor under contract. Herbert J. Yates, President of Republic, threatened Wayne with a lawsuit if he walked away from his contract,[37] and Republic Pictures intervened in the Selective Service process, requesting Wayne's further deferment.[38]
John Ford and John Wayne had a complicated relationship that spanned over 50 years. It was Ford who first gave John Wayne, then still Marion Morrison, walk-ons in his films. Ford would go on to be commissioned as a commander in the United States Nay Reserve and consistently degraded John Wayne for not enlisting, telling him to “get into it” and that he was growing rich while others were dying.
However, a letter penned by John Wayne addressed to John Ford suggests that Wayne did take this to heart. It reads:
“Have you any suggestions on how I should get in? Can you get me assigned to your outfit, and if you could, would you want me? How about the Marines? You have Army and Navy men under you. Have you any Marines or how about a Seabee or what would you suggest or would you? No I’m not drunk. I just hate to ask for favors, but for Christ sake you can suggest can’t you? No kidding, coach who’ll I see..”
Owing to Wayne’s situation, then, his status at the beginning of the war was 3-A, which meant family deferment. Yet there is a possibility Wayne wanted to enlist at that time. Indeed, in 1942 the actor wrote to Ford, saying, “Have you any suggestions on how I should get in? Can you get me assigned to your outfit, and if you could, would you want me?
Yet if Ford ever answered the letter, there’s no evidence of it. It’s true, though, that Wayne applied to serve in the Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S.) and was subsequently accepted into the Field Photographic Unit. The letter of approval went, however, to the home of his estranged spouse Josephine Saenz – and she kept it from him.