Location: The Heritage Foundation's Lehrman Auditorium

World War II saw the first generation of young men that had grown up comfortable with modern industrial technology go into combat. Tinkers, problem-solvers, risk-takers, and day-dreamers, they were curious and outspoken – a generation well prepared to improvise, innovate, and adapt technology on the battlefield. This text brings together three disparate brands of history: military history; the history of science and technology; and social, economic, cultural, and intellectual history. All combine to tell the process by which GI ingenuity became an enduring feature of the American citizen-soldier.