AFEES ….. Armed Forces Entrance Examination Station Manchester NH. The yellow brick structure that was once such a place is now an apartment building and its purpose in life is now so very different. I remember entering it for the first time for my entrance examination just barely past my 17 th birthday. I placed very high on the tests of aptitude but there was one thing that concerned me a great deal…..the physical examination.
I possessed a physical deformity that at that time in history thousands of young men would have given anything to have and frankly I think it’s a shame more didn‘t……. There was a draft on and flat feet could get you classified 4F. I didn‘t want to be 4F as I was too young to fear the draft anyway. But I have to be honest….it was not some patriotic fervor that sent me seeking employment by the US military….it was just some mercenary desire for escape from normal life into adventure and I would likely have enlisted into any ones military.
There were probably 50 of us there that day and we all had our blood tests, hearing and eye examinations, pulse and blood pressure checked etc etc in a somewhat mechanical and factory like manner. The examination ended with the fifty or so of us all standing in line butt naked and leaning forward. The three examiners marched quickly behind us armed with flash lights and rubber gloves and I guess we all checked out as nothing was said. We were then ordered to stand upright as they quickly marched down the front of the line staring at every ones feet. I stood there trying desperately to make my feet look like they had an arch.
“ YOU!…. Report to room 103 ! “ was the only thing we heard them say all day and my heart sank as it was said as they steamed past me.
Instantly the guy to my right flinched and turned to me in panic and asked…..
“Were they talking to me ? “…
“ Yeh man….they were talking to you “ is what I said…. I never did find out what happened to that young guy in room 103. What I did find out is that though you can’t get “into” the military with flat feet…. you can’t get “out” of the military because of them either.
