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>> 7 1 Timing Is Everything William Dannenmaier missed serving in World War II by just a year because of his age, but he did not fret over skipping such an important generational experience. Registering for the draft, Dannenmaier never expected to go anywhere, except maybe to graduate school. He reflected to himself on his luck, that the war was over and despite the legal requirement to register for the Selective Service, “young men’s lives were no longer forfeit. We could plan our futures—and have them.”1 Other young Americans shared Dannenmaier’s optimism. By the early 1950s, Robert Baken had settled comfortably into the study of electrical engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and Lynn Hahn and Rudolph Stephens had settled into something a bit cozier, both deciding to marry their sweethearts. Nothing in the seemingly placid and prosperous years after 1945 warned of the possibility that graduations, honeymoons, dinner parties, and maybe even a baby or two would not follow in short order. Striking out in a different direction, Howard Matthias, Bill Anderson, Virginia Jennings Watson, and Betty Jo Alexander all enlisted in the military. 8 > 9 relationship interrupted by a long wartime separation, broke off his engagement , noting years later that he never got over his fiancée. Hahn and Matthias married their girlfriends, spending the last few months before shipping out as married men. On the eve of his departure, Matthias learned that his new wife was pregnant. The recipient of a Purple Heart wound, Matthias made it home in time to welcome the new arrival. Anderson, who intended to enlist in the Air Force, instead experienced Korea as a grunt in ground combat. Virginia Jennings Watson and Betty Jo Alexander received orders to report overseas as Navy nurses.4 Like these, nearly two million other young Americans put their plans on hold or abandoned them entirely, shipping out to Korea, Japan, or hospital ships stationed in the Far East. Born during the Great Depression and sandwiched between the “good war,” World War II, and the “bad war,” Vietnam, the men and women who served during the Korean War shared more than just the donning of military -issue olive drab.5 They were a generation of their own, influenced by a childhood made common by the uncommon events they shared—a deep and nearly universal economic depression and then a war of unprecedented scale followed by what many hoped would be an enduring peace. Little did they know it then, but this historical backdrop served to uniquely prepare them to accept their roles in Harry Truman’s war over a small, squalid, maybe even insignificant piece of Asia called Korea. Though most of the men and women destined to serve in Korea and the Far East Command would have been too young to remember “Black Thursday ,” October 24, 1929, they undoubtedly recognized the effects of that day on their lives. Throughout the country, banks closed, factories sat idle, farmers threw in their rakes as banks foreclosed on their properties, and average Americans wandered the streets or rode the rails in search of work. For the children born in these years of widespread poverty, there were tangible and sometimes terrible consequences. Poor diet and the inability to afford proper medical care led to malnourishment, diseases like rickets and pellagra, and lifelong health issues. The high rate of unemployment meant that many suffered eviction, hunger, discomfort, and parental absence as fathers or mothers hunted for jobs. Youngsters frequently had to suspend their schooling either to find employment themselves or to help at home or on the farm. But, the Great Depression served as an effective teacher to these kids, even if most of the lessons were bitter to learn. If they were old enough, boys and girls learned to work hard without complaining or questioning. They plowed fields, hawked newspapers, sold apples, cared for younger siblings, and fed livestock. Like the adults around them, children of the Depression sacrificed and pulled together with their loved ones, their communities, and their 10 > 11 titillate audiences with true or manufactured wartime heroics. Even after the war ended, Hollywood deluged young moviegoers with films glorifying the men who fought at the Battle of the Bulge or Wake Island. For many, Sergeant Stryker, the cool-under-pressure, bona-fide hard-ass marine in The Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), served a far greater purpose than simple entertainment . He and other characters like him became influential role models for the generation...

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