In 1951, Robert Kittle was drafted into the United States Army to help fight in the Korean War.  “I knew it was coming, so I didn’t think much of it when I got the news, my brother had already been drafted too.”  He was 21 years old. “It was different from home life. We had barracks and were all assigned a bed. You had to make your bed to match what the inspector wanted too, you couldn’t just throw it together.” He spent most of his service in Germany and America. It took a nine day boat ride to get to Germany. “Other ships passed us. It was a slow moving ship.” On the way there, he worked kitchen duty. “I hit it lucky. I got a good cook to help. He told me to stick with him, and stay in the kitchen.” He even got a chance to go to a cooking school because of it, “But I turned it down. I didn’t know of any other boy going, and it was down south. I didn’t want to go by myself, and I didn’t know how to get there. I still wish I had gone.” In Germany, he did radio work. “We would listen to the radio and try to find out what we could about the enemy, see what they were doing or where they were going.”

Robert Kittle was in service for a total of 2 years. On the boat ride back, he had to do guard duty. “That was just walking around the ship, making sure everyone was doing what they were supposed to be doing, and making sure no one was smoking. You would always see them trying to hide the cigarette. You could see the ashes burning though.”  He arrived back at New York and drove to Massachusetts when he got his aunt and was able to come home. “Mom was happy to see me, especially considering she lost her brother in WWII. I was happy to finally be home.”