The following article was written in the Hendersonville Times-News about 2000 or 2001 by Jennie Jones Giles. It was published on the “Editorial Page” as a commentary to aid in raising funds for the National World War II Memorial.

Generation Saved the Nation
By Jennie Jones Giles
From the mountains, coves and valleys of Henderson County and surrounding counties and from every corner of the nation, a generation of men and women fought a war.
It wasn’t an idealistic crusade or a war that needed explanation or that caused much controversy.
It was a war for survival, where our nation was attacked and threatened with invasion.
It was a truly global struggle, with fighting in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas and on vast stretches of oceans and seas; and with more than 50 countries taking part.
As a former history teacher, I was continually amazed at the number of young people who knew very little about this war. Now, I am still amazed at the numbers of bright, well-educated, talented young men and women who know very little about World War II.
The story of World War II is not just a lesson in a history book; it’s the story of our parents and grandparents.
This war killed more people, affected more people, than any war in the world’s history.
The war effort produced vast social and economic changes within our society by spawning prosperity and technological and agricultural advances and by breaking down numerous social and ethnic barriers.
More than 400,000 Americans died, more than 600,000 were wounded, and more than 100,000 were prisoners of war or missing in action. Out of 16 million members of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Army Air Corps (today’s Air Force) who fought, it is estimated that only 7 million are left today, with thousands dying each year.
As the United States was preparing to enter the war, Nazi leader Hermann Goering said, “The Americans can’t build planes – only electric iceboxes and razor blades.”
But a Japanese leader was more realistic when, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he said, “We succeeded in awakening a sleeping giant.”
Japan and Germany had chosen to make war on the United States and Americans rose to the challenge.
From the men and women who served in the armed forces, to the scientific, industrial and agricultural workers performing marvels of production, to the average civilians, the American people united.
This war was won on the farms and in the factories as well as on the battlefields. Historians estimate that four out of five people felt they were doing something to help win the war.
American civilians gave more than 13 million pints of blood and served as volunteers in hospitals and USO canteens.
Life-saving drugs such as penicillin poured from the nation’s laboratories.
Universities and researchers sped up research to develop technology – technology that we use in our everyday lives today.
Mines and factories converted to war production. Vacuum cleaner companies began building machine guns and automobile factories began producing military vehicles, tanks and planes.
Boys and girls collected tin cans, old tires and other “junk” to be recycled for the war effort. And everyone received ration coupons for food, shoes and gas in order to make certain those fighting in far-off battlefields had enough.
Railroads, buses and shipping lines made moving military supplies and troops their first priority. Men of the Merchant Marine began moving supplies in convoys through dangerous waters.
With an estimated 2 million agricultural workers leaving the farms to fight, women, children and the remaining men managed to raise record-breaking crops – enough to feed the American people, the military and our allies.
With so many men fighting, the doors of industry and business opened to women and other minorities. An estimated 250,000 women joined the military to serve as nurses or take over noncombat roles.
Women took off their skirts and dresses to don trousers and overalls. For the first time, day-care centers were opened to take care of “Rosie the Riveter’s” children, while she drilled the fuselage of a bomber. Historians estimate more than 6 million women joined the work force.
Every ethnic group contributed to the war effort.
Despite internment camps and prejudice, thousands upon thousands of people of German descent joined the military and more than 10,000 Americans of Japanese descent volunteered to fight.
After an agreement with Mexico, workers known as “braceros” left Mexico to help harvest crops in the United States. Hispanic Americans by the thousands joined the armed forces, with an estimated 350,000 of Mexican descent.
More than 1 million blacks served in the military and served heroically, an important catalyst in the move to end segregation. Another million blacks left the South to work in war plants in the North and West, changing dramatically the nation’s demographics.
Of all minorities, American Indians had the highest rate of enlistment, with more than 25,000 serving in the military. Historians estimate one out of every three able-bodied American Indians were in uniform.
From 1941 to 1945, our relatives, friends and neighbors fought in the jungles of Asia, the desert sands of the Sahara, the towns and fields of Europe, the frigid Aleutian Islands and on every ocean and sea. They stood watch on Coast Guard cutters, endured the loneliness of the Arctic and were stranded on small Pacific islands.
They are buried in cemeteries throughout the United States and Europe, in the deserts of Africa and the Middle East, throughout the huge continent of Asia, on small coral islands in the Pacific, and in the watery depths of the world’s oceans and seas.
There is a quote written on the Marine Corps’ Iwo Jima Memorial in Washington, D.C., that applies to an entire generation of Americans. It was a time when “uncommon valor was a common virtue.”
We, our children and grandchildren owe a huge debt of gratitude to a generation of Americans who grew up during the Great Depression, suffering tremendous hardships, and then, as young men and women, united for the survival of our nation.
It’s time to say thank you to a generation of heroes.