Born in Many, Louisiana, Force was drafted in 1943 and entered the Army Air Force. He shipped out that November and landed in Bombay, India on Christmas Day. Force served in a construction company that was tasked to lay a pipeline from Calcutta to China to supply the Chinese with fuel. Indian laborers dug most of the eighteen-inch deep trenches by hand for the six-inch pipeline. Once, he had to shoot a rogue elephant when it smashed into camp. He left Karachi on November 25, 1945 and was discharged nearly a month later on December 24 at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. Force worked in construction most of his career.