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The American GI
Time Magazine prepared a list of the 10
most influential people of the century in each field to mark the
end of the century. The 10 most influential scientists, politicians,
entertainers, sports figures, musicians, artists, and
industrialists. This month they published the 10
most influential people (overall) of the century.
They named "the American GI" the most influential person of
the century.
It is the only one that is not a single
individual.
General Powell wrote the introduction
to the award.
Subject:
Colin Powell's Tribute to the American G.I.
As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, I referred to the men and women of the armed
forces as "G.I.s." It got me in trouble with some of my
colleagues at the time. Several years earlier, the
Army had officially excised the
term as an unfavorable characterization derived from the designation
"government issue." Sailors and Marines wanted to be
known as sailors and Marines. Airmen,
notwithstanding their origins as a rib of
the Army, wished to be called simply airmen.
Collectively, they were blandly
referred to as "service members." I
persisted in using G.I.s and found I was in good company.
Newspapers and television shows used it all the
time. The most famous and successful government
education program was known as the G.I. Bill,
and it still uses that title for a newer generation of veterans.
When you added one of the most common boy's names
to it, you got G.I. Joe, and the name
of the most popular boy's toy ever, the G.I. Joe action figure.
And let's not forget G.I.
Jane. G.I. is a World War II term that two generations
later continues to conjure up the warmest and proudest
memories of a noble war that pitted pure good
against pure evil and good triumphed.
The victors in that war were the American G.I.s, the Willies and
Joes, the farmer from Iowa and the steelworker from Pittsburgh
who stepped off a landing craft into the hell of
Omaha Beach. The G.I. was
the wisecracking kid Marine from Brooklyn who clawed his
way up a deadly hill on a Pacific island.
He was a black fighter pilot
escorting white bomber pilots over Italy and
Germany, proving that skin color had nothing to do with skill
or He was a native Japanese-American infantryman
released from his own country's
concentration camp to join the fight. She was a nurse
relieving the agony of a dying teenager. He
was a petty officer standing on the edge
of a heaving aircraft carrier with two signal paddles in his hands,
helping guide a dive-bomber pilot back onto the
deck.
They were America. They
reflected our diverse origins. They were the embodiment
of the American spirit of courage and dedication. They were
truly a "people's army," going
forth on a crusade to save democracy and freedom, to
defeat tyrants, to save oppressed peoples and to make their
families proud of them. They were the Private Ryans,
and they stood firm in the thin red
line. For most of those G.I.s, World War II was the adventure of
their lifetime. Nothing they would ever do in
the future would match their
experiences as the warriors of democracy, saving the world from its own
insanity. You can still see them in every Fourth of
July color guard, their gait
faltering but ever proud. Their forebears went by other names:
doughboys, Yanks, buffalo soldiers, Johnny Reb,
Rough Riders. But "G.I." will be
forever lodged in the consciousness of our nation to apply to them
all. The G.I. carried the value system of the American people. The
G.I.s were the surest guarantee of America's
commitment.
For more than 200 years, they
answered the call to fight the nation's battles.
They never went forth as mercenaries on the road to conquest.
They went forth as reluctant warriors, as citizen
soldiers. They were as gentle in
victory as they were vicious in battle. I've had survivors of
Nazi concentration camps tell me of the joy they
experienced as the G.I.s liberated
them: America had arrived!
I've had a wealthy Japanese
businessman come into my office and tell me what it was
like for him as a child in 1945 to await the arrival of the
dreaded American beasts, and instead meet a
smiling G.I. who gave him a Hershey bar.
In thanks, the businessman was donating a large sum of money to the
USO. After thanking him, I gave him as a souvenir a
Hershey bar I had autographed.
He took it and began to cry.
The 20th century can be called
many things, but it was most certainly a century
of war. The American G.I.s helped defeat fascism and communism.
They came home in triumph from the ferocious
battlefields of
World Wars I
and II. In Korea and Vietnam they fought just as bravely as
any of their predecessor, but no triumphant receptions awaited
them at home. They soldiered on through the
twilight struggles of the cold war and
showed what they were capable of in Desert Storm. The
American people took them into their hearts again.
In this century hundreds of
thousands of G.I.s died to bring to the beginning of
the 21st century the victory of democracy as the ascendant political
system on the face of the earth. The G.I.s were willing to
travel far away and give their lives, if necessary,
to secure the rights and freedoms
of others. Only a nation such as ours, based on a firm moral
foundation, could make such a request of its
citizens. And the G.I.s wanted
nothing more than to get the job done and then return home safely.
All they asked for in repayment
from those they freed was the opportunity to help them become part of
the world of democracy-and just enough land to bury their fallen
comrades, beneath simple white crosses and Stars of David. The volunteer
G.I.s of today stand watch in Korea, the Persian Gulf, Europe and the
dangerous terrain of the Balkans. We must never see them as mere hirelings,
off in a corner of our society. They are our best, and we owe them
our full support and our sincerest thanks.
As this century closes, we look
back to identify the great leaders and personalities of the past 100
years. We do so in a world still troubled, But full of promise. That
promise was gained by the young men and women of America who fought and
died for freedom. Near the top of any listing of the most important
people of the 20th century must stand, in singular honor,
The American G.I
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