The previous article was exactly how boys were trained to think in the 1950s

In other words I knew everything I wrote about in the previous article by the time I was 10 or 12 years of age. This is just how we were trained to think because we all expected to have to die in a nuclear weapons exchange or die in battle against either the Soviet Union or China or both. The stories told to us by our elders were of Army American Companies of men in Italy during world War II and out of 100 men 1 to 4 had survived. So, we talked to the survivors and we expected as boys to have to do the same as they did then.

Luckily, that didn't happen to me but it did to many of my friends in Viet Nam when they were drafted into the Army. My age was the highest number of any age that died in Viet Nam of the 50,000 boys that died there most of whom were drafted and went there against their wills right out of high school. (or before they graduated if they dropped out of high school).

It was quite common for boys my age to last only about 1 week or 2  before they were killed there on the front lines.

This is why we have an all volunteer army now.