J.M. NORTHUP

Did you know that the G.I. Generation is another name for the Greatest Generation? These are identified as people born between 1901 until 1927. They grew up during The Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and some even endured the Spanish Flu pandemic. As if their childhood wasn’t tough enough, they went on to battle through World War II.

Conversely, this is also the generation that saw great innovation. They lived through the current war, which brought electricity into common use. The modernization from an ice box to a refrigerator. Carnegie steel allowed bridges to safely span unthinkable distances while cities grew into the sky and Rockefeller created the first monopoly with Standard Oil as J.P. Morgan redefined banking and industrial consolidations in America. The G.I. Generation was the consumers who shaped so many facets of commerce into what the world takes for granted today, such as Hersey’s milk chocolate.

Did you know that the iconic phrase we all know – the Greatest Generation – was coined by Tom Brokaw? He even wrote a book with the same title to honor them. This is what he has said about this remarkable people:

In “The Greatest Generation,” Tom Brokaw argues that the World War II generation’s perseverance through difficult times is a testament to their extraordinary character. Their remarkable actions, during times of war and peace, ultimately made the United States a better place in which to live. Born and raised in a tumultuous era marked by war and economic depression, Brokaw asserts, these men and women developed values of “personal responsibility, duty, honor and faith.”