In sixties, I met somebody, who in WWII was manning some post in Ardennes. There was a German soldier approaching.
He shot, German felt into the snow. He never figured out what happened to this German.
From the way he volunteered to tell me the story, I was sure, this soldier (20 years later) was still haunted by it!
Life is such a journey for everyone and it is difficult for a man as he ages and goes through different stages of life and different ideas and levels of growth and life experiences to know that he cut off a young man on that day, in a situation imposed on them both and which is temporary, as a soldier becomes a civilian and a dad and a husband and a Little league coach who loves the family BBQs and the newest TV shows, and his war fades into the mists of history that few remember, it is no wonder that their thoughts sometimes go back to the young men whose lives they ended before they even really started.