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When Bob Greene went home to central Ohio to be with his dying father, it set off a chain of events that led him to knowing his dad in a way he never had before--thanks to a quiet man who lived just a few miles away, a man who had changed the history of the world. Greene's father--a soldier with an infantry division in World War II--often spoke of seeing the man around town. All but anonymous even in his own city, carefully maintaining his privacy, this man, Greene's father would point out to him, had "won the war." He was Paul Tibbets. At the age of twenty-nine, at the request of his country, Tibbets assembled a secret team of 1,800 American soldiers to carry out the single most violent act in the history of mankind. In 1945 Tibbets piloted a plane--which he called Enola Gay, after his mother--to the Japanese city of Hiroshima, where he dropped the atomic bomb. On the morning after the last meal he ever ate with his father, Greene went to meet Tibbets. What developed was an unlikely friendship that allowed Greene to discover things about his father, and his father's generation of soldiers, that he never fully understood before. Duty is the story of three lives connected by history, proximity, and blood; indeed, it is many stories, intimate and achingly personal as well as deeply historic. In one soldier's memory of a mission that transformed the world--and in a son's last attempt to grasp his father's ingrained sense of honor and duty--lies a powerful tribute to the ordinary heroes of an extraordinary time in American life. What Greene came away with is found history and found poetry--a profoundly moving work that offers a vividly new perspective on responsibility, empathy, and love. It is an exploration of and response to the concept of duty as it once was and always should be: quiet and from the heart. On every page you can hear the whisper of a generation and its children bidding each other farewell.… (more)
User reviews
The problems that exist with this book are certainly not with the story. It is one that is not told nearly enough. The basics of the first atomic bomb drop are widely known, but the operations leading up to it and the lives of the men who carried it out are in danger of being forgotten. The story of Greene's own father, who served in North Africa and Italy, is also compelling, although more common. The book is at its best when these men are allowed to tell their story in their own words, which are simple and pithy at once.
The problems lie in Greene's narration. It too often takes on a tone of self-conscious humility which does not ring true. This alternates with a jarring disconnect between the character descriptions and the stories used to illustrate them. More than once Greene is supposedly demonstrating some endearing part of the men's nature, such as their sense of humor, with a story that comes off as being simply mean. It's unclear whether Greene is being overly-reverent and therefore failing to see this behavior as malicious or if he is simply failing to accurately portray his subjects. Finally, the book is at times painfully redundant. In the final chapters it seems every question he asks Tibbets is at most a subtle variation of one covered at least once elsewhere in the book. Surprising character revelations cease about two-thirds of the way through.
Duty is a worthy read for anyone who feels a gap in knowledge of World War II history, particularly about the combat end of the atomic bomb project, but I found it lacking in the emotional payoff that would seem inevitable.
Greene meets Tibbets and they become friends. As Greene tells us about his meetings with Tibbets, he also includes excerpts from his father's recorded memoir of his service in Italy during WW II. Thus we read about the contributions and views of two American soldiers from the last 'good war".
Tibbets is an interesting man with strong views on where America is today. Greene asks him about the morality of dropping the bomb and Tibbets as well as the other two surviving members of the Enola Gay's crew explain they were just doing their job and because they were successful, the war ended much sooner than it otherwise would have saving many thousands of American and Japanese lives.
Greene uses an anecdotal style which makes the book entertaining but does result in some repetition at times. Still it is a very entertaining and informative read.