(ArtKramr) wrote in message ...

snip

Well I guess that makes sense. Remember that we were in high school
when we
violunteered for the Air Corp, barely 17 years old. We took the
primary
entrance exams (I still remember some of the questions).We couldn't
be called
to active duty until we were 18, there was a law against it or
something, so we
had to wait it out. That wasn't easy since we were getting war news
every day
and were eager to go.While we were eager to go, there were those kids
among us
who hung back. They had all kinds of plots to keep from being called.
One was
to go out to Long Island and get a job in a war plant. Grumman and
Fairchild
were out there. GoIng into the "guard" was another. Once we found out
that a
kid went into the "guard" instead of volunteering with us for either
the Army
AIr Corp or the Navy V-12 program that kid didn't have a friend in
the world.

Wow, what an ignorant bunch of kids you were. You weren't even sure
what the hell the kid's plans were (other than he was going into this
"guard" you've dreamed up), and you alienated him.

We had had representatives from both the Air Corps and the V-12
programs come
out to talk to us urging us to volunteer for their forces, They came
out in
full uniform covered with wngs and ribbons telling us all we could
for our
country if we flew with them. To a bunch of high school kids it was
all to
glamourious for words.. No one was left unimpressed. We couldn't
wait to go.
Well we went soon enough but our eagerness never waned from the time
went in to
the time we went into action. We all shared the same fear that the
war would
end before we got there. Except for the kids who went into the
"guard" or those who got defferments doing war work. But they were
never one of us. And never would be.

Yeah, yeah-yeah, yeah-yeah. Jeez, we've heard it from you a hundred
times. You're something special and anyone who didn't join the
service the second they could and get into action ain't ****. Christ,
anytime I run into a vet as arrogant and boastful as you I have to
wonder what they were really like back then.

Michael