Sebastian Shull was seven feet tall and fresh off the bus from Chicago when John Moran hired him to deliver death notices to the women of Burr, Maine. He arrived in town with nothing but a change of clothes and the black mark of being 4-F (physically unacceptable for military service) hanging over his head. After Pearl Harbor, every able-bodied man either volunteered or was drafted. Shull tried, but the Army wouldn’t take him due to his height. Everyone at the processing station marvelled at his frame and posed for awkward photos with him, but after the flashbulbs popped, Shull was given the bad news: the U.S. Army didn’t take any man under five feet or over six feet six inches. He was told he’d probably be a fine soldier, but the Army didn’t have pants that would fit him...
This wartime story tells the tale of an outcast who became a local hero.
"The Men of Burr"appeared in Issue #13 of Popshot Magazineand was published in April 2015.
