re: #54 ckkatz

A few thoughts -

1. Paul Hardcastle is a British songwriter musician. Here is what the Wiki on “19” says:

en.wikipedia.org

2. I understand that the average/mean age of the +58,000 servicemen listed on the Vietnam War memorial is ~22 years 9 months old.

3. I suspect that 26 might have been the mean age for all US service members in WW2. The US Army, in order to sustain a global effort consisted largely of non-combat soldiers. Even in the Infantry divisions, only 9,000 of the 14,000 soldiers were infantrymen who did the vast majority of fighting and dying.

4. There are lots of sources, many of whom disagree. My personal view would be, no matter how entertaining the song is, to discount the song’s lyrics as meticulous and authoritative statistics.

As always, ymmv.

I was 22 years and 6 months old when I arrived in country.