Chapter 16
The next week Jason went to Wytheville and enlisted in the Navy. He was scheduled two weeks later for a physical and a battery of written tests. A month later he got a letter informing him he would be inducted into the US Navy in Roanoke, Virginia on September 18, 1971 and would leave by plane immediately for boot camp at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Michigan. He spent his last month helping his dad around the house and visiting friends.
Jason and his parents had a nice quiet dinner the night before he was to leave. His mom hugged him goodnight and he went to bed early. He could hear her crying in the bedroom. His dad left for work with red eyes.
The next morning at 6 A.M. Jason’s cousin, Wilbur, who worked construction in Roanoke, picked him up and drove him
