In 1942, James Young watched a John Payne war movie and decided to join the marines. In the next three years, the 17-year-old Pine Bluff, Arkansas native fought through five Pacific battles, was twice wounded and hospitalized five times with malaria.

"Your first battle, you don't know what's going on," he says. "The second battle, when somebody gets killed right next to you, you figure out well, it's just a dangerous job. Bullets, crack when they go over your head, but when they come close you just hear a whisper-like. The recruits don't know that. I"ve had to pull green guys down."

On Saipan a Japanese tank drove over his trench. "I could have struck a match on his wheels when he went by," says Young, now of Walkersville, Md. "When you are that age it's an adventure. It don't get to you until a good buddy gets killed, then it hurts. I get sick of the media saying that so-and-so gave his life for his country. Nobody goes to war saying I am going to give my life for my country."