From last thread:

re: #155 Romantic Heretic

My thought on looking at those photos was, “Christ. They’re so young.”

You make an excellent point.

Yes, they are indeed young. And wars are largely fought by what we consider children.

Professional armies keep soldiers somewhat longer than draftee armies.

But in WW2 the American private was drafted at 18 and in combat by 19. Their sergeants were early 20’s. If that. Lieutenants were 22 and captains mid 20’s. By age 30, combat soldiers were old men.

A critic made a memorable observation that as WW2 veterans aged, the average age of the soldiers in movies and tv shows also went up. No one liked to be reminded about how young they no longer were.

The American Historian Paul Fussel who was a combat veteran of WW2 wrote of his experiences in the book “The Boys’ Crusade: The American Infantry in Northwestern Europe, 1944-1945”.

To steal a phrase - I was a soldier once and young. I am neither now.