In the 1950s boys were trained to be prepared to die in war or nuclear holocaust by 8 to 12 years of age

I think you have to remember the times, World War II had just ended in 1945. It was now the 1950s only 5 to 15 years later in 1960 (15 years later). Then Kennedy was elected (the first Catholic President) so of course he was assassinated) and there hasn't been a Catholic president since. But it didn't help he had 100s of women at the white house so he was bound to offend someone very deeply because of having sex with so many women. However, Jackie tolerated it because of the children and this was more normal for men in that era than now too.

So, in this context I was trained from ages 3 or 4 to be ready to kill and die even as young as 9 or 10 with a weapon defending my home and family. Which is exactly the same as things were since around 1600 or so here in the U.S. So there was (AT LEAST) 400 years of tradition regarding being trained with firearms by ages 4 to 8 years of age in the U.S. But if you misused the privilege you expected to be beat up or killed for it too. This was the way it was. IF you accepted responsibility you followed through (at any age) or you were beat up or killed for not carrying through on your responsibilities. This was just the way it always was for 400 years here in the U.S.

So fathers prepared their sons to die in combat with a level head at all ages because we all were trained to expect death at any moment from nukes or from defending our homes to the last man or boy. This was just life in the 1950s in the Cold War after World War II. This is what life for a boy or man was actually like in the 1950s. No wonder so many committed suicide or self destructed in many ways. But, it had been like this for 400 years in the U.S. and the same in Europe before this.

In 1955 I was 7 years old and lived then in Tujunga California in the Los Angeles Area up against the Angeles Crest which went up to 8000 to 9000 feet in elevation. My parents and I drove up the Angeles Crest Highway to Chilao or Mt. Waterman where we often hiked on weekends because it was only a 45 minute drive up to 7000 or 8000 feet in the forests there. And in winter often there was snow to play in or to learn to ski using my father's world war II skis with bear trap bindings that didn't release ever except manually.