The average American GI draftee considered himself a civilian first.
........
- something that made him loved not only by his fellow Americans,
but also by those in the lands he occupied.
Bill Maudlin's "Willie and Joe" were about as far from a
heel-clicking Prussian officer as you could get and proud of it.
....
America had sent her young men and women halfway around
the world in both directions not to conquer, but to liberate.
And they did - not only the occupied countries but Germany and Japan as well.
It was one of the greatest moments,
not only in all of American history but in all of human history.
- Stephen E. Ambrose, GI Joe: Person of the 20th Century,
The American Legion Magazine, September 2001.
Page © Keith Sketchley, quotation © American Legion.
February 06, 2002 (1129PST)
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