Joining Up at Age 15

Well when the time came I was, I'd turned 15 on the 4th of May 1941 and I was in the Canadian Navy the 21st of May of 1941, at the age of 15, so...
Interviewer: Tell me about that. How did you do that? Where did you go to get signed up and what action happened?
Well the barracks was here in Charlottetown, HMCS Queen Charlotte was the barracks down on Kent Street and a good friend of mine named Gordon Beers, he just lives in next to us here. We were, we were itching to get in the navy and we talked to his father and no father likes to get his son go away to war, but he understood we were hell bent on doing it. The recruiting officer was a good friend and he told the recruiting officer, that his son was hell bent of getting in the navy, along with his friend Ivan Doherty. But he said age is the problem, he never mentioned how old we were but . . . so anyway the recruiting officer said he would accept the lower age and that night we knew whether we passed the medical; we were in the navy. So I was accepted and the only thing blemish, the only blemish I had in my medical record, was that I was colour blind and I couldn't join the navy as a naval seaman. I had to go below decks as a stoker. And that's a . . .
Interviewer: But you must have really, really wanted to sign up..
Well, Rick I guess the reason was there was a number of our friends that were joining and probably a little older than I was and it sort have planted the seed in the movement, to join the navy and of course the more we read about advertising was "Join the navy to see the world," made it that much more, that you wanted to get in the navy. And that's what happened and my parents and their . . . my brother and their grandparents, when I got home with a kitbag loaded, they were gonna call up the navy and take, take me right out. And I said, "No don't do that please, I'll look after my education." Which I did. I kept that promise.