CITIZEN PATRIOT • ASHLEY MILLER
Lyle Dotson of Jackson left high school to serve in the Army
during World War II. He is now devout member of the Pentecostal
Church of God with his wife, Etta.
As Vandercook Lake High School’s Class of 1943 prepared to graduate, Lyle Dotson decided to leave school without a diploma to serve his country in World War II.
“I went home that day and talked to my mother and father and asked, ‘Would you guys co-sign for me to go into the Army?’ ” Dotson said.
When his father asked why, he responded: “To get the war over with.”
Dotson, now an 84-year-old Jackson resident, said that within a month, he was in a train station in Detroit with 48 other soldiers.
Dotson’s unit was stationed in France when he received news the war was over. He spent the remainder of his three years overseas working in the cleanup detail.
“I enjoyed going in. I saw a lot of the country,” Dotson said.
Sixty-two years after Dotson left high school, he was offered a diploma from Vandercook Lake High School. There were 65 graduates, Dotson said, and he was the 66th.
At the graduation ceremony, several female students from Spring Arbor University spelled out his name on white T-shirts.
“I got a standing ovation, and I felt real proud,” Dotson said. “But I had to leave the stadium and go around back because I cried. I felt like the king of the rock.”
“I went home that day and talked to my mother and father and asked, ‘Would you guys co-sign for me to go into the Army?’ ” Dotson said.
When his father asked why, he responded: “To get the war over with.”
Dotson, now an 84-year-old Jackson resident, said that within a month, he was in a train station in Detroit with 48 other soldiers.
Dotson’s unit was stationed in France when he received news the war was over. He spent the remainder of his three years overseas working in the cleanup detail.
“I enjoyed going in. I saw a lot of the country,” Dotson said.
Sixty-two years after Dotson left high school, he was offered a diploma from Vandercook Lake High School. There were 65 graduates, Dotson said, and he was the 66th.
At the graduation ceremony, several female students from Spring Arbor University spelled out his name on white T-shirts.
“I got a standing ovation, and I felt real proud,” Dotson said. “But I had to leave the stadium and go around back because I cried. I felt like the king of the rock.”
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