Sat, Mar 25, 1944: remain behind

"My expectation was that I would be in Chicago today, but something happened.  While packing for the trip last week, one of my roommates told me I was wanted in the Company office.  Down there 13 of us learned that along with 21 men from Company 10 we would remain behind.  Lieut. Murphy didn't have the slightest idea, why I was left out....
"The food is about the same--there's not enough of it.  But I've finally hit upon an idea to keep from starving. It's simple enough.  I merely go through the chow line twice --once in the upper mess hall and once in the the [sic] lower mess hall.”
--Letter from my father, Asbury Park, N.J., to his little brother, Stanley Reeves Brown, Bloomington, Kans., Saturday, March 25, 1944.  My father had expected to leave pre-midshipman’s school in Asbury Park for Midshipmen’s School at Northwestern University.   The fact that he was not sent to Midshipmen's School for officer training made it more likely he would enter combat in the near future as an enlisted sailor.