The Effect of World War II on Veterans
Seventy-five percent of people who tried to be a pilot in World War II were unsuccessful, and forced to take a job as a navigator or bombardier. Lyle Bradley was one of the twenty-five percent that had success and were able to take the pilot position. In an interview, Bradley talked about his experiences in World War II as a fighter pilot. In remembering World War II veterans, it is important to understand the training they had to go through, their struggles with homesickness, and the friendships that were made between opposing countries after the war was over. In order to be a pilot in World War II, lots of rigorous training had to be done to make sure the soldiers were prepared for war. When he was
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When asked about if he was ever homesick, Bradley responded, “I don’t know, but I’ve seen many grown men just cry because of this, but it never had bothered me at all” (Bradley). He was a part of a small percentage of soldiers that could deal with being away from home for this long. Many cases of homesickness were caused by boredom, and Bradley said he made sure to find something to do at all times so he never got bored. Along with boredom, a study done on homesickness in soldiers during military deployment claimed, “Homesickness has been shown to negatively affect an individual's physical, social, and cognitive wellbeing in military and non-military populations. The present study demonstrated the effectiveness of pre-deployment measures in predicting homesickness during deployment” (Niziurski). This study showed that the effect homesickness had on those deployed in the military not only affected them mentally, but it also affected their physical performance in war. The long term effects of homesickness are one of the major downsides to being a soldier, but a positive long term effect is the friendships that were