In 1942 my Dad was 16, waiting until he was 17 so he could (and di) enlist in the USMC to go avenge those who attacked us at Pearl Harbor.
More men were like that, back then. These days finding a male that enlisted after 9/11/2001 is really hard.
The only such person I know, is my niece...who did 12 years in the Air Force.
My dad went in Army December 19, 1940. Was supposed to be discharged Dec 18, 1941. Ooops, not so fast there. You’re a Sgt now go run boot camp for Lt’s coming out of college.
My father was demoted because his boot camp style was to treat the Lts the way the new privates were being treated. he argued with major that he wasn’t sending people to lead others who had better training.
Wound up later in england staging for D-Day He as D+6. While in England my aunt sent him a letter and told him his cousin was working on a farm in England. He was an Italian soldier POW working in England since the Italian soldiers were considered safe. So may italians liked the US because they had relatives here, but they followed their governments orders.
My father took his cousin out for a night.
When i went to sicily in 2006, met the 92 year old cousin. I greeted him in Italian and her insisted I speak English. “I know english, he said.”