Reflections of Our Gentle Warriors

The men and women interviewed in this book endured back-to-back crises early on in their lives. The first was the Great Depression. The second was World War II. They were just kids – seventeen, eighteen, nineteen years old – when they went off to war, where many were put into roles where they had tremendous responsibility. Often they were thrown into hellish situations. Far too early and far too quickly, they were robbed of their youth and innocence. Over sixteen million of them served and, bolstered by a united home front, they won the war on two massive fronts, helping to save the world. They returned home and, without skipping a beat, moved on with their lives. Not wanting their children to endure what they did in their youth, they put their noses to the grindstone and built this country’s economy into the greatest the world has ever seen. Truly the greatest generation. Now in their eighties and nineties, these veterans of World War II tell their stories, many for the first time, providing a fresh, human perspective on the war. We have all the facts and figures, but not nearly enough of the personal stories....which add a powerful and important dimension to the facts and figures.