Generation Hero

The cohort of people born between 190-1920 and to a lesser degree those born in the 1930s, who experienced the Great Depression and turned the tide in WWII to defeat a despot, were dubbed the Greatest Generation in Tom Brokaw's 1998 book of the same name.  An additional appellation for this group might well be Generation Hero, because they keep on serving. 

 

It was one member of this generation, 74-year-old retired Army colonel Bill Badger who was instrumental in ending the bullet filled rampage of Jared Lee Lougher.  Loughner severely wounded Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and took the lives of six innocents, including a federal judge and nine year old little girl that might well have been Giffords successor and more one day.  Bill Badger, grazed by a bullet himself, after seeing this deranged gunman cut down a child in cold blood didn't hesitate for a moment to take action. The Greatest Generation...still answering the call.