” But as Washington grapples with the legacy costs of the “greatest generation” — including the unsustainable burden of paying the retirement bills for the GIs’ supremely entitled children, the Baby Boomers, perhaps it is at least worth recognizing that the government and the culture designed to benefit one generation has come at the cost of those that come after it.”
The above statement is spot on. Before I say what I’m going to say, let me say first; my dad was a decorated WWII combat veteran. Had one uncle KIA’ed in WWII. Had another uncle and an older cousin serve in the Big One. I am a Vietnam veteran. So, I have a great deal of admiration for those who served for sure. But, and here it is, the Greatest Generation, after WWII eventually took power in government and the private sector. Consequently, this generation shaped post war America into their vision of what they thought it should be. Because many of them served and many lost husbands, fathers, uncles, brothers, etc, designed the subsequent draft law so that their children (baby boomers/Vietnam generation) could easily evade it. There were several ways one could do so; marriage ( this one was eliminated about 1965 I think because just about anybody could take advantage of it, no power or political influence necessary) college, teacher, firemen, police, work for a co in defense industry, Peace Corp, Certain gov jobs such as congressional aides, Reserves or National Guard ( a very few technical and air units served in Vietnam but not many). So, those draft age kids whose ole man had some pull were able to quite easily avoid serving. This started the ball rolling for the baby boomer entitlement syndrome. In my way of thinking, this may have been the greatest disservice done to this country by the Greatest Generation. Sorry I was so long winded, my bad :)
I graduated from college in 1969 and joined the Marine Corps. My memory of those times is somewhat different from yours. Your college deferment reverted back to IA once you graduated and it was very difficult to get into the National Guard or the Reserves. Most of the baby boomers that I know do not have the “Baby Boomer Entitlement Syndrome.” We served our country in time of war; went to college and earned a marketable degree; got a good job; got married and raised a family; paid our taxes and voted; saved for our retirement and many, including myself, retired early.
The boomers produces almost 9.5 million veterans, overwhelmingly volunteers, Vietnam was overwhelmingly volunteers, unlike WWII which was overwhelmingly draftee (the army was manned by 93% draftees, the Navy Coast Guard and Marines had large numbers of draftees).
Those old leaders lost Vietnam while the boomers were winning every battle.
The boomers are just now finishing up military service with these last couple of wars of the last decade, but boomers were the last great warrior generation, and a very sizable percentage of the men of that generation served.
While the old leaders made the political decision to keep a low profile by not calling up the Reserves and Guard in a big way, they still accounted for more than 10% of our dead in Vietnam.