The Rifle

Combat Stories from America's Last WWII Veterans, Told Through an M1 Garand

Andrew Biggio

• Publisher: Regnery History
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781684511396
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World War II
• Index: History

It all started because of a rifle. The Rifle is an inspirational story and hero's journey of a 28-year-old U.S. Marine, Andrew Biggio, who returned home from combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, full of questions about the price of war. He found answers from those who survived the costliest war of all -- WWII veterans. It began when Biggio bought a 1945 M1 Garand Rifle, the most common rifle used in WWII, to honor his great uncle, a U.S. Army soldier who died on the hills of the Italian countryside. When Biggio showed the gun to his neighbor, WWII veteran Corporal Joseph Drago, it unlocked memories Drago had kept unspoken for 50 years. On the spur of the moment, Biggio asked Drago to sign the rifle. Thus began this Marine's mission to find as many WWII veterans as he could, get their signatures on the rifle, and document their stories. For two years, Biggio traveled across the country to interview America's last-living WWII veterans. Each time he put the M1 Garand Rifle in their hands, their eyes lit up with memories triggered by holding the weapon that had been with them every step of the war. With each visit and every story told to Biggio, the veterans signed their names to the rifle. 96 signatures now cover that rifle, each a reminder of the price of war and the courage of our soldiers.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Author’s Note
• Foreword
• Prologue
• Introduction: The Mission
• Chapter One: “No Such Thing as a War Crime”
• Chapter Two: The Golden Acorn
• Chapter Three: No Stalag
• Chapter Four: “A Different Composition”
• Chapter Five: Uncle Rodney
• Chapter Six: Seventy-Two Seconds
• Chapter Seven: Raging Bull
• Chapter Eight: Man o’ War
• Chapter Nine: Last-Minute Marauder
• Chapter Ten: An Italian American’s War in Italy
• Chapter Eleven: Two Paratroopers, One Island
• Chapter Twelve: Learning to Drive
• Chapter Thirteen: The Running Man
• Chapter Fourteen: The Most Interesting Man in the World
• Chapter Fifteen: “I Don’t Want to Go Home”
• Chapter Sixteen: Eighteen Hours
• Chapter Seventeen: Enemy Alien
• Chapter Eighteen: Patton’s Last Panther
• Chapter Nineteen: Finding Andy
• Chapter Twenty: Saying Goodbye
• Acknowledgments: The Rifle Signatures, the Warriors
• About the Author
• Commendations
• References
• Index
• Copyright