Mark Makes It To The Army

A detail we need to mention about Mark Nider, and all of you grandchildren and great-grandchildren, pay attention to this.  Mark Nider was color blind.  This is important for two reasons:

1-Color blindness is, to a certain extent, hereditary. 

2-The fact Mark was color blind led directly to his enlistment in the Army.  Mark seemed to enjoy this story, so I am repeating it now.  During the war Mark was in college for a time, attending classes at the University of Nebraska.  For whatever reason, he decided to enlist.  He went down to the navy enlistment office.  They tested his eyesight and announced him unfit for the navy.  The final words of the recruitment officer, as he led Mark out the door were, “try the Army.  They will take anybody.”  Mark walked down the street to the Army enlistment office and before too long he was being trained and shipped to the China Burma India Theater of the War.  The Navy enlistment guy was right, the Army would take anyone.

While Mark was in training, he liked to tell about how he passed the swimming test while his buddy Todd Brennaman passed the radio operator’s test.  Mark was having trouble with the swimming school; he had never learned how to swim.  Meanwhile, Todd Brennaman was having trouble working his way through the radio operator’s school.  So, on days that the two had those classes, they would change dog tags and Mark passed the radio exam for himself.  Then later Mark took the radio test as Brennaman and passed the test again.  In the meantime, Todd Brennaman passed the swimming tests for both himself and Mark. 

They both managed to stay in the Army, serve together and remain lifelong friends.