Tom Brokaw - The Greatest Generation

CONTENTS

Chicago, Illinois Insurance Agency Owner 82nd Airborne

Andrews, North Carolina Surgeon 326th Medical Company, 101st Airborne

Falmouth, Massachusetts Printing Business 325th Glider Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne

Smithtown, New York Highway Superintendent Bombardier-Navigator, 8th Air Force

Ventura, California Anglican Orthodox Priest First Lieutenant, U.S. Army

Omaha, Nebraska County Clerk and Real Estate Executive B-24 Pilot, 8th Air Force

Orofino, Idaho Powerhouse Operator U.S. Marine Corps

The ROMEO ClubRetired Old Men Eating Out

Cambridge, Massachusetts School Principal U.S. Navy

Wichita, Kansas Boeing Engineer Developed the B-29

Detroit, Michigan UAW Organizer

Raymond, Washington Lumber and Building Supply Business U.S. Navy Medical Corpsman Congressional Medal of Honor Winner

Scottsdale, Arizona U.S. Marine Corps Pilot Congressional Medal of Honor Winner

Toms River, New Jersey Lawyer U.S. Army, 2nd Ranger Battalion

Arlington, Virginia Colonel, U.S. Army, Womens ArmyAuxiliary Corps

Edgewater, Maryland General, U.S. Air Force

Lawrence, Kansas Teacher/Real Estate Agent Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service (WAVES), Navy

Hoagland, Indiana Womens Air Force Service Pilot

(WASPs), 2nd Ferrying Division

Duncanville, Texas U.S. Army Nurse Corps

Washington, D.C. History Professor Womens Auxiliary Corps

Chicago, Illinois Real Estate Investor 761st Tank Battalion

Fullerton, California Schoolteacher Communication Specialist, 20th Air Force

Oxnard, California California State Assemblyman

Edgewater, Maryland California Congressman

Westbury, New York Salesman/Teacher 118th Combat Engineers

Yankton, South Dakota

Kensington, Maryland Governor and Senator Captain, U.S. Army/Lieutenant, U.S. Army Nurse Corps

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Lebanon, Indiana

Houston, Texas President of the United States Navy Air Corps

Washington, D.C. Journalist Lieutenant, J.G., U.S. Army

Washington, D.C. Writer U.S. Marine Corps

New York, New York Journalist U.S. Army

Pasadena, California Chef Office of Strategic Services

Chapel Hill, North Carolina Chemist Nobel Prize for Medicine, 1988

Miami, Florida Attorney, President of the American Bar Association U.S. Infantry, 94th Division

Cocoa Beach, Florida Founder, USA Today U.S. Infantry, 86th Division

New York, New York CEO, American International Group U.S. Army, Signal Corps, Army Rangers

Portland, Oregon U.S. Senator U.S. Navy

Russell, Kansas U.S. Senator, Presidential Candidate U.S. Army, 10th Mountain Division

Honolulu, Hawaii U.S. Senator U.S. Army, 442nd Regimental Combat Team

San Francisco, California Secretary of Defense U.S. Army

Washington, D.C. Counsel to Presidents Carter and Clinton U.S. Army, Combat Engineers

Palo Alto, California Cabinet Member U.S. Marines

New York, New York Historian Office of War Information, Office of Strategic Services

Pacific Palisades, California Journalist, Press Secretary to Robert F. Kennedy Lieutenant, U.S. Infantry, 85th Division

For Meredith, of course,

and her parents,

Vivian and Merritt Auld,

and my parents,

Jean and Anthony Red Brokaw

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

When I first came to fully understand what effect members of the World War II generation had on my life and the world we occupy today, I quickly resolved to tell their stories as a small gesture of personal appreciation. As I did that on television, at dinner parties, and in commencement speeches, it had the effect of a chain letter that no one wanted to disrupt. Everyone seemed to want to share their own stories of parents, other family members, or acquaintances who were charter members of this remarkable generation.

It rapidly became a kind of extended family, and with the encouragement of a number of friends I began to understand that this was a mother lode of material that deserved the permanence a book would represent. It was a daunting undertaking: because there are so many stories to tell and because the lives of these people are so special I didnt want to do anything in a book that would not live up to their deeds, heroic and otherwise.

If I have failed them, it is entirely my fault.

In the course of gathering this material, interviewing the subjects, and collecting the photographs, I had invaluable assistance from the best and brightest of a new generation, young women and young men in their twenties and thirties who came to care about these subjects as passionately as I did.

Elizabeth Bowyer, now a law student at the University of Virginia, and Phil Napoli, a newly minted Ph.D. in history from Columbia, teamed up with Julie Huang, my research assistant at NBC News, to work tirelessly and brilliantly to provide me with an unending supply of stories, facts, insights, and ideas. I am more grateful to them than theyll ever know. Id also like to thank Tammy Fine, who helped get the project started before moving to Washington and a new assignment on the Today show.

Through it all, Erin OConnor, who runs my NBC life with the organizational and mission-oriented skills of a battlefield commander, was simply peerless in her ability to juggle all of the needs of this book, my NBC News duties, and the considerable logistical demands of both. Metaphorically, if I go into any battle, I want Erin at my side.

Other friends who initially encouraged me to expand my thoughts on the World War II generation into a book include Stephen Ambrose, Ellen Levine of Good Housekeeping, and William Styron. I was further encouraged in the effort by reading the works of William Manchester, Paul Fussell, Ben Bradlee, Andy Rooney, and Art Buchwald.

So many ideas came from so many places, but I would be remiss not to single out my pal Mike Barnicle, the best newspaper columnist Boston has ever had; Bob Karolevitz, a fine writer in my hometown who wrote of his generation for the local newspaper, TheYankton Press and Dakotan; the astute observations of my friends Kurt Andersen and Frank Gannon; and my NBC colleagues, who offered to share notes and enthusiasm and tolerated my fits of frustration, distraction, and emotion.

Special thanks go to Craig Leake and Andrea Malin, my colleagues on the NBC documentary also called The Greatest Generation. They were simultaneously able to get some of these stories on screen while also helping me get them on the pages of this book. I could not be more proud to be associated with both of them on both projects.

Also, since a book is about more than writing it and publishing it, I am deeply grateful for the counsel and expertise of my business manager, Kenneth Starr. (No, not