I remember one of the interviews for "Band of Brothers", where he mentioned somebody from his town committed suicide because they wouldn't allow him to enlist. It was a different time.
” ... somebody from his town committed suicide because they wouldn’t allow him to enlist. It was a different time.”
In 1940, the Selective Service system was created to keep *out* of the military persons in occupations and industries that were critical to the defense build up. It wasn’t until late 1943/early 1944 that the supply of new volunteers was insufficient to meet manpower requirements.
My father was a tool & die maker. There was no way he was going to be allowed to volunteer in the early days of the war mobilization. He begged and pleaded his draft board to let him enlist. In 1944 he was finally allowed to join the Navy Reserves. There was a stigma during and after the war attached to those who didn’t serve. The recurring question asked of every adult male in the late 40s was “what did you do during the war?”
Or maybe they had a good reason to reject him when he tried to enlist, and he went out and proved their point.