They Laid Down Their Lives Before They Lived Them

To serve in the military is to surrender the best years of your youth, not for personal gain or glory, but for something far greater. It is a quiet, courageous sacrifice: of time, of freedom, of innocence. Every Memorial Day, we honor those who gave their lives for this country. But too often, we overlook just how young many of them were.

In World War I, the average American combat soldier was just 24 years old. In World War II, 26. In Korea, it dropped to 23. In Vietnam, it was only 19, barely ...