“It seems odd that a thirty year old with children would’ve been drafted, even in WWII.”
Yea, it does seem odd. My father volunteered to join the Army in 1943 at 28 years old, and had 3 kids. My oldest sister said, that my father was exempt from the draft because of his age and his children. Don’t know what the rules were back then.
I believe the draft boards were local, so you had quite a variation on who was taken though still within the overall rules.
Age would not have been a factor; it was probably the three children. By 1943, everyone older than 17 or younger than 38 who joined was technically a draftee.