My Dad wasn’t much older than him when he started flying combat missions over Europe in WW2. “I was just a little boy who didn’t know about the big, mean world” doesn’t cut it. I wasn’t all that much older than him when I started flying in the military and watched my first plane crash...
My dad was a waist gunner in a B17 over Germany at the age this guy was cruising the bars in college. He wanted to go to college and become a journalist too. Worked on a Boston newspaper and took classes for a while at his own expense before entering the service. Came out, got married, and ended up working in a factory and supporting a wife and three kids who all went to college.
I went to college on student loans. Went to a state college because that’s what I could afford. Went a year and worked a year and worked while in school at part time jobs. One semester didn’t have enough money to buy books, so I borrowed them from the library to study for test. Took 6 years to finish. Got a real degree in the hard sciences. Paid all my loans off on my own before my wife and I started saving for our first house.
Sorry son I’m not feeling your pain.