When Herbert Hoover said this in 1944, it was intended as commentary about how unfairly we apportion the costs of war, how those with no say in the decision to go to war (the young) end up bearing its heaviest burdens. Though Hoover's statement remains true in spirit, the words themselves are due for a revision. For one, members of both sexes now hold the highest positions in military and political leadership. Women make strategic decisions about deploying troops into combat; they articulate national security policy on the world stage. Moreover, it can no longer be said that youth "must" fight and die in our country's wars, at least not since Vietnam, when a young man could avoid conscription simply by staying in school for long enough, declaring himself a "conscientious objector," or fleeing to Canada, among other possibilities. If nothing else, Iraq and Afghanistan proved it's not that our nation’s youth "must" fight and die, but that they will be permitted to fight and die if they choose.
In the months after Pearl Harbor, though, less than half of new recruits were volunteers. Because the nation had been attacked, John “Lucky” Luckadoo marched into his local Army recruiting office and filed paperwork to join the Army Air Corps. Within months, Lucky had earned his wings as a B-17 pilot and was on his way to Thorpe Abbotts, England to fly bombing runs over Europe. In a new book called “Damn Lucky: One Man’s Courage During the Bloodiest Military Campaign in Aviation History” (St. Martin’s, 2022), author Kevin Maurer tells Lucky’s harrowing story with detail and color, how under-trained and inexperienced Americans were rushed to the front to face off against highly skilled, battle-hardened Luftwaffe pilots.
