Compton was only 21 years old and just out of college and remembers he felt more comfortable with the enlisted men than with the officers. His men included a man named Guarnere and Chuck Grant and another man named Mercer. Compton had a good relationship with the men in his platoon. The English people were very nice and hospitable. Compton remembers the quarters were once a nice private home in a town square. This 1st Lieutenant was transferred eventually. Compton was an assistant platoon leader and second leader of E Company. When Compton got to E Company they had two officers to each platoon instead of one. In England he stayed in a house where they did not have hot water and you have to build a fire under the water to make it hot. He does not remember distinct details about joining the company. He joined the Easy Company outfit where they were stationed and got there in December. Lynn Compton went to England on the Queen Elizabeth ship with thousands of troops. Compton's first plane ride was nothing special. Compton had to untangle himself to land safely but landed far away from where he should have been. The parachute chords had gotten caught in his shoes and pulled him upside down. When the parachute deployed he was upside down in the air. Compton referred to his first jump as a reflex action. Eventually he was shipped overseas and joined the 506 E Company in a town called Holborn in England. While Compton was gone the OSS recruited Singlaub and when Compton returned he was gone. Compton went to a school to learn about chemical warfare and demolitions. The paratrooper training was at Fort Benning and then Compton went to a regiment with Jack Singlaub at Camp McCall. The flight training took a year and Compton thought he would miss out on the war so he joined the paratroopers and get to combat faster. The only way he could get out would be to apply for flight training or the paratroopers. Compton was bothered because the war was going on and they were only playing sports. He did not have duties except for playing baseball. Compton signed up with the regiment who had a baseball team at Fort Benning. More men volunteered to join the military instead of trying to escape armed service. Compton knew that joining the ROTC meant serving active duty at some point but did not know which branch they would join. Compton woke up to hearing people talk about the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor outside his window. Lynn Compoton had just played football against USC when Pearl Harbor was bombed. The ROTC members had to fulfill active duty work and by the end of his four years at UCLA the war was still going on so the men were shipped to Fort Benning for training. Compton majored in physical education to be a high school coach and had hopes of playing professional sports. One of the highest ranking ROTC members at UCLA was Jack Singlaub who was a career military man and one of the fathers of the CIA. At the time, all males in college were required to take two years of ROTC and he took an additional two years of training. He went to college on a football scholarship. Compton was always interested in sports at a young age and played football and baseball in high school. His aunt worked as a casting director at Central Casting and was able to get Compton work as an extra. Compton raised money for his family during the Depression by acting. Compton's father never lost his job but held sympathy for other people. The Depression did not affect the family. They did not keep contact during the war because Compton's father died when he was 15. Doolittle and Compton's dad were friends in high school. His father and Jimmy Doolittle were both from Southern Los Angeles. He spent his life before the war in Southern California. He went to high school and then to UCLA for college. Compton was born and raised in Los Angeles.
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