My War

New York: PublicAffairs, 2000. First Public Affairs Edition [stated], First printing [stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Richard Koenig (Jacket photograph). xiii, [1], 333, [5] pages. Illustrations. Index. Slight wear to DJ. Dot on top edge. Foreword by Tom Brokaw. The author recounts his experiences as a young reporter to "Stars and Stripes," the American forces' daily newspaper in Europe, including his personal account of the liberation and entry into Buchenwald. Andrew Aitken Rooney (January 14, 1919 - November 4, 2011) was a radio and television writer known for his weekly broadcast "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney", a part of the CBS News program 60 Minutes from 1978 to 2011. Rooney began his career in newspapers in 1942 while in the Army where he began writing for Stars and Stripes in London. He was one of six correspondents who flew on the second American bombing raid over Germany in February 1943, flying with the Eighth Air Force. He was the first journalist to reach the Ludendorff Bridge after the 9th Armored Division captured it on March 7, 1945. He was one of the first American journalists to visit the Nazi concentration camps, and one of the first to write about them. Rooney stated that he had been opposed to World War II because he was a pacifist. He recounted that what he saw in those concentration camps permanently changed his opinions about whether "just wars" exist. Rooney was decorated with the Bronze Star Medal and Air Medal for his service as a war correspondent in combat zones during the war. His memoir My War recounts notable historical events and people from a first-hand view, including the entry into Paris and the concentration camps. He describes how it shaped his experience both as a writer and reporter. Like so many of his generation, Rooney's life was changed forever by the war. He saw life at the extremes of human experience, and wrote about what he observed, making it real to millions of men and women. My War is the story of an inexperienced kid learning the craft of journalism. It is by turns moving, suspenseful, and reflective. And Rooney's unmistakable voice shines through on every page. Derived from a Kirkus review: Rooney, commentator on 60 Minutes, here with sardonic self-effacement relates how he became a notable combat journalist in WWII, a war he calls ``the ultimate experience for anyone in it.'' For the Army newspaper Stars and Stripes, he covered the air war over Germany, the D-Day invasion of Normandy and the Allied drive into Germany. Rooney's simple, ruminative style grips the reader as he describes famous events of the war: the liberation of Paris, the Battle of the Bulge, the stirring union of American and Russian troops at the German town of Torgau on the Elbe. The author states that ``This is a memoir, not a history book,'' and he goes on to say that though he checked his facts in writing it, he assumes that when they conflict with memory, the facts must be wrong.