Dusty kids

I have been seeing a lot of footage of military folks lately. Under their baggy uniforms and layers of dust and smoke, most of them look like kids. I look at them and they just seem so young as though they are in a high school production of "all quiet on the Western Front" redux and updated with cooler shit and bigger explosions.
This makes me think of my own U.S.A.F. service back in the 80's. I look at pictures of us and also think that we were in an amateur play. Maybe national lampoon's European Vacation. Only in this instance, we were just kids playing at soldiers every now and then in the heart of southern Europe. I remember the superb food, the Adriatic smooth as glass, and the lovely Italians. If there were any moments of terror they were a direct result of our own shennanigans. I look at us in our crappy looking steel helmets and our plastic rifles with Mattel stamped on the stock (which we only took out of the armory once or twice a year.) We would take silly group pictures of us in our condemned chemical protective suits and gas masks shooting the finger, grabbing our dicks, simulating unnatural acts, taking a piss. Hmmmm. I don't think these kids would get the jokes.
I remember the scuba classes, skydiving classes, language courses, martial arts classes etc. that we could take for very little or no money. Shit, I even remember taking a class on "healing touch massage" which could definitely improve your ass chances.. if you know what I mean.
I don't think these kids get that. If they get classes, it's probably the kind that are absolutely no fun.
Understand, I'm not even talking about the kids just in the Army per se. I just think these young ones are getting the purple shaft. B.O.H.I.C. was a military colloquiolism which means "Bend Over, Here It Comes" which is probably something these kids will get.