Autographing a rifle

Not just any rifle, an M1 Garand.  And not just any autographers, World War II vets:

There’s a story behind every name on “The Rifle.”

Soldiers who landed on the beaches of Normandy, sailors who hunted down U-boats, Marines who drove back the Japanese, one island at a time.

There are more than 200 names on the M-1 Garand rifle owned by Andy Biggio, all of them World War II veterans, all of them sharing stories in Biggio’s book, “The Rifle: Combat Stories from America’s Last WWII Veterans, Told Through an M1 Garand.”

Andrew Biggio was a Marine in Iraq and Afghanistan.  When he returned home, his parents mentioned that they had his Grand Uncle's letters if he wanted to read them.  Grand Uncle didn't make it back from World War II, but Biggio was interested and read the letters.  In one of them, his Grand Uncle went on and on about how much he loved the M1 Garand.

And so Biggio went out and bought one.  After he'd been to the range to shoot it, he wondered OK, now what? There was another former Marine - a WWII vet - in Biggio's neighborhood, one who never talked about what he saw in the war.  Biggio figured he'd take his new-to-him rifle over to show him.

And then something magic happened.  His neighbor light up, and talked for hours about what he'd seen on Okinawa and other places.  Biggio was stunned at the change that had come over this old veteran, and got him to autograph the rifle.  When he got home he thought There must be others like him still out there.  I wonder if I could find them.

And so he did - 207 others that he met, and wrote down their stories, and got their autographs on his rifle.  He has a book out, one that now is sitting on my coffee table (thank you to my darling Queen Of The World).  

They are a remarkable group, as you'd expect.  The Stars and Stripe article linked above includes this:

The oldest veteran present was 105-year-old Henry Maruszevicz, of Lowell, who served in the Army with the 276th Armored. He was also a recipient of the Legion of Honor. According to his daughter, he still lives alone, mows his lawn and drives.

You can listen to an interview with Biggio where he talks about what caused him to seek these old veterans out on the History Unplugged podcast.