Rating: 
Summary: Touching look at an influential generation
Review: As someone who was 21 at his father's death, I found myself jealous of the chance Greene had to learn more about his father's life through the tapes his father recorded before his final illness and through men of his father's generation. Greene does a fine job of weaving the histories of his father and Paul Tibbets with the presents of both men--his father's last weeks and Tibbet's life in his 80's. Although the abrupt jumps in time and person can be rather disconcerting, links between the topics can be followed with a little care in reading. A couple of problems--1) Greene repeatedly draws attention to how little attention Tibbets draws in public. Well, that is as Tibbets himself would have it, as he has never been a publicity seeker. Although it is sad that many in later generations don't know Tibbets' name, why Greene should find it so upsetting that this man in his 80's is rarely recognized is beyond me. I have long been interested in WWII and Tibbets' deeds were already familiar to me, but I'm sure I would never recognize him in public! That's not tragic, as Greene apparently would have us believe, it's just a fact. 2) Tibbets frequently criticizes the generations that have followed his. Yes, his generation is worthy of high praise for their tremendous sacrifices, but only once--in passing--do Greene and Tibbets ever recognize that it was Tibbets' generation that raised the children who rebelled in the 60's. They blame cultural changes such as music and television, but never clearly accept responsibility for their own role in raising their own children. This is a serious oversight that I have found in several books about the "Greatest Generation." And no, I am not a member of the first generation of children born to those returning veterans. Despite these two caveats, I recommend "Duty" highly and plan to use excerpts from it with my high school students. Read it and see what you think!
Rating: 
Summary: A Hero Who Modestly Rejects the Hero's Mantle
Review: This book clearly deserves more than five stars!"Doolittle's Raiders -- Those Were Real Heroes" 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 to American bases with their planes, and had to fly onto the Asian mainland and hope to find their way back to the U.S. on their own. 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 who have not read the book 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. The father 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 the author's 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 for the first time 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. How can you be a modest hero? That the important question this book will leave you with.
Rating:
Summary: A book worth more than a five star rating!
Review: The best book I have ever read! Everyone in America should read it. It will help you gain an understanding of the sacrafices that the WWII generation made for this country. All of the people involved in the war effort are true heros and, without a doubt, each and every person in America owes the deepest debt of gratitude to those men and women. I have recommended it to everyone I know. It was deeply moving and heartwarming. I can't imagine anyone reading it and thinking of it as less than magnificent!
Rating:
Summary: ONE YOU CAN'T PUT DOWN
Review: I found this book to be written in typical Bob Greene style! Once you start reading it you can't put it down. I like Bob, am a child of a World War II veteran and found his discription of his fathers involvement in the war, provocative. I would highly recommend this book to any baby boomer who understands his parents patriotism from living with it, or those who don't undersand it as it will give you some insite into why your parents felt the way they did.
Rating:
Summary: Duty is Provocative!
Review: In this memoir of three lives connected by history, proximity & family ties are the many stories, often intimate & achingly personal as well as deeply historic of one warrior's memories of a mission that changed the world & a son's final attempt to grasp his father's sense of honor & duty. A haunting tribute to ordinary heroes in an extraordinary time asked to perform their duty in saving the world from evil. Bob Greene has woven together an absorbing book of discovery of things momentous & minute about the timbre of duty from a bygone era: his father's army trunk containing the debris of those young & distant years; the 50 years his parents had attended the Saturday football games at Ohio Stadium & traveling with Paul Tibbets,who Bob's father & his generation call the man who saved the world, to Branson, Missouri for the last Hurrah of the Enola Gay crew & another son's gratitude.
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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: This book honors my father
Review: My father, a medic during WWII, died two months ago. This book helped me through the grief process more than any other book I have read about death and dying. I visited dad nearly every day during his last three months when mom converted their living room into a hospice room. I thought Bob Greene was describing my dad every time he discussed his father's decline and gradual withdrawal from life. Like Bob Greene's mother, we had difficulty getting my mother to leave dad's bedside. We also hired daily help in order to assist dad who so very much wanted to die at home. Each helper showed so much respect for my dad even when he was incoherent. During the time dad was lucid, he spoke more of WWII than at any other time of his life. It was during those last three months that I realized how the war was his right of passage and how much of his strength to accept whatever life brought was a result of all he saw during the war. I think it's his resolve and strength that I miss the most. Thank you, Bob Greene, for helping me further understand how the war shaped my dad and how the stages he experienced dying are so universal.
Rating:
Summary: Strong Men
Review: Bob Greene shares with the reader his sense of family and his perspective on "The Greatest Generation." This book has two stories that weave together to portray a group of citizens who are rapidly disappearing from our country. It is a highly personal story of his father's protracted death and his struggle to understand the forces that shaped his father's and his own life. It is also a tribute to the men who defended the United States during World War II. This tribute is told through his interviews with the no-nonsence Gen. Paul Tibbets. If you are a "baby boomer" and are lucky enough to still have a father living--read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Simply amazing!
Review: That is all I can find to say about this book. The feelings drip off of the pages, and the History is amazing. Bob Greene's conversations with General Tibbett's, and his observations about life then and now make for a wonderful experience. If you have ever wondered about the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima, and the effect it had on the crew, as well as a generation of men, here it is in plain english. General Tibbett's is a true American hero, and it becomes plain after reading this book that he is the best kind of hero. The kind that doesn't hold an attitude about his experience. Simply amazing.
Rating:
Summary: For any son or daughter of a father who had been to war
Review: My father fought in the Pacific in World War II. As I read this book I suddenly began to understand a lot of my father's personality. I felt like my father was talking to me as Bob Greene's father talked to him. It was like reading two books in one as it told the story of Paul Tibbets, the man who ended the war. I realized how fortunate we were to have men like him to guide us through the terrible ordeal of world war. The book is outstanding in its prose and its structure. It delivers the goods.
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