Why didn’t Zabel serve in WWII?

Among all the accolades aimed at Jim Zabel, I have seen no mention of his WWII service. He was born in 1921, so he would have been 20 years old at the beginning of WWII. He then proceeded to the University of Iowa till 1944. I’m not aware of any draft deferments for college, although there was during Vietnam.

I had a brother who declared 4F in 1942 but was drafted in 1943 with a wife and child. I was too young for WWII but was drafted during the Korean War.

Zabel bragged that he was on the Davenport Central track team and ran against Jesse Owens so he wouldn’t appear to be disabled. How on Earth does a person avoid the draft? I know many farmers stayed out, but for a person in town? That doesn’t seem right given that he was an athlete. Remember that even when he finished at Iowa in the spring of 1944, there was still a war going on for more than a year later.

Cops, cameras and kids are watching

As someone who spent some years as a certified driver education teacher, I maintain that parents are driver educators, too. I always said that if you give me 15 minutes with a student, I could tell what kind of vehicle operator his or her parent is. As a parent, you became a driver educator when your child was able to read what the sign said.

Do you as a parent come to a complete stop at a red, eight-sided sign? Your son or daughter will follow your lead. Do you fudge five miles per hour in a 25 mph zone? So will they. Do you signal all your lane changes and signal turns early? Guess what? When you turn into a multi-lane roadway, do you enter the proper (law mandated) lane? Right, your son/daughter will follow your lead. One of the hardest things a certified driver educator has to do is break all the bad habits the student learned from their parent.

Corrections: King of the Tramps bassist is now Adam Smith, rather than Rich Baker (Soundstage, June 40.) Also, guitarist Justin Snider’s last name was misspelled.

The Army Specialist title was misplaced before Tom McGee’s (“With Honor and Pride,” June 13). We regret the errors and omission.

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