My father-in-law, a member of the Army Signal Corp’s 75th JASCO (Joint Assault Signal Company), third wave in, told me of seeing that flag when they had come down the mountain to their rest camp (next to the 5th Marine Corps cemetary).
He gave me a brown photo of one of the two flags on a piece of pipe. A treasured family momento for the next generation (my son is a veteran of Iraq - he gets it, and my So. Vietnamese flag).
Our fathers, father-in-laws and other WW2 relatives and friend were “The Greatest Generation”, though my friends from Vietnam were pretty darn good too, as are our men and women from Iraq and Afghanistan.
We are lucky to be able to produce a “Greatest Generation” every time they are needed.
There is a very interesting book that seemed to get a lot of it right. It is on generational theory - and that the “Greatest Generation” of WWII has a similar makeup as the “Millennials”. The book was written before 9/11 happened. And it said that the millennials would be successful, independent people with lots of striving in them for selfish reasons. Much like my parent's generation of WWII. BUT - they would be united in purpose if something like the attack on Pearl Harbor happened again. Something so big as to unite them in one cause.
The young men and women that joined to fight against terrorism sure showed that. And I hope that more and more of them will be joining the leadership ranks in their communities and nation as they grow older.
http://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Turning-American-Prophecy-Rendezvous/dp/0767900464 My still-living uncle was a radioman (Hey - would that have meant "signal corp!!") that was on the runway on Iwo Jima shortly after it was taken. (A few days?) Although he said "taken" was an optimistic view as the Japs were still taking potshots at the airplanes as they came in. My other uncle never talked about WWII - it never even crossed my mind that he had fought. Found out at his funeral that he had been on bombers flying out of England. My old man was on a minesweeper. He had lots of interesting stories. (He never got to see any actual fighting!)