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(Courtesy Michael Ford, Delphos Herald) Just before World War II ended, men were still being drafted in to the United States Army.
Carl Suever had just graduated from St. John’s High School in 1944 when the postal carrier delivered what looked like a call to war. Fortunately for Suever, the government was mistaken.
“I was sworn in, then the next day they called me in and said they had the wrong number, so I came home,” he said.
The war ended the following year but in 1948, the draft was still in use. Suever was drafted for a two-year stint that included basic training at Fort Knox, Ky. He doesn’t recall leaving Fort Knox during that time but does remember coming home for a while, only to be needed again.
Suever grew up around business. His grandfather had owned Suever Stone Company when his father was growing up. His father had also owned a car dealership called Suever Nash Sales in Lima. The recently-discharged Suever went to work at the dealership and began wedding plans.
Carl and his wife Lois raised five children and will celebrate their 58th anniversary this year. Suever says their marriage began with a special wedding gift from ‘Uncle Sam.’
“The day I got married in October 1950, I got called back in. My brother got the mail and said it didn’t look good. They opened it up after we left and they never told us until we got back from our honeymoon. So, that was our wedding present,” he said.
The Korean War had just began that summer and those who had already served were among the first to be notified.
“They called most of us guys that were called up before and they took us. There were a lot of reserve outfits and they put me with one out of Pennsylvania somewhere and I was a supply clerk. They needed one in Illinois and that’s how I ended up there,” he said.
Suever worked in an office keeping track of warehouse personnel who stored and shipped uniforms to soldiers around the world. He took his wife with him and began married life off-base in Granite City.
Suever says he simply went to work each day no differently than if he had been doing so in Delphos. However, there was one key difference — he was introduced to people who helped him understand how fortunate he was to grow up in this area.
“I noticed a difference in the people in the service. It seemed like the military at that time had an awful lot of Southerners. There were no jobs down there. See, we had family businesses and the tank depot; those were good jobs but there were no jobs down South. The military was a meal ticket for them. I mean, these people were poor. We had a lot of Appalachian people,” he said.
Suever came home in 1952 and returned to the family business, retiring from the quarry in 1991. He remembers his military experience fondly.
“It was just like a civilian life except I worked for the Army. We had a good time and met some nice people and we had a really good place to live in,” he recalled
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