South Dakota’s Greatest Generation

Eighty years ago this month, Americans switched on their radios and heard the long-hoped-for news that Japan had surrendered. In towns across South Dakota, people celebrated, and families breathed a sigh of relief that their loved ones would be coming home. Like all Americans, South Dakotans had made sacrifices during the war years. Food and fuel were rationed, and farms and ranches struggled through supply and labor shortages. More than 68,000 South Dakotans served in the armed forces, and 2,200 of them never returned. I grew up with stories from my dad and uncles who had fought in the war. My dad was an accomplished pilot, recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, but he didn’t talk much about his own exploits. He talked about the men he served with, what they had done, and what they gave. He told us about the legendary Cecil Harris, the Navy ace from Cresbard, who led my dad’s squadron on the U.S.S. Intrepid, and the tip Harris gave him that saved his life. My dad shared the qualities of so many in his generation: humility, patriotism, and quiet service. They might not describe themselves as such, but World War II created a number of heroes from our state. There were Cecil Harris and Joe Foss, both flying aces in the Pacific. Arlo Olson, who earned the Congressional Medal of Honor, after he gave his life leading his men in Italy. John Waldron who lost his life leading his torpedo squadron in the first engagement in the Battle of Midway. And Marcella LeBeau, a member of the Two Kettle Band of the Cheyenne River Sioux who served in the Army Nurse Corps, including time on the front lines treating the wounded at the Battle of the Bulge. On the home front, too, South Dakotans left their mark. The state was transformed. Airfields popped up around the state to train military pilots. The Army Technical Training School opened in Sioux Falls to train 50,000 radio operators and mechanics. Out west, work began on the Black Hills Ordnance Depot and the new community of Igloo that would house the families of those who came to work there. Even Mitchell’s Corn Palace had a role to play, selling war bonds and enlisting new recruits. South Dakota’s farms and ranches were also critical to the war effort. Farmers ramped up production, and wool and sugar beets were in high demand. Faced with labor shortages, draft deferments were offered for harvest time, and South Dakota State University canceled Hobo Day so students could work the fields. And it was South Dakota farmers who provided the pheasants for the Aberdeen Canteen’s famous pheasant sandwiches, which fed 500,000 troops on their way through the city. Tom Brokaw, who spent part of his boyhood at the Black Hills Ordnance Depot, popularized the phrase, “the Greatest Generation.” He said of this generation, “they love each other, love life and love their country, and they are not ashamed to say just that.” We are fortunate to have had their example. And while the members of this generation are fewer with every passing day, what they did and how they lived will endure.