Tom Brokaw's book, The Greatest Generation, was a book of moral reflection and great insight. It did not merely allow the reader to "read" about the lives of World War II Veterans', but to experience them chapter by chapter. The stories of these men and women were unlike any I had ever read before. "These men and women came of an age in the Great Depression, when economic despair hovered over the land like a plague. They had watched their parents lose their businesses, their farms, their jobs [and] their hopes" (Brokaw XIX). Brokaw's 'greatest generation' covered both the despair of the war, and the glory of the returning Americans. It spoke of their courage during a time when little could be found. For this assignment, I have chosen to write about three important characters: Thomas Broderick, Johnnie Holmes, and Mary Louise Roberts Wilson. All who have exemplified qualities of a great generation.
Thomas Broderick’s initial experience with World War II began at age nineteen in 1942. During this time, Broderick was a premed student attending Xavier College in Cincinnati, who had decided to enlist in the Merchant Marines. “They gave us the best deal, if you didn’t like it,

The three characters I discussed all faced different conflicts. Thomas Broderick faced blindness as a result of serving his country. Normally blindness would be a handicap that many people would not be able to live with, it changes a person’s life completely. But it only made Thomas Broderick work harder. Johnnie Holmes faced racial segregation. While he was supposed to be defending his country against injustice he was experiencing it first hand in training camps. He was only supposed to be fighting in WWII but he was also fighting the war against the Jim Crow Laws, and racial bigots. And lastly. Mary Louise Roberts Wilson, her conflict was the experience of war as a woman. Many men at the time felt that women were not as strong as men and shouldn’t be in the war. She also faced the conflict of seeing many of her patients die, and feeling the responsibility.

It was in 1941, that Mary Louise decided to enter the United States Army Nurse Corps, she was almost thirty. At this point in her life, she had gained much nursing experience through working in hospitals. Because of her age and her experience, Mary Louise was made the operating room supervisor with the Army’s 56th Evacuation Unit. “On February 10, 1944, the heat of the battle was very hot. As she [Mary Louise Roberts] supervised several operations under way, German shrapnel started ripping thought their surgical tent” (Brokaw 177). It was after this event, and the courage she exemplified during it which earned her a Silver Star. An action, that would make her the first woman to receive this coveted medal. Mary Louise returned to Dallas in October 1945. She went back to school at the University of Texas medical school, and got a degree in nursing service administration. In 1961, at the age of forty-six, she married another veteran, Willie Ray Wilson. She also joined the Army Reserve and served as chief nurse for the 94th General Hospital unit, retiring as a lieutenant colonel.