moved on. so some carrying shrapnel and scars found it was much harder. many, like my grandfather, who served in patton s army, lived a quiet life, trading one uniform and set of responsibilities for another. as a teacher or a salesman or a doctor or an engineer, a dad, a grand grandpa. our country made sure millions of them earned a college education, opening up opportunity on an unprecedented scale, and they married those sweethearts and bought new homes and raised families and built businesses, lifting up the greatest middle class the world has ever known. and through it all, they were inspired, i suspect, by memories