oldfart
Older than dirt
As this is the memorial day weekend, I thought I would solicit some thoughts about a subject that has been bothering me. We have been through a period of glorification of those who served in WWII. I have never heard reasoning for why that generation should be elevated above those who fought in WWI, or the Civil War, or Korea, or Vietnam, or the more recent conflicts. If anyone has some thoughts on this, it would like to hear.
Finally, if we single out WWII soldiers, marines, seamen, and airmen, I would give pride of place to those who fought at Pearl Harbor, Bataan, Corregidor, Wake Island. and the dark days in the Pacific and Atlantic in 1942, when the US Navy lost six of its eight carriers, the Japanese advance seemed unstoppable, when the US Navy decided to abandon the convoy system in the Atlantic and we tried to "protect" our merchant ships from submarines by mounting machine guns on them. There was a time when it looked very much as if we were going to lose that war, and the time to build the ships and planes and train the forces that would land on D-Day and take back the Pacific was bought with the lives of the defenders who died or became prisoners in now forgotten parts of the world.
Finally, if we single out WWII soldiers, marines, seamen, and airmen, I would give pride of place to those who fought at Pearl Harbor, Bataan, Corregidor, Wake Island. and the dark days in the Pacific and Atlantic in 1942, when the US Navy lost six of its eight carriers, the Japanese advance seemed unstoppable, when the US Navy decided to abandon the convoy system in the Atlantic and we tried to "protect" our merchant ships from submarines by mounting machine guns on them. There was a time when it looked very much as if we were going to lose that war, and the time to build the ships and planes and train the forces that would land on D-Day and take back the Pacific was bought with the lives of the defenders who died or became prisoners in now forgotten parts of the world.