Was John Romita Sr. in the military?

Famous comic artist, John Romita Sr. was drafted into the U. S. Army in 1951. While still being very interested in comics, he showed his art samples to the base art director on Governors Island in New York Bay, who arranged for him to be stationed there to do layouts for recruitment posters once Romita had completed basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey.

He was promoted to corporal after seven or eight months and allowed to live off the post and rent an apartment in Brooklyn. While he was not on duty, he could leave the base and go into Manhattan.

“I went uptown one day for lunch. I stopped over at Stan Lee’s office in the Empire State Building, where Timely Comics had by now evolved into Atlas Comics and his secretary came out and I said, ‘Stan doesn’t know my name, but I’ve worked for him for over a year.’ I was in uniform! She must’ve told him this GI… wants to do some comics. She said, ‘Stan said here’s a four-page science fiction story.’ I penciled it and struggled with my first inking. That was the first story I did on my own. I did Westerns and war stories then,” he said.