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    Old Man in a Baseball Cap: A Memoir of World War II
    Unavailable
    Old Man in a Baseball Cap: A Memoir of World War II
    Unavailable
    Old Man in a Baseball Cap: A Memoir of World War II
    Ebook116 pages1 hour

    Old Man in a Baseball Cap: A Memoir of World War II

    By Fred Rochlin

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Conceived in a storytelling workshop given by Spalding Gray, Old Man In a Baseball Cap is not your typical story of World War II. Rochlin recounts in gritty detail how he--an ordinary young man--was thrust into outrageous circumstances during an extraordinary time. Whether he's bumping up against the army's bigotry because he's Jewish, aiding in the delivery of a baby by cesarean section, being ordered to obliterate a Hungarian village, or parachuting from his plane in the middle of Yugoslavia and then walking 400 kilometers to safety with an amorous guide, Rochlin captures the Intensely powerful experience of a teenager away from home for the first time. Old Man In a Baseball Cap is an astonishingly fresh, candid look at "the last good war." At once naive, candid, and wise, Fred Rochlin's voice is unforgettable.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 27, 2009
    ISBN9780061978319
    Unavailable
    Old Man in a Baseball Cap: A Memoir of World War II

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    Reviews for Old Man in a Baseball Cap

    4.5/5

    9 ratings2 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Fred Rochlin's book about his experiences in WWII as a navigator is a great book. It reminds me of the guys that hang out where I take flying lessons. He told his story like it was, didn't make himself into a hero, or ascribe better motives to himself than he actually had. His telling of the events that occurred so long ago seemed like he was writing about what happened last week or last month. He tells of the claustrophobia and cramped area for the navigator and the brutality of fellow soldier's deaths in a matter-of-fact that way that serves to make them more horrible. His sensitivity and the sweetness with which he describes Maria "the Mexican Indian woman" who raised him still seemed like the little boy who learned her simple wisdom. His account of the racism black soldiers received was poignant to me as I went to see Tuskegee yesterday and met a few of those soldiers who went through so much. I thought the account of the black aviators deliberately irritating the racist KKK raised Colonel over the radio while protecting and defending the bombers was both hilarious and sad. Rochlin's problems in the army, including him being Jewish and his account of people ending up with jobs based on their last name give a blunt view of the time without him dwelling on it or feeling sorry for his lot. He was chosen as a navigator because Jews were supposed to be good with numbers and navigation was being "an accountant in the sky." His experiences and feelings on the matter of race, his appraisal of the Colonel's behavior and his admiration of the Tuskegee airmen make his feelings on racism and equality quite clear. If you're offended easily, maybe you won't like this book as there's cursing, sex, and depending on your viewpoint, murder, but he's not telling you to do as he did, he's just telling it like it was. He believed all people have a story and should get a chance to tell it. More of us should do, and hopefully we could do it as unflinchingly, and as entertainingly, as he did.FAVORITE LINES:"Maria taught me a lot about life....I remember walking with her in the desert. She would point and say, "This is rabbit shit. This is coyote shit. This is deer shit....See, shit is part of life. When there is no shit, there is no life. Just death and emptiness, so don't be afraid of shit. Learn to identify it and then accept it for what it is."......Ten years later, I was nineteen and I was in the Army Air Corps, and I thought about Maria and her advice and all the different kinds of shit I was encountering in the Army. Could I identify and accept it for what it was. Could I?" page 62
    • 5/5
      Profane and proud, Fred Rochlin's told-late-in-life stories of his WWII experiences ring true and absolutely genuine. He makes no excuses for any of his youthful behavior as a young air corps navigator who survived 50 missions, and he makes good on his own personal mantra - before it's too late, "tell your story." This is a terrific little book that I read in just a few hours. Wish I coulda met this guy. Rochlin died of leukemia in 2002.