Searching For That Next "Greatest Generation"
Keith’s personal note: I just can’t get over this video. My father died a few months ago. He was a few weeks shy of 95. He carried World War II with him every day. This truly was the “Greatest Generation”. They won World War II and sent humans to the Moon. May future generations rediscover their determination – and vision.
Someday I will post the story about how a V-2 came within mere feet of killing my father and what it is like for his son to see descendants of that same rocket send his friends and their inventions within and across the the solar system – and beyond.
They not only won WWII, they saved Western civilization…for us, and for those who will come after us. I do so hope that in our gratitude we can preserve their legacy.
Dear God, that is moving. All my respect for Mr Dole and Mr Bush. They truly ARE part of the Greatest generation. My Father, Spiro and his family were refugees because of WW2. But Dad and his family never forgot the kindness of American G.I’s in Italy at the end of the war. God Bless all those who have served and all those who have suffered. Those of us who have the courage and the few of us who are worthy – whoever that turns out to be – will someday lift the burden they have borne and carry forward the torch that generation lit.
Verat stellis honorem!!
Matthew Pavletich,
Auckland, New Zealand.
I fear we have lost an entire generation to dishonor and disrespect. I hope it can be turned around.
Generations always rise to the challenge before them. The dual challenge of the Great Depression and WW II created them. They didn’t have the option to waste time on bureaucracy, paralysis by analysis, philosophical debates or trying to eliminate that last 1% of risk. They were definitely the greatest generation!
Keith,
My Dad was also a WW2 veteran. He fortunately stayed here in the US, teaching aerial gunnery to lots of sergeants destined for B-17 & B-24 missions over Europe. He was tooling up for the invasion of Japan when the A bombs were dropped and the war mercifully ended.
We owe these men a debt that can never be repaid. They all put their lives on hold and many gave everything they had to save our country.
Thanks for posting this today, brought tears to my eyes
I feel the same way about my Dad. He would be 97 if he were still alive today. He grew up during the Depression, fought in WWII and Korea, and worked at NASA on the Apollo project. They truly were the Greatest Generation. Hats off to President Bush and Sen. Dole for their tremendous service to this country.
I kept fiddling with the volume realizing sound was neither present nor needed.
Thank you, Keith.
Awesome. Simply Awesome.
Have seen this replayed a few times and it will NEVER get old for me.
God bless those who answered (and still answer) the call.
Lest We Forget.
That was my father’s generation too. My father was assigned to draw the maps of Nagasaki that were used to help end the war. They were an incredible generation. One of his best friends was on a B-24 Liberator crew in England. He had incredible stories of what he and his crew had gone through. It is hard to watch them fade into history.
What was good to see is how in many cases enemies from that era could bury their differences and become friends and allies. One of my father’s good friends was a German who had worked on designing the V-2 guidance system under the direction of von Braun. One of my neighbors renewed their family’s century long friendship with a family in Japan shortly after the war.
A number of members of my family fought, including a Corsair pilot who flew in the South Pacific, and luckily they all made it back. I will never forget when my mother told me about how she and her friends at the end of the war volunteered to carry stretchers off of ships in her hometown in Sweden that brought survivors from the concentration camps to be nursed back to health in the local hospital. Her descriptions of the condition of people she was amazed were still alive were heart wrenching and left a scar in me as the experience had done to her. Wars touch families in ways too numerous to count and often so profoundly that it shapes lives immeasurably. The price that generation was willing to pay for us should never be forgotten.
For many reasons the image of Bob Dole standing and saluting is now seared into my mind. It made me think about the veterans I’ve known over the years and what they were asked to do.
Kieth, I look forward to you writing about your father’s experience.
Every combat veteran deserves 95 years of life, but many don’t even see 25. Presidents who have had that experience seem to do better at resisting quick steps to war. Glad your father got to have a long life!
Next generation? We have one. Even better, none of them were drafted.
No disrespect at all to the WW2 veterans who saved the world. But we have another greatest generation among us: Our Iraq and Afghanistan vets. I’ll leave the debate about why they had to fight for others, but these kids coming from SW Asia deserve as much respect as those guys kid, politics be damned.