In my short 21 years on Earth, I’m grateful to have grown up around members of the “Greatest Generation”. As a young child in the early 2000s, I was fortunate enough to personally know and meet some of the brave Americans who fought and lived through World War II. Two special in this generation were my great-grandparents—Bob and Ruth Wegener. During WWII, my great-grandfather (or “papa” as I called him) served in the US Navy during the Pacific Theater. He was about my age when he joined the US Military to help defeat the Japanese empire. That’s pretty incredible in my book. For context, my great-grandfather passed away when I was in elementary school while my great-grandmother passed away when I was high school. So, I still have some memories of spending time with them at their house for Easter and Thanksgiving.
As a tribute to them and their generation, I thought that I would dedicate this blog post to that special generation. Because this generation is aging well into their 90s and 100s at this time, most of this generation has already passed away. Only about 300,000 of the 1.6 million World War II Veterans are still living today. Even in 2015, over 900,000 World War II veterans were still kicking. Unfortunately, this generation is declining rapidly. By the end this decade (the 2020s), the US Department of Veteran Affairs projects that the estimated number of living WWII veterans will near zero.
Most children born today will never have the opportunity to meet this generation. Therefore, I hope that this blog can help fill the void.
Who were they?
Also known as the “GI Generation” and the “WWII Generation,” these Americans are the men and women who grew up during the turn of the twentieth century. Born generally between 1900 and 1925, they lived through the Great Depression and fought in the largest war in mankind’s history—World War II. We can absolutely say that this generation lived through some tough times. Many members of this generation did not see a prolonged period of peace and prosperity until the 1950s rolled around. Here we are complaining about 2020 being the worst year ever while this generation spent an entire decade (the 1930s) suffering from the Great Depression right before the Second World War kicked off.
For curiosity sake, some notable political figures from this generation included many presidents of the 20th century—including Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush. This generation produced many other famous Americans in the realms of film, music, sports, and literature. Here are just some of the legendary figures from The Greatest Generation: Frank Sinatra, Jackie Robinson, John Wayne, Judy Garland, Marlon Brando, Dr. Seuss, Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio, and many more.
The term “Greatest Generation” was popularized by a 1998 book The Greatest Generation—written by former NBC newsman Tom Brokaw. Much of my knowledge about the Great Generation comes from that book and its 2001 companion novel The Greatest Generation Speaks. Personally, I enjoyed The Greatest Generation Speaks more as that book gathered dozens of letters from The Greatest Generation. In their letters, this generation reflected on the WWII era over five decades after it occurred—showing loads of gratitude in the process.
Why did Brokaw call this generation “the Greatest Generation”? Simply put, this generation answered the call of duty to save the world from two of the most powerful militaries and fascist societies ever assembled—Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
Common descriptions of this generation would include qualities such as humility, responsibility, industriousness, courage, and frugality. Most of these attributes are pretty self-explanatory, but I’ll discuss a few of them.
For instance, this generation became frugal due to living during the Great Depression and World War II. A dearth of jobs during the Depression and war rations during WWII caused this generation to become smart about their finances. Frugality meant fixing the things you owned rather than buying something new. It also meant living within one’s means and not burdening oneself with heavy loads of debt. We can all learn a thing or two about frugality from these folks.
On the topic of humility, most members of the Greatest Generation did not consider themselves “heroes”. They believed that they only did what had to be done during WWII—nothing more and nothing less. Their humble view starkly contrasts what we see today—where we can call ourselves heroes for wearing a mask and social distancing in public. Give me a break.
Closing Thoughts
I hope to become the kind of man that characterized this generation. Of course, the men and women of this generation were not perfect. They were sinners like you and me. Nevertheless, we ought to remember that this generation exhibited courage and sacrifice in extraordinary ways.
Even though we are not living through the Great Depression or World War II, it does not require extraordinary circumstances to become an extraordinary person. Taking care of one’s family, working as a diligent employee, and becoming a leader in one’s community are just some of the tasks that any of us can undergo to act like the Greatest Generation—just in our own era.
Anyways, I hope you learned a little bit more about one of the most special generations in American history.