“So why did he have a dog tag, if they were for soldiers?”
Dad sighed. “After D-Day—” Billy didn’t remember D-Day, he was only a year old when it happened, but he had seen movies and read about it. “After D-Day, we were pushing across France and into Germany from one side, and the Russians were coming in from the other side. And Germany didn’t have as many men as we and the Russians did.”
“They should have quit, then,” Billy said.
“Yeah, they should’ve. But they didn’t. They just kept throwing whatever men they could find into the war.”
“And they quit when they ran out?”
Dad’s voice got tight, “No, damn it. They didn’t. When they ran out of men—well, they used old men, and they used boys.
“You know how when you’re at school, you say the Pledge of Allegiance and sing ‘The Star-Spangle
