Tom Brokaw, The Greatest Generation.(Review)

Tom Brokaw, The Greatest Generation. New York: Random House, 1998. Pp. 442. $24.95, hardcover.

They have been gathering among themselves for decades, these war veterans of what Tom Brokaw calls the "greatest generation that any society has ever produced." They have been gathering quietly, without fanfare, as they grow grayer. Sometimes they meet at various locations here at home to honor those no longer among them, other times in the distant lands where they struggled to honor the colors under which they fought. Those privileged to witness any of these assemblies are struck by the gaiety, the nonchalance, the modesty of the members of this ever-shrinking fraternity. The stories told are those relating the gaffes of young officers, the biliousness of senior officers and of distilleries "liberated." The ribbons …