Rating: 
Summary: Very forgettable
Review: If you're looking for a good war story, this isn't it. One would expect a major publisher to come out with a somewhat serious and retrospective look at a flyer's personal remembrances of WWII. Instead, most of the stories have some connection to a sexual act; the author catches two superior officers in the 69 position; the author has sex with a partisan after he's shot down. Meanwhile, partisans force the author to shoot three Germans in cold blood, an act which barely gets a paragraph, and about which the author expresses no angst, regret, or other emotion. And, while this book totals 143 pages, every chapter ends with 4 blank pages before the next begins -- in truth there's less than 100 pages here...certainly not worth the price tag. If you must read it, wait for the paperback or even better, get it from the library like I did!
Rating: 
Summary: Old Man in a Baseball Cap
Review: It may be impossible for anyone who personally experienced World War II, or whose parents or grandparents lived through those dramatic and traumatic years, to remain unmoved when reading this profoundly insightful memoir of that time by artist/architect/social and political activist/writer and now performer Fred Rochlin.Rochlin here tells stories of his role in that war, when he joined the then Army Air Corps right after Pearl Harbor, at the age of nineteen, and flew some 50 missions over Italy as a navigator on B-24 bombers. It is a story filled with horror, humor, pathos, and great wisdom, and it's told by a man who wrote it when he was 70 years old, but who clearly has never lost the wide-eyed wonder and enthusiasm of that nineteen year old boy.
Rating:
Summary: Old Man in a Baseball Cap Hits a Homerun!
Review: Just into the second paragraph of his lively and fresh wartime memoir, Rochlin writes that "Everybody has a story. I believe everyone's story is important; should be told, retold, written and recorded." Thank God, Rochlin told his. The greatest generation is fading fast. 1,000 World War II veterans die each day. And with them they take the first hand recollections of a great crusade that made this world worth living in. Had it not been for the courageous youth like Rochlin, Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan may have won that war and a new age of barbarism would have swept across the Earth. What is so intriguing about Rochlin's memoirs is how fresh they are. One would have expected a book like this to have been written during, or immediately after, the war. Instead, he waited some fifty odd years to record his recollections. Instead of coming across stale, blurred by the cobwebs of time, they are as pristine and as fresh as if they had been lived just yesterday. Rochlin's book is an honest book. All are not heroes in his text. There are soldiers such as Bradley Duncan Belchore thirsty for power, as evidenced by his statement to Rochlin: "Don't you know the only thing in life that's worth a damn is power and you get it any way you can." There are moments of beauty amidst the horror such as when Captain Connor, the flight surgeon, and Rochlin help deliver an Italian woman's baby. And, there are youth, thrust into a battle more horrible than they ever could have imagined, who are terrified beyond belief - such as Shaunessey, the bombardier, who went catatonic every time the B-24 went into flight. Although these men are not billed as heroes, they in fact were - warts and all. For what was at stake in that war was different than all the wars that had come before it. God Bless, Fred Rochlin, for keeping those memories alive and for sharing them with us. If you haven't heard his story, you owe it to yourself. This is one old man in a baseball cap worth listening too.
Rating:
Summary: an old man captures your heart
Review: Knowing that my Dad served in WWII, I was captivated by the experiences this author conveys about a war that affected him throughout his life. As a doctor who listens to people's life stories, I know that we each have a life worth writing about. I salute Fred Rochlin for sharing a portion of his life story with us. He tells us that the drama of life is in the telling.
Rating:
Summary: Not really a war flying book.
Review: Liking war flying memoirs, I picked up this slender volume based in part on the jacket blurbs. I was really disappointed. Not much flying here and when you factor in the fact that the stories may not be true, then the whole thing just kind of lays there. I realize that this was a compilation of stage monologues, but really it was just poorly done. Maybe the printed word detracted from it. Anyway, this was a great chance to find out more about a really brutal air war in Italy and Yugoslavia, but instead it's a series of sexual escapades -- gay and hetero, so there's something for everyone -- loosely connected to the aviators. This could've been something worthwhile but instead it's shabby and not worth the time it took to read it. Maybe Fred did all that he claims and maybe it would have been better if he kept it to himself.
Rating: 
Summary: What it was REALLY like
Review: More than 3 hours and as many cups of coffee after I started reading this book, I was able to put it down and get on with my day. Rochlin's description of the B24 bombing campaign over Germany and central Europe during World War 2 and the oh so human reactions of the author and his fellow crew members to the terrors aloft, left me drained. The immense relief felt on the alternative days of rest and the activities during those 24 hour stretches often had me laughing out loud. At age 19, his assistance in the ceasarian delivery of a baby, and his trek to safety in Yugoslavia after parachuting from his disabled plane, were surely highlights of the book I will long remember.
Rating:
Summary: Thanks, Fred.
Review: My father was a WWII navigator, has some medals somewhere and is uncomfortable talking about that period in his life. I've wished to know more about him and some of his wartime experiences, assuming that it might have had a profound effect on any young man. Historical accounts and Hollywood versions havn't told me what I wanted to know. "Old Man in a Baseball Cap" has. Fred's recollections - as personal as they are - most accurately set the stage and convey the ambiguous realties of war as experienced by an intelligent, honest, and sensitive human being.
Rating:
Summary: Priceless
Review: My first thought, after finishing this marvelous memoir, was, "He did it better than I ever could have done." And, with grudging admiration, I began rereading it (at two a.m.!). Mr. Rochlin has conveyed a dimension of truth and reality few writers are capable of managing. I laughed, and I felt tears, and laughed again. I've been there (to be sure, in a different fashion but in the same war and in another war after that one), and through Mr. Rochlin's book I vividly relived some of those days. What is "priceless" about "Old Man" is that is transcends all generations. And there are layers of meanings to it that reveal themselves with each new reading. This is infinitely more than a "war book" because the reader, be he a war veteran or present day high school student, can relate to the author's universal theme of life and death, courage and fear, triumph and tragedy, love and hate. In a word, then, one hell of a fine book.
Rating:
Summary: Priceless
Review: My first thought, after finishing this marvelous memoir, was, "He did it better than I ever could have done." And, with grudging admiration, I began rereading it (at two a.m.!). Mr. Rochlin has conveyed a dimension of truth and reality few writers are capable of managing. I laughed, and I felt tears, and laughed again. I've been there (to be sure, in a different fashion but in the same war and in another war after that one), and through Mr. Rochlin's book I vividly relived some of those days. What is "priceless" about "Old Man" is that is transcends all generations. And there are layers of meanings to it that reveal themselves with each new reading. This is infinitely more than a "war book" because the reader, be he a war veteran or present day high school student, can relate to the author's universal theme of life and death, courage and fear, triumph and tragedy, love and hate. In a word, then, one hell of a fine book.
Rating:
Summary: Priceless
Review: My first thought, after finishing this marvelous memoir, was, "He did it better than I ever could have done." And, with grudging admiration, I began rereading it (at two a.m.!). Mr. Rochlin has conveyed a dimension of truth and reality few writers are capable of managing. I laughed, and I felt tears, and laughed again. I've been there (to be sure, in a different fashion but in the same war and in another war after that one), and through Mr. Rochlin's book I vividly relived some of those days. What is "priceless" about "Old Man" is that is transcends all generations. And there are layers of meanings to it that reveal themselves with each new reading. This is infinitely more than a "war book" because the reader, be he a war veteran or present day high school student, can relate to the author's universal theme of life and death, courage and fear, triumph and tragedy, love and hate. In a word, then, one hell of a fine book.
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