After the death of his twin, he made a decision: he was getting out of there.

Front page of the Forum - father and son enlist on the same day! My dad was shy of 16, so his father fibbed for him, a detail the story didn't have. Great patriotic tale! Except that Sam was bugging out from his own failures, his inability to support his large family, and general restlessness. His wife would divorce him while he in the service, and the grandkids would never see him. But that's another story.