Well, as a matter of fact, when I was in grammar school or grade school,
or high school, and we would study about the history of this country and
the U.S. Senate and the Haney and Webster and Calhoun debates and the
part that the Senate played in our government, my only early political
ambition was to be a U.S. Senator. Strangely enough, my first ambition,
I think, was to be a preacher. I would read these Biblical stories about
Daniel in the lion's den and things of that nature. I first thought that
I wanted to be a preacher and then I got further advanced and reading
about the Senate and thought that if I ever got into politics, I wanted
to be a United States Senator. Then, after I got out of law school and
started practicing, about everytime that I would get my practice going
to where I could make a living, another political
campaign would come along and I would have to drop my law practice and
assist my father with his political campaigns. That was true in 1938,
true again in 1940 and then after he got elected and was in office and I
helped him organize his government and one thing and another, war clouds
were advancing on the horizon and I saw that pretty soon I was going to
be in the service. So, I started looking around and I didn't want to go
in as a common foot soldier if I could avoid it, so I got a commission
in Naval Intelligence as a result of my law degree in April, 1941. I was
called to active duty for some temporary training in New York in May and
June, 1941 and then called to active duty in September, 1941 in Atlanta,
Georgia in the office of Naval Intelligence there. My mobilization
billet was Cable Censor's Office, New York. Well, as soon as the
Japanese hit Pearl Harbor, I was courting Betty at that time and we had
planned to be married after a year, probably sometime in June. But after
the Japanese hit Pearl Harbor on December 7, I knew that I would be
called to active duty and transferred from Atlanta to New York shortly,
so we got married, I believe, on December 23, 1941. I was transferred to
New York, I guess, in January of 1942. Then when I got off in the South
Pacific, standing those lonely watches, I knew that my father had spent
a good deal of money educating me to be a lawyer and I thought that I
had at least average ability. Everytime that I started practicing and
was succeeding fairly well, either a political campaign or a war would
interfer with my law practice and I decided then and there that when I
got back to Georgia, I was not going to let anything interfer my
practice of law. I was going to get involved seriously and thought that
I would do well with it. So, when I got back, I found that my daddy was
running for governor for the fourth term. And like any dutiful son, I
pitched in to help him.