Soon after the marriage, John was drafted into the Army, compelling the couple to relocate to Washington, D.C. There, John taught at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers School at Fort Belvoir, and was editor of the military magazine "The Specialist", to which he contributed pin-ups and other illustrations. In 1943 John was sent overseas for the remainder of the war, working on the construction of an oil pipeline in the China Burma India Theater. The Rosenbergers' first son John was born while he was away.