Cara’s Blog

Women who joined the armed forces during the forties needed thick skin and plenty of courage. In the present day, many people are still quite hostile towards women in military. I can remember clearly, a heated discussion between two of my peers in high school. One was emphatic that women have no place in the armed forces because they were a distraction to the men and not suitable for combat. Today, however, a female military presence has become more widely accepted. Sixty years ago social norms were much stronger against it. A writer in 1946 noted that “families that might give up their sons or husbands to the war found it disgraceful that a daughter should be held in the Service or even evince a desire to enlist (91). An army nurse recalled that people would call her “queer” and thought that she was only participating in the war effort because she “wanted to chase men or had some moral problems,” (92). The Veterans Administration was portrayed in such a positive light in The Greatest Generation Comes Home. It had been transformed from a place who employed “the dregs” of the medical profession to a productive operation. Wages Of War, however, stated that women did not share the same medical benefits of the male soldiers. It was reported that there were only seven gynecologists employed by the VA and they could not perform the basic examines such as pap smear and breast examines.

The presence that blacks had in the military was much more substantial in WWII compared to the other wars we’ve discussed so far. Their involvement led to greater respect and opportunities they had never been offered before. The Greatest Generation Comes Home cited that the 761st Tank Destroyer Battalion, made up of all African American men, preformed impressively against “heated” opposition in France, Luxembourg, and Belgium. He black airmen of the 99th Fighter Squadron racked up eighty-eight Distinguished Flying Crosses (116). After the war black college enrollment and the registration of black voters rose dramatically. Black veterans such as Medger Evers and Amzie Moore became advocates of civil rights for African Americans. The story of Dorie Miller as told in Wages Of War was another example of black heroism. Although it was not glorified in the 1940s the 2001 film “Pearl Harbor”, respected actor Cuba Gooding Jr. portrays the heroic Miller.

I found The Greatest Generation Comes Home to be very useful to understanding the differences between World War 2 and the wars we have studied before. Professor McClurken told us about the efforts that FDR put forth to help the veterans but there was even more of an effort than I would expect. For example, this text discussed that a lack of doctors was rare. I remember from our readings about the Revolutionary and Civil Wars that it was a problem at times to obtain medical help for the number of casualties.

The Veterans Administration even made sure that the medical help was to a higher standard than before. Omar Bradley, their new leader called the U.S. Civil Service, the doctors who had been used previously to be “the dregs of the medical profession.” I was also surprised by the real push to get veterans employed. Was it the strong executive power that made Americans more concerned with the soldiers returning home or the massive numbers of men who fought?

Wages of War went into a lot of depth about difficulties that veterans had when they reemerged back in society but Doing Battle allowed me to understand the troubles soldiers faced. By this point in the book, the reader has gotten to know Paul Fussell both before and during the war. I expected his fate to be similar to other soldiers we had learned about. Combat exhaustion, poverty, and social isolation came into a whole new light as I saw the change in the character that had been developed in previous chapters. Fussell was deeply troubled with his own guilt. He asked himself “How could I justify my life?” upon reading memoirs of Tobias Wolff. Fussell wondered why he was still alive and why so many others were dead. I found his college life after the war particularly interesting as well. Now, the author explained “[I was] in an entirely different spirit than before. This time, no playful boyisms: rather a serious search for answers to overwhelming questions and deep annoyance with intrusions and diversions that might interrupt that process.”

When I read the passage on pages 178-181 about Fussell’s interest and passion with war-time poetry I was reminded of a friend of my father’s. The man, now in his 70s published a book of his own poetry about his reflections to the Korean War which he fought in. I was surprised by both Fussell and this local man because both came off has having very tough exteriors. Seeing and reading about grown men, moved to tears by poetry of combat, gives one a scene of how damaging war really is psychologically.

Although Fussell’s piece can be used as a great learning tool, we, as readers, have to keep in mind that his piece is undoubtedly bias. This is one reason it is important to read more than one primary source when researching. One example of this was when Fussell was talking about his classmates as being military snobs. Although this may have been how the author saw these people and himself, it most likely wasn’t this way everywhere. His comparison of classroom professors and sergeants would be seen differently depending on who was observing it. A non-military person probably would not have seen this comparison.

Doing Battle was by far my favorite book for this course. Fussell’s style of writing was personal and engaging. The other memoirs we have read so far have been enjoyable too, but they used a level of constraint and self-censorship. A few passages were too personal like the one about Fussell’s bowel movement during a march but I felt that stories such as this and his description of army food, as “shit-on-a-shingle” gives the reader a better sense of army life. I found the section about the college students’ romantic relationships interesting. There were certainly similarities to the present generation. Pregnancy is still a big fear but now we have the pill and it is more socially acceptable to buy condoms.
The Greatest Generation Comes Home was also an enjoyable read. I thought it was well written and more appealing than Keene’s book. Her introduction raised a lot of interesting questions about the postwar period and explained her thesis very effectively. This is something I need to work on with my own writing. I found her excerpt about women who stayed in the work force after the war. I was under the impression that most returned back to their roles as primary care-givers and home keepers.

The pattern of hatred and discrimination as described in our readings never surprised me but it certainly does continue to bother me. Through history there has always been a targeted group. African Americans seemed to always be a target. Severo and Millford have made very conscience efforts to dedicate large portions of their text to their portrayal. Wages of War described the oppression of Italian immigrants as stronger than other ethnic oppression during this time period. Although my Grand father was very young at the time of the Great War, he has told me about some of the challenges he faced as an Italian Immigrant in America.

I found it interesting to read about the Bonus March from a different perspective. I found Keene’s text to be informative, but a bit tedious. This text went more in-depth about the fear of communism. The government certainly had reason to be concerned with large groups of former military men congregating in the nation’s capital but I didn’t see it as a legitimate threat of communism. Perhaps if the government was more willing to work with their veterans some conflicts could have been resolved.

I found this reading a lot harder to get through this week. It’s a lot more dense and dry than the other passages we’ve been assigned. However, it did contain a lot of information that helped me understand the time period better. I hadn’t even learned about WWI until my senior year in European History. For some reason, we always seemed to skip this war and go on the 2nd world war. Learning about it from the prospective of Europeans was interesting though.

I noticed a lot of similarities between this war and the others we’ve learned about. First off, racial tensions between blacks and whites were still very common, despite what Roy Wilkins may have claimed. I still have to hand it to him for having the courage to say this especially at this point in history. Another similarity I saw was the uprising of veterans against their government. The march of veterans on Washington and their confrontation with reminded me of Shay’s rebellion. The protesting with Shay didn’t go as far as the man who buried himself alive though!

A few things stuck out to me as similarities from previous texts. The first was Alvin York’s strong connection to his religion. Many times in his diary he wrote about praying, being saved, and the how he turned to God while he was at war. This reminded me of the accounts of Sam Watkins from CO. Aytch. Through out the text Watkins and York referred to God as a force that gave them faith even through the horrors of war that they witnessed. York seemed to be more deeply rooted in his faith than Watkins however. It seemed like every other diary entry made a reference to his faith. I would find if hard to keep my faith under the same circumstances.

I noticed that the term Citizen-soldier was used over and over again in the other reading. This is something that was first brought up around the Revolutionary War. I’ve also seen it referenced in newspapers from time to time. The “Doughboys” book referenced the civil war several times, which I felt was important. The Civil War seemed to repeat too many mistakes that were made in the Revolution because it was not learned from. For WWI people like President Wilson looked back on the previous great war to make more educated decisions to avoid issues such as desertion. If we don’t learn from history we are doomed to repeat it, which I think the people of this era realized.