Thank you Greatest Generation

But it wasn’t just the war and war effort back at home, you had the Great Depression as well. And with the war in full gear by 1942, the depression was over. People at home could have had all the things and luxuries that the 1950’s gave them after the war. But they continued to ration.

The best example of the every man of that era was Elmer Fudd. He did the rationing and gardening and hunting to feed himself beyond the ration books. He went hunting despite being incompetent to have more meat on the table. Just like untold thousands of city dwellers did. Outfoxed by a rabbit (or duck depending) was a wild exaggeration to the failure many would be hunters had on the weekends. That is what made it funny. What made him a likable character was that he still tried despite failure. Just like Charlie Brown. And to a lessor extent, Jon Arbuckle from Garfield, except with him it was with the ladies in his 60’s-70’s mashup of fashion.

You can fail and be rooted for as an underdog if you are likable or relatable. It is the despicable that we despise and rejoice at their failures.

a reply to: network dude

Granted, the sacrifice they made.

What I have a problem with in a lot of ATS threads where people thank vets for their service ( there's nothing wrong with doing that ) the topic of why you don't see/hear arm manufacturers honoring the dead; but then that would give the deadly game away.

Why do we go to war when its fairly obvious that most are a manufactured contrived paradigm, that wars are useless to the every day man?

What makes deaths in 1 war any more special than deaths in another?

youngest killed in Vietnam war
wiki

Dan Bullock Dan Bullock (December 21, 1953 – June 7, 1969) was a United States Marine and the youngest U.S. serviceman killed in action during the Vietnam War, dying at the age of 15.

www.goodreads.com...
" War is a racket "

a reply to: shooterbrody
My father was in one of those armies, but he was a lorry driver and did not actually land until a couple of days later.

We musn't forget those who supported them at home. Here is a letter which my grandmother wrote to her daughter-in-law, my mother, on the day when the news broke;

Cabourne,
Caistor,
Lincoln
6-6-44

My Dear Barbara,

The great day has arrived at last; although we have been daily expecting it, it comes as a shock to hear it announced, that it has really happened. We expect that Ben would have to go. From what they said on the wireless, I suppose that you won’t have seen him for a few days , at least.
When I heard the news, my thoughts flew at once to you & I wondered, if he had gone & when you saw him last., how very glad I am that he called in to see us. I can hardly think it was true, even yet; you must write & let us know as much as you can Barbara, & I’m afraid that it will be precious little, they have kept everything very hush-hush.
But it was nice that you were so near to him, there seem to be such a lot of people, who have no idea at all where their boys have been living lately.
Well, my dear, we wish them all good luck in this great venture & pray that God will take care of them & bring them safely home.
We trust that you are keeping well, Ben will know that you have a comfortable home & be well looked after, by Mrs Jones.
We are all nicely at home, hope you soon have news from Ben.
Love from all,
Mother & all
XXXX

P.S. write soon

originally posted by: TheConstruKctionofLight

Granted, the sacrifice they made.

What I have a problem with in a lot of ATS threads where people thank vets for their service ( there's nothing wrong with doing that

When I hear that I want to say, save it for those who were injured or died...

a reply to: Xtrozero

I bet if you would have asked people that were living it up in the roaring twenties they would have said they were to soft because of how good things were to face major adversity, but they did, My point here being you don't know what any population of people are capable of until they are faced with it.and are they great because of the great depression, or world war 2? They had no choice but to live through the recession and had no choice but to face down the axis. Ask a soldier that has done multiple , multiple tours in the war in afghanistan if he thinks he could not do what thee world war 2 vets did.

a reply to: everyone

How about looking at the generation after WW2?

They were sucked into a so called police action LOL!

which would make their sacrifice even greater

en.wikipedia.org...

The original American report blamed North Vietnam for both incidents, but the Pentagon Papers, the memoirs of Robert McNamara, and NSA publications from 2005, suggest that the dismissal by Department of State and other government personnel of legitimate concerns regarding the veracity of the second incident was used to justify an escalation by the US to a state of war against North Vietnam.[

a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight

As I said earlier the biggest chest thumpers of war probably have never served and never would. That is why they are so pro war, Those of us that have seen first hand are usually the last ones calling for war.

a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight

And those guys were sent into a pointless war by the greatest generation as they were in the leadership positions at the time.

a reply to: DISRAELI
Thanks for sharing that.
I thought "greatest generation " covered all those people.
At least that was my intention.

a reply to: Xtrozero

are called the greatest in they were faced with greater challenges and over came each one to make future generations better

How better if we keep going to war for the same undisclosed reasons?

When we start to call wars for what they are then maybe that would bring some sanity in to the world?

topdocumentaryfilms.com...

originally posted by: HONROC
a reply to: shooterbrody

I have always had a problem with the moniker the greatest generation.

I understand your point.
They did have lots to overcome and did so with great determination.
They also raised the baby boomers that screwed us over.

A bit of a mixed bag I guess but when compared to today’s snowflakes I’ll take the old timers.

originally posted by: shooterbrody
www.foxnews.com...

Sunday marks the 77th anniversary of D-Day, a pivotal moment in World War II, when thousands of American, British and Canadian soldiers selflessly stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, to help liberate Europe from the grip of the German-led Axis forces.

Without the selfless sacrifices made that day we all very well may be speaking German or Japanese. Over 4000 gave their lives for freedom from tyranny.

Thank you Greatest Generation!!!

Interesting thing just struck me. This is almost thanking the wind anymore.

77 years ago...even a 16 year old at the time would be 93 now. Are any D-Day folks still kicking? I thought I'd read a year or two ago that the last of the soldiers were down to the single-digit count. Or was that camp survivors from WW2 I'm misremembering?

Either way, it was a looooong time ago, and like I said, it's almost thanking the wind. Another 10 years, and even their kids will start going daisies. Then nobody really WILL have any personal firsthand connection anymore (thus, "thanking the wind")

Edit: Not bashing, just thought it was damn interesting to be around and see this tidal turn in the history books personally. I know no one old enough to have lived through it even as an older child anymore -- my grandma died in 2014. I now know NO ONE personally within our family still alive from that time period.

a reply to: shooterbrody

the problem would not be that you would have to speak german but you would no longer have a right to exist if you were jewish, roma, sinti, black, gay, disabled or simply an opponent of fashism and tyranny. there would also be no discussion about whether women should be allowed to have abortions.

originally posted by: Bluntone22

originally posted by: HONROC
a reply to: shooterbrody

I have always had a problem with the moniker the greatest generation.

I understand your point.
They did have lots to overcome and did so with great determination.
They also raised the baby boomers that screwed us over.

A bit of a mixed bag I guess but when compared to today’s snowflakes I’ll take the old timers.

Ehem?

Are Gen X'ers the redheaded stepkids or something? I married one, I know they exist & aren't a myth like unicorns, lol.

a reply to: Bluntone22

Cheers to that

a reply to: Nyiah

Hey I am Gen X we are the skipped over generation lol.

a reply to: Nyiah

It came as a startling realization to me as well, a few years back.

I'm old enough now to have been, in many cases, these kids grand father...

My father would have been 98 a couple of days ago. There are fewer and fewer of that generation left. Of all my Uncles who served in that era, only one remains. He's 90, this year, if I remember correctly. He didn't serve during WWII, but he did begin his military career shortly before Korea...he missed Korea, while serving in Europe.

originally posted by: seagull
a reply to: Nyiah

It came as a startling realization to me as well, a few years back.

I'm old enough now to have been, in many cases, these kids grand father...

My father would have been 98 a couple of days ago. There are fewer and fewer of that generation left. Of all my Uncles who served in that era, only one remains. He's 90, this year, if I remember correctly. He didn't serve during WWII, but he did begin his military career shortly before Korea...he missed Korea, while serving in Europe.

My dad was an older toddler at the time (born in 41) but he has about as much recollection of that at 3 as I do Desert Storm at 6 -- in other words, neither of us were old enough for those events to make a solid mark other than just remembering relevant passing mentions from folks or in the news at the time.

Everyone's and everything's page in the cosmic book turns over eventually, it's just a wee bit sobering to become aware of it in the active process of unfolding like that.

a reply to: shooterbrody

It appears, that threat, has been the greatest faced in the last century, and nothing has united the world in such a way since

The threat? What Germany being strangled after WW1 with the Treaty of Versailles setting up the conditions for a 2nd WW?

www.google.com...

The Treaty of Versailles (signed in 1919) and the 1921 London Schedule of Payments required Germany to pay 132 billion gold marks (US$33 billion [all values are contemporary, unless otherwise stated]) in reparations to cover civilian damage caused during the war.

How about Afghanistan -
"How the heroin trade explains the US-UK failure in Afghanistan"

www.theguardian.com...

After 16 years and $1tn spent, there is no end to the fighting – but western intervention has resulted in Afghanistan becoming the world’s first true narco-state. By Alfred W McCoy

How about those billions in drugs finding their way into the West, How about the billions made by agencies and Banks through laundering that money into Black Ops and elsewhere? Building up kitties to start revolutions and topple governments to place regimes conducive to Western mining and resource exploitation?

a reply to: Xtrozero

Sure agreed. What I have a problem with is we have this information at our fingertips - how wars start and that there is always an economic puppet master that pulls the strings. The deception is so complete that all we see are images of the Fallen, the flag, the coffins.

In other scenarios of life we usually ask the question "how did we get here?" When it comes to war there's a deadly silence about the real cause of war. Perhaps if they were to ask that question they would feel robbed, the illusion come crashing down. Losing friends family and even suffered by the "enemy" as well.....

all of us hoodwinked.