Garand Picture of the day # 115 -100th soldiers escorting prisoners Italy.

100th Infantry Batallion

More Here Go For Broke National Education Center - Preserving the Legacy of the Japanese American Veterans of World War II

I must be gettin' old - all of them look so young. The average age appears to be about 18-19; I guess war has always been (and will always be) a young man's game.

My late father-in-law learned to fly B-25's when he was 19. He flew the rest of his life and said he was never as frightened as when he flew it, but he was, after all, just a kid when he learned.

Another high school friend's father was a bomber pilot in Europe during the raids on Germany and he came home, having flown enough missions to earn his points, when he wasn't quite 21. And he had been bombing the hell out of Germany for almost 18 months.

Finally, a fellow I taught with for almost 30 years signed up when the war broke out and once confessed to me he was only 16 when he went to boot camp. He had been born at home and there was no such thing as birth certificate. When signing his papers for enlistment, he simply stated his age as 18 so he could go. He lived out his life using that "advance" age as his real age. It was simpler, but harder in those days without a computer to keep track of you. Of course, he had been working since he was 11 or 12 to support his family of brothers and sisters so he was certainly "mature" enough in that day.