Not going back to read all the Wayne stuff, but... The guy was 35 at the beginning of WWII, I think. Nobody would want him, and he certainly wouldn't have been drafted. He was a couple of years older than my grandfather, and my grandfather was too old. Contrary to popular belief, all men 18-40 did not rush off to fight the Axis, nor did they have to. A big sign that Germany was falling was that they were drafting people in their 30's and beyond.