United at the Apex by Pete Ketcham

In the past I have wrote at length about the present situation in our nation, but would like to make a few comments on what it was like at the apex of our nation. First it is appropriate to define apex: “The top or highest part of something, in some sense the “highest” of the figure to which it belongs”, which defines the time our nation was the most united and strongest nation in the history of the world.

This time period occurred during the second world war (WW2), from December 7, 1941 to approximately 1946. During WW2 we became the greatest manufacturing nation in the world, and also the greatest military power in world history.

During this period we were able to produce tanks, aircraft, artillery, ships, and military supplies at an incredible rate that we have never come close to since. The steel that went into our ships, tanks, etc. was produced from our own steel mills, not imported as it is now. We produced 41.7% of the strategic wartime oil supply, Germany being the closest to us at 14.4%. We were not dependent on imported oil from the Mideast. Our shipyards were building ships at an incredible rate, and in fact built a complete liberty ship (441′ long, beam of 56′, 14,245 tons) in 4 days and 15 hours, a feat that has never been duplicated. I could go on and on with examples of wartime production never before accomplished, nor ever repeated. This period of time was the apex of US production, military might, and most importantly, national unity.

During those wartime years, the nation was united as never before or since. As a child I lived through those years, and although not having the perspective of an adult, I still knew how it was to live in a nation totally united in the cause of war. Hollywood was the most patriotic and influential entity In my life as their wartime movies created patriot heroes and heroines. Hollywood celebrities appeared at War Bond rallies, and entertained our troops in every war theater around the world. In fact some of the major actors such as Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable joined the Army Air Force as pilot and bombardier.

Many of us children bought $25 war bonds by buying $0.10 stamps at school and pasting them in an official booklet till it had $18.50 worth of stamps. We collected balls of tinfoil and turned them in at school for the war material effort. There was an incredible united patriotic purpose to win the war, and the people openly prayed to God for victory. Most people today cannot visualize what it was like during those years.

CONCLUSION
Ronald Regan had said that freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction, but had failed to see that one generation was turning this nation away from the traditional dependence on God’s guidance and protection, into a godless socialist society. This generation was the baby boomers who began this process in the 60’s, and carried it through the Regan, Bush, Clinton, and Obama presidencies to the present.

To me now it is almost like living in a foreign country as I compare the music, movies, and overall moral conduct of the WW2 area, to the gross music, movies, videos, and degenerate conduct of today. With the present day irreconcilable division between the Conservative Right, and the Liberal Left it is mind boggling to see how far we have fallen from the apex that had so strongly united us during those war years.

Pete Ketcham
March 2018