Music: The Greatest Generation's Secret Weapon

The Fact Is.org ^ | 5/25/05 | Duncan Maxwell Anderson

[SamuraiScot]

Splashed across the top in block letters were the words "This Is the Army."

It was an original cast recording of a Broadway musical revue produced in 1942, America's first full year of World War II, produced by Irving Berlin to raise money for the war effort. The cast members were all soldiers. … I was awestruck, looking through this window to the heroic times my parents' generation had known.…

Today, their optimism seems quite logical, because we know who won the war. But America wasn't winning then… After the slaughter at Pearl Harbor in late 1941 had come the steady humiliation of U.S. forces, who were chased off nearly every Pacific island between Australia and Alaska by the seemingly invincible Japanese who took 78,000 U.S. prisoners at our surrender at Bataan. Meanwhile, 30 to 40 Allied ships were sunk by German submarines every month, killing nearly 10,000 sailors in the North Atlantic alone.

The Department of War, eager to boost the morale of the beleaguered American troops, decided to send the cast of "This Is the Army" into combat zones from Europe to North Africa to New Guinea. The actors and musicians, like all soldiers, were dogged by submarines, air raids and bomb scares…

Stalin once derisively asked, "How many divisions has the Pope?" There is no way to calculate how many legions of angels Irving Berlin and his "This Is the Army" unit commanded unseen, in the dark days of 1942 and beyond. But the G.I. Joes went back to the lines boisterous and chortling — and the tide turned in 1943.

[SamuraiScot]

There is no way to calculate how many legions of angels Irving Berlin and his "This Is the Army" unit commanded unseen, in the dark days of 1942 and beyond.

/

[Old Sarge]

This kind of love of country will never happen again.

[spinestein]

[This kind of love of country will never happen again]



I'll bet it will if it needs to.

[zarf]

Awsome. Thanks for posting this.

Berlin wrote and produced a show in WW 1 called Yip Yip Yaphank which was also musical revue.

Berlin is without a doubt, the greatest all around song writer this country ever produced.

His output was mind boggling with a career that spanned 5 decades. He raised and his works continue to raise money for great American causes.

[HardStarboard]

>>>This kind of love of country will never happen again.<<<

Its being displayed every day by the fine young men and women serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

And it exists in the hearts of approximately 62 million voters in the last election.

The whiney leftists always make noise out of proportion to their numbers. Don't let it fool you.

But we could sure do without the ALCU!

[Old Sarge]

You mean, it doesn't now?

[spinestein]

[After the slaughter at Pearl Harbor in late 1941 had come the steady humiliation of U.S. forces, who were chased off nearly every Pacific island between Australia and Alaska by the seemingly invincible Japanese who took 78,000 U.S. prisoners at our surrender at Bataan. Meanwhile, 30 to 40 Allied ships were sunk by German submarines every month, killing nearly 10,000 sailors in the North Atlantic alone.]


THIS hasn't happened so far in our current war against militant religious zealots.

However, those who are serving on the front line in this war to end jihad-ism are doing work just as difficult and just as noble but not as appreciated as those who served in WWII.

[Choose Ye This Day]

It NEEDS to happen NOW!

[Old Sarge]

I agree.

That's what I have to look forward to, very soon.

[spinestein]

That work is appreciated by MANY (including me).

I believe that the desirable outcome is inevitable as long as the national will persists to see the end of jihad-ism.





Thank you.

[DaveTesla]

"This kind of love of country will never happen again."

Stop listening to the communist controlled media.
There are more out here than you could ever imagine.

We love GOD.
We Love our country.
We love our families.

[TheMole]

Just a thought ... WW2 was the last -- and in fact the only -- war that American communists and other leftists supported. That is, they supported it after June 1941, when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. From 1939-41 they opposed it in accordance with Stalin's policy directions, and they've opposed every military conflict since.

[rawcatslyentist]

Hey, I'm still writing patriotic songs.
I should have a new song ready for upload next week. Just because the MSM/ Commie Garbage Salesmen are hawking trash, doesn't mean that the patriotic ones aren't doing their part.

ABC CBS NBC CNN its all the SAME, Propaganda.
Might as well call them all AmeriJazerra.
Show them how much Gravitas Hugh Bris has. Vote with your remote! Shut down the Alphabet channels.

He's Got A Plan
Zippo Hero
Seven Dead Monkeys Page O Tunes

[endthematrix]

WW2 demanded national civilian mobilization to the war effort. Spinestein, you are right that America will return the that state of patriotism if deadly results befall us. In our Nation's ability to reduce our casualties in defense, we have unfortunately created public sympathy for our enemy. The situated has mutated to when the US takes on casualties, it is seen as a beneficial to their aims.

[Alberta's Child]

This kind of love of country will never happen again.

And yet much of this attitude can be traced back to the era described in this article.

"This kind of love of country" went out the window when Social Security became a more important issue than national security, and I don't see it changing anytime soon.

[Shery]

Awesome post!

[lillybet]

Yes you are right, and anybody who hasn't see the documentary from the BBc4, A Company of Soldiers, I wish could link it for you, its beyond words, the true great spirit of America, something you wont forget.

[CGVet58]

Untrue, Sir... you, I and millions others put paid to that.

[Rodney King]

Frankly, I am sick of this greatest generation crap. Yeah, the won WW2. Lot's of generations had to win wars. But then what did the "greatest generation" do? Socialism. It is the greatest generation that spent 1945-1980 deciding that the government should get involved in every aspect of our lives, and it is the "Greatest generation" who spent all that time further enlarging the social secuitry ponzi scheme.

Why the hell do you all think that Peter Jennings and big media think its the greatest generation? Because of the war? No, because they came home and gave the government vast powers.