"We were just kids. We didn't think so at the time - but that's what we were."

"I'd just finished school, and there I was - told I was going to the other side of the world to fight for God knows what - or why? What can you do...when everything suddenly changes like that?"

"It wasn't just me. A group of us all got the news about the same time and we went together. I didn't know what to expect - none of us did. We all grew up a little that day, that's for sure."

"So here I am. I'm the lucky one. I made it - but the others weren't so lucky."

"Peter and I were in the same unit, fighting together - until a sniper got him. I was right there - right there cradling his head in my arm while those last few seconds of life drained from his body. I'll never forget that look in his eyes...just...staring up at me."

"And I'll never get used to the waste - that waste of men... here one moment - gone the next. There were so many! They sent the usual letter... 'He died a hero. We, his comrades of C Company...deeply regret...'"

"Another friend of mine was a pilot, and the last we heard he'd been shot down...somewhere. We hope he'll come back. We always say that - 'We hope they'll come back.' Sounds sort of routine I suppose. Most of them don't."

"Sometimes coming back is no better than that shit we went through over there. Remember Barry? He came back - haunted by the death... and the screams... and all the other reminders of hell. I know where he's living now but he stays pretty much to himself. I don't think he'll ever be quite the same. How could anyone ever be the same after living through something like that?"

"I could go on and on - through all of the lives ended or changed forever by this stupid war, but you had to be there - to really understand what it did to us all."

"It's not us! We don't make these bloody wars! Soldiers don't cause wars - governments cause wars! We're just the ones who do the dying!"

"We were not the first to have our ordinary lives suddenly intruded upon by hostilities - and we will not be the last."