First Generation

The record’s first generation runs from 1977 to 1989. The services of those years were built for a war with the Soviet Union that was never fought: an Army garrisoned in West Germany, a Navy deployed against the Soviet fleet, a Marine Corps rebuilt around new ships and aircraft, and an Air Force whose bombers and missiles stood on alert. The force was also still settling into the all-volunteer model that had replaced the draft, and the period’s deployments took it to Beirut, Grenada and the Gulf.