...These harsh views, and others, from the segregated Army of World War II, emerge in a new project at Virginia Tech that presents the uncensored results of dozens of surveys the service administered to soldiers during the war.
Much of material is being placed on the Internet for the first time, and a lot of it runs counter to the wholesome image of the war’s “greatest generation.”
Raw attitudes on topics including race, women, sex, gender and combat are revealed in 65,000 pages from Army surveys that a Virginia Tech historian found in the National Archives.
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The project is called “The American Soldier in World War II,” and is supported by funding from the university and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and by the work of the National Archives.
It is directed by Edward J.K. Gitre, an assistant professor of history at Virginia Tech.
“It does speak to a generation,” he said in a recent interview. “The good, the bad, the ugly, heroic, not heroic.”
I remember some of the hate radio of the late 1960s. It wasn't disguised racism. It was the real deal - very clear. I knew people who listened and liked what they heard.
