Dick Gaughan's "Childhood's End" at
http://www.dickalba.demon.co.uk/songs/texts/childhod.htm
pretty much put what Art said to music.

The refrain, for people who don't want to click:

Childhood's end was long in coming
But come it must for all our fear
For all our vanity, for all our stumbling
Childhood's end is drawing near

I remember sometime back around 1977 sitting with my mother in our next door neighbor's living room. Our neighbor had hung on to a cassette tape for 5 years without playing it. She said it was because she didn't have a tape player. My mom bought one and took it over. We all listened to that tape at our neighbor's request. It was her son's last "letter" home, recorded the night before he was killed in battle.

Everyone who's been under fire sacrifices something, even if it's not their life. This Memorial Day, I will be thinking of them all.