Pearl Harbor Day, The Greatest Generation

"Men will face powder and steel because they cannot face public opinion." -Edwin Hubbel Chapin, minister and orator (1814-1880)

Here it is Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, again. It will be a day to pay tribute to the "Greatest Generation", a title to a book that Tom Brokaw wrote. The title made sure there would be plenty of buyers who wanted to read about themselves. We are all egoists.

This video is of a fighter pilot, Jim Brooks, in WW II, and the P-51 airplane. His grandson is actually envious of his grandfather for the way he got to prove his manhood. One commentator said, "They don't make men like this anymore."

I think they still make men like this. I think Jim Brooks' grandson has his genes and is just like him. His grandson just does not have a glorious mission to carry out.

The Greatest Generation had to be drafted to duty. In WW II 90% of the U.S.Infantry were draftees.

I take exception to calling one generation the "greatest generation". Where is the data that shows other generations placed in the same time and place would have behaved differently?

What about the fathers of the "Greatest Generation" who charged into the withering fire of the latest war weapon, the Maxim Machine Gun, in the First World War? "The courage of a soldier is found to be the cheapest and most common quality of human nature". - Edward Gibbon

And what about their fathers who charged up San Juan Hill? And their forefathers who charged into deadly artillery fire at Gettysburg?

Why are the sons of the Greatest Generation who served at Heartbreak Ridge and "Frozen" Chosin Reservoir in Korea not considered great? Some of them at the Chosin Reservoir had served as the Greatest Generation in WW II.

Thirty thousand UN troops were surrounded by 60,000 Chinese troops at the Chosin Reservoir. The UN troops, including the First US Marine Division, fought for 17 days before breaking out while inflicting heavy casualties on the superior Chinese force. The men of the First Marine Division were great! They had the same genes as their WW II fathers. Why do we not hear about how great they were? Is it because we settled for a draw in Korea? Those brave men who fought in Korea, the forgotten war, have been discarded, forgotten.

What about the sons who were called on to fight in an unnecessary war in Vietnam. Why wasn't the country as supportive of them as those who fought in WW II. Why are the Vietnam vets not treated with the respect of WW II vets? Could it be we think we lost the unnecessary war in Vietnam? Tribes don't like it when their tribe loses.

No one gets to pick when and where they will be born. That does not make one better or worse than someone born in a different time.

What gives the label 'Greatest' to the WW II generation is simply a different war and a different time. It has nothing to do with being great. It just happened to be a war that most of the tribe supported when there was no television or Internet that showed the horrors of war like TV showed of Vietnam. The past does not exist, but some people want it to.

I believe the fighter pilot in the video, Jim Brooks, did what his grandson would do if they traded places. Warriors throughout history have fought other warriors. Most of these warriors would do the same thing no matter which war they were in. War is common event between tribes.

"Distorted History boasts of bellicose glory and seduces the souls of boys to seek mystical bliss in bloodshed and in battles." Alfred Adler

Charles Tolleson