Youth and War
Many veterans of the United States Armed Forces enter the military at a very young age. Young people, barely out of high school, are sent straight to the front lines to defend their country. These young service members must grow up quickly as they witness death and experience violence on an unimaginable scale before many of them are even able to buy a drink at a bar back home. In many wars, it was not uncommon for these young Americans to rise through the ranks and take on responsibilities that their peers back home could never imagine. The shock of combat permanently changed the young service members who experienced it. Whether they were Doughboys in the trenches of France, Leathernecks on the beaches of the Pacific, or GIs in the jungles of Vietnam, war altered these young people and forced them into roles that even fully matured adults would have a difficult time handling.
Why these young people fight is as varied as the individuals themselves. In past conflicts like the Vietnam War, young men were drafted out of high school and sent thousands of miles away to fight a war they had no say in starting. Other young people join the military as a way to support their families back home with supplemental income. This was especially common in the Second World War, when the country’s recovery from the Great Depression was far from guaranteed. And some young people join out of a sense of duty, patriotism, and a desire to help those around them.
These are the stories of individuals who enter the military at a young age and shed their innocence as they grow up rapidly on battlefields and bases around the world in service to their country.
