It tears me up to think of these, mostly young, guys who never got a chance to do what they had volunteered and trained for, much less to live out their real lives post-war. What a sad way to go.
Volunteered?
By this time in the war they were drafting you before you could volunteer.
I had five uncles in the war. None of them “volunteered.” That stuff wore off as soon as the telegrams started coming home all around them.
Being drafted doesn’t make you a coward. They fought just as good as the “volunteers.” But don’t kid yourself that every red blooded American rushed down to the recruiting office on their 18th birthday.