Military History Index
Time Life Award
This email, forwarded to all Camp Pendleton Marines, is presented here is it's original format...
-----Original Message-----
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: GI's
As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I referred to the men and women of the armed forces
as "GIs" 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 GI 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 GI Joe, and the name of the most
popular boy's toy ever, the G.I. Joe action figure. And let's not forget GI Jane. GI 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 GIs, 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 GI 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 courage. 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 d
emocracy 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 GIs, 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 "GI" will be forever lodged in the consciousness of our nation to apply
to them all. The GI carried the value system of the American people. The GIs 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
GIs 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 GI 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 GIs 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 predecessors, 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 GIs 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 GIs 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 GIs 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 GIs 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 GI.
General Colin Powell, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs,
now Chairman of America's Promise
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