Essentially, I'm curious about what happened to people's affairs when they went off to war. Did they simply leave their belongings and apartments? What about school or work? Were jobs waiting for them when they came back?
As far as specific wars, I'm primarily interested in the US-involved modern wars (WWII to Vietnam), but I'd also be interested in non-US events and experiences in that timeframe.
When someone gets drafted or signs up for the military they do not immediately go to war. Most cases they are away from whatever life they had long before they get deployed. As far as school and work there were no laws that enforced employers to give a person their job back after their service was up. Also, hardly anyone was drafted while in school. So in short, affairs were dealt with once you leave for service and before you are deployed. A power of attorney is used to give to someone that is trustworthy to deal with one's affairs in their name. Again, those that were drafted most likely had little wealth and property to tend to anyways.