Book details Andy Rooney ’42 and his WW II reporting

Andy Rooney ’42 P’74, GP’05 was among the five “greatest journalists” who joined the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, to record what they saw and share it with the public. Author Tim Gay tells the story of what happened to Rooney, Walter Cronkite, A.J. Liebling, and others on that historic day in an excerpt from his book, Assignment to Hell, that appeared on The Daily Beast website.

Here is some of what Gay writes about the Colgate graduate, who died last November at age 92:

“As Liebling worried about which of his shipmates had been wounded, his chum and acolyte, Staff Sergeant Andrew Aitken Rooney of the military publication the Stars and Stripes, was also aboard a warship headed for Normandy. Over dinners together at Fleet Street eateries like The Lamb and Lark, the New Yorker essayist had taken a shine to the kid reporter.The cocky Rooney must have reminded Liebling of the Irish pugs he loved to watch at Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn.

“At 0739 on D-Day, though, Rooney was still closer to Britain than France. He was billeted with a Fourth Division infantry unit floating a few miles out in the Channel. The men on Rooney’s boat were scheduled to come ashore at the assault’s westernmost beach, code-named Utah, on D-Day plus four. Like his friend Cronkite, Rooney had been covering the U.S. bombing campaign against Hitler almost from its outset. A former Colgate University lineman, Rooney was a pugnacious GI who had trouble keeping his lips zipped. Before being transferred to the Stars and Stripes in the fall of ’42, his stint in the Army had been marked by one contretemps after another with higher-ups.”

Rooney was the subject of a moving tribute during Reunion weekend by Jeff Fager ’77, P’06.  Fager is chairman of CBS News and the executive producer of “60 Minutes.” He worked for many years with Rooney at CBS.

Fager showed some outtakes from Rooney’s segments that closed “60 Minutes,” and shared anecdotes about the longtime newsman’s illustrious career.

Jeff Fager talks about Andy Rooney during a Reunion session. (Photo by Andy Daddio)