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Summary: The Men Who Made Our World
Review: This is a wonderful, touching book of the same genre as "Flags Of Our Fathers" but without the edge. Some of the more thoughtful among us, like Greene, are realizing that one of the greatest generations in our nations history is slipping away, a thousand a day, and taking their values with them. Were it not for them, the Nazis might be sending human beings through the chimneys of their death camps and the greater part of Asia might be one giant Japanese slave labor camp. It was guys like Tibbets, still in his twenties then, who beat the Nazis and the Japanese back, making the world safe for us, their children. By contrast, take a look around any shopping mall at the kids with their droopy pants, hats on backwards, and bad attitudes. If they were called upon to save the nation, to beat back an army of Nazi butchers and fleets of Japanese kamikazes, could they do it? Would they do it? Could these coddled little kids summon the manhood to do their duty to defend their country? I tell you, I just don't see it in them. Thank God that when Western Civilization was being overrun by murdering barbarians that Tibbets and his generation were there to put it right. Tibbets himself says he can't understand anyone under sixty. We all speak the same words but different languages. There is a radically different perspective between the generation that came up hard and worked for everything it got and the current generation that was given the good life and feels entitled to more, always more. I was pleased to shake General Tibbets hand in Dallas a couple years back. I was pleased to shake his bombardier's hand, Tom Ferebee (who passed away this year), in Houston. Now I would like to shake Bob Greene's hand for writing this book. I very much enjoyed hearing the General speak his mind. You will, too.
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Summary: Have A Box of Tissues Handy
Review: This is absolutely one of the most moving books I have ever read. Having lost my own father 1 1/2 years ago, it touched me in a profound way, but it is also gripping from a patriotic standpoint. After reading it, I now have such a deep gratitude for Gen. Tibbets and others like him who helped win WWII, and I'm ashamed it took me this long to realize it. Thank you, Bob Greene; your insightful writing is beautiful.
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Summary: should be taught in history classes
Review: This is the best book I have ever read about a time when only people over 55 totally understood the misery of WWII. we owe a tremendous amount of gratitude, to not only Paul Tibbits, but every one who lived through that era. The thing that bothers me the most is that very few, if any, high school students have even heard of Iwo Jima and this a shame. Enough preaching, it was well written and really hard to put down and should be required reading for American History
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Summary: Moving Tribute
Review: This moving tribute by Chicago Tribune columnist Bob Greene will inspire many baby boomers (and others) to think deeply and perhaps differently about their parents. Back in Columbus, Ohio to visit his dying father, Greene met 84-year old Paul Tibbets, the pilot that dropped the bomb. In getting to know Tibbets, Greene came to better understand his late father. Tibbets and the elder Greene (1915-98) never met, but they shared many values, including a sense of duty and horror from World War II. Like many, Tibbets believes the bomb shortened the war and spared lives, sending home safely many future dads like the elder Greene (and my own father). I wish the author had pressed Tibbets on alternatives such as demonstrating the bomb non-lethally, but DUTY isn't really about politics. It's more about the author's father, Tibbets, the war, and the ties binding and divisions separating baby boomers and their war-generation parents. I particularly liked reading the elder Greene's life memories, which he spoke into a tape recorder before passing. DUTY is a readable, moving tribute to two men and their dwindling generation.
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Summary: "Doolittle's Raiders -- Those Were Real Heroes"
Review: This quote came from Paul Tibbets, the man who piloted the Enola Gay (named after his mother) to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945. He was referring to the crews that bombed Japan shortly after the start of the U.S. engagement in World War II, in a stirring symbolic strike at our Pacific enemy of those years. They had no way to come back with their planes, and had to fly onto the Asian mainland and hope to find their way back to the U.S. Many did not survive the mission. What many do not know is that Tibbets also headed the unit that prepared to drop the atomic bombs. He ordered himself to pilot the first flight, out of his sense of responsibility for getting the job done right. Many will think this book is a biography of Tibbets, who has remained out of the limelight since World War II. That thought is partially correct. But the book is much more than that, even though that would have been a lot. The author became interested in Tibbets because the author's father was so obviously in awe of Tibbets. He would mention seeing Tibbets in their common hometown of Columbus, Ohio, but never approached him. Inspired by his father's interest, the author finally meets Tibbets shortly before his father dies. Then begins one of those wonderful human experiences that we each should have, and books like this allow us to experience vicariously. Although Tibbets never met the father, he instantly understood him. In many informal talks and visits, the author came to understand both Tibbets and his own father who had left a tape recorded oral history. There is a wonderful epiphany near the end of the book when the author finally understands why Tibbets meant so much to his father. I won't spoil it for you, but it's worth reading the whole book to get to this one story. This book will be very appealing to anyone who read and liked The Greatest Generation. By focusing on the lives of just a few men (Tibbets, two of Tibbets' crew mates, and Greene's father) you get a richness and wholeness to the lives that makes it all come together much better than can happen with briefer stories. In a sense, the two books are companion pieces. In fact, I recommend that most people read Duty first, and then read The Greatest Generation. If you have already read The Greatest Generation, you should reread it after you have read Duty. You'll have many new insights as a result. My next suggestion is that you then seek out someone who fought in World War II (a relative would be great if you have one) and talk to them about their experiences and what you thought you learned from these two books. You should be able to lift a generational curtain in the process, and make some wonderful human contact that would not have otherwise have been possible. In this way, you can pay real tribute to all those who made our modern world possible. To me, I beg to differ with Paul Tibbets' quote. I think that almost everyone was a hero at one level or another. The differences are not so important. What they did and why they did it are.
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Summary: Must read
Review: This should be required reading for all highschool and college students. It reveals a profound insight into our history. Objectors might not be here to object if the bomb had not been dropped. Can't wait for the movie.
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Summary: A wonderful and moving experience.
Review: This was a wonderful and insightful book, both about Gen. Paul Tibbets and about the relationship between the generation that fought and won WWII and those born during the baby boom generation after. Bob Greene speaks for so many of us born in more recent years regarding our relationship with our fathers and the lack of open and easy communication between males of different generations. Parenthetically, as a Japanese-American whose relatives fought and suffered dearly on both sides of the conflict, all I can say is thank God that Gen. Tibbets was an American.
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Summary: Wide of Circle Error Probable (CEP) for Tibbets-A True Hero
Review: What a disappointment! The author, Bob Greene, tries to turn a newspaper column about Paul Tibbets into a book with abysmal results. Greene father lived his later years in Columbus which happens to be the community where Paul Tibbets has spent his later years. Green's father passes away and Greene spends the first half of the book trying to link that deep sadness with Paul. Greene interviews Tibbets several times in a bar and I get so tired of hearing about this elderly man sitting in the bar I'm ready to scream. Greene's writing technique is to drive a thought by you a few times and let you have a little bit of it each time. I hate it in a discussion and find it even more annoying in text. Greene had a wonderful opportunity to develop a detailed composition about a true American hero and blew it. Some of the questions he asked Tibbets would have been more appropriate for a grade school essay. Asking Tibbets if he was afraid of anything and what it was, seems to be one step removed from, "What's your favorite color." Save your money...THIS BOOK DOESN'T DO JUSTICE TO TIBBETS WHO IS A TRUE AMERICAN HERO!
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Summary: If you Have a Father you Must Read this Book
Review: When I finished "Duty" I calmly set the book down and spent several minutes thinking about my own dad. To say that this book is touching is an understatement. Bob Greene learns much about his father after his dad dies, through conversations with another World War II military man -- one General Paul Tibbets. It so happens that General Tibbets lives near Mr. Greene's parent's home and, after some 20 years of attempts, agrees to talk with the author. It also so happens that Paul Tibbets is the man who piloted the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb at Hiroshima. The many interviews with Tibbets let the reader view the Second World War (in particular the dropping of the first atomic bomb) through the mind of the man who flew the Enola Gay and very probably ended the war. Think about your dad, then read the book. You may never think about him the same way again.
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Summary: For Fathers and Sons -- Bridging Gaps
Review: With Father's Day just around the corner I wanted to share a review of "DUTY," one of the best books I've ever read. (I've read nearly all the books in Sallyann's B-29 Reading Room and (hope she can add this excellent title, soon!) My 22-year old son gave me this book last week for my birthday and I've already sent it onto my Father who served as a Superfort CFC gunner with the 73rd Bomb Wing's 499th. Greene's book crosses generations and gender gaps -- it is a unique and special historical, yet very personal, look into the lives of the generation we own so much to. The author explores his relationship with his dying father (a WWII Army infantry veteran who fought in Italy). A native of Columbus, Ohio, Bob tries for over twenty years to interview retired General Paul Tibbets, Commander of the Enola Gay. On the morning after the last meal he ever shared with his father, Tibbets agrees to meet with Greene. What unfolds is a simply fascinating and genuine friendship that allowed author Greene to discover things about his father, and his father's generation of WWII soldiers, that he never fully understood before. I especially enjoyed the chapter where Greene is invited by Tibbets to spend a few days at a Branson, Missouri, reunion of (then) surviving Enola Gay crew members: (the late) Tom Ferebee, Dutch Van Kirk, and Paul Tibbets. Greene is an extraordinary journalist, he brings you into the group and shares it all with a special sensitivity, understand and love. Please...... beg borrow or otherwise obtain a copy of this book, today -- it's a must read, regardless of your generation, gender, or previously formed opinions on the "single most violent act in the history of mankind." Lee K. Shuster, Vietnam-era USAF Vet and Son of a (CFC) Gunner
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