Melvin left Neligh on October 16, 1943 for boot camp at Farragut, Idaho.  He was sent to hospital corpsman school at Great Lakes Naval Training Center.  From there he was sent to Newport, Rhode Island, then to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.  In 1945 he was sent to San Diego where he assisted in taking chest x-rays of new recruits.  He received his discharge in 1946.  He and his wife, Ilene lived in Sidney, Nebraska, where he retired from the construction business.  They were the parents of three children.  He passed away in January 1993.