There are a lot of us around who actually grew up during the second world war. My most formative years were completed about the time the war ended. I was barely seven years old when Hitler's troops invaded Poland in September of 1939; they had already occupied Austria and taken Czechoslovakia, and Italy had defeated Ethiopia.

  There was no electricity in our farm and ranch community but we had a battery-powered radio. Several of our neighbors, who had no radio, came over to listen to the news every evening. I heard the broadcasts and all the adult "war talk" with great alarm. Austin (forty miles) was as far away from home as I had been and I knew nothing about world geography. I was terrified because I had no idea how far away these battles were, and I thought Nazis might show up at our ranch at any moment. Nazi-inflicted cruelties were discussed during those news get-togethers, which made it worse. My mother tried to console me by saying these things were happening all the way across the ocean in a land far away. I'd never seen an ocean. My mind could only conjure up an image of the Colorado River and I could see the other side of it. I began having nightmares, and was nervous about going to school. That was the beginning of the war for me.

  Hitler overran Denmark and Norway, then the Netherlands, Belgium and France. England had come to their defense but was fighting alone until Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. That resulted in the U.S. declaration of war against the Axis of Japan, Germany and Italy in December of 1941. The U.S. had begun to prepare for the war in 1939, converting factories to build weapons, vehicles and other war related products. They began looking for allies. Twenty one nations signed on. Taxes were increased and war bonds were issued to finance the war. In 1940, the drafting of men for service began. The first ones to go were single and young, but eventually every able-bodied man aged 18 through 40 was called up. Some were i ...

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