G.I. Generation

The G.I. Generation is the generation of Americans born from 1901 to 1924. The name of the generation was coined by William Strauss[?] and Neil Howe[?] for their book Generations. The term G.I. could stand for "government issue" or "general issue" and this generation stands for both.

Their typical grandparents were of the Progressive Generation. Their parents were of the Missionary Generation and Lost Generation. Their children were of the Silent Generation and Baby boomers. Their typical grandchildren were of Generation X.

A sample list of famous G.I.s with birth and death dates include:

• 1901 Louis Armstrong (1971)
• 1901 Walt Disney (1966)
• 1902 John Steinbeck (1968)
• 1903 Bob Hope (immigrant)
• 1904 Robert Oppenheimer (1967)
• 1907 John Wayne (1979)
• 1907 Katharine Hepburn (2003)
• 1907 William Levitt[?]
• 1908 John Kenneth Galbraith (immigrant)
• 1908 Jimmy Stewart (1997)
• 1912 Thomas P. O'Neill[?] ("Tip")
• 1914 Joe DiMaggio (1999)
• 1914 William Westmoreland
• 1916 Robert McNamara
• 1918 Billy Graham
• 1918 Ann Landers (2002)
• 1922 Judy Garland (1969)
• 1924 Sidney Poitier
• 1924 Lee Iacocca

A list of cultural endowments of the G.I.s includes the following:

• The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (film, Walt Disney)
• "In the Mood" (song, Glenn Miller)
• The Honeymooners (TV show, Jackie Gleason)
• The Origins of Totalitarianism[?] (Hannah Arendt)
• West Side Story (Broadway show and movie, Leonard Bernstein)
• The Making of the President: 1960[?] (Theodore White[?])
• Modern Economic Growth[?] (Simon Kuznets[?])
• Roots (book and TV miniseries, Alex Haley)
• Profiles in Courage[?], (John F. Kennedy)
• The Feminine Mystique[?], (Betty Friedan)
• War and Remembrance[?], (Herman Wouk[?])

The G.I.s held a plurality in the House from 1953 to 1975, a plurality in the Senate from 1959 to 1979, and a majority in the Supreme Court from 1967 to ???.

There have been seven G.I. Presidents. Here are their birth dates (and death dates for those that have died):

• 1908 Lyndon B. Johnson (1973)
• 1911 Ronald Reagan
• 1913 Richard Nixon (1994)
• 1913 Gerald Ford
• 1917 John F. Kennedy (1963)
• 1924 Jimmy Carter
• 1924 George H. W. Bush

From youth to old age, the babies of the twentieth century's first decade commanded the admiration and generosity of older and younger generations. They became America's first Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts[?], and half a century later, America's first senior citizens. At the other boundary, the babies of 1923 and 1924 were just old enough to be drafted, trained, and shipped to Omaha Beach and Iwo Jima in time to join in the heaviest fighting; those born a year or two later were in line to fight battles that never came. George H. W. Bush was among the youngest fighter pilots of World War II; he was only 20 when he and his Grumman Avenger fighter plane were shot down over ChiChi Jima[?]. The next President, Bill Clinton, only saw World War II through history books and film clips.

The unstoppable energy of the G.I.s is well characterized in their most enduring comic strip character: Superman. Superman became famous just before World War II occurred and the G.I.s themselves began showing "powers and abilities beyond those of mortal men". Do you need to eradicate poverty, build model cities, tame business cycles, or beat Nazis and Communists at their own game? Step aside, this is a job for Superpower America -- and a generation willing, in Kennedy's words, to "bear any burden, pay any price" to accomplish whatever goal it sets.

After the war, G.I.s built suburban tract housing. In the early 1950s, when the typical 35-year-old's income was $3,000 per year, mortgage rates were 4 percent, and a new Levittown home sold for $7,000 ($350 down and $30 per month).

No generation born before or since has felt or been so Promethean, so godlike in its collective, world-bending power. G.I.s invented, perfected, and stockpiled the atomic bomb, a weapon so muscular and deadly that it changed history forever.