Were they forced? did some want to go? (I've often heard of a kind of 'war addiction' among combat vets) Any and all info you can provide is appreciated.
For the Mods This is a repost because I never got an answer the first time and am still curious
Reposts are just fine, no need to explain! :)
edit: Reposts are fine here, but alas, tales of your grandpa's war experience are not. Please keep in mind our rule on anecdotes.
A famous answer is US Senator John Chafee. His Yale studies were interrupted by WWII and he partook in the Marine landing of Guadalcanal at age 20. After finishing his degree he went on to Harvard Law School and then to Korea as a rifle company commander. In an "oddity" (outside this site's scope) his Senator son Lincoln was the only Republican to vote against the Iraq War Resolution.
I was surprised that no one had answered this question yet so I did some quick research and according to the US Department of Veteran Affairs, I think a fairly reputable source for numbers on veterans, out of the 6 million+ men and women who served during the Korean war, the VA estimates that around 400,000 veterans had also served in World War 2.
Around 171,000 of these veterans served in World War 2, the Korean War, and then the Vietnam War (that's a lot of war!).
It's important to remember the timeline for the end of World War 2 to the Korean War.
If a young American enlisted in 1940 at age 18, he would have been in the military for 5 years by the end of World War 2 in 1945. By the start of the Korean War, in June of 1950, our young man is already 28.
If he again joined up at the start of the Korean War and fought until the end, he would have nominally served until 1953, another 3 years. This puts him at around 31. Possibly longer if he was one of those chosen to stay after the armistice was signed. Our theoretical soldier would have spent the majority of his adult life as a soldier in two very brutal wars by the time he came home, already starting into his 30s.
That is quite an extended period of time to be in the military, unless our young man was a career military man and not just a draftee. But at the same time, World War 2 and the Korean War were not that far apart.
They were certainly closer to each other than Desert Storm and the post 9/11 invasions and many people definitely associate the two conflicts as being 'close'.
Anyways, if anyone has more questions, feel free to ask.
EDIT: Missed a zero and it might have implied 40,000 instead of 400,000.