Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
10:25 | Clarence Dodd had to get a security clearance while he was working in the headquarters at Fort Polk. A buddy of his told him the Army was looking for volunteers to witness an atomic test up in Nevada. They both thought that was pretty cool and got on the list. As he crouched in the trench waiting for the blast, he began to have second thoughts.
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Clarence Dodd was fourteen years old when when the war started. You'll never have to go, he was told, but he did. When he was eighteen he joined the Merchant Marine and was introduced to the five inch gun.
Clarence Dodd's first trip with the Merchant Marine was completed when the ship delivered a load of oil from California to Ulithi. They were about to head back to the States when the orders were changed. They were now going to Iran and then who knows where.
The food aboard the Merchant Marine ship gradually got worse. Clarence Dodd was at sea crisscrossing the Pacific for eight months before he returned to a home port. He crossed the equator eight times and he lost his fear of heights while climbing the mast.
In 1946, Clarence Dodd left the Merchant Marines and went back to the farm. He was called back to service in 1952 and sent to cryptography school on the strength of his test scores. He never used this skill while he was in the Army. They put him in personnel instead.
