Morning Wire - The Last of the Greatest: Stories from WWII Veterans

Episode Date: May 26, 2025

In this moving Memorial Day special, Marine veteran and author Andrew Biggio joins Morning Wire to share unforgettable stories from his seven-year journey documenting the last living World War II veterans. Through emotional reunions, battlefield pilgrimages, and the symbolic power of a single M1 rifle, Biggio preserves the fading voices of the Greatest Generation reflecting how their strength, sacrifice, and resilience continue to shape his own life. Get the facts first on Morning Wire. Get 15% off your Lumen at Lumen.me/WIRE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Andrew Bidgio is a Marine veteran and author of The Rifle. He spent years traveling around the country collecting the stories of America's last living World War II veterans, all of whom are now in their late 90s or early hundreds. In this episode, we hear from Bidio about the stories he was able to document from our last few veterans from the greatest generation and how their stories helped him process his own experience as a Marine. I'm Daily Wire, Executive Editor John Bickley, with Georgia Howl. It's Monday, May 26th, and this is a great story. a special Memorial Day edition of Morning Wire.

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Spring back into your health and fitness. Go to Lumen.m.me to get 15% off your L-L-U-M-N. slash wire to get 15% off your L-U-N. That's L-U-M-E-N dot me slash wire for 15% off your purchase. Thank you, Lumen, for sponsoring this episode. So Andrew or Andy, I should say, I wanted to start for those viewers and listeners

that didn't get to hear our first interview with you about a year ago. A little bit of background about your project, The Rifle. Tell us about that. How did this all start? Sure. And you asked me if I prefer to be called Andrew or Andy.

And yes, my name is Andrew, but I go by Andy because that was my grandfather's brother who was killed in World War II, Andy Biggio. And I'm named after him. So when I survived Iraq and Afghanistan, I was trying to figure out a good way to honor my great uncle. I came home from combat deployments, read his letters home, and they really changed my life. And one of the letters he wrote home before he was killed in action in Italy was how much he enjoyed. the M1 rifle, the rifle. So I went out and purchased one and then found myself traveling the country with it

and putting it in hundreds and hundreds of different World War II veterans' hands and arms and recording their story, recording their reaction and their memories. And little did I know I was on this therapeutic journey for seven years meeting these men and women over 500 World War II veterans. You know, it didn't seem this heavy. Does it feel heavier than it used to? Oh, yes, it does. A lot heavier.

And Sal, how old are you? 90 what? No, 102. Well, seven years and about 500 veterans, do you know about how many World War II vets are currently still alive in the U.S.? Sure, there was once 16 million World War II veterans. The VA and the government judged that by,

the 16 million medals given out, which were the World War II victory medal. So that doesn't even mean the 16 million that served may have even served in combat. They were just people who earned that medal. That's what the numbers they go by for World War II. I think the VA now thinks there's less than 120,000 World War II veterans nationwide of the 116 million. And I know many of those you've met with have passed away since your time with them. Do you know How many we've lost since that last time we talked? Over the past year, it's hard to say, but I think of the 500 names featured on my rifle,

because each veteran I had actually sign their name on the rifle to remember them, I would say maybe there's 40 still alive of the 500 that I came close to know. And some closer than others, I have a funeral this Sunday for a gentleman who was really close to me. His name was Ed Cottrell. He was a P1 of America's last P-47 fighter pilots. He died at age 103. And I was the first person to bring him back to Belgium,

where he flew his 65 missions during the Battle of the Bulge. And we found his old runway. We found the crash site of some of his wingmen, with pieces of their planes still in the soil that the German farmers had dug up over the years that they collected it in Barnes. Oh, amazing. We located his wingman's grave, who was buried. in Holland, and we took him to see his wingman, his best friend Ted Smith's grave for the first time in 80 years.

Incredible. And to be clear, this is something you've done now many times returning to these battle sites. What inspired that? How often have you taken veterans back to these sites? Yeah. In those seven years that I was meeting the World War II veterans and placing that rifle into their arms, there was like one common denominator, and it was like over half of them had never returned to the battlefields they'd served on.

And living on the northeast myself in Boston, I said, well, hell, it's only a six, seven hour flight direct to Paris or direct to Rome or even Amsterdam. And these veterans, I'm meeting alone. They outlived their spouse. They're trying to find a purpose in life in their late 90s. And I said, would you go back? Let's go back and visit this area. And I got over 60 of them to say yes in a span of five or six. six years and I've I've done over 25 trips back to Europe with 60 different World War

2 veterans visiting there their villages they liberated they're finding their foxholes seeing where they were wounded and then most recently I went back to Stalag Luft 4 with an XPOW who was 101 years old I'm sure a powerful experience there can you share with us some of the other stories that came out of these trips you know the most the most recent one was a gentleman by the name of Lester Shrank, and he's still alive. Lester's still alive. He's a hundred and one. He'll be 102 soon. So we're going back to Germany and Poland, and we're going to Stalogluf 4, where you were a prisoner of war. For 15 months, I've been pregnant for six months at Stalagloff four. And did you ever think 80 years later you'd be going back there? Never.

Ever autographed one of these bombs? Doggone red, I autographed your bomb like that. Do you remember what you just wrote your name on there? I think I said for Hitler. And, you know, he was shot down from a B-17 as a bald turret gunner. And he was held prisoner of war for 15 months. For 15 months, he was held prisoner of war, starved, beaten, watched his friends dragged off into the woods and executed. And he agreed to go back to his prison camp with me, which was located in Poland. And we flew back back in March.

And when we visited his prison camp, they said, the Polish said that this is the first survivor of Stala al-Lufo that they've seen in over 20 years. When I was shot down, I weighed 185 pounds. When I was liberated, I weighed 93. But I had already been liberated for, it must have been almost about three weeks before they even give it the least. mental physical. Lester, as you stand here and your former prisoner of war camp, was there one meal that

you couldn't wait to eat when you got home? Was there a particular food on your mind or was it just... When we were real star, we would lay in bed thinking about food and it was always something real rich that it wouldn't be like bread and potatoes. would be like ice cream or chocolate cake or something like that. That's what we would dream about. Unbelievable. This guy was just a symbol of strength.

I mean, not only did he survive that prison camp, but when the Russians started to liberate Poland, the Germans pulled him out of this prison camp and forced them to march 800 miles in 80 days. So it was 10 miles a day, malnourish, starved, poked with bayonets. This is a well-known death march.

This isn't, you know, fallacy made up stuff by a World War II veteran with a crazy imagination. This is true documented stuff that the men of Stalachg IV had to march what was called the German death march, 800 miles, to not be captured by the Russians.

And he survived that. It's incredible. This has turned into a life mission for you, obviously. How has this changed, this whole experience over the last seven years. How it's changed me is, I definitely have a different perspective of life. Because many of these men and women who,

I didn't just grab a signature for and take a photo op, I became friends with them. I traveled overseas with them. Hell, I bathed them if I have to when we were overseas. And it made me evaluate and appreciate life and slow down a little bit. I spend more time with my kids. I'm more patient.

I learned how to handle stress a different way. All these guys saw combat in World War II and were able to live long, successful lives after combat well into their 100s. And so I tried to teach veterans, especially with my books, Rifle 1 and Rifle 2, how to be like those men,

how to live a successful life, how to overcome, and not just, you know, plateau after military service, but continue to peak. And I think about that all the time. And what's the connection you've seen in terms of these survivors, these guys that have gone on to really thrive after the war? What are some of the qualities you've seen in them that others can learn from?

People who say to me, hey, you have too much on your plate. Hey, you're too busy. But one thing I saw in some of these World War II veterans did was not dwell on the past, not dwell in their military service. they came home, they got a job, they started a family, they had kids, they retired from one job, they started another job, hobby after hobby is what kept them going. And I think that is not necessarily a bad thing for people to be too busy. I think it's a way to be a good person to be able to give back to your community and use your energy in a proper way rather than sitting on a coach.

using substance abuse, alcohol, you know, things, things that stuff that will bring people down in a whole, really, is just get out there and continue to give back to your community. Even if you are a veteran, yes, you serve, but why don't you continue to serve? There might be other veterans that may not be having a good time or have a good network system like you do. Get out, get involved in your local veterans organizations, things like that, of that nature is what I learned from those veterans.

About that key issue of community, what have you seen among veterans in terms of building community? I feel like we've seen some very positive momentum on that front. We've had some discussions with people, some groups that are really reaching out. Have you seen progress? I have, but now I'm starting to kind of see things slow down. I think when we were actively involved in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, there was a lot of veteran nonprofits, there was a lot of networking. I feel, though, it has lessened now, especially since the fall of Afghanistan.

That was very demoralizing. That was, I think, a lot of guys got disenfranchised from that. And we, you know, I hate to think that we created another wave of Vietnam vets who feel like they weren't appreciated or whereas their service was wasted. So my mission has been to just continue. to push to keep these veterans involved, start new programs. You know, I host a motorcycle run every year called the Boston's Wounded Vet Ride right here in Boston. It was last Sunday.

We had over 4,000 bikers involved, and even those who didn't ride came to volunteer to donate money to local wounded veterans. It's something new rather than just sitting by an old rusty monument and commemorating a boring Memorial Day service, you know, and I'm not calling Memorial. Memorial Day boring, but we might need some new techniques to keep these younger veterans involved rather than just the same old, same old that might not jive technology-wise, intriguing wise, and mental-wise compared to World War II, which was everyone's a hero and V's for victory and there's everyone's all smiles and it was good versus evil and we defeated evil.

You know, we've got to, if we're going to keep this veterans thing alive, we might have to come up with some new ideas. It actually dovetails nicely with my final question, and that's what does Memorial Day mean to them, the men that you've gotten to know over these last few years? How significant is this day? I think it's extremely significant. I think we absolutely positively need a day to pause. And sure, if that means having a barbecue or spending time with your family, that's what veterans would have wanted in a free America. That's what, you know, a lot of people say, you know, try to guilt trip into people of just having barbecues and hang out. out with their family not knowing the true meaning of Memorial Day, but you know what?

Veterans who gave their lives wanted a free and happy America for people to do that. But there's a huge butt. Don't forget what the day is truly about. Take that moment of silence. Plant a flag out of a cemetery. Make sure that your local memorial to these men and women aren't covered in rust or dirt or bird feces or something like that. And make sure that this history stays alive. So important to remember.

Andy, thank you so much for coming on. We appreciate what you're doing and taking the time to talk with us. Thank you for having me and have a great Memorial Day weekend. That was Andy Bidgio, author of The Rifle, and this has been a special Memorial Day edition of One In Wire.