Gentlemen,
I spent some time this morning reading accounts of the festivities that occurred yesterday, marking the 65th anniversary of D-Day. Photographs and descriptions of the terrain, conditions, equipment, strategy, and the ensuing carnage are still riveting to view, even as they recede into history. But to me, the most interesting component of that invasion were the men who fought there. Those Tom Brokaw described as "The Greatest Generation". Most of the soft-spoken, working-class American men that crawled into those landing craft 65 years ago yesterday, had just endured 15 years of unbroken financial hardship during the Great Depression. For many, the first brand-new pairs of shoes, trousers, and shirts they had ever owned were issued to them when they enlisted in the Army. These men found their military training to be a piece of cake compared to the backbreaking labor they performed on a daily basis working on the farm. And they relished the unlimited amounts of food the military served them back at the base.
Tempered like hardened steel after a decade and a half of physical and financial struggle, these gaunt young men had been ideally prepared by difficult circumstances to endure the hellfire that rained down on them that day.
America is able to produce such warriors today, but in greatly diminished numbers. They come from the ranks of football players and wrestlers, cowboys and other athletes. But such young men are a far smaller percentage of our modern day population. If America's hand was forced by a massive worldwide conflict, could we assemble 20 million suitable young men from our current population of coddled, flaccid, emotionally fragile and overweight teenagers. I doubt it.
Which takes me back to those soldiers who survived World War II, and returned to America to get on with their lives. This enormous population of battle hardened veterans of both war and depression, didn't get too fazed by financial difficulties or business setbacks like those we are experiencing today. They built families, businesses, banks, and infrastructure. Many of them drank, loved, and lived like there was no tomorrow. Even as old men, they exhibit a toughness it's difficult for many young people to understand.
Their early life experiences were so difficult and in some cases, so momentous, that nothing coming along afterward seemed all that troublesome. Kind of like driving for a long period of time at 140 mph. Having done that, when you slow down to 100 mph, it doesn't seem all that fast.
Just 65 years ago, the very survival of Christian civilization hinged upon the success of that daring landing on the beaches of Normandy. 9000 men died in one day to secure that beachhead. In comparison to the dire circumstances that existed then, our current economic difficulties don't look quite as devastating.
True story.....Some months ago a young executive who worked for Lehman Brothers was en route to appear before a congressional committee with several other members of the firm's management team. The young man was sweating bullets and made mention that their firm's survival was in great peril and that circumstances could not be any more impossible. One of the older managers told him to relax and remarked, "Let me remind you, that you are in a Mercedes Benz headed to a meeting where you will answer questions, and a worst-case result will cost you some net worth.........You are not in a Higgins Landing Craft plowing through heavy surf and machine gun fire toward Omaha Beach where a bad result would cost you considerably more."
It's all a matter of perspective.
Chip
I spent some time this morning reading accounts of the festivities that occurred yesterday, marking the 65th anniversary of D-Day. Photographs and descriptions of the terrain, conditions, equipment, strategy, and the ensuing carnage are still riveting to view, even as they recede into history. But to me, the most interesting component of that invasion were the men who fought there. Those Tom Brokaw described as "The Greatest Generation". Most of the soft-spoken, working-class American men that crawled into those landing craft 65 years ago yesterday, had just endured 15 years of unbroken financial hardship during the Great Depression. For many, the first brand-new pairs of shoes, trousers, and shirts they had ever owned were issued to them when they enlisted in the Army. These men found their military training to be a piece of cake compared to the backbreaking labor they performed on a daily basis working on the farm. And they relished the unlimited amounts of food the military served them back at the base.
Tempered like hardened steel after a decade and a half of physical and financial struggle, these gaunt young men had been ideally prepared by difficult circumstances to endure the hellfire that rained down on them that day.
America is able to produce such warriors today, but in greatly diminished numbers. They come from the ranks of football players and wrestlers, cowboys and other athletes. But such young men are a far smaller percentage of our modern day population. If America's hand was forced by a massive worldwide conflict, could we assemble 20 million suitable young men from our current population of coddled, flaccid, emotionally fragile and overweight teenagers. I doubt it.
Which takes me back to those soldiers who survived World War II, and returned to America to get on with their lives. This enormous population of battle hardened veterans of both war and depression, didn't get too fazed by financial difficulties or business setbacks like those we are experiencing today. They built families, businesses, banks, and infrastructure. Many of them drank, loved, and lived like there was no tomorrow. Even as old men, they exhibit a toughness it's difficult for many young people to understand.
Their early life experiences were so difficult and in some cases, so momentous, that nothing coming along afterward seemed all that troublesome. Kind of like driving for a long period of time at 140 mph. Having done that, when you slow down to 100 mph, it doesn't seem all that fast.
Just 65 years ago, the very survival of Christian civilization hinged upon the success of that daring landing on the beaches of Normandy. 9000 men died in one day to secure that beachhead. In comparison to the dire circumstances that existed then, our current economic difficulties don't look quite as devastating.
True story.....Some months ago a young executive who worked for Lehman Brothers was en route to appear before a congressional committee with several other members of the firm's management team. The young man was sweating bullets and made mention that their firm's survival was in great peril and that circumstances could not be any more impossible. One of the older managers told him to relax and remarked, "Let me remind you, that you are in a Mercedes Benz headed to a meeting where you will answer questions, and a worst-case result will cost you some net worth.........You are not in a Higgins Landing Craft plowing through heavy surf and machine gun fire toward Omaha Beach where a bad result would cost you considerably more."
It's all a matter of perspective.
Chip
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