alarkyokie

This hour-long program tells how this country got past the Depression of the '30s and put teenagers to work-along with all the infrastructure required to support thousands in 6 month camps.
My Father was in the CCC. Kansas farm boy paid a dollar a day to hunt rabbits in Minnesota. Massive reforestation efforts gave my Dad what he said "was the greatest job in the world!"
In 1940, when DOD needed an Army,250,000 young adults needed little training to transition a dedicated fighting force!
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/ccc/

DYNASTY HVY

I believe that got that way thru self reliance .
Ally

MD10PLT

The greatest generation put us 11 trillion dollars in debt. Yea they where great. Took care of themselves at our expense. Oh and self reliant; forced Medicare down everyones throat so they wouldn't have to take care of themselves.

bryris

You are talking about the actions of a few as compared to the many.

SteamJet

Beside being totally wrong, you are insulting.

Thank the Johnson (D) administration and his "Great Society" social welfare scheme for Medicare/Medicaid. It was certainly not of case of the people of the greatest generation asking for it as you state/imply.

Are you really concerned about politicians bankrupting the country? Then you certainly must be incensed about the current administration and their spendthrift ways.

MD10PLT

Medicare was signed into law 30 July 1965. The WWII generation was in their mid 40's, and 50's the largest voting block. So they basically controlled the government. Yes they created Medicare and all the other programs which have basically bankrupted our country. There is no way they are the greatest generation. They are the geediest generation.

Your right I'm totally insulted, that me and my kids will have to pay, for years to come ,for the failed programs of the 1930's-60's

SomedayRJ

And the Bush (R) administration for adding $8 trillion in the form of Medicare Part D. There is plenty of blame to go around for the economic mess we're in. Some of it is even ours as individual consumers, although I will freely admit a LOT of it has to do with a combination of ineffective regulation and stupid government policy.

Again, plenty of blame to go around—between the executive and the legislative. For some reason we all *love* our Congressman but hate Congress...hmm...

themctm

Another documentary on PBS about WWII? Sheesh!
It will curious how they spin this. While the CCC was great at giving people something to do it was hardly a fix for the economic times. My grandfather, his brothers and father paved roads in rural Tennessee. According to him it was nice to have the money but was hardly a fix all for the problems they were experiencing. Gov't caused the G.D. and only a war could fix it.

MD10PLT

Lets talk about the greatest generation for a second. The WWII generation is generally considered the greatest generation because they fought the largest war. However, at the individual level it doesn't matter how large the war is, it only matters how often and how intense your personal engagement with the enemy is. From this perspective the Vietnam generation had the most intense and frequent engagements. The average soldier in WWII saw 40 days of combat in 4 years. The average soldier in Vietnam saw 240 days of combat in 1 year (Gen Westmorland). As for the conditions in which they fought, does anyone really think the European theater or North Africa was as difficult as the jungles of Vietnam. Every generation has a time when they have to step up to the challenge. WWI had the trenches, The American Revolution the harsh winters and lack of supplies, Civil war; brother against brother etc. For some reason the WWII generation wants special credit because their war was bigger.

The real greatest generation is the Vietnam generation. Why? Because when they returned they put into place laws which would try to prevent what had just happened. They started with the War Powers Act, limiting the ability for a president like Johnson to unilaterally start his own war. For those of you who say the Act is unconstitutional, it really doesn't matter any more because all the presidents who have gone to war (with the exception of President Clinton) have gone to Congress and asked for a resolution (yes even President Bush asked before both Afganistan and Iraq). Therefore the precedent is set. Next they passed the Glodwater-Nicholes act. Providing for a chain of command in time of war. Hard to believe they needed to write that one down. Then they passed the Operational Test requirements for equipment going into combat. Preventing things like the M-16, never tested and sent into combat. The list goes on but you get the idea.

Now compare this to the WWII generation who came back and passed a bunch of laws, which are basically handouts for not working.

Every generation has and always will answer the call, even the current one. Sorry if I don't think the WWII generation deserves special treatment, just because their war was bigger.

Kilgore Trout

MD10PLT, are you being serious? Just for starters, yeah, I believe the European and North African Campaigns of World War Two were pretty damn difficult. Have you even cracked a book about the average front line grunt's life in WW2?