26-05-2025
We are called the greatest generation for good reason. Here's why.
Editor's Note: This is the text of a Memorial Day address delivered in 2016.
I want to thank Linda Dixon and the (Lexington, Massachusetts) Celebrations Committee for inviting me to speak today. I have declined to speak at such events in the past. I decided to accept the invitation today because so many of those with whom I served in WWII are no longer with us and I want to share with you what we learned in the war and its aftermath.
Today we assemble to remember the men and women who sacrificed their lives for our country. It is right and important that we remember and grieve with the families, the mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, who lost loved ones in America's wars. Today, we honor the warriors, but never war itself.
I fought in World War II in the Army Air Force. Some of my brother soldiers were lost in that war. It was a just war, a war that had to be waged to defeat fascism in Europe that would have enslaved peoples throughout the world.
I flew 70 combat missions in that war. On a flight over Ostiglia, Italy in November, 1944 our plane was hit. The pilot and co-pilot were stunned by flak from the enemies' anti- aircraft guns that hit the windshield. The badly damaged plane was diving toward the ground. Unaware that the pilots were incapacitated, I was about to parachute from the plane. But at the last minute I realized no one else was bailing out so I checked the pilots. I found them plumped in the cockpit, stunned. I worked to revive them and was successful. They regained control of the plane.
So, I was one of the lucky ones who survived that war without any serious mishaps. We lost more than 400,000 Americans in that war and the worldwide losses exceeded 80 million people. My younger brother, Arnold, was wounded in the assault on Okinawa.
We mourn for the Americans who died in that war and for all those who died in wars before and since.
My generation has been referred to as the greatest generation. I think this appellation is appropriate for three reasons.
First unlike the divisiveness and sectarianism of today, Americans were united in a single purpose that involved everyone in one way or another. Whether you were on the front lines or on the home front, whether you were rich or poor, everyone was asked to sacrifice for the good of the country and mankind.
Second, during the war, President Franklin Roosevelt issued an executive order that forced US military contractors to end racial discrimination in employment and (later President) Truman began integrating the armed forces.
Third, returning soldiers were offered an opportunity to pursue a college education through the GI Bill, an education many could not have afforded otherwise. America invested in its people creating the most educated and productive generation the world had ever seen. That generation went on to build an American that ended legal segregation and created an economy of shared prosperity.
Today education is becoming prohibitively expensive. Student debt has soared. We are losing our place in the world's intellectual growth. Inequality has returned to levels not seen since the Gilded Age.
Wars have caused enormous losses of life and property in the past. But with the weapons available in the world today those losses are nothing compared to what could happen in an all-out war today. Entire cities and their populations could be lost with one bomb detonating. Add to that the threat of climate change and it is clear that our survival and the future of our kids, grandkids and great grandkids requires cooperation among nations rather than blustering, sword rattling and conflict.
Why do we fight wars? Since World War II we have been involved in too many wars for the wrong reasons. Our friends one day become our enemies the next. Our leaders rally us to war by claiming that freedom or democracy is endangered and, in the end, we make enemies of those we are told we are freeing.
War is an ultimate political solution and must never be entered into lightly. It is a double tragedy to lose Americans in wars that should never have been fought. And it is for that reason that I think Memorial Day should be a day to honor peace and those who campaign for peaceful solutions as well as the men and women who have given their lives for our country in war.
We mourn for the Americans and all those who died in World War II and all wars before and since. Over 100,000 Americans have died in wars since WWII. I question how many of those losses might have been avoided had we sought solutions other than resorting to war.
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The men and women who serve in our armed forces do not choose the wars our country fights. Politicians, businessmen and generals make that deadly choice. But it is the soldiers who make the ultimate sacrifice, often without questioning the motives of those who send them into battle.
On this Memorial Day, I ask all of you to remember the men and women who died too young and those living who have served or are serving our country and to all veterans living and dead.
Milwaukee resident Michael Rosen contributed this speech from his uncle Sam Berman, who spoke at a Massachusetts Memorial Day event in 2016. Berman, who attended the University of Wisconsin, won the Distinguished Flying Cross during World War II. He died on May 3, 2021 at 98.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: WWII veteran says Memorial Day should also honor peace | Opinion
