I had heard about my father, Bee Lucke’s troubles with draft boards for years. As a matter of fact it was sort of a family joke. It seemed that in 1944 and early 1945 the local draft board was short of draftable men so they started taking married men with one child. Bee Lucke fit that bill perfectly. I was the one child.
As mother told the story, every time he went to Butte to take his physical he was told that he was going to be drafted so when he got back home to Havre, some of his friends would throw him a huge going away party. Then he didn’t get drafted but instead was called to Butte again to take another physical. That happened four times. Bee himself did not attend the last two going away parties. And, he never did get drafted and go to the army.
Last week Jerry Halter sent a letter in which, like Paul Harvey, he told the rest of the story. Here it is in his own words.
“Here is a story including Robert Lucke’s dad. I was working for the John Lawlor ranch and injured my foot. When I got drafted for the army it was badly swollen so I was put in 4 F. A year later it was healed so I asked Mark Mayer to include me in the next draft which was in the first week of February. We met in the first hall of the Masonic Temple around 4 am. Mark Mayer called role. There were 200 of us. We filled two passenger cars on the train. There was plenty of liquor on board. After we got west of Great Falls, everyone was getting pretty loaded. Lucke was like a bull in a china closet. We were all laughing and liked him. He fell against a window and broke it. Then someone broke another window. Then Lucke was grabbing hats and throwing them out the window. He must have thrown out twenty hats including mine. Then someone broke another window and another. When we got to Butte, it was damn cold in that Pullman. When we got our exam thenext day I passed OK. We then went back to Havre to wait our next orders. Lucke told the guys to come to the store and get new hats. I never did as I went to the army. I stayed in Havre three days and got back on the train headed for Butte again. There were two car loads from Eastern Montana so four car loads left Havre, then two more cars were added at Great Falls. A full train load went to Fort Douglas, Utah. Then went to Camp Walters, Texas for eighteen weeks. Jack Weyh and Doc Rees and I stayed together until we got to Luzon. We were friends for life. Jack died about fifteen years ago and Doc is at Kalispell in assisted living. I see him about once a month.”
