In the 1950s as a boy I was taught to believe I would die young as a soldier in a nuclear war

This was believable to me as I watched documentaries on Concentration camps created by Hitler and starving people and piles of dead bodies piled up sometimes one or two stories high. Now we are faced with more wars that could bring this again.

I can remember thinking how awful war was as a child and yet at the same time I was trained to think about fighting to the death to protect Democracy from Communism. I was taught "Better Dead than Red".

This was the philosophy of my father "Better Dead than Red". So, what I'm saying here is we thought of it as a fight to the death between Communism and Democracy always then. Then we had new Hydrogen bombs being tested around the world. We had movies about nuclear war and everyone dying on earth.

Sometimes I remember thinking that: "Maybe dying in a war would be better than living in the world the way it was then in the 1950s?" So, from this point of view dying seemed like better than living sometimes as a boy.

However, then I had friends that told me I should go to college. My cousin went to USC on Scholarship and to NYU Law School on Scholarship and somehow this gave me some hope of having a future and not dying in a war. So, About the time that Kennedy became president I began to have hope that I wouldn't have to die as a soldier in a nuclear war. I started to have hope of a better life. Then The Cuban Missile Crisis happened and I remember one lady shaking while she packed her car to move to her cabin in the Sierras. This was a rich young woman shaking and crying as she packed to escape during the Cuban Missile Crisis because she desperately believed we were all going to be nuked and she didn't want to be nuked too. This was when I was 14 I believe. I asked my father whether we were all going to die in nuclear blasts and he said, "That's all Bullshit, Son. we are all going to survive fine."

Though I wanted to believe him than (because that was a nice thought) I also saw people quaking in their boots all around me too who weren't as tough as my Dad in his stance.

Then the Viet Nam war happened and I worried I might be drafted. But, I was also having night time seizures from a concussion from rock climbing with my father. So, this gave me a deferment what was then called a 4F which means you are only called up to fight in the draft if our nation is attacked directly. Other wise you can live your life like it was normal and go to college or whatever.

So, I was spared dying in a nuclear war and I was spared dying as a soldier anywhere. So, I got married and had a son and eventually started businesses and buying businesses to support my family.

So, hang in there people: "Because you might not have to die as a soldier in a nuclear war of Armageddon!"

Because I didn't have to either. And I'm now 75 years old and married 30 years with Grown children and Grandchildren too.

By God's Grace