Fenton Hardy's Army Days?

[MacGyver]

Fenton may have served in the Army before he got married. It would've been pretty common in those days for boys to drop out of school to join the war effort. He may have come back and then got his high school diploma and went into police work from there. (Which is probably one of the few higher paying jobs you can get even today without a college degree.) Though he may have gone back for a college degree later on. But it just seems to fit that he may have gone straight to working as a policeman and then after many years of that, retired and started his detective business.

[tomswift2002]

Frank might have been conceived before Fenton went in the army. Then, Fenton could have gotten leave for Frank's birth and Joe could have been conceived. It's possible, I guess. 

I know that recently in my church they announced a military couple was having a child, and the wife was already a couple of months along, and just the way the pastor said it at first, it sounded like she had been cheating, but then the pastor clarified the situation by saying that the husband had been back on vacation/leave just before the wife found out, and doing the math people were able to see that it happened during the husband's vacation months  before.  So it is possible that Fenton and Laura could've had a similar situation.

[hardygirl847]

All good theories but I think the main thing to remember here is that Leslie and those in charge of starting the Hardy Boys story, probably didn't think this much about it. It is certainly interesting to ponder though.

[SDLagent]

All good theories but I think the main thing to remember here is that Leslie and those in charge of starting the Hardy Boys story, probably didn't think this much about it. It is certainly interesting to ponder though.

True but it is fun to flesh-out the back story and make it work despite the contradictions.

[JoeHardyRocks]

In The Crowning Terror it said that their Uncle Hugh was with Fenton in "a war in south asia."

[SDLagent]

So Fenton probably fought in the Vietnam War.