I was scanning some pix today from my father’s old Navy scrapbook. My dad served as a mechanic at Pearl Harbor from late 1944 to 1946. So he is a WW2 vet, and thus he qualifies as part of the “Greatest Generation“. Dad’s the guy at the center, putting a bit of wit into the act (by seemingly holding up the nose girl on the old F2A Buffalo fighter plane with his hand). My brother inherited his spirit and naughty humor; I am much more of a “stick in the mud”. But then again, Dad could be as stodgy and studious as the next guy when he had to be. We both got a part of him in our blood.
Whatever. The bottom line is that he and his generation did do a lot, and we Baby Boomers never gave them enough credit for it. Tom Brokaw struck a nerve with his book; maybe they are finally getting their due.
Jim, A nostalgic picture. My husband was in WWII–I have some similar pictures of him
when he was in the South Pacific. I was a few years younger than my husband, but I
remember laying the newspaper out on the front room floor and studying the maps of the
South Pacific as the war progressed. Little did I know when I was studying those maps
of the South Pacific that my future husband was there. And now all those I knew in my
own family and in my husband’s family are long gone. Every single one of the men I
knew from WWII was a good man. The passing of the generations…. MCS
Comment by MCS — July 25, 2010 @ 11:59 pm