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b'Veterans of World War 2 are called the Greatest Generation for their uncommon courage and self-determination. Whether this descriptor is true or part of America\\u2019s self-mythologizing during the 20th century is a challenging question, one that Andrew Biggio, a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, worked to answer.

Biggio found that many were brave, but they were all ordinary men who also shared in humanity\\u2019s weaknesses and flaws while responding to the call of duty. Biggio is today\\u2019s guest and author of \\u201cThe Rifle 2: Back to the Battlefield.\\u201d He shares first-person accounts from the last of the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who fought the most dreadful war in history.

The idea for his first book \\u201cThe Rifle\\u201d was simple: travel across the country with a 1945 M1 Garand, the basic U.S. fighting rifle of World War II, ask combat veterans of that war to sign it, and listen carefully as the sight, touch, and feel of that rifle evoke a flood of memories and emotions. In this follow-up book, Andrew Biggio once again reveals the astonishing effect his M1 Garand had on the old warriors who held it.'