Graduation dance, circa 1943, to celebrate graduation from Primary Flight Training, Hancock Field, Santa Maria, California. Some of these young fliers are nearing the ends of their lives.

I once met a woman who’d been a teenager when she attended a dance like this, heavily chaperoned by the USO. Her dance partner was an infantryman about to ship out overseas. They hit it off, talked most if not all of the night. The next morning—this is a true story—they went to church together. Then they had pancakes.

She never saw him again.

So, for Valentine’s day the elegant Glenn Miller standard, “Moonlight Serenade,” has to be one of the most romantic and poignant songs I can think of.

Of course, after 1944, we never saw Miller again, either.

The images in the video never fail to move me. They are all of them so young.