Could You Imagine Going to War as a 14-Year-Old?

It’s difficult to imagine a scenario where an adolescent boy would join the Armed Forces to fight alongside grown men in life-and-death situations. But once upon a time—World War I, for instance—that scenario was common. Some kids even lied about their ages in order to sign up. Others didn’t have to, as the powers that be were willing to overlook little things like emotional and physical immaturity for the opportunity to reinforce the ranks with fresh meat. Think of a 14-year-old boy you know; or think of yourself at that age: Can you imagine that kid being in the middle of a war?

Such thoughts came to mind this morning upon the news that Claude Stanley Choules, the last known combat veteran of World War I, died today in Australia at the age of 110. According to his Associated Press obituary, Choules began training with the British Royal Navy in April 1915, just one month after his fourteenth birthday. Two years later, at the ripe old age of 16, he was assigned to the battleship HMS Revenge, from which he watched the 1918 surrender of the German High Seas Fleet, the main battle fleet of the German Navy during the war.

He’d experienced more by the age of 18 than many men experience in their entire lives—for better and worse. And that’s something we need to keep in mind about old soldiers like Choules: Some of them might not have been so keen to run off to war if they’d been clear-minded about what they were in for. I don’t think it’s presumptuous to say that kids today have a fuller picture of the horrors of war and are perhaps less inclined to romanticize the experience. Television, movies, and the Internet provide plenty of dissuading visual images, something that was woefully lacking in Choules’ youth, when newspapers were the prevailing disseminator of information.

Choules went on to a 41-year military career, but became a pacifist in later years. According to his obituary, “During World War II, he was the acting torpedo officer in Fremantle, Western Australia, and chief demolition officer for the western side of the Australian continent. Choules disposed of the first mine to wash ashore in Australia during the war. He later transferred to the Naval Dockyard Police and remained in the service until his retirement in 1956.”

A serviceman with such a long and distinguished career had a right to be proud. But Choules became “a pacifist who wouldn’t march in parades commemorating wars like the one that made him famous.”

From a wide-eyed 14-year-old to a centenarian pacifist. It’s astonishing to think of the range of things he saw, felt, and experienced during his long life.

(Photo: Associated Press)