Paving the Way for 'The Greatest Generation'

Social IssuesCulture

  • Author Bernard Fleury
  • Published January 17, 2008
  • Word count 395

Tom Brokaw’s The Greatest Generation captivated America with its account of a generation and a nation defined by war. By looking back at World War II America, Brokaw helped Americans understand our older generations, as well as our nation, as it was before and is now. We find links to past struggles and victories that established our way of life. But America’s history dates back further than World War II.

In A Bee in His Bonnet, author Bernard Fleury takes us back to the 1860’s to narrate the story of a man who took part in the Spanish-American War, the Philippine Insurrection, and as an officer and United States Government cited hero in World War I. He offers readers a look into the life of an American soldier in wars that few of us know, but whose repercussions are still felt today.

A Bee in His Bonnet is about Frank King, Fleury’s grandfather, whose career in the army took him to many parts of the world. Indeed, King was involved in the anti-terrorist campaigns in the Philippine Insurrection, which resulted from the earliest documented terrorist threat to the United States newly acquired territory there, and was instrumental in the capture of the Bin Laden of his day, Faustino Ablen.

In a series of articles beginning with "anti-Terrorist Campaigns, United States of America, 1900 to 1902, 1905 to 1907, and 2000 to 2006, Fleury will document in some detail the Pulajanes movement in the Philippines which Ablen led for a time and which still exists today in the first decade of the twenty-first century. He will also compare and contrast Faustino Ablen’s and Osama Bin Laden’s terrorist movements.

Fleury provides a rich historical accounting, as well as a look at the perceptions and emotions of one man who lived through and documented an era that would later define international geopolitics and the American worldwide dynasty.

Bernard Fleury also relates how Stephen King, Frank’s father, and Stephen’s brother, James, came to Canada in 1860 as part of Prince Albert Edward’s entourage. A seemingly genetic predisposition towards adventure led James and Stephen into an escapade in the Canadian wilderness, where an uncanny incident kept many of the Kings in the New World for generations to come.

More free information on the other major Great Generation persons, like President Calvin Coolidge, will be posted on major web directories.

Bernard J. Fleury is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Educational Administration. His administrative/teaching career spans more than five decades.

Dr. Fleury’s lifelong interest in history from the perspective of the people who lived it, is evident in A Bee in His Bonnet (website: greatgeneration.net) that is his grandfather Frank King’s Great Generation story as he recorded it, and told it to his daughter and grandchildren.

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