Into the Army Air Corps

Uncle Bob, hereafter known as UB, sent this post. Thanks, Uncle Bob!

After Ralph graduated from high school a friend of the family in the shipping business obtained a job for him as an outbound freight rate clerk at Moore-McCormack Steamship Lines. Keep in mind that jobs in 1936 - I believe the date he graduated from Regis - were tough to get. A freight rate clerk's job is to quote shipping rates for all types of cargo and their destination. I.E., a shipment of machine parts to Brazil would be quoted as so much $ per ton of cargo. Somewhere in time he went to school to take up shorthand - which he became very proficient at.

When the draft came along Joe Davitt was called first but flunked the physical due to a bad heart which was caused by rheumatic fever when he was a child. It caused a heart murmur which was never discovered until the draft physical. Joe was always the football placer, somewhat stocky and looked in good shape.

Ralph was the thin kid who ran fast - and when he was drafted - he passed and was sent first to Fort Dix in lower New Jersey. We all took a trip there to see him and I can still remember the old military outfit he was in - even to the wrap-around leggings which were left over from World War I.

(Ralph and his mom, Mary Cecelia Kinsella Davitt)

He went from Fort Dix to Watertown N.Y. where he worked in the military hospital there. He did good work and I remember the story that some doctor there was so impressed with his knowledge and performance that he wanted him to go to med school.

He took a test for the Army Air Corps and passed it and was transferred to flight school. In the next year or two he was all the country on various training - one school was in Salt Lake City where he met your wonderful Mother.

It was the best thing that ever happened to him.
Before he was drafted he had a girlfriend named Natalie Woodfinn- a knockout ! Even I was in love with her at ten years old. Nothing ever developed and I asked him later in time -why he did not keep up the romance and marry her - like I would have -( a Romeo at 10.) He told me that she was good looking but had no personality or depth at all. It was true - a lesson I learned at youth. When he married your Mother - he got it all - Looks -personality-depth and a good sense of humor which I fondly remember. --UB