Ted Armstrong, Jr.:  

Life When I graduated from Palo Alto High School in 1945, I was only 15 years old. Almost all the other guys in my graduating class were 18, and went immediately into the service. Having graduated from school meant I could get a work permit, and I went to work at Pacific Portland Cement plant in Redwood City, where I loaded sheetrock onto trucks, or box cars on the railroad. I continued to have a 1A draft card however, so the threat of being drafted was always in the back of my mind. My family moved back to Texas, early in 1946, and I started college at Hardin Simmons University in Abilene, Texas. At the end of the spring semester of 1947, I transferred to Texas Tech University, and graduated from there in the spring of 1950. The Korean War began about two weeks after I had graduated, and taken my first job with South Texas Lumber Company. There I worked with an ex-navy flier from WW11. One night, I had double dated with one of my Abilene friends and we had gone to see a movie about the Navy Air Corp. He already had a private pilot license, so when he said he thought he would go to Grand Prairie Naval Air Station and enlist, I decided to go with him. Because I had some dental work to get done before they would clear me on my physical, I had to spend the night in Grand Prairie. I phoned my mom at home, and she said my draft notice had come in the mail. I went to see Dr. Zawicky, there in Grand Prairie, at 4:00 p.m., and had 4 wisdom teeth pulled, and 7 fillings, finishing up at 10:...Expand for more