[Mears]

I grew up in WWII----I was 13 when it ended. When I looked at the pic you posted tears came into my eyes. I remember when I first saw it.

[VOA]

When I looked at the pic you posted tears came into my eyes. I remember
when I first saw it.

I'm a fair bit younger than you, but to some degree I got to see that stare
on a WWII Marine...in the 1970s.

My family would give a ride to church for a family when I was in my early teens.
The father didn't attend, but during a visit at their home I learned why.
The father had been the WWII version of a tunnel-rat during the island-hopping
in The Pacific.
He wasn't catatonic, but I suspect that over hundreds of hours at his house
I never heard him utter one word. And the gaze was there about 95% of the time.

It still amazes me a bit that I've lived long enough to see another American generation
have an epochal event like 9-11 and The War On Terror.