Many have written about what has been termed “the Greatest Generation”

that stalwart group of women and men who with conspicuous success saw their beloved nation through the desperations of the “Great Depression” and the weighty woes of World War II and the Korean Conflict.

This brief series of vignettes, packed with both humor and pathos, are very personal examples of the trials, turbulence, and triumphs that undergirded the careful crafting of patience, persistence, dedication, and workforce skills—all based on a long articulated and sought-after but never fully achieved democratic value system—that produced a far-from-perfect and still incredible “Greatest Generation.”