Editing John Coltrane (section)

=== 1945–1946: Military service ===
To avoid being drafted by the Army, Coltrane enlisted in the Navy on August 6, 1945, the day the first U.S. atomic bomb was dropped on Japan.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=https://issuu.com/styletome/docs/osm|title=Orlando Style Magazine July/August 2016 Issue|date=June 28, 2016 |via=Issuu|access-date=January 11, 2017|archive-date=February 4, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170204181932/https://issuu.com/styletome/docs/osm|url-status=live}}</ref> He was trained as an apprentice seaman at [[Sampson Air Force Base|Sampson Naval Training Station]] in upstate New York before he was shipped to Pearl Harbor,<ref name=":1" /> where he was stationed at Manana Barracks,<ref name="Porter1998">{{cite book |last=Porter |first=Lewis |title=John Coltrane: His Life and Music|url=https://archive.org/details/johncoltranehisl00port |url-access=registration |access-date=November 25, 2018 |date=January 1998 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=978-0-472-10161-0 }}</ref> the largest posting of African American servicemen in the world.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://blackthen.com/john-coltrane-legendary-revolutionary-saxophonist-history-jazz-music/ |title=John Coltrane: Legendary and Revolutionary Saxophonist in the History of Jazz Music |website=Blackthen.com |date=May 27, 2018 |access-date=June 8, 2018 |archive-date=July 8, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190708084417/https://blackthen.com/john-coltrane-legendary-revolutionary-saxophonist-history-jazz-music/ |url-status=live }}</ref> By the time he got to Hawaii in late 1945, the Navy was downsizing. Coltrane's musical talent was recognized and, when he joined the Melody Masters, the base swing band, he became one of the few Navy men to serve as a musician without having been granted musician's rating.<ref name=":1" /> Because the Melody Masters was an all-white band, Coltrane was treated as a guest performer to avoid alerting superior officers of his participation in the band.<ref name="Ratliff2008">{{cite book |last=Ratliff |first=Ben |title=Coltrane: The Story of a Sound |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K3WNFheF9ycC&pg=PT12 |access-date=November 25, 2018 |date=October 28, 2008 |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |isbn=978-1-4299-9862-8 |pages=12– |archive-date=February 8, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208135308/https://books.google.com/books?id=K3WNFheF9ycC&pg=PT12 |url-status=live }}</ref> He continued to perform other duties when not playing with the band, including kitchen and security details. By the end of his service, he had assumed a leadership role in the band. His first recordings, an informal session in Hawaii with Navy musicians, occurred on July 13, 1946.<ref>DeVito et al., p. 367.</ref> He played alto saxophone on a selection of jazz standards and bebop tunes.<ref>DeVito et al., pp. 367–368.</ref> He was officially discharged from the Navy on August 8, 1946. He was awarded the [[American Campaign Medal]], [[Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medal]] and the [[World War II Victory Medal]].