Of africanamerican fighter pilots, also from a veteran who served with 442nd Regimental Combat Team comprised of japanese american soldiers. The American VeteranCenter Hosted this 35minute panel discussion. Im glad to be here this morning. Im also a graduate of Virginia Military institute. Im glad to see some vets on hand. Okay. As i have in the past, im honored to be here to moderate the panel about the greatest generation. Like many of you, i always enjoy hearing stories about world war ii. As mentioned for the last 15 or 16 or 17 years ive been involved around projects that centered around world war ii, National War Memorial and congress collecting stories from world war ii veterans. Ive heard hundreds if not thousands of stories from world war ii veterans. My ears perk up when i hear stories about Tuskegee Airmen and 442nd Regimental Combat Team. If you dont know what they are, i think most of you do, youre about to hear about it this morning. The american patriots who served in those units bring a different perspective to service to country and bravery under fire. A very special morning we have two members, one of each that served in the units. Chief Master Sergeant robert izumi, who joined the 442nd combat team and also subsequently 101st Airborne Division. Were going to find out what thats about. Its kind of unusual to have a japanese american with 101st Airborne Division in world war ii. We also have on hand Lieutenant Colonel jefferson who was a tuskegee airman who flew 19 missions over italy and france, except for that last mission in which he crashed and was captured by germans and was p. O. W. Thesert stories were going to hear this morning so lets get started. Id like to start, gentlemen, as i mentioned earlier can you hear me okay . Lets start with mr. Alexander. Could you give us a little bit about your background, where you grew up, where you came from and why you joined the Tuskegee Airmen. Im a College Graduate. You had to be a College Graduate to go into the Army Air Corps in 1941. I remember the japanese bombed pearl harbor in december. I graduated six months later from college. And the draft board was after me trying to send me to the army. If the draft board had caught me, i would be a buck private making 21 a month. I stayed joined the Army Air Corps as a cadet learning how to fly with the excitement you made 7 a month. After nine months you became a Second Lieutenant with a gold bar on your shoulder and a set of wings, you made 150 a month plus 75 for flying pay. Which would you take . Why i became a tuskegee airman . Hell, its part of my life. I had a hell of a good time. Could you give us background of Tuskegee Airmen and why it was formed. Segregation. Before june of 41, a black man could not trained what white man and join the Army Air Corps. It took an act of congress to establish a flying field in alabama near tuskegee institute. They came in and built an entire airfield to train blacks to fly, to train. It took an act of segregation, separate but socalled equal. Tuskegee started. Everyone remembers this president , rows felt, there was a thing called cpt, civilian Pilot Training. Roosevelt started civilian Pilot Training because he felt there was a war coming on. Germany and england were fighting. The United States did not have an air force. He knew that we needed pilots. He couldnt say, okay, open up the flying field and train pilots because congress and American Public would raise all kinds of hell. Sosneakily he started civilian flying college. Each college they were training young people. One of the schools was tuskegee institute. The damn programs were profited and supported by civilian organizations. And the civilian private Training Unit at tuskegee was supported by the oh, hell, a damn fund, money in a fund. She was on the board of the fund and she was there at tuskegee to learn how the money was being spent, and she saw the men flying. Consequently she took a ride with chief anderson in a piper cub. It was advertised that the blacks were starting to fly tuskegee. I came along about halfway through the program. Talk about there i was and got shot down, all that kind of stuff. Well get to that. Bob. Yes, sir. Could you talk a little about where you grew up and how you got into the United States army. I was born in 1924 in coyote pass. I dont know if anybody is from california. You know where pomona is . You know where coyote pass is . In the boondocks. That freeway going over where the strawberries were. Anyway, my mom and dad with a farm there. I was born in los angeles, or coyote pass, and i went to school with marilyn monroe. She was very homely. [ laughter ] she never graduated high school. She divorced her husband, which was a highway patrolman and then she plochblossomed out in tenth grade. Pearl harbor came along and i was an intern in camp. I was a little guy. I didnt mind being in camp, seeing a machine gun follow me down. Found out where it was when i got in the service. In the camp, i didnt mind it. Like i said, i didnt mind it at all. But tlehree of us, the spotligh dug under the barbed wire fence and went up the river and made a place we could jump in during summertime. Because in the camp you had to line up to take a shower or bath. Women had to go one place. Wed have to wait until the women finish. Then wed do in. It was odd. Eating the same way. You had to wait 1643 was my camp, barracks number. Ill never forget that. Anyway, block by block, you eat block by block. If you get sick, you just better look out, because there werent that many doctors there. Anyway, in school i had a doctor from usc who was blind. He could hear the sniff of each of the boys and girls that walked in there. So i said, took off my shoes. Halfway down, he said, okay, bob izumi, where are you going . So help me god. Helen from cedar rapids, iowa, she asked if i would like to get out of camp and finish school. I said sure. I got out thereof and finished school. June 44 i joined the service. Joined with the 442nd, went to the camp in florida. From italy went overseas with him. Could you talk a little about the 442nd, a similar reason for being set up as tuskegee 442nd is the most decorated regiment in the United States army. Not one of us came out without a purple heart. Not one of us. My best buddy inouye got 18 shots on his leg all the way up to his chest. Hes alive. He lived through it. We got together. It was like brothers and sister. Very close. If you know somebody next to you fighting, you better know what he or she does. Its very valuable. Because in vietnam, had a buddy, hes still alive. His radio man, well, anyway, his radio man got shot and died in his arms. All he got was a purple heart. What good is a purple heart to a man when hes not the mother and the father. What good is a purple heart . Im asking you now, what good is a purple heart with the folks . Sorry. So anyway, the gentleman that was hit, took him to wisconsin. I told mr. Dool y, Sergeant Dooley at that time. I said take my bronze star and put it on the grave, and he did that. And the mother and father of the son spoke to me and said thank you very much. It meant something to me. But by golly, you guys, when fighting you know each other. Be together, know what he or she is going to do. If you dont do that, you wont survive. 442nd was a segregated unit as well. Yes, completely, just like Tuskegee Airmen. Can you talk about how you and your soldiers in 442nd felt about joining the army and cesc the country . I had to join the army, to show the u. S. Government that i was loyal. I think the rest of the japanese americans did the same thing. I dont know for sure. Its a rough war, regardless of navy and marines. But ill tell you, you guys in the navy, thank you very much, because if you handle a challenge coin, challenge coin you get army, navy, air force. I have a challenge coin that says thank you. I was in the marines for 30 yea years. I dont know what the marines are. Different from navy and air force. Thank you, bob. Do you want to talk a little about why Tuskegee Airmen joined and their feeling about serving the country. Number one, this is my country [ bleep ] number one, best country in the world. I have news for you. Where are you going to go . If you dont like the country, leave. Im serious. Everybody wants to raise all kinds of hell. As a black man, i know segregation went on for 350 years. This country got free labor. Think about it. What slavery means. You work a guy from morning to night. Free labor. If this country had not had slavery, you would never have the civil war. You would never have jefferson, hamiltons washington raise all kinds of hell, fighting among themselves to make sure you have this country. If you did not have slavery, you would not have the civil war. You would have never had Martin Luther king and all the rest that made this country so great. It aint perfect. Weve still got a hell of a lot of crazy cooks in this country. Think about it. The main thing that you are here learning the basics. We depend on young people to come in and take a part, vote, become part of this country and help to make this country better. I aint leaving. [ laughter ] i cant drive my cadillac through the jungle. Think about it. Italians are not going to go back to italy. Germans arent going back to germany. Think about it. They are getting ready to deport some young people who were born as children here and didnt go through the green thats all part of why we joined the Army Air Corps in the army prevented from fighting, segregation, evilness. Thats part of my life. Talk a little about flying. Had you flown before as an airman . I learned to fly as an air ma man. Our training was exactly the same as white training, nine months. Go through primary with stearman, basic, and advanced. Three months in each phase. And it was exciting. Learn how to fly, learn how to ground loop, fly underneath [ inaudible ] but in combat, i flew long range Escort Missions where you in the squadrons, we had four squadrons, accompanied b17s and b24s from italy to germany, italy to austria, we flew top cover above the bombers. And as colonel davis often said, dami dam it, stay near the bombers. Dont go off chasing germans and trying to get some victories. Every american bomber that you protect, you protect ten lives. Because every b17 had four officers, pilot, copilot, navigator, bombardier and six enlisted men. Every time you saved and protect a bomber, you save 10 lives. This was our mission, to protect the bombers going from italy to germany. On thefirst, that is correct . From there i went to france. Talk about going with the 101st and how that happened. I was an antiaircraft spotter and i volunteered for the 101st airborne which was in france at that time. I was the only japaneseamerican going into the airborne. The only one. The only one. How were you received by the 101st as being the only none of the caucasians would say hey there comes a jap or something. There was nothing like that. My mentor was a guy names huey. Hes 95 and he still jumps out of airplanes. And he became my mentor. If it wasnt for that gentleman, i wouldnt be living here today. He showed me how to survive in the cold with four feet of snow, survive there. You were with g company 506. Yes, sir. Also had e company, which we all know about. We dont know too much about g company. In the movie band of brothers dont believe half of what you see in there. I know captain winters. Dont believe everything. Well talk think about later. [ laughter ]. Captain winters claims they went through all that first. If you go to you know about the 555 . Yes. Nickel. Who are they . [ laughter ]. The only triple nickel i know is the black parachute unit. 555 was the transportation and they were all blake. Black. Yeah. And they fought along with us. But we dont say nothing about the 555. We liberated the last concentration camp. People would say, oh, there was no such thing as haginaw or the other concentration camps. Like ill tell you another story before you ask me a question and well stop. Captain can was to my right. I was in the middle. There was a dead jewish gentleman there with his mouth open. I said, go get something to cover him. Another gentleman came out of the camp, opened his mouth, took out his teeth and put it in his mouth and walked away, so help me god. Its in the book called no victory in valhalla. There you were flying over france with the radar detachm t detachmen detachments. Right. What happened next . We came in at 15,000 feet, all four of us and clear Beautiful Day and peeled off and dropped tanks. I hit the damn switch and the damn tanks didnt come off. The three three guys left me quite naturally because they picked up speed. They were doing about 250, 300. And im back here shaking the stick trying to get these damn tanks. By the way 110 gallon tanks underneath each wing. Finally got them off and they were approximately 200300 yards in front of me. Rammed everything to the wall, pushed it through to have water injection to pick up speed. I know im going to catch hell when i got back because the crew chief has to put in new valves because i had water injection in the engine. Thats another story. I caught up with them, all four of us going about 400 miles an hour firing at these damn radar stations. I saw danny off to my right. I saw him get hit before we got to the stations, black smoke coming out of him. I saw him out of the corner of my eye. We shot up to the buildings, the radar. I go right across the target at about tree top height, no more than 200 feet. Boom damn thing came up through the floor out through the top of the canopy. We were wearing heavy gloves. We were on oxygen, quite naturally. It was a mission. I had to get out. We were doing about 400 miles an hour, 380. All i know, everything was red lined, oil pressure, water, so forth. I got to get out. Fire come up out of the floor. We pulled back on the stick and i think i got up about 800 feet, i dont know, maybe 1,000. I was going up. You reach the left lever, pull the red lever and the canopy goes off. Im up here. And meanwhile as you go up with your left hand youre racking four trim tab on the little wheel. Right here i turned the stick loose and quite naturally the nose drops abruptly. When the nose dropped abruptly, bank i hit th bang, i hit the bar. You hit the buckle and you come loose. Im thrown out. As i go out, i see the tail go by and then the fire go by. And normally if you bail out, you count one, two, three, then you pull the damn dring. Im sorry. The parachute came out. Im sitting on the parachute. Its behind me. And you pull the dring, which is a big cable, and the parachute opens. Naturally i came out and the tail goes by and the fire and i look down, see the damn trees. I said oh hell, i pull that real fast [ laughter ]. I remember looking at it, then saying goddamnit too low. Bang, the parachute popped. Im swinging. I hit the trees. Thats how close. Im trying to get loose and all of a sudden i hear his voice. I said oh hell, you got me. The damn german, that gun looked like it was that big around. That was the introduction to my nine months in germany as a p. O. W. The gentleman soldier saw the by the way, i knew that he was excited, looking at this brown skin and im excited because i dont know whether he was going to shoot or not. But anyway after we got on the ground he saw my gold bar and he saluted. Naturally all i could do was return the salute. That was my introduction to nine months in germany as a p. O. W. Thank you. Just a minute. So talk a little bit about you talked a little bit about liberating the camps. Where were you at the very end of the war . Up at hitlers hideout. You stayed in germany for a while after the war was over . Yes. And then i got transferred into the 82nd airborne, the 508 with colonel mendes and i helped him with the jump school there, jumped 318 times. I was near dachau. Lets talk about that. You were a p. O. W. For nine months and were you at the end of the war . At the end of the war the camp that i was in was pushed near munich. We were liberated by general pattons third army. I saw patton riding on a damn tank, knocked down the barbed wire and we were liberated by him. We were there sitting for a day and somebody said, hey jeff, theres a place down the road with a lot of dead people. What in the hell you talking about . He says they got dead people down the road. So we hooked a jeep, liberated a jeep. Liberated it. [ laughter ]. You could smell the place a mile before you got to it. Now, everyone sitting here, you have been to a saturday morning barbecue. And the older a barbecue permeates your neighborhood. Well, this odor is Something Like that, but ill never forget it. The ovens were still warm when we passed where they were burning bodies. There were piles, piles of dead bodi bodies. Dachau. We went into a room and there were on a table as long as this, a table covered with hair. They gassed the people and then cut off their hair and used the hair for seat cushions. Somebody was there with a pair of pliers pulling out the am amalgam and the gold, a table covered with dentures. Somebody today when i tell this horrible thing they say, oh jeff, things like that never happened. Goddamnit it gripes the hell out of me, the atrocities that i saw. Dachau. I hate it. Thank you. We could go on because both of these gentleman had careers after world war ii. Oh yeah. I fought dear little snotty nosed brats. I was a teacher. [ laughter ]. Talk about your air force service. Oh god. Bob served in korea and vietnam, but that is a story for another day. Weve got about three minutes left, four minutes left. I told them and i told you that perhaps wed have time for a couple of questions. Does anyone have a question theyd like to ask. [ inaudible ] some sort of liberating of concentration camps did you have any knowledge of that kind of genocide that was going on before you went into germany . If not, what was that experience like for your companies . What was that experience like for you realizing that kind of thing was going on . First of all, the United States at that time did not advertise. No life magazine. You got telephones today. Your transportation and your knowledge nobody knew about it in the United States. I dont know why the press was that way. It was disgusting to me, overbearing. Bob, you have anything . I dont know about him, but i dont understand about not that im against him. Why did he take his vehicle to go see that and all the dead bodies . I know what a dead body is. I know what it smells like. He didnt know what it smells like until he got in there. But i know how it smells like. Vietnam was the same, korea was the same way. And i could never see it again. Thank you, bob. Any other questions . Wait for the microphone, please. Alex parker from virginia tech. My question is for the colonel. When you were in your p. O. W. Camp, what did you do to keep yourself going, keep your buddies going and make sure you guys survived . In the camp itself let me open this up. This is my book. In the camp itself we had time enough to read to have classes, we had music and the p. O. W. Camp. We were treated as officers, as human beings. We didnt have enough food. We starved. I went from 119 pounds down to 116 at that time. I was a skinny brat. But we had time to draw pictures. Ive got a book here. We drew pictures and i brought these home, reproduced them. We had classes in music, classes in literature, classes in chemistry, class we did everything. Life was normal. Thank you. Theres other questions, but we dont have time for them today. But lets give a round of applause for these two heros of world war ii. [ applause ]. This afternoon President Trump will discuss National Security strategy. His speech live at 2 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan 2. You can also watch on cspan. Org or listen by using the free cspan radio app. Today the House Rules Committee meets. On the agenda, the tax reform bid and chan bill and changes to the doddfrank Consumer Protection act. In the week ahead on capitol hill, work on the tax reform bill and funding the federal government passed friday. The house returns today for legislative business. Tomorrow theyre expecting to debate and vote on the tax reform bill. Later this week theyll work on a shortterm extension of government funding through january 19th. The senate is also in today. They could vote on the tax reform bill as early as tuesday and also have to take up the government funding measure. Tonight on the communicators, brian fung of the Washington Post and Margaret Harding mcgill with politico talk about the fccs vote overturning net neutrality. The question is whether or not the rules put in place in 2015 are really appropriate for this new kind of era and in some ways by rolling them back, whether were actually going to see the or whether or not the new rules that were going to be living under are actually appropriate for the moment that were living in. Tech companies are concerned about having to pay to reach consumers. Thats a pretty big fear, especially not so much the bigger guys who have the money and could pay, but some of the smaller websites too, etsy, reddit. They say, hey, if we have to pay a toll to reach co