This reading exposed how badly women and minorities were treated both during and after their service. Despite the huge demand for nurses, doctors, soldiers, and other essential personal most branches of the armed service were unwilling to allow women to enlist. When they finally gave in and allowed women to enlist most military branches created separate branches for women to join. This caused most women to be denied the advantages of the GI Bill and to not be recognized for their service.
Minorities were also harshly treated. The VA did not take steps to defend and protect these veterans after the war and many veterans were terrorized and mistreated. Even minority veterans who preformed extraordinarily heroic acts received little attention and praise. Doris Miller was a cook on the battleship West Virginia stationed in Pearl Harbor. On December 7th he saved the life of his captain and shot down 4 Japanese warplanes despite having no battle training. In spite of his heroics he was not fully honored until the late 1970s (299, Wages of War). If a white soldier had committed the same heroic feat during this time I am certain he would of received immediate praise and recognition. Japanese veterans were also mistreated and harshly condemned after the war because of their ethnicity despite their service record. It seems that no matter how bravely the men served they could not escape their minority status.
One thing I found very interesting about this reading was the difference in the portrayal of Omar Bradley in The Greatest Generation Comes Home and Wages of War. In the first book Bradley is credited with saving the VA from the incompetence of past directors. He is shown as the savior of veterans who fights for their rights and revolutionizes healthcare for veterans. In the second book Severo and Milford portray Bradley as a well connected army official whose strict army attitude leaves many veterans lacking care. I think the difference in these two accounts are very interesting and highlight the bias and the viewpoints of each book. Severo and Milford are writing a book about the mistreatment of veterans throughout history. Therefore they tend to take a harsher, more pessimistic view and highlight every negative aspect. Gambone takes a very different approach. He is focusing on the success World War II veterans had rejoining society. Although he does mention the negative aspects and the difficulties some veterans encounter he downplays some of the harsher realities and focuses more on the successes of readjustment rather then the failures.
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