Naval Reserve
The Gunnery officers of USS Monterey, 1943. Ford is second from the right, in the front row.
Following the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, Ford enlisted in the Navy.[31] He received a commission as ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve on April 13, 1942.[32] On April 20, he reported for active duty to the V-5 instructor school at Annapolis, Maryland. After one month of training, he went to Navy Preflight School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where he was one of 83 instructors and taught elementary navigation skills, ordnance, gunnery, first aid, and military drill. In addition, he coached all nine sports that were offered, but mostly swimming, boxing, and football. During the year he was at the Preflight School, he was promoted to Lieutenant, Junior Grade, on June 2, 1942, and to lieutenant, in March 1943.[33]

Sea duty
After Ford applied for sea duty, he was sent in May 1943 to the pre-commissioning detachment for the new aircraft carrier USS Monterey (CVL-26), at New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey. 