"War doesn't prove anything except death and destruction." Those were the blunt comments of World War II veteran John Assenzio, who along with his wife, Peggy, was the guest speaker at a special meeting of the Rotary Club of Roslyn, held last Wednesday at Taverna Restaurant on Old Northern Boulevard.

The Assenzios, both natives of Brooklyn and also longtime Long Island residents (they currently live in Westbury), have enjoyed some unexpected notoriety lately. They are among the select group of Americans portrayed in Tom Brokaw's best-seller, The Greatest Generation. This particular Rotary Club meeting included members of clubs in Great Neck, Manhasset, and Port Washington all there to hear the Assenzios.

The couple's son is a producer in the sports department at NBC, the same network that employs Mr. Brokaw. That connection, as some people have suspected, is not the reason the couple had a chapter on them in the book. One morning last spring, while watching the "Today Show," Mrs. Assenzio saw Mr. Brokaw being interviewed. There, the anchor commented on his work in progress, and publicly asked people to share their World War II memories with him.

Mrs. Assenzio wrote to NBC, sending along a book of newspaper clippings about her husband's division. Interviews with the couple were soon set up. Last Thanksgiving, a friend of the family called to say that they had been given an entire chapter in Mr. Brokaw's just-released book.

Mr. Assenzio expressed a desire to keep his own comments "very brief." While debunking whatever romantic notions about war the book may promise, he added that in the case of a Hitler or a Mussolini, war is "necessary." But Mr. Assenzio also mocked the idea that World War II, like World War I, could ever be a "war to end all wars," noting that the United States has fought in three major wars since 1945, not to mention numerous shorter conflicts around the globe.

Despite these sentiments, Mr. Assenzio said he believes that the use of nuclear weapons near the end of the war was the right policy. Recalling the "fanatical" fighting habits of Japanese air bombers, ending the war in such a fashion ended up saving the "many more" casualties that would have occurred in more conventional battles against the Japanese. In all, Mr. Assenzio served for 23 months in the Pacific theater. Long after the war ended, nightmares from those many battles, were a price the couple endured from his war service.

Mrs. Assenzio spoke first, adding a lighter side to the subject. The couple had planned a February, 1942 wedding when Pearl Harbor hit, upsetting their future plans. The chapter on the Assenzios is included in a section of the book entitled, "Love, Marriage, and Commitment," which basically details how couples kept their marriages together throughout the strains of war and separation.

Over the years, Mrs. Assenzio traveled to local high schools to talk about the effort made on the homefront during the war. For her part, Mrs. Assenzio helped out with local USO chapters; she also did volunteer work at a hospital in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the site, of course, of another well-known military battle.

For Mrs. Assenzio, a special thrill from the book was attending a gala reception at the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center. She remembered seeing, among other celebrities, John F. Kennedy, Jr., Harrison Ford, Art Buchwald, Julia Child, and Andy Rooney. A highlight came when Mr. Buchwald told Mrs. Assenzio that she and other "ordinary people"--not the present-day celebrities--were the real heroes of the book.

Indeed, The Greatest Generation advertises itself as portraying the "everyday lives of duty, honor, achievements, and courage that gave us the world we have today." Up to 50 Americans, ranging from former President George Bush, former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, and former US Senators Bob Dole, Mark Hatfield, and Daniel Inouye, to ordinary people like the Assenzios, were profiled.

In their chapter, Mr. Assenzio recalled that his unit was under strict "no fraternization" orders with the locals in Okinawa. In his talk, however, he told the story of a young Japanese boy who enjoyed showing him a photo of the Empire State Building, a famous landmark of the nation the boy's country was fighting against.