Yank Sumpter, my father; part of his own testimony of enlisting in the USMC

I was weighing cotton in a field near Bakersfield, California, on 7 December 1941. The next day, during the high school gym class, we were told to listen to our president on the radio. President Roosevelt asked Congress for a declaration of war. At noon, my buddy and I went to the recruiting office to enlist. He was 17 but I wouldn’t be 15 until the next day, 9 December 1941. My buddy enlisted in the Navy, and I stopped at the Marine recruiting office. Maybe I stopped there because of the dress blues, first to fight, Semper Fi and all that. The recruiting sergeant asked my age, and I told him that was only 15. He said, “You are big enough, but not old enough. Get permission from your mother or dad.” He told me that if I could get a birth certificate or a sworn statement certifying that I was 17, I could enlist. He said that a telegram would suffice.

My father had died in 1934, my mother was in the Midwest, and I was living with an uncle in California. It took a few months, but finally my mother sent a telegram the recruiting sergeant. It merely said that I was 17 and gave her permission for me to enlist. The telegram was stapled inside my record book. I was sworn into the regular Marine Corp on 15 May 1942 in Los Angeles, California. One of the men with whom I was sworn in had figured out that I was underage, but he never told anyone, as far as I knew. My high school coach, the dean of boys, and my mechanical drawing teacher also knew that I was underage, but they wished me well.

As I said, the recruiter knew that I was only 15, but I believe that anyone who could walk and talk could enlist at that time.

Orville E. “Yank” Sumpter—he goes by his nickname, “Yank”

Age 15—United States Marine Corps

From the book, Veterans of Underage Military Service, edited by Ray Jackson

G. Mark Sumpter