My family had little military background, although there is a remote genealogy link to George Armstrong Custer. My Dad was in a war-essential business during WW II. Dad's education was in Organic Chemistry, and he was pretty much self-taught in Statistics and Quality Control. He told me that at one time during the War his Quality Control expertise was on-call for some war industries. One instance he talked about was visiting ammunition plants, to help institute methods to improve the consistency of production and to detecting faulty ammunition, so it wouldn't be delivered to the military. In his off time, he assisted the local NRA rifle club's mission to make sure that every WW II draftee from the area was rifle trained before they departed to military training.

Growing up in Appleton, Wisconsin, I led a much-sheltered life. Appleton was one of those towns with unwritten laws against outsiders, particularly black and brown folks. Even when the Globetrotters played in town, they were not welcome to stay there overnight. I am happy to report that things have finally changed today. When the Green Bay Packers have a home game, the visiting team stays at a hotel in downtown Appleton.

When I arrived at the University of Wisconsin and joined our fraternity, I was on the bad-boy list with the fraternity cook, Flo, a very sharp-tongued black woman. If I remember correctly when I was first introduced to her, she ran me out of her kitchen with the words, “Get that white boy from Selma out of my kitchen.” I think that some of my most important learning came from my relationship with Flo. We worked together daily when I was the house manager and we grew to trust each other.

My oldest brother, did a three-year tour in the US Navy as a bandsman, serving on the Admiral's band on the USS Missouri before it was taken out of service.

How did it happen that I went into the military? Simple answer is that I changed major in college, dropping out for half a semester to keep from failing my Applied Math and Engineering Physics program. Before I could enroll in the next semester in a new major (Psychology), I received a classification update form from my local draft board as I had just turned 21 years. The draft board did not reinstate my 2A (student) deferment.