- Stephen Ambrose: These kids didn't want to be there. Y'know, 17, 18, 19 years old, they wanted to be shooting 22's at rabbits, not M1's at other young men. They wanted to be throwing softballs, not hand grenades. But there was an evil force loose in the world and it fell to them to have to deal with it because when the challenge came that the society said to them 'you gotta go out there and fight'... and they did.