Guardians of the Golden Age: Custodians of U.S. Military Culture

Abstract

In this chapter I explore how anthropological concepts including residence patterns, descent systems, and fictive kin intersect with social class, race, and gender in American military culture. My analysis is based on the themes that emerged from the oral histories of fourteen white women now in their eighties whose husbands were high-ranking military officers during World War II and the Korean and Vietnam Wars. These women now make their home at The Heritage, a guarded “Life Care Community” designed for military officers and their wives. Two-thirds of the residents at The Heritage are married couples and a majority of the remaining residents are widows of military officers. These women are custodians of a Golden Age in American Military Culture, or, as one of my contributors explained, a time of the past and “the era of the big bands … the big wars, those two kind of go together. Back when we had Rosie the Riveter and all the people supported their country in this wartime era.” The Golden Age is now a time of memory when “home” and “family” as gendered domains of power and influence were replicated in military stations around the world and are again reinvented here at The Heritage.