Twenty years old when he entered the army in 1942, Leo Bogart 
was one of sixteen million Americans who served with the armed 
forces during World War II. In numerous letters home, he provided 
a glimpse into the mind of a young American intellectual whose 
wartime journey carried him from New York to Germany and from 
adolescence to personal experience of the world’s complexities.

    After a stint in the Army Signal Corps’ enlisted reserve, he was 
inducted into active duty and sent to the Army Specialized Training 
Program (ASTP), after which he was assigned to Signal Intelligence.
The war led him to the battle for Europe and finally to troubling
confrontations with the defeated enemy. In 1946 Bogart was
honorably discharged and, like millions of veterans, awarded a 
small gilt lapel pin bearing the stylized head of an eagle, nicknamed 
“the ruptured duck.”

    By showing how life moved from hour to hour and day by day, 
Bogart illuminates aspects of the war that cannot be found in 
military histories focused on the marshaling of forces, the capture of 
cities, and the casualty counts.

_________________________________________________________

The late LEO BOGART was a business consultant in New York City.


Number Ninety-two: Texas A&M University Military History Series


What people are saying about this book

"The letters are astonishing in the their high literary quality and mature 
insights into the amazing variety of observations and experiences 
that Bogart encountered in the U.S. Army and the unstrung world 
around him."—Journal of Military History

"This luminous book immediately takes its place among the 
classic reports of what it was like to wear an army uniform in the
‘good war’ that destroyed Nazism and Italian fascism. The work of a
master journalist, it pulsates with wit and grace and says to the
reader on every page, ‘You are there.’"—Henry F. Graff, Columbia
University, Cryptanalysis and Japanese language officer in World
War II

"Leo Bogart has taken us on a rich and exciting ride. Thank you,
Leo, for using an old art form to convey so much insight about the
confusion and fright of total war. Innocence lost in bloodshed,
knowledge gained in war."—Marvin Kalb, Harvard University