Rifle : Combat Stories From America’s Last WWII Veterans, Told Through An M

You wouldn’t believe how these 90-year-old WWII heroes come alive when you put a rifle in their hands.

28-year-old U.S. Marine, Andrew Biggio, returned from combat in Afghanistan and Iraq full of questions about the price of war. He went looking for answers from those who survived the costliest war of all — WWII veterans.

For two years, Biggio traveled across the country to interview America’s last-living WWII veterans. Thousands from our Greatest Generation locked their memories away, never sharing what they endured with family and friends, and taking their stories to the grave. So how did this young Marine get them to talk? By putting a 1945 M1 Garand Rifle in their hands and watching as their eyes lit up with memories triggered by holding the weapon that had been with them every step of the war.

It began when Biggio bought a 1945 M1 Garand Rifle, the most common one used in WWII, to honor his great uncle, a U.S. Army soldier who died on the hills of the Italian countryside. Biggio showed the gun to his neighbor, himself a WWII veteran, and as soon as Corporal Joseph Drago held it in his weak hands, energy and memories flooded back to him—and he shared them all with Biggio. On the spur of the moment, he asked Drago to sign the rifle. Thus began this Marine’s mission to find as many WWII veterans as he could, get their signatures on the rifle, and document their stories.

With each visit and every story told to Biggio, the veterans signed their names to the rifle. 96 signatures now cover that rifle. Each signature represents a person, the battles endured during the war, and the PTSD battles fought after it. These are unfiltered, inspiring, and heartbreaking stories told by the last-living WWII veterans–stories untold until now.

WWII veterans are quickly passing away and Biggio has uniquely and beautifully captured their stories with the help of one historic rifle.

A portion of The Rifle’s proceeds will be donated to New England’s Wounded Veterans, Inc.