re: #253 Justanotherhuman

I can tell you your father’s draft status — the 1942 draft called up all able-bodied men, 18-34.

ALL OF THEM.

EVERY SINGLE ONE.

The entire Ivy League student body. All of major league baseball. The President’s sons, cabinet members’ sons, senators’ sons. Every single able-bodied man 18-34.

Then there was the volunteers — men too old to be drafted, boys too young to be drafted, women, the not-quite-able-bodied-but-lied-about-it.

At the height of the war, we had 15 million soldiers in uniform (more than 10 times what we have today), out of a total population of 150 million (less than half what we have today).

We really lucked out losing “only” half a million. Other countries had it so much worse. (the Soviets lost more than 25 million people, a full 15% of their population).