James Clark looked big for his age as a teenager and ran with an older crowd. So when his friends reported to the draft board, he followed.

It was 1943, and the country needed troops. Young men were supposed to report when they turned 18.

About a month later, Clark received his orders for basic training.

The U.S. Army had just drafted a 13-year-old.

“They didn’t ask for any proof of age,” said Clark, a Fort Lewis retiree who’s now 78 and living in Shelton, Mason County. “I figured out what year I needed to say to make me 18, and I just told them. They didn’t ask anything more about that.”

Clark said it was expected that anyone who was of fighting age join the war effort. His parents supported his decision.

“My mother said ‘Hallelujah,’ and my father said, ‘Amen,’ when I told them,” he said. “People were just patriotic back then.”

Today, 17 is the minimum age individuals can enlist in the armed forces, if they show proof of age and parental consent; 18 is the minimum age they can deploy to combat zones. The Department of Defense clarified the policy last year, in part responding to isolated reports of underage service members in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Clark’s story is not unusual. At least 200,000 men and women under the legal age served during World War II, according to an estimate from the Veterans of Underage Military Service organization.

The group has 1,279 active members, national commander Bernie Doyle said, and the median age is 78.

Clark is likely the youngest surviving World War II veteran. The youngest service member during the war, Calvin Graham, died in 1992. Graham enlisted in the Navy in 1942 at age 12 and was wounded at Guadalcanal that year. His commanders discovered his age and discharged him.

A discharge also awaited Clark a year after he enlisted, but not before he completed basic and paratrooper training.

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