expected of ourselves back then. We had all experienced

expected of ourselves back then. We had all experienced the unique opportunity of growing up free and we had all those constructive role models, especially from our marvelous movies. And thank God all of our mothers made the right choice, at least for us, and cared enough to give us life and the chance to grow up, to develop strength of character and the willpower to come out of hard times" and to work and fight for what we thought was right.

We knew why we fought. We had great leadership. We had that remarkable son of VMI, George C. Marshall who persuaded Colonel Frank Capra to abandon a successful career in Hollywood to head a talented team that produced the strategic "Why We Fight series of orientation/training films—a major weapon system for the victory over fascism. We sang the same song, in harmony, reading from the same page and we marched to the great Glenn Miller Army Air Corps Band. Sound corny today? Maybe, but it worked well when it was needed most. All of Hollywood studios were producing movies with the same American message. A message brilliantly designed to defeat the tyrants—a whale of a difference to what we re being exposed to now, in thousands of theaters and on the ever present television tube.

No, Tom, ours was not "the greatest generation". That high praise must be awarded to the generation that invented the American way of life—George Washington s generation. Nor should we discount Benjamin Franklin's historic contribution. He invented the public library, the postal service, the Fire department, the public media, the Saturday Evening Post and Poor Richard's Almanac, so full of wit and wisdom, homely, healthy humor and a very practical philosophy that created and built a constructive civilized nation, which did not ever strive to undermine society or ridicule what was true and good and beautiful. Those inventions, like the Declaration of Independence, our great constitution, the free