Posted on 09/23/2011 9:43:29 AM PDT by Kaslin
I was watching the (A&E Biography) of Ted Williams, the baseball player. This guy raised himself as a latchkey kid, gets drafted by the Boston Red Sox, becomes the greatest hitter in the history of baseball. At the peak of his career, he signs up for World War II, becomes the most decorated fighter pilot in that war, goes back into baseball. He’s the last guy to hit .400, sleeps with every woman in Boston twenty-two times, signs up for the Korean War, gets four more medals.
And then the show ends and I look up on the shelf above my TV. There’s a picture of me in fifth grade holding a three-inch sunfish.
– Nick DiPaolo, Raw Nerve
In 1998, broadcaster TOM BROKAW coined the phrase the “Greatest Generation” to describe the American men and women born more or less between 1901-1924, “who grew up in the United States during the deprivation of the Great Depression, and then went on to fight in World War II, as well as those whose productivity [on] the war’s home front made a decisive material contribution to the war effort.”
“It is, I believe, the greatest generation any society has ever produced,” Brokaw wrote, because they fought “not for fame and recognition, but because it was the right thing to do.”
Decades earlier, in his inaugural address, JFK (himself a decorated veteran of the Second World War) had presented a memorable thumbnail sketch of his own cohort:
[T]he torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage.
Later, RONALD REAGAN (and rookie speechwriter PEGGY NOONAN) paid unforgettable tribute to “the boys of Pointe du Hoc” – all greyhaired grandfathers by the time the president saluted them at Normandy, forty years after they’d struggled onto the beach:
These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. And these are the heroes who helped end a war. (…)
You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith and belief. It was loyalty and love.
And yet it was Brokaw, even farther along in time, who coined that simple, alliterative phrase — “the Greatest Generation” — which now seems like it’s been around forever, instead of only thirteen years.
And if another book (that of Genesis) is any indication, we humans have always tended to believe that someone or something isn’t worthy, isn’t real, until it has a name.
So Brokaw’s non-fiction megaseller, with its ingenious title, inspired a rush of copycat books and movies and mini-series that’s never abated. If you doubt it, just visit your nearest Costco, or turn on the History Channel.
World War II vets were famously taciturn about their overseas experiences — a silence their idiot offspring denounced as “uptight” and read as indifference. Ironically, since Brokaw, their stories are told continuously now, engendering great acclaim. (And not a little marital tension: If my husband is any indication, a 24/7 Saving Private Ryan channel would be a great success.)
Inevitably, a minor backlash began stirring around the year 2000, led predictably by the iconoclastic hipster Left (like the fellow at Salon.com who unirionically complained that Brokaw’s book was “largely unironic” — alas, that was how people wrote back then…)
But the criticism never gained traction, in part because Brokaw always insisted (repeatedly and rightly) that he’d been careful to depict flawed, very human heroes, not super-powered saints. And also because even the least introspective scribbler at Vice or Gawker knows he wouldn’t survive five minutes sockless in the Bastogne snow.
Ultimately — narrative-for-narrative — caffeinated bi-coastal “irony” is simply no match against the sight of decidedly nuance-free tanks rolling along, accompanied by stirring music and somber narration.
At the end of the day, far more people of all ages bought the Band of Brothers deluxe box set (see, “my husband,” above) than premium subscriptions to Salon.com.
The saga of the Greatest Generation appeals to one demographic in particular. As Catholic blogger MARK SHEA observes:
One of the things that has most impressed me about the rising generation is the way in which so many Millennials have sought to look over the heads of Generation Narcissus and seek to connect with the World War II generation as models for how to be grownups. From the electric connection young people had with JOHN PAUL II, to the fascination (frustrating to Woodstock priests) that both [Pope] BENEDICT and the Extraordinary Form hold for young Catholics, to the popularity of shows like Mad Men or Band of Brothers, what bleeds through is the sense that the rising generation longs for adulthood and maturity in its adults and in itself.
Eventually, it fell to patriotic, pro-military conservatives like DENNIS PRAGER and WALTER WILLIAMS to try to answer what was becoming an urgent question:
How did the Greatest Generation produce those dreadful offspring, the Baby Boomers?
They and others theorized that in spite of (or because of) their astonishing accomplishments, the Greatest Generation had failed at one big thing:
By accident or design, they hadn’t passed their values along to their Boomer children, whose selfish, utopian “progressive” social engineering and “idealism” left the world in ruins.
Had the Greatest Generation (the men in particular) been so traumatized by their experiences during the Second World War that they came to question those values, like patriotism and self-sacrifice?
The question isn’t as recent as it sounds. The breathtaking film classic The Best Years of Our Lives came out barely one year after D-Day, and is a still-shockingly candid drama about three servicemen trying to readjust to civilian life, in a country that had sent them to war then changed drastically in their absence.
(Those aren’t fake hooks, by the way; HAROLD RUSSELL lost both hands in 1944):
Catch-22 (1961) — sometimes called the ultimate anti-war novel — is a broadly satirical (to put it mildly) reflection of Joseph Heller’s own time in the service.
Even a morsel of escapist fluff like the original Ocean’s Eleven (1960) is underpinned with disillusionment: the gang assembled for the big heist are old 82nd Airborne buddies turned amoral and cynical by their war experiences.
(I wonder if SINATRA and company were inspired by the real life Hell’s Angels, who — legend has it – grew out of post-war veterans’ motorcycle clubs, like The Pissed Off Bastards of Bloomington.)
All this to say: Did the “Greatest Generation” concept do more harm than good?
Does the honor we’ve been taught to accord the Greatest Generation keep us from having painful but urgent conversations about entitlements like Medicare and Social Security?
And what about the cohort itself?
Obviously there were many veterans simply too modest to discuss their bravery, even after Tom Brokaw made it socially acceptable.
But others were scarred by the previously inconceivabile sights at Omaha Beach and Auschwitz.
Others were embarrassed by what they perceived as their own moral weaknesses when trying to survive in surreal circumstances, far from home. Did the “Greatest Generation” moniker simply add to their burden?
Let’s be honest: not everyone in that generation was “great.”
Next week we’ll look at the worst of the “greatest.”
There was no baseball draft.
Ted Williams did not volunteer for the service. He was drafted. And was bitter about being called up for Korea.
He never saw combat in WWII
He did fly combat in Korea, but was not “highly decorated”. However, he was wing man to John Glenn.
I didn’t bother reading the rest.
Do u have a photo up there showing someone getting their throat slit?
Am I seeing that incorrectly?
How did the Greatest Generation produce those dreadful offspring, the Baby Boomers?
They and others theorized that in spite of (or because of) their astonishing accomplishments, the Greatest Generation had failed at one big thing:
By accident or design, they hadn’t passed their values along to their Boomer children, whose selfish, utopian “progressive” social engineering and “idealism” left the world in ruins.
Bears Repeating.
How did the Greatest Generation produce those dreadful offspring, the Baby Boomers?
They and others theorized that in spite of (or because of) their astonishing accomplishments, the Greatest Generation had failed at one big thing:
By accident or design, they hadn’t passed their values along to their Boomer children, whose selfish, utopian “progressive” social engineering and “idealism” left the world in ruins.
I do not mean to denigrate my parents’ generation, but these guys came back from the war, did not want to talk about it, related very little with their offspring, even if they were hard workers and gave them more “things” than any generation before could. Relationship is what keeps strong families strong. Setting examples, in love, especially God’s love. I’d agree that they did not pass down their values, but many of them had rejected their families’ values and did not attend church any longer, just wanted to be left alone. It was a time when fathers began to stay home from church, take up other interests outside the home. Each generation begins to be worse, until a correction comes along.
Ted Williams did not try to avoid combat in World War II. He was a good pilot and he was selected to teach others how to fly. He followed orders. Most World War II vets were drafted. My uncle (a WWII vet) told me that from 1943 on there was no more volunteering. If you volunteered to go into the service your were told that you would be going into the service when you were ordered to report. The military had to gear up and build training bases etc. in order to absorb the large numbers of men.
One of my favorite Greatest Generation veterans is Jerry Coleman. He went from the N.Y. Yankees into the Marine Corps. He is the only major league player who saw combat in two wars. He flew combat in WWII and Korea. He said that the Marine Corps ruined his baseball career. He also said that his Marine Corps service is the achievement of which he is most proud. He retired as a Lt. Colonel in the USMCR. He is still working part time as the Padre play by play announcer. The other broadcasters refer to him as “Colonel.”
That’s what I was thinking too. Although I would have brought in their hard work ethic, and wanting a better life for their kids. Which of course can have its drawbacks if dad is away from home all the time working his butt off, and giving Junior the money (or car, or college, etc.).
I’m one of those kids to a degree. While he worked hard during the week, long weekends were spent with us at the family shack/cabin. And even there we would go to church every Sunday.
I never considered myself “spoiled” - but looking back I see that I was!
I’m an idiot - the work ethic and “things” was the first part of your post. I guess I was more impressed with your observation of a lack of church that I forgot about it!
The pastor at our church growing up held services to 50 minutes - sharp. It was a HUGE church. Too short for me now - but he did it to keep/get the men to come to church. It worked.
Benjamin Spock, for one, deserves a great deal of the blame for the Boomer Generation.
As an outrider of the Baby Boom, born in January 1946 I watched "the greatest generation" close up for many years. Watched and listened and learned. When Brokaw launched his sound bite nickname, I felt uneasy. My observation of these people, my parents and their generation, was such that I KNEW none of them would have made up that monicker for themselves.
Not out of false modesty but out of necessity. The overwhelming impression I have after all these years is that these were people who did what they had to do, and did not feel extraordinary for doing it. Heroes yes, there were many to be sure-- but like most true heroes the men and women I knew (and still run across occasionally) didn't think of themselves that way.
As far as failing to pass on their values to the boomer generation, the author makes the same banal error so commonplace among poorly prepared media types-- the failure to realize the Boomer generation was really two generations, split down the middle, and living uneasily side by side. The same generation that went to shit on the campuses of the 60's and seventies produced the votes to elect Ronald Reagan in the eighties.
Don't bother. I only have time to read of the best of the greatest. I know the worst exist in all generations but I'll leave that read for those who have the time and the need.
When you look for the bad in mankind expecting to find it, you surely will.
“How did the Greatest Generation produce those dreadful offspring, the Baby Boomers?”
One possibility is that upon coming home from the war they did their damndest to create for their families the most secure, warm, quiet lives they could.
Winning WWII must have seemed to them an accomplishment that MUST tower in History and secure for them a fame that need never be refrenced (excluding “Archie Bunker” who never shut up about it). They went home, married and tried to live the lives they must have dreamed of all through war. They tried to give their kids a sense of wellbeing and security that may have left not just a few of them self centered and shallow; stuck in adolesence.
I was pretty old before I realize, looking at a yellowed picture of a summer “cookout”, how many actual heroes were ranged around the grill talking quietly to one another.
The crimes of Bill Ayers, his wife, and his minions were **well known** to these members of the Greatest Generation who gave them jobs and promotions.
The dry rot infecting the U.S. has its roots deep in the soil of the early 20th century and late 19th century and none of these people were “Boomers”.
Oh no, I wasn't implying that! He just didn't get into combat. In fact, if I remember right, he could've fought being drafted because he was his Mom's sole support, but didn't. The original post had some nonsense about him being the most decorated pilot in the war or something.
He was bitter about being recalled for Korea (there was a great movie The Bridges at Toko-Ri that dealt with that theme). And he said Marines were treated like garbage over there. But he flew many missions and famously brought a flaming fighter home. The pics of that are amazing and My Turn at Bat is a wonderful read.
“Their” generation was forged in adversity — the Depression, WWII, Korea. “Ours” was shaped by surfeit.
Our “challenges” are mostly petty squabbles and an imagined dearth of indulgences. Theirs were life and death.
What forces created the better men?
Given similar basic personality types (independent initiative, etc), environmental conditions become the determining factor(s).
When I was a kid, I worked for a vet who had gone into Normandy on D-day 2. He was perfectly honest about being scared and how careful everyone was to hopefully not get killed.
A few years later, I worked with an older guy whose dad had been @ the Bulge. His dad told him that regular opposing troops were no more than 50 yards apart, and could clearly see each other. However, no one, from either side, bothered the other unless & until an officer showed up and made them attack.
The 'greatest generation' was just a cute marketing trick invented in order to sell books. The GG are like every generation - if times are flush, kick back and have a beer. If not, get down to business.
I once read that, even when in mortal danger, the majority of American troops would fire over the heads of the enemy. Despite their training, they couldn't bring themselves to kill.
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