I am proud to know you, Cynicom. Everytime I ask a question, you pull out of your recollections and experience a wealth of knowledge. You have some of the best posts that can not be refuted.
Congratulations on your B-Day, sir. May you have many more.
In WWII,I lost a brother and friends, during Korea, several friends were taken away.
During the Great Depression, being from the lowest class of society, we all knew our fate when war started. Personal survival became the driving force in life. Nothing has changed with the higher rungs of society, instead of drafting from the masses to do the killing, we are enticed with tax dollars, then scorned by those that pay the taxes.
This is something I post often, with little response, in it is an excerpt of letter written by Andrew Mellons father....
""" J. P. Morgan had escaped military service in the Civil War by paying $300 to a substitute. So did John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Philip Armour, Jay Gould, and James Mellon. Mellon's father had written to him that..... "a man may be a patriot without risking his own life or sacrificing his health. There are plenty of lives less valuable."......