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Many viewers have praised the recent Ken Burns’ documentary “The War.” The applause is merited for this moving account of the sacrifices of World War II, both on the battlefields and the home front.

Vivid childhood memories returned to me. I was nearly 7 when the Pearl Harbor sneak attack launched the horrible struggle to victory in the next four years. To a precocious child, the drama of that war was one of continuous excitement, daily headlines of battles, uncles and neighbors in uniform, newsreel images of strutting dictators, John Wayne movies, blue and gold stars in windows, fierce fighter and bomber “dog fights,” etc. I filled my wagon again and again with newspapers, tin cans, scrap rubber, etc. to be collected for the war effort.

It is not my intention to write of my innocent childhood memories of WWII. Rather, I will turn to my emotional response to the scenes of that war on television some 70 years later.

Those Americans who fought that war with those supporting them at home have been honored as the “Greatest Generation.” I am a member of their next generation. My life and future prosperity was saved by their valor, courage and sacrifice. The generation that followed is labeled “Boomers.” These enjoyed unprecedented educational and economic opportunities. Finally, today’s generation some call “Generation X” or “ Millennials.” And older persons shake their heads at the behaviors, addictions, excesses and selfishness of many of them.

As I watched “The War” with its horrific scenes of Americans dying on beaches, cold and desperate, fighting flames on Kamikaze-struck ships, dying of shrapnel wounds in the arms of medics as they liberated towns in Europe and islands in the Pacific, I thought about what might be going through the minds of each of the three generations since the Greatest One defended our nation’s future, defeating foreign tyrannies, preserving the gift of freedom for all.

Were there, perhaps, few Generation X-ers tuned into this epic, nearly eight-hour-long saga? And the Boomers? Perhaps many are so busy with the responsibility they bear for their now adult children populating the Generation X. Today’s corrupted youth culture is so starkly different from the family and responsibility centered one of WWII.

If they did take some time to view “The War,” did many turn to another more entertaining channel when the pictures came on of Europe’s cities destroyed by bombing or Japan’s two nuclear monsters? The innocents piled high in the Nazi concentration camps? To younger viewers, horrors, yes, but so distant, unrelated to what might happen again. After all, no bomb fell on our shores, no city was destroyed, no cities were shelled by tyrant ships, no troops landed on our beaches.

I was moved profoundly as I watched “The War” at the stark contrast of the destruction it depicted in the world and particularly, the contrast with the security our homeland maintained. Our pride in America and its struggle for our democratic ideals against tyrants cried out for protection that I hear today. It is an echo of the voice of FDR as he addressed Congress the day after the Pearl Harbor treachery:

“Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger.

With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph. So help us God.”

And... so help us today.