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So it was that the Greatest Generation came to be. Raised as children during the Roaring 20s, and chastened by the hardship of the Great Depression, these young men and women endured through those hard times only to emerge from their youth to find the world consumed by the fires of the Second World War.

They rose to the occasion. The young men of the Greatest Generation went to Africa, Europe and the Pacific to fight and die while their wives and girlfriends back home clocked in at the fields and factories they had left behind. Together, this group of Americans, under the careful leadership of a government they trusted and revered, prevailed in the bloodiest war in human history.

Out of the embers were forged a common bond. The Greatest Generation came home and set about rebuilding their lives and in the process built the greatness of modern America. They invented the computer. They built the interstate highway system. They founded fast food chains and built the suburbs that fueled enormous growth. And as they did, they remained deeply patriotic. Their trust in the goodness of America, its government, and the power of the ability of everyday people to move mountains when working together has remained strong even until the twilight of their lives.

What was it that made them so unique, and so admired? What made the Greatest Generation great?


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