Chapter 17

The Korean War, or police action as some politicians were now calling it, began occupying the attention of many young men in 1950. The draft was once more in full swing and many reserve units had been nationalized.

Bud, with a wife and two children, felt himself safe, but many of the boys he went to school with were very nervous. Bud had registered for the draft right after high school and had applied for a student deferment when he started going to Montgomery Junior College full time. Now, the letter from the local draft board said, if he wanted to keep his student, 2-S, status he would have to take a test during the summer.

The test was administered in the gym at American University on a very hot Saturday in late June. It was done Army style in desks that had been placed eight feet away from each other. After signing in Bud looked around, saw nobody that he knew, but noticed a lot of very tense men chewing their lips or scratching their heads.

On the hour a 2nd lieutenant in a class-A uniform stood on a raised platform and said, quite loudly, "Your attention, men. You will have two hours for this test. If you finish early, turn in your test booklet and leave quietly. Any questions?"

Somebody in the back evidently raised his hand and asked if they could use the bathroom. Bud could only hear part of the question.

The young office shook his head. "Not until you are finished. Ready? Open your booklet, read the directions and begin. Two hours."

He sat down.

Bud flipped open the test book and read the directions of the multiple-choice, 200-question test. He remembered taking a similar test when he was in high school, that his teacher had called a "California" test, so he settled down to reading carefully and pondering his answers. If a question stumped him, he passed it by hoping to come back to it if he had time. He read carefully, using his finger tip to trace along the lines.

The questions were mainly common knowledge and analogy logic at first and then the second part was basically a vocabulary test and the third part math fundamentals. Bud made it to the last page in just under an hour and a half and many of the test takers had left by then.

He went back to the twenty-or-so items he had decided not to try, answered a few with what he thought was a reasonable guess and left others blank. He was still working in the arithmetic section when the officer stood, said, "Time!" quite loudly and collected the papers and pencils of those still working.

Out in the sunshine, Bud lit a cigarette, walked to Wisconsin Avenue, thumbed a ride to Bethesda and then took the bus out the Pike to his parents' home. It had been, he decided, a strange experience.

In the bus, he raised the window by his seat and thought about the test. The place had smelled very odd, not just the usual gym smell but a different kind of odor. Bud wondered if it was fear he had been smelling. He had heard people talk about "flop" sweat and smiled to himself. Some choice, pass the test or go let some Chinese guys shoot at you. That was enough to make anybody sweat.

Before school started again in September, Bud received word that he had scored in the top third of those tested and could, therefore, keep his student deferment.