The Briefing Room
General Category => Editorial/Opinion/Blogs => Topic started by: rangerrebew on June 07, 2019, 05:02:21 pm
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If D-Day Were Today, Would Millennials Step Up to the Challenge?
As we celebrate the courage, determination, and resolve of the “Greatest Generation†on June 6—the 75th anniversary of the bloody Allied invasion of Normandy, France, that was the start of the liberation of Europe from Nazi tyranny and oppression—it brings to mind a crucial question.
Would today’s millennials meet the same challenge if faced with a future war, one in which the U.S. and its allies were attacked?
Would they have the grit and fortitude to fight and win to preserve the freedom and liberty of the West that they seem to take for granted and the values that too many of them seem to treat with contempt?
Source URL: https://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/hans-von-spakovsky/if-d-day-were-today-would-millennials-step-challenge (https://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/hans-von-spakovsky/if-d-day-were-today-would-millennials-step-challenge)
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Not a chance in hell. These Low-T manbun wearers are to pussified to step-up and fight for a country they do not believe in.
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I'm a bit more optimistic. I think we'd have a sufficient number rise up, mostly from flyover country, to defend the homeland. Millions of young men have been raised in families with a strong history of military service.
I think it should be noted that the invasion of Normandy was 2 1/2 years after Pearl Harbor.
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The term The Greatest Generation comes from the title of a 1998 book by American journalist Tom Brokaw. In the book, Brokaw profiled American members of this generation who came of age during the Great Depression and went on to fight in World War II, as well as those who contributed to the war effort on the home front. Brokaw wrote that these men and women fought not for fame or recognition, but because it was the "right thing to do."[1] This cohort is also referred to as the World War II generation.[2]
This generation experienced much of their youth during rapid technological innovation (radio, telephone) amidst growing levels of worldwide income inequality[3][4][5] and a soaring economy.[6][7][8] After the Stock Market crashed, this generation experienced profound economic and social turmoil, and eventually World War II.
Pew Research Center defines this cohort as being born from 1901 to 1927.[9]
Authors William Strauss and Neil Howe called this generation the G.I. Generation in their 1991 book Generations: The History of America's Future[10] and use 1901–1924 as birth years.[11] The initials G.I. of G.I. Generation is American military terminology referring to Government Issue and General Issue.
Characteristics
Research professor of sociology Glen Holl Elder, Jr., a prominent figure in the development of life course theory, wrote Children of the Great Depression (1974), "the first longitudinal study of a Great Depression cohort." Elder followed 167 individuals born in California between 1920 and 1921 and "traced the impact of Depression and wartime experiences from the early years to middle age. Most of these 'children of the Great Depression' fared unusually well in their adult years".[12][13] They came out of the hardships of the Great Depression "with an ability to know how to survive and make do and solve problems.â€[14]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greatest_Generation
History doesn't repeat itself, but it tends to rhyme*. I don't know if we have given them the tools they need to be able to surmount this kind of adversity.
* Paraphrased from Mark Twain.
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Humans (at least enough of them) have a way of rising to challenges, if the threat is sufficiently clear. Biology—that is, survival instinct—trumps even social constructs.
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Humans (at least enough of them) have a way of rising to challenges, if the threat is sufficiently clear. Biology—that is, survival instinct—Trump’s even social constructs.
I dunno. I think of it sort of as if we put Justin Bieber or Jussie Smollett in a uniform, gave them a gun and told them to go storm a beach. I'm not sure they would rise to the occasion. Maybe eventually, but by then the war may well have been lost.
(And, I know Bieber is not an American; I just blanked on feckless current celebrity types.)
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Why don’t we start a war and find out?
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Why don’t we start a war and find out?
A strange game, the only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of Chess?
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A strange game, the only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of Chess?
There’s a blast from the past, so to speak.
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F'ers couldn't take their thumbs off their smart phone long enough to even glance.
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Why don’t we start a war and find out?
We have been in a War since 9-11-2001.
The military have enacted many "waivers," in order to reach enlistment goals.
In my family and my wife's family, both involving a good amount of historic military service, enlistments since *-11-2001 have been in total, two females, no males.
I say that with noo joy or pride.
My niece served over ten years in the AF, and came out entirely indoctrinated with leftist entitlement, victimhood etc.
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We have been in a War since 9-11-2001.
The military have enacted many "waivers," in order to reach enlistment goals.
In my family and my wife's family, both involving a good amount of historic military service, enlistments since *-11-2001 have been in total, two females, no males.
I say that with noo joy or pride.
My niece served over ten years in the AF, and came out entirely indoctrinated with leftist entitlement, victimhood etc.
Reassuring to see that the Air Force hasn't changed that much over the past 40 years. :rolling:
I had a great tour in Germany, from 77-81. Our ADA battalion had the short range air defense responsibility for Hahn, Spangdahlem, and Bitburg air bases. My first post was at Hahn. During my two years there, I was one of two officers in my battery with a Top Secret clearance, so I was in the Wing CP for the entirety of their alerts. The other officer was my CO, so he was unavailable to handle liaison duty.
It was no big deal for me, I'd bring a few sets of fatigues and shaving gear, and caught cat naps during the night...I was 23-24 at the time, lack of sleep was never an issue.
It always cracked me up to hear my Air Force brethren complaining about having to work twelve hour shifts.
No doubt about it, though. Air Force facilities are the best in the military. Back then, we had a joke we liked to tell:
What's the difference between being on welfare, and being in the Air Force? When you're on welfare, you have to go get your check.
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" I don't know if we have given them the tools they need to be able to surmount this kind of adversity." (Sanguine's quote)
And to me that is the crux of the matter. Along with a tremendous amount of "self-centered".
I know a young man that after 9/11 told me he would enlist...but he had things to do with his life. Taking the hindsight out of this...it seemed curious. I wanted to enlist myself, These ya-hoos just bombed our country! Sadly, I was too old and infirm even then.
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"If D-Day Were Today, Would Millennials Step Up to the Challenge?"
Some questions ain't worth the breath it takes to ask them...
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We have been in a War since 9-11-2001.
The military have enacted many "waivers," in order to reach enlistment goals.
In my family and my wife's family, both involving a good amount of historic military service, enlistments since *-11-2001 have been in total, two females, no males.
I say that with noo joy or pride.
My niece served over ten years in the AF, and came out entirely indoctrinated with leftist entitlement, victimhood etc.
If FDR had gone to Congress to announce the Japanese are peaceful yet misunderstood people, and then spent weeks calming everybody down by insisting "This changes nothing! Keep spending!" then they would not have done it in 1944 either.
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I dunno. I think of it sort of as if we put Justin Bieber or Jussie Smollett in a uniform, gave them a gun and told them to go storm a beach. I'm not sure they would rise to the occasion. Maybe eventually, but by then the war may well have been lost.
(And, I know Bieber is not an American; I just blanked on feckless current celebrity types.)
You'd have to literally kick their arses through basic and other training first to toughen them up, first. While many of the WWII generation were already used to physical labor, they, too went through boot camp. Not all were in the best shape, either.
I think there would be enough who would toughen up as much as needed to get the job done, provided they weren't mollycoddled one whit more than a boot in '43 was.