This week, with America’s soldiers continuing to fight a war in Iraq, we look back at the soldiers who fought a war 60 years ago – World War II.

Tom Brokaw dubbed the soldiers who fought in that war and those who supported them on the home front “The Greatest Generation.” Sadly, it’s a generation we are losing, with more than 1,000 World War II veterans dying every day nationwide.

In honor of Memorial Day, the Current brings readers two of their stories this week. In looking back at the stories of these veterans, it’s impossible to ignore how different that war and that time was from the Iraq war now.

One of the veterans profiled on page 1, David Cousins of Cape Elizabeth, dropped out of school and joined the Merchant Marine when he was 15. “I was gung-ho,” said Cousins.

Cousins wasn’t alone; all of his friends were doing the same thing. The United States had been attacked at Pearl Harbor, and across the country young men and women were signing up to join the war in defense of the nation.

Those who were too young to join the war effort followed the battles from home, some marking the troop advances with pins on maps of the world. Families would gather around the radio at night to hear news of the war, making household names out of broadcasters like Edward R. Murrow, Walter Winchell and Gabreil Heater.

Citizens endured food and gasoline rations and blackouts. Some citizens volunteered to serve as observers or wardens to monitor the blackouts. Women went to work in factories and shipyards to replace the men who had gone overseas to fight.

World War II was supposed to be the war to end all wars. More than half a century after its completion, however, we are engaged in yet another of the wars that have followed it, this one, like the rest, has failed to capture the country’s energy and patriotism in the same way that World War II did.

The enemy seems much less clear. The Axis of Evil is no match for Axis Sally and Tokyo Rose. The one clear enemy most Americans could point to – Osama bin Laden – is nowhere to be found, although we occasionally hear his voice in recordings played back to us on the nightly news.

The recordings usually come just before news of another bombing that has claimed the life of yet another soldier. Unlike World War II where many soldiers died in massive assaults, like Normandy and Iwo Jima, soldiers in Iraq die in a steady trickle of small attacks, similar to the way many soldiers died during the Vietnam War.

Almost daily, the Department of Defense sends out notice of another soldier who has died in Iraq. Nearly 2,500 soldiers have died in Iraq since the beginning of the war. They come from all over the country.

Their names mean little to most people. Unless we know them or hear about them, they remain anonymous. One of the most recent, Lee Deal, died May 17 in the Al Anbar province of Iraq.

Only 23 years old, Deal was from West Monroe, La., where he had been an all-state kicker on a championship high school football team, according to a story in a local newspaper. Quick with a smile and a joke, he had been elected president of the student council.

“People just loved him. This just breaks my heart,” a former teacher and guidance counselor told The News Star in Louisiana.

Deal, like many of the veterans who died before him, gave his life in service to this country. Although the Iraq war is further than World War II was from the minds and lives of Americans, the sacrifices soldiers in Iraq are making are no less noble.

On this Memorial Day, think of the sacrifices soldiers are making in Iraq, remember the sacrifices soldiers made during World War II and throughout U.S. history and hope that someday soldiers do fight the war that ends all wars.

Brendan Moran, editor