80 years ago on June 6, 1944, 225 Army Rangers scaled the hundred-foot cliff of Point du Hoc to take out the German guns trained downward on Omaha Beach. Before it was over, 77 of the 225 Rangers died while most were wounded and only a handful were able to continue fighting; 2,400 died on Omaha Beach that day and most are buried in the Normandy American Cemetery. That cemetery holds just shy of 10,000 Americans who died in the Normandy invasion. Additionally, 1,557 soldiers classified as “Missing in Action” are commemorated there.
On the 40th anniversary of D-Day, President Reagan stood on that promontory and recalled “The Boys of Pointe du Hoc” comparing their efforts to begin the end of the Nazi tyranny to the then current need to end the Soviet Union’s stranglehold over Eastern Europe. A few years later, the Berlin Wall would come down and Poland, East Germany, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Czechoslovakia would finally enjoy freedom. As the Wall was coming down, a young KGB agent named Vladimir Putin was busy destroying incriminating records of the East German Stasi before he scurried back to Moscow.
On the 80th anniversary of D-Day, just weeks ago at the Normandy American Cemetery, President Biden invoked “The Ghosts of Pointe du Hoc” to compare their sacrifice to the sacrifice now needed to repel Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.”
William Faulkner once wrote: “The past is never dead. It is not even past.” The past is never past because what happened in the past is repeated time and again. So, on the political level, the forces of authoritarian tyranny will always vie with the forces of personal freedom.
Tom Brokaw coined the name “The Greatest Generation” referring to the American men and women who came through the Depression and then faced up to the Nazi threat and were responsible for ending it. They then returned home. When they returned home, they did not talk too much about their war exploits but they did do one thing: they formed and joined numerous civic and social clubs devoted to improving their communities. For example, when you drive into the city of Annapolis, Maryland, you will see a sign bearing the emblems of numerous social and civic organizations. (Lions, Optimists, Kiwanis, Rotary, etc.). I think the Annapolis sign carries perhaps 10 to 12 emblems.
These groups contributed a variety of ways to their local communities. The Optimists in the 1950s were the “Friends of the Boy and activities included athletic leagues and essay and oratorical contests. Today, Optimists run programs for all kids. The Lions concentrated on medical assistance to those in need and have a special interest in helping the blind. The Kiwanis Club in each community decides how to best serve that community with a particular interest in children. Anyone who follows baseball knows that the American Legion sponsors the best teams in the community. The common concern of each of these groups: bettering the communities where they operate.
My father was a member of “The Greatest Generation.” A World War II veteran, he was injured in a training exercise at Fort Benning, Georgia shortly before his unit was to depart for Europe. That unit ended up in the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes Forest and only a few returned. He never forgot that.
Like many of that generation, he was active in his community. He was the charter president of the Hyattsville Optimist Club and became “Mr. Optimist” with his record of 37 years of perfect attendance. He was also a member of the American Legion, the Rotary, and the Knights of Columbus.
Unlike him, I have never joined any civic group and my only contribution to my community has been coaching Little League baseball, being on the PTA at my children’s school and being on the Parish Council of my local church, all of which is something but far less than that contributed by my father. Of course, my father did these things as well.
It is probably incorrect to say that the explosion of membership in service clubs in the 1950s was the result of the “shared service” experience of The Greatest Generation. But that experience certainly helped. Of course, everything was not hunky-dory with The Greatest Generation. My third base coach was convicted of killing his first wife after the same hitman he hired to kill his third wife spilled the beans about the first murder.
In almost all instances, the membership of these clubs has plummeted dramatically since the 1970s. Indeed, the spirit of service seems to be evaporating with every passing year. World War II had one positive effect on American citizens: the notion of shared sacrifice, one for all and all for one. It was the same sense of shared sacrifice that Winston Churchill engendered in the British people. The American men and women serving in the military were matched at home by “Rosie the Riveter” preparing armaments. (click here to see Norman Rockwell’s iconic painting of Rosie the Riveter)
If World War II effectively created “shared service” and that was a positive development for the American people, perhaps we should dust off the notion that all citizens should be enlisted into some type of service for others. We could require that all citizens, upon reaching the age of 18, should spend two years in a service role before they reached the age of 26. For example, some could enlist in the military; some could spend two years in the Peace Corps or two years in Vista (Volunteers in Service to America) or working on a project to save the environment similar to the Civilian Conservation Corps which existed in the 1930s and was the most popular of the New Deal programs. Others could spend two years serving in nonprofit organizations.
Participants would be paid the equivalent of a military salary with appropriate adjustments. Israel requires the citizens to spend two years in the military. This would be our equivalent, but the military would only be one place where one could serve and there would be multiple other options.
A proposal for mandatory service will be opposed by many. The principal objection will be that America relies upon voluntary activities by its citizens and, with the exception of the draft in times of war, there is no precedent for such an imposition. Moreover, the goal of bringing people together is a form of government social engineering one might expect in authoritarian countries but is surely not proper in the “land of the free.” The more popular expression of this feeling is contained in the Gadsen flag showing a rattlesnake about to strike with the words “don’t tread on me.” That flag was created during the American Revolutionary War and has come to symbolize the notion that individual rights are superior to government demands.
One potential compromise would be to make the two-year service voluntary but reward it with substantial benefits, such as the government providing educational assistance as it did after World War II with the G.I. Bill of Rights. There could be public service ads directed at high school and college students extolling the virtues of joining similar to what the military uses now.
A voluntary program would avoid one significant problem of mandatory programs. The Bill Clintons and Donald Trumps of the world will always find a way to avoid their duty while the average person will not flinch.
One additional bonus of such a program is that it will encourage a sense of community togetherness. The tribal politics of today will be diminished. Many of us will have served and, in that service, met each other.