Chopper door gunner, post-mission, Vietnam 1965. Photograph by Larry Burrows.
In times past, kings and crown princes led their armies into battle.They were in the frontline. Now, increasingly unstable politicians sit behind a desk and send young men to die. It destroys these men forever.
The South African border war (1966 to 1989) had some of the largest battles in Africa since World War Two. Conscription meant that young men aged 16 and upwards were faced with 2 years in the armed forces, four years in the police, or six years in jail. After that you would spend three months a year doing military service, until your fifties. Many teenagers were conscripted into a battle in which they did not believe, but the six years in jail would have destroyed them (objectors were treated very badly). My fiancé at the time spent two years on the border – he was 17 – and it destroyed him forever. The men were not allowed to talk about anything, and even if they did, PTSD (it was called shell-shock then, or bossies/bush-mad in Afrikaans) was not talked about and therapy was not a thing.
The photo above makes me want to cry every time I see it. That is a young boy, probably drafted, who would never be the same again. He was someone’s son, brother, partner. As the world teeters on the brink of World War Three and battles can be fought with the touch of the button, it may not feel the same to those who do it, but this is the reality.
Edited to add: I have been surprised by the number of boots on the ground in the Russo-Ukrainian war. They still dig trenches. I think many experts have been surprised at how primitive war is, even in a world of drone strikes.