[Richard Flanders]

My father enlisted in the Marines in 1941 at 16 yrs old and served until 1945. He told his mother that if she didn't sign for him to enlist he would run away from home. She signed. I used to sit in the loft of our old shoddy barn and go through his trunk of stuff that he brought home. His dress blues were in there, letters to home, which I read every one of, and lots of pictures. Sadly, not a piece of that collection has survived. He looked like a kid in those pictures... which he was. 6ft tall and 135#. Came out at 6'2" and 160# and served all over the South Pacific. I've never been able to truly envision what it must have been like for a 16 yr old to go through boot camp and go overseas and fight a war. No Ipods, no computers, no boom boxes. 16yr olds today would seemingly be horrified at the existence, I think... sometimes I think that anyway..... other times I like to think that, if it came right down to it, if called for, our current 16 yr olds would buck up, line up, train, and do just as well as those who fought at that age in past wars...like the Civil War and WWII. I really like to think they could and would do that. I really do. I just can't see it being any other way in this country.

I've dug up the picture I found of my father in his uniform, likely just out of basic. Also have included a picture of my brother in Vietnam. After serving his 13months he returned to the US a troubled individual. Viet Nam seemed to have a way of doing that to some perfectly good people. He was never the same care free brother that left us and tragically committed suicide in 1986. The family hurt is indescribably deep to this day.