Page 179 - a-columbia-county-boys-recollections-and-memories-of-columbia-county-florida-(2012)-lenvil-h-dicks

A Columbia County Boy's Recollections and Memories of Columbia County Florida (2012) Lenvil H. Dicks

MISSING THE KOREAN WAR

In late December of 1950, or early January in 1951, while I was a senior at Stetson University 1 received
a certified letter from the War Department instructing me to get on a bus to Jacksonville and take a
physical examination, because I was in the Army Reserve which I joined when I got discharged in
march of 1948, and they were inducting me back into the army. I did not have but 2 days to get to
Jacksonville and lake the physical to be inducted again into the army and as soon as I got back to Deland
after the physical exam, 1 looked up the Dean of the University, who was a man named Dr. Hugh
McEniry. Dean McEniry was a very unusual man because he was very friendly and accommodating to
every student in Stetson and the unbelievable thing about Dr. McEniry is that he could call every student
in the University by first name.

I went to Dr. McEniry and told him that 1 was being inducted back into the army and wondered if he
could be of any assistance in getting me a deferment. He said “Lenvil, they are taking everybody back
who was in the Reserve, even men with 2 or 3 children, and they are not giving deferments to anybody
as far as I know. But I will see what I can do after I make a contact or two”.

It took him a day or two to make the contacts he needed to make, and during that time I received another
certified letter saying that I had passed the physical exam and the letter told me to report to Company so
and so of the such and such Battalion in Alabama and gave me the name of the Company Commander.
It turned out to be a heavy weapons company, since I had qualified as an expert with the Ml Rifle and
the 50 caliber machine gun when I was in Basic Training in 1946. The only reason 1 joined the Army
Reserve, (and I should have known better,) was that the Army promised me if I was ever re-inducted
that I would go back as a bandsman, playing the trumpet. I should have known better than to believe
anything the Government told me, but I have learned a lot since then.

Dean McEniry got back with me a couple of days later and said “Lenvil, I am told that there is only one
way that you could get a deferment for 90 days, and that is if you are within 90 days of getting your
degree, and if you are in the top 5% of your Senior Class. You qualify on both counts, and they have
indicated they will contact you again in 90 days.”

I graduated from Stetson at the end of the winter quarter, on or about March 10, 1951, and dreaded
getting the letter which 1 fully expected to get. At that time 1 was doing my Band Director Internship
over at Lake View High School, in Winter garden, since the Band Director at Winter Garden was in the
Reserve also, and was a Marine Fighter Pilot. They had already re-inducted him, and that is how I got
the job to be Band Director at Lake View High School for the rest of that school term, which they let me
count as my Internship.

After I received my diploma, I continued to be the Band Director at Winter garden High School, and
when I heard nothing else from the Department of the Army, I had already arranged to be accepted for
my Masters Degree work at Baylor University, and as soon as the high school term was over at Winter
garden I got in my old 1939 Chevrolet and headed out for Waco Texas.

Elsewhere in this book I have told some things about my tenure at Baylor, and I kept wondering why 1
never received any more notice from the army, because the Korean War was going on full and furious
all the time that 1 was at Baylor, but 1 never heard anything else.

After I had played in the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for a couple of years, and decided to return to
Florida, I took over the small high school band at Lake Butler, in Union County, and after 4 years as
Lake Butler Band Director, I applied for the band director job at Columbia High School, and got the job.

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