Posted by Sherman in Idaho [108.162.245.23] on Thursday, May 26, 2016 at 15:58:08 :
In Reply to: Re: OT Memorial Day I disagree posted by Mac from Texas [173.245.54.41] on Thursday, May 26, 2016 at 14:40:48 :
...that all kids today are spoiled and lazy. I've met a couple of good ones too. I just meant to say that those guys back then grew up knowing how to work, expected to work, and were okay with living conditions that weren't any worse than what they knew back on the farm, which would seem mighty primitive today.
Bear in mind that those guys were essentially all conscripts, too. Even if they did "volunteer", they knew that if they didn't volunteer, they'd be drafted. These days, commanders don't even want to think about dealing with conscripts. They didn't like it in Vietnam and they will resist it as long as possible today.
Those WWII guys didn't have any desire to have a military career. They had a job to do and they wanted to get it done and go home. They gave their all to kick Hitler in the nuts, and then once the war was over, they just wanted to get a good job and raise a family in peace, which is exactly what they did. Satisfaction came in the form of victory, not a lot of flag-waving.
Yes, of course things are different today, and mostly better. We can't have another world war because everybody is everybody else's customer, vendor, and/or banker. And that's probably a good thing too. Maybe when great-grandpa was fighting in The Big War, he allowed himself the luxury of imagining that one day he, or at least his great-grandson, could sit around fat and happy and not have to worry about either the cattle freezing in the blizzard or the plant shutting down or an artillery shell hitting his fox-hole.
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