Monday, January 23, 2006

From Our Greatest Generation to the Softest....

Today is my Uncle Pete's 80th birthday, or what would have been. Like my Dad and my other uncles, he joined the Army straight out of high school during World War II. Unlike my father and 4 other uncles, he did not come home. He died Feb.7th, 1945 at the Battle of the Bulge - the final push into Germany and victory. He was 2 weeks past his 19th birthday.
I don't know much about Pete - Dad still can't talk about him without getting upset. I have 2 pictures related to him. One is of him, and my grandparents, all three of whom I never met. The other is of his grave in Luxembourg, where he rests with 11,000 other soldiers. None of my uncles past away before 77, so I have no doubt that he would still be around today. Losing someone that early leave a big shadow, of what would have been. There is some solace in knowing that my family's loss was not alone, but merely one of hundreds of thousands who sacrificed for our country. A generation known as our greatest. It's really sad how far some of us have fallen , and I'm one of them.
I sit at my computer here, reading complaints about our country becoming a " Police State" over a couple of phone calls made overseas by possible terrorists, and gas prices. It makes me think - would we have survived what my parents went through? Depression and World War, gas rationing and other personal sacrifices? I'm not so sure. We watch one of 5 TV's in the house, load up our iPods, and supersize it at MickeyD's on the way to work - where we don't make anything, we just shift paperwork of ownership from one person to another. WE ARE SOFT.....I AM SOFT..
The only ones who have any inkling of how our parents had it are those in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of them aren't coming home at 19 either. When you see a soldier, tell them thanks - they might be killed protecting your and my right to fight like idiots over the asinine things that we fight over. Compared to them, you have it easy.
Sometimes, I get tired of my Dad's stories about how things were back then. The truth is, I'm probably embarrassed at how we've had everything handed to us by the hard work of people like my Dad and Uncle Pete. So I take this time to honor my uncle, and those others of our Greatest Generation - may we not give back all that you have gained for us.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

We are soft. Can you imagine this nation going through rationing today? Can you imagine asking soldiers to live in the same conditions our soldiers lived in during WWII. I hate to say it, but our nation would not put up with it today.

The soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan don't really have it that bad. Of course, if you're killed at 19, or you've had your arms or legs blown off by an IED, you don't have it so good.

But by and large, our soldiers over there live in comfortable air conditioned trailers, they have fridges, satellite tv, eat three hot meals a day and get to take a shower every day. They also have email access, can phone home every day if they want to.

And for the most part, most deployments are no longer than one year.

That's a far cry from what our WWII veterans faced. Some were overseas for three years with no trips home. Weeks went by before letters from home arrived. Men would find out about a parent dying two weeks later, with no hope of going home for the funeral.

No, most of the soldiers in today's army would not be there if the living conditions were that bad. And most Americans would not support any war if if meant they'd be subjected to rations of food or gasoline, or if they had to give up anything for that matter.

Joshua Gross said...

We're also soft as a nation, unable to stomach even the small losses we have incurred in the fight for freedom (and survival) that we face in the middle east. That softness is similar to what led to the downfall of Rome; if we are unable to face the threats we are staring in the face today from Iran and North Korea, we will most assuredly follow a similar path.

Anonymous said...

The only freedom we're fighting for in the Middle East is the freedom of corporate giants to make a profit.

What we're doing in Iraq has nothing to do with brining democracy to the people of Iraq.

Spend a year there, and be honest with yourself while you're there, and you'll see what's going on.

Thoroughbred 401k said...

Good comments. It's great to see honest opinions without involving politics. I won't say that Iraq is a war for our freedom, but it does affect our safety in the long term. Corporations and people have always profited from wars. In the Civil War, scam artists ripped off the government making boots, cannons and hundreds of other items. That unfortunately, is the downside of power.