Remembering the Greatest Generation: My Parents' Efforts During WWII Still Brings Shivers Down My Spine
The television sitcom, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, captured the sentiments of American teenagers in the 1960s who found humor in our parents’ tales of World War II. We laughed whenever Dobie’s father, Herbert T. Gillis, repeated the line, “I was in W-W-II—the big one—first sergeant, with the good conduct medal!”
Growing up, I often turned a deaf ear to my mother’s stories about her civil service position at the U.S. Army war headquarters in Boston, or her volunteer work as an American Red Cross “Gray Lady” with wounded American soldiers. After all, she was not breaking the glass ceiling nor was she performing acts of heroism. But I sorely missed the point. Sometimes I gaze at the photo of my 23-year-old mother in her somber “Gray Lady” uniform and realize how hard it would be to put myself in her shoes. When I was her age, the mere thought of assisting U.S. troops in Southeast Asia would have put shivers down my spine.