Do you think the so called greatest generation was really so great?

Yes...they were absolutely great! My father was a member of said generation...shot down during WWII over Bastogne, Belgium, and survived. He was the pilot of his cargo plane, and was trying to fly in more ammunition to the Allied Troops. He bailed out late, so was not captured by the Germans. His entire crew were captured, and all of them died...one of them on a forced march during the winter without a coat...which had been stolen from him during the winter march by his German captors. "Smitty". as they called him, died of pneumonia during that march. The rest of my father's crew died in POW camps afterward.

My father volunteered for service, BTW, as soon as he heard the call.

When he escaped from his plane it was on fire, and he was burned...but managed to hide under pine needles on the forest floor, in sight of German patrols, and eventually made his way into Bastogne...just in time for the seige.

Because he was wounded and separated from his command, he was placed in a church with many others...and the shelling by the Germans was so close that the church shook and plaster dust rained down on them from the ceiling.

After he made his way back to his command, he came home to small town Nebraska where his wife and son were waiting. He continued to serve. He was stationed in Japan during the Korean war, supposedly to teach Japanese farmers American farming methods, and I had joined my family by then.

My father, like so many others of his generation, was a true Boy Scout at heart. Some might have called him naive...but he was so filled with honor and love of country that he risked his life, and nearly lost it! AND he would have done that as many times as he was asked!