I've heard that V-6 meant "victory plus six" meaning men would serve for the duration of the war plus no more than six months thereafter, but I believe that may be a sailor's tale. (In fact, the length of service for all military inductees in World War II, not just those in the Navy, was set at the duration plus six months.) The Navy had a number of service classifications designated V-1 through V-12 and I suspect V-6 was simply the sixth in the series, with no additional implication as to length of service. See http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ref/Ranks&Rates/index.html and scroll down to "Volunteer Reserve."
Fran touches on something that deserves a little more explication. For most of its history, the U.S. Navy (including the U.S. Marine Corps) has been manned through voluntary enlistment rather than via the draft. But from what I understand, from December 1942 to December 1945, draft-eligible men (ages 18-45) were no longer able to enlist voluntarily into the armed forces. Instead they were inducted into military service through their local draft boards. Draft boards had monthly quotas to fill for both the Army and the Navy. Upon being drafted, draftees could state their preference for the Army or Navy and their draft board would assign them based on the respective monthly quota. As much as possible draft boards tried to honor a draftee's preference for the service in which they wanted to serve but were not required to do so. Some men who preferred the Army ended up in the Navy and vice versa. Most World War II Navy enlisted men were drafted into the Naval Reserve with a V-6 designation, or "Naval Enlisted Reserve - General Duties."
I'm not sure whether the Marine Corps and the Coast Guard were additional preferences along with Army and Navy, or whether once in the Navy a man might be sent into the Marine Corps, since it is part of the Navy, or into the Coast Guard, since the Navy commands the Coast Guard during wartime. As for the air force, it was part of the Army at the time. But the point is that only for this brief period in its history was the Navy manned through the draft.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster
Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website
www.armed-guard.com
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