Rejected by the Navy, valuable asset in the Army
With the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the late Max Cripe, of Goshen, Ind. joined the hordes of young men crowding around the recruiting office eager to join the Navy and go to sea while fighting for his country. He wanted out of his landlocked home state.
First, he had to wait as the Navy processed the multitude of men who had lined up to enlist during the days and weeks after December 7. The Navy had to arrange physicals and schedule a time to report for basic training.
He showed up bright and early for his pre-enlistment physical – and failed it. Not because he had flat fleet. Not because he weighed too much or too little. He wasn’t too tall or too short. He could hear as well as any other young man and could see all the letters on the chart.
He failed the Navy color vision test. Max was totally color blind. He saw only shades of gray. He could not tell the difference between red, green, orange, blue or yellow, a vital skill for anyone in the Navy where colored flags signal instructions between ships.
Disappointed, Max left the Navy recruiting station. He never would be a sailor and go to sea.
Still, he wanted to serve. He approached the Army recruiter hoping his lack of color perception did not matter. The Army had no problem with his colorblindess. They needed thousands of men able to sight down a gun, find a target and shoot. He could do that. He did it well enough at boot camp that he soon found himself finally at sea – on a troop carrier – crossing the Atlantic to Europe.
On the European front his sergeant in the infantry quickly discovered the gift hidden in Max’s colorblindness. Camouflage did not fool him. Colors did not distract him. Max saw every carefully concealed weapon that others, according to his daughter Barbara Hershberger, now of Watertown, WI.
“While others visually overlooked hidden weapons, he saw them and called out, “Gun! Tank! Stack of ammo over there!”
His disability quickly won the attention of the officers. They made him a scout to find the enemy’s hidden resources.
“And that kept him alive in the European Front,” Barbara asserts. He continued to serve in the infantry, but not in the midst of the fighting. His eyes were too valuable.
“It kept him alive.”
“When war on the European front ended, he was shipped to Japan to be part of that invasion. Before he arrived, The Bomb dropped over Japan and WWII ended abruptly.
Max’s infantry troop became the occupation force. In time he was released, returned home, married and began his life as a civilian.
“And do you know what he became? Even being colorblind?” Barbara asked. “A florist. Now how do you think he did that?”
Certainly, he knew how to run a business and had the skills in arranging flowers even though they all were various shades of gray to him.
He succeeded because. “We put tags on the buckets noting which were red, pink, white, yellow or purple,” she said.
As the owner of the Raceway Floral Shop, “At Christmas time, my dad used to dress up as Santa to deliver flowers. I went with him and gave candy to the kids.” Barbara recalls,
Flowers bring happiness. Little old ladies welcomed him with open arms. “Dad tired of being hugged and smooched by the little old ladies receiving a floral arrangement.” Barbara smiled.
Being worn out from too much attention is certainly a long road from his rejection by the Navy as the country entered WWII.