In those days, Cump, young boys, particularly second sons, who were not going to inherit, entered military training at an early age. This was especially true of the Navy. BTW, most people don't think about it much, but Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier of WWII, forged papers and enlisted when he was sixteen. When he won his MOH, he was all of nineteen years old! Someone recently commented upon his life after the war as including some drinking problems. I suppose they never heard of PTSD. A nineteen year old kid who stood atop a burning tank and killed over two hundred German soldiers is due a little slack in my book, even if he wasn't a great actor. Stan

(Interestingly, the German Government recently decorated fourteen American soldiers for coming to the Germans' aid during a firefight in Afghanistan. The world turns.)