Neville recalls that while serving in the U.S. Army, his request for discharge was denied, but he dared to assume in his imagination that he was already free, acting each night as he would if he could come and go as he chose. After nine days of persisting in this assumption, the same officer who had first denied his request granted his freedom, and he was honorably discharged that day. Corpus military records fix this discharge as 15 March 1943.