William “Bill” Wilkinson was not always a farmer from Johnson County. He didn’t always raise beef, hogs and sheep on the family farm. Like many other farm boys from Iowa, Kansas and Missouri, he served his country during World War II, after the Army drafted him in 1942. He was 22.
That day, his father took him to the Warrensburg train station and wished him good-bye. Mr. Wilkinson boarded a bus full of other draftees and headed for Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
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