I will welcome craig to introduce the next panel. Good morning. My name is craig horn. This morning, we will begin an adventure so when we look back we can see further ahead. Its often been said ignorance of the past can create irresponsibility in the present. Its my pleasure to introduce richard b. Frank, an internationally historian of the Asian Pacific world war. He was consultant for the hbo World War Ii Special on the pacific. In that he wrote, and i quote, the pacific war will inspire a long overdue reawakening of the strategic importance, sheer scale and unsurpassed savagetry of the wars unleashed by japan. The battle of midway was the turning of the tide. Please welcome, mr. Richard b. Frank. [ applause ] thank you very much. Thank you for those kind remarks. Were here in the 75th anniversary of the battle of midway. It is a perennial list of the most important battle for world war ii. Often cited as the single most important naval battle in the United States naval history. Its usually listed as among the most decisive naval battles in all of history. It is an enthralling story thats been told and retold a number of times. We dont have time to go into all the details of it today. In a very sparse outline, let me point out the battle from my perspective was a great triumph against odds, its foundation intelligence, particularly radio intelligence developed by american officers with british and australian support. The key figure in this is Lieutenant Commander joseph roderich, the commander in chief of the pacific fleet. Joe is a well remembered figure more than dozens of admirals who served in world war ii and those who feel your efforts are not properly appreciated. You should remember when joe was in the officer Training Program in 1919 one of his evaluators wrote this individual should not be entrusted with important responsibilities. The information he provided enabled admiral chester nimitz to station his carriers off the island of midway. Decades ago we learned there was more back story than we knew at the time. President roosevelt appointed admiral nimitz commander in chief but nimitz immediate boss quite bluntly did not think nimitz was fit for the job and showed it in various ways, in the weeks leading up to the battle of midway, nimitz and king were in conflict what the japanese move was going to be. Nimitz believed it was midway and the other the South Pacific. He was in the position of explaining to his doubtful boss why he was right and his boss was wrong, which he did. The battle itself was commanded by admiral frank jack hutcher and admiral spoons, both did well. It was a battle that ultimately came down to professionalism and skill and sheer valor of air groups and ships off midway. Most notably the aviators suffered tremendous loss for midway and the carriers, torpedo squadron 8 off hornet and launched 15 aircraft and all 15 shot down and of 30 crewmen only one survived. Part of the crewmen that came off the dive deck survived and came back. I talked to them beforehand. There is a natural chronology of the sequence of their recollections about that event. Without further adieu we will go to that and i will move through that. We had scheduled this morning captain Jack Crawford who unfortunately is not yet here with us today. Sorry, john crawford, should he get here in time maybe we will have a chance to hear from him. We will start with jack holder, in 1941 and 1942, was with patrol squad ron 23, vp 23. You were with the squadron at the time of the attack on pearl harbor. I joined december 12, 1940. Then, you all deployed from there to Midway Island for the battle of midway . I got to midway on may 26, 1942. So your aircraft he was flying in a catalina pby, a high wing twin engine patrol bomber. It had great range and considerable vulnerability if it ran into japanese zero fighter aircrafts. Your position on the aircraft was Flight Engineer. What did that involve . What did that involve . Years ago, aircraft were built they had an Engineers Panel that required a lot of instrumentation, controls and everything unlike airplanes today. Aircraft today, most of the control the pilot has all of them. The pilot count even start a pby without the Flight Engineer. These controls were for the engine, fuel system and things like that . You were monitoring that . Actually i didnt know the Flight Engineer actually started a pby. His aircraft was not just one of the search aircraft that would fly a Critical Mission at the battle of midway, it flew arguably the most Important Mission that morning. Because of the intelligence weve been provided the pbys had been set up to conduct searches in certain sectors where the japanese carriers were expected, actually, there was an aircraft ahead of you that saw the incoming japanese flight . In the second aircraft we left midway for a deviation of 7 degrees and the pilot and the plane to our left spotted the fleet first, when they reported their position we flew to that position and seeing the same thing. You all reported the presence of two japanese carriers . Yes. I should point out, although there were four japanese carriers in their Carrier Task Force this initial sighting only saw two of them initially and this would cause ripples in the american command decision during the day because they knew there should be four carriers present. What was interesting, when we were talking about this, theres this moment you see the japanese carriers, but you continue on with your mission for hours after that . Oh, yeah. I flew 13 hours that day. In fact, you all were flying that mission, you dont know whats going on at midway . Thats right. We lost all contact with midway. We didnt know if we still controlled it or the japanese had it. Their bombing attack that morning knocked out the radio and you guys could not pick up anything . No. You didnt know who held midway at that point . Thats right. What did you all do . Well, we continued to search and do exactly what we were supposed to do when we went out. We reported the mission to the ships. Later in the afternoon we struck gold and we caught a submarine attempting to submerge, all hatches closed, no one on deck, we dropped the first 500 pounder on the fan tail and made another circle right behind the tower and made six circles around it watching it sink. We had a great day. Since you didnt know what was going on at midday, what did you all do towards the end of the mission then . Later on, after we found out we lost all contact, we had an option. We could take a chance on going back to midway or sit out at sea. It was enthusiasm we sat out at sea, threw a sea anchor, drifted all night. I took a sleeping bag, climbed on top of the wing, tied myself to an antennae and spent the night. At sunup we finally made contact with midway, we learned we had been successful. We also were told there was a destroyer at the french shoals loaded with aviation fuel. We took navigational sun shots, found the position, flew to the shoals, refueled, went to midway. And then that day also part of the mission that pby flew at the battle was after some of the main action. Were searching for our downed aircrew. We spent all of the next day searching for the aircrew. Late in the afternoon we found two gentleman in a raft, we radioed, they lifted the gentleman, took them to midway. Very good. Let me go to bill norberg. Bill, tell us about how long you were on the enterprise. I went aboard the enterprise september 1941 and stayed until august of 45 when the bomb was dropped at nagasaki. How many Commanding Officers did you have to break in . Nine. Nine. Your actual job on the enterprise during that period, can you describe how you moved through those jobs . I started out as a seaman first class, maybe yeoman third class, not sure which. A yeoman is the secretary in the navy. I worked in the captains office my entire term aboard the enterprise there and through a bunch of successes i was able to move rapidly and i was put in charge of the office when i became a first class yeoman and i kept that job, when i became a chief and had that job about 23 months. You had the whole war on whats probably the most famous ship in the u. S. Navys history, uss enterprise . Amen, brother. I should point out for historians, someone like this is a wonderful person. Hes as great and powerful as they talk and make decisions. You can go to people like this and find out what really happens opposed to the memoirs later from the admiral. Before we get to midway, you had a story i want to share with people. This was on the transit enterprise going to deliver the do little raiders. Yes, sir. Youre cruising through and its dark and foggy. You had a little encounter with a high and mighty. I did. I delivered a message from the captain up to the admirals bridge, the admiral i left it with his orderly, good friend of mine, by the way. I started climbing down the ladder and instead of hitting the high steel catwalk i hit something kind of soft. About that time i heard a voice say to me, damn you i recognized william f. Bull halsey. And i was kind of shivering in my shoes, but i took off like a shot after i said, yes, sir, to him and he never caught me. So we heavy here the last surviving american seaman that outran admirable halsey. I had one more incident on that same cruise there where i was standing the midnight watch. It was 20 minutes of 1 00 as i recall it. I was feeling sleepy and i went and laid my head and doggone if i didnt lean against the general quarters alignment and woke up the whole ship. I tell you i scooted in a hurry and took off my pea coat. Somebody said i dont know who but he was wearing a pea coat. Thats the resourcefulness for which our armed forces are known. Okay. Lets move onto the actual battle itself. So youre up with the captain on the captains bridge. Yes. So youre there all day long . Yes, sir. You hear the messages . Yes, i did. Do you remember any particular messages . About 9 30 in the morning, i understand from this gentleman right here that his message came through, japanese fleet spotted, two carriers, from my recollection. So you saw the takeoff of the enterprise aircraft . It wasnt a little bit before the admiral said, everybody take off. Youre there on the bridge and, of course, eventually the aircraft come back and theres not as many coming back as went out . Exactly right. When we were talking about this, this relationship of the air group and the Ships Company is very close. Tell us a little bit about how the reaction of the crew was when the aircraft come back. Well, first of all, the ready room scene was very bad. I didnt hear of any tears being shed. It was very close to that. Among the torpedo squadron, first of all, we sent out 14 torpedo bombers, only four came back. It was bad. But then again, as our planes came back, many many had failed to make it, i think probably there were 20 some all together from the enterprise that were unable to come back. Every one of us could feel that we were losing something great. You mentioned the among the flyers, two of them, two of the most successful famous admired dusty kleis and dick best. Do you remember those gentleman . Yes. I remember them quite well. Dick best, for instance, he was skipper of the bombing six group. He led the attack on the carrier. For some strange reason, there was a mixup that occurred and probably 28 or twine planes attacked carrier coga and only three attacked the acogy and best led the way and made a perfect dive and landed his thousand pound bomb in one of the most vulnerable spots in that carrier, the bomb went down through the flight deck and the detonator in the hangar deck. What is there but a full complement of japanese torpedo planes, all gassed up, armed to the teeth, and it was just a holocaust waiting to happen. Thats what happened. Then, he went out and would fly a Second Mission despite the fact he had very serious problems. He did, sir. He was batting 1,000 at that point. He went out later that afternoon, his plane not having been shot up very badly and he went out and helped attack the last surviving carrier. He scored another hit, which gave him 1,000 batting average. He never flew again for the navy after that. Unfortunately, he had an oxygen problem and he inhaled some caustic soda, which resulted in a rapid case of tuberculosis. It took him several years to recover from it but he retired from the navy and recovered from that and lived a very productive civilian life until the year 2001. I was fortunate enough to meet him. As bill says, you know, the enterprise dive bombers, there were two squadrons. As bill said, what happened when they saw the japanese carriers below, there was a mixup. The lead squadron was supposed to go to the far carrier and trailing squadron to the trailing carrier. They also did diving on the u. S. Carrier, dick best had the presence of mind to realize this would leave the other carrier, the japanese flagship, he led his little group of three planes down an scored this hit. If he had not scored that hit on the acogy, it would have continued on through the battle, truly one of the great heroes of the battle. Dusty, one of his memoirs published. Although he was 1,000, dusty was 1 out of 4. He hit the cog and and two others. His wonderful memoir called never call me a hero just came out. Now, you stayed aboard the enterprise for the whole war. The enterprises greatest moments were to come later in the year at the canal. Let me stop that and you can rest your heels. Let me go now to john. He was aboard the yorktown. Right. Okay. Tell us about when you got to the yorktown. Well, i joined the navy, like these fellows, prior to the war. I was in high school, down in georgia, and had to cross the street to get on the school bus and stand in front of the post office. They had a big sign with a pilot and goggles and standing on the wing of an airplane with a parachute hanging, and it says high school graduates. Join the navy and learn to fly. Well, that was for me. To cut my story short, it was in latter 43 before i got to Flight Training in norman, oklahoma. Anyway, i graduated from boot camp on friday december the 3rd, 1941, down here at norfolk. Sunday, the knapps blew a hole in my ordered to the japs blew a hole in my orders. And the newport news was the first carrier i ever saw, first large ship. We went aboard and got underneath the yorktown and scraped the dabarnacles and gra off of it. We went around through the florida straits canal up to san diego and arrived there the day after christmas and stayed a couple of days and took a convoy of marines, a whole battalion down to samoa, and dropped them off. We didnt go in, in the carrier. Our little battle fleet, two cruisers and four destroyers, we went west. Another carrier battle fleet came over to it and another guy got out of the back seat, you talk about hallsy, im a sky lookout, i was looking down at the deck and this guy got out of the plane and this plane handler, a seaman like myself, slapped him on the back, said, hey, chief, that was a good landing. He took his vest off and he had three stars on there. [ laughter ] he had come over to confer with our admiral fletcher, blackjack fletcher they called him, and they got their heads together, and without approval from us deck force types, we went and bought the marshall in Gilbert Islands the first retaliatory strike of the war and then we went to pearl harbor. We got there on february the 2nd, and bodies were still breaking loose from the wreckage and floating to the surface, all sorts of mess over. So, people like me, who if you want to speak to someone with a little authority on yorktown, theyd send you to see me because little authority on york town, theyd send you to see me. I had as little as anybody. Being an apprentice. We roll them in and we had developed a great hate for our japanese friends. There. Because these boys were killed a lot of them under bulks. So we stayed there for a while and gathered up the skirts and one not. We were on the way for 104 days. And we fought the battle of the we got sunk and shot up. We went down to an island which is about 1,000 miles due east of australia. Got everybody settled in. Sdp we got a message from pearl harbor. Back then they call it commander in chief something cincus. We got a mess and that says buster pearl. Away with went. I remember standing back under near the after end of the flat deck watching us pave a oil streak all the way to pearl. We were conditioned the japanese submarines would find the streak and follow us. We went into pearl, went around fort island. And it got rid of the likes of me. And what professionals board. I never saw so many workers. We were told to get out in 72 hours. Admiral was down to his staff walking the dry dock with waiters on that. 72 hours later, im get k ahead of you. Just briefly, as john said, york town was hit by several bombs. Originally they thought it was a thee week job. And a navy yard to repair. Admiral realized that the japanese was going to make the main effort at midway. He ordered york town back to pearl harbor and gave the dock yard people the orders that she has to be ready for sea in three days. 72 hours. It was a frantic effort as you can well imagine to do all this. Our other york town veteran mr. Crawford in fact reported aboard at this time. He was fresh in. He told me that when he reported aboard he was sent to the executive officer to get his assignment. Which was clark at the time. The executive officer is exhausted. But we know now this was like a frenzy. In order to get the ship repaired, replenished and everything set to go. In throe days. He sent mr. Crawford to find his place on some watch bill somewhere and get back to him later. He was trained as radar officer. But what i want to do, john, is i want you to describe where where are battle station was during the battle. Let me insert something for the record. The battle of midway would have been fought with six carriers. The same six that bombed pearl harbor. We sank one and damaged two. The they have four carriers. Thanks to the battle of the sea. The enterprise was the sister ship. We were proud of the enterprise. She looked out. One of the original group of york town class to survive. So anyway, we got under way at the end of the 72 hours and worked day and night. And we were going out to slot between a islands. Recovering planes. And we taken the fire group aboard first. And fighter squad ran skipper landed first. Naturally. And the dropped his nose and built up air speed and floated on top of him. And propelled just chopped him up and left streaks of blood on the super structure. His son is a naval graduate. Retired from the navy and lives in charleston. We sew him every june 4th when we have the reunion. We went out because he told us to take position 150 miles northeast. Port luck. And our skipper our admiral flecher was sopa. And the one you had on the enterprise it wound uptaking over after we got shot up. Anyway on the day of june the fourth. I was a sky look out and i could hear the admiral and the captain talking just down below me. And we heard the pby say they had spotted a main force they call it. And nothing else. I hearded admiral say where the hell are they . Later on we got another message. I guess from your pby that has spotted two carriers. We knew that where the japs were. Admiral flecher said signal the enterprise. Because they had to rare admiral aboard there was second in command. And tell him to launch full deck load. From the enterprise and the hornet. And well follow as as soon as we recover our scout. Because we had to scout constitute that day. And they launched it our scout return this is one of the details that gets confused. The york town had launched the local search with their scout bombers. That morning. So she didnt have her deck already spotted for the launch like enterprise and hornet did. Flecher tells to launch. Well follow that york town had to recover the scouts first before they could launch the aircraft. Actually the york town air group was better organized and functioned at the battle than any other air group at that time. And they were able to get their strikes up. And which theyll arooi over the japanese carriers. By this time, are you back with the 50 caliber . No. When they launch an aircraft we were general core all day. And i was a sky lookout. And we were in the chair half hour and another half hour. And a half hour. Off. And i went back to many i gun. The karl sea battle i had a 50 caliber on the. We didnt have the hurricane bows in those days. Except for the sar toga and lexington. So the bow stuck out about 20, 30 feet. Beyond the flight deck and on the port side was a 50 caliber, in the middle was a gun mount with two, 20 millimeters. And a 50 caliber. When the i was up there and being born and raised on south where we hunt quail and dove and anything else that moves. I had learned to lead my daddy taught me how to lead. I did pretty good in the karl sea. I did everybody is shooting at the same time. So they gave me a larger field of fire. And sit me up on the after end of the island structure. So i had a 50 caliber and i could color a part of a quarter. And all the way forward on the port quarter. Let me move this along. Youre at the station the japanese retaliate after we knocked out the three carriers. The remaining carrier launches dive bombers and torpedo planes. And the second strike is the youll fire at them. But the plane attack was particularly spectacular. The first strike that hit us was and they came in of course we were zigzagging and came in on the side. I couldnt fire because the directory was there. This one plane i was looking up and one point the firing at them. And this one plane i was looking at him and the wing broke off. And i heard it just like youd take a plank and break it over your knee. His wing came off and a bomb came out from underneath. And it evidently didnt have a vein. Because it tumbled and went passed my face kp hit the flight deck. Wiped out a bunch of guys. My boot camp friends. I couldnt talk about it for a years. Anyway. It knocked me out. When i came to, my loader was shooting at the planes and i pushed it and went back to firing. The reason i tell you that, later on they found out my lung collapsed and i had shrapnel in my neck. We just fired like that. The battle at sea its like a thunder storm in the summertime. Just raise hell for a while. And its over. And the nice part about the navy if you didnt get sunk you could take a hot shower and have a hot meal and turn in a clean book. The plane attack. Youre watching the manes approach from the port side. And firing. Tells you see the actual torpedo strike york town. Whatd you see . They came in and bunk master was swerve around. They came in on the quarter. The marines had 20 millimeters along the cat walk. Im firing over their head. Everybody is shooting at them. One of the planes dropped his fish, pulled up my face. I thought he was going to fly into me. I dont know why he didnt drop i dont know. I almost emptied a canister in his face. He turned went down alongside the island structure, disappeared. A quick story about that. Ruth ann and i met the guy later on. At the 50th anniversary. And he said that was him. Anyway. Getting back at firing at those things the torpedo was copping in. I stopped firing at the plane they were dropping and fired at the torpedo. Kid like. It didnt do any good. It hit the quarter and the cat walk went up like that. The marines turned end over end and in the water on the flight deck. And hit the ship. It was like youd take your pants and put them in the bucket. And just came to halt. We had stopped earlier from the bombs, and had just gotten under way in the signal flag says my speed 18 knots. So we couldnt get away from the torpedo. I have to rope us in. I want to move onto mr. Walsh. Ill shut my big mouth. Your mouth was doing just fine. As the rest of you. George, im sorry. Let me get my notes right. George had comments you want to make about the context of maryland way. And a proposal he had. Ill let you go. But were down to about eleven minutes here. I dont know where to begin. Because i prepared what i was going to say. I listened to these gentlemen and some ways theres some things they have said that i disagree with. Id like to begin the debate. But were not here to debate on the table. This is not debate. No debate. I was a pilot. I was not at the battle of midway. I was training in florida. I was a dive bomb. And a 1989, we had a reunion of a squad ran in chicago. And i wonder why there was nothing written up about the dive bombers. At the battle of midway. Everything was about the torpedo bombers. There was no book about dive bombing. Mo description of it. The military channel gave reports on weapons of every nation for the egyptians the greeks the romans. The british. Submarines. Everything was written up but never anything in detail about the technique and the power of the dive bombing. And thats still exists. Its still nothing. Dustys book came out. The first book that gives any account of dive bombing at all. And at that time i wonder why. I started to research. For the past 25 years, 27 years. I have been researching the battle of midway. And i have come to the conclusion that the theres still a lot to be told. A lot that is not been disclosed about what happened. Theres a will the of misinformation now. And particularly the information thats put out by the authors of the 21st century since the turn of the year 2000. We have had books put out about the midway. And i disagree with what they say. But having said that, i urge you to look at the blogs that i have on google. I have ten blogs up and running. About the batdle of midway. And a lot of information, in fact the page views from the russians. I get as many page views from the russians as i do from the United States. I think maybe they consider me a disdint. Because in some ways i do disagree with the official status of the battle of midway. As far as the navy. If i could moou you on. When we talk on the phone you talk about wouldnt it be nice if all of us here today could do more to honor veterans of the battle of midway. We can. We need a new battle of midway film. The film midway of 1976 with henry fonder, doesnt do justice to the importance of the battle of midway. The battle was not only important it was a desperate gamble. And the story really has never been fully told. At the time of the battle of midway the japanese advanced through the South Pacific and the indian ocean. And threatening the british. The they sank the british carriers capitol ships. The prince of whales and the china sea. And shortly after pearl harbor. And february it went down it australia. And sank a bunch of ships in the harbor. Again in february of 1942, they annihilated nine cruisers and 18 destroyers of the British American and dutch fleet. At the battle. The australians were there too. April of 1942, just before midway, they had five carriers that hit the yand ocean. And drove the british navy out of the indian ocean. They want as far as madagascar. They sank the british carrier. They raided and sank dozens of merchant ships and they also destroyed all of tankers that were carrying oil from the mideast headed for america. To fuel our war machine. And our military. That access to mideast oil was vital for america. And the german war staff had report to hitler on february 13, 1942, if germany and japan join hands at the indian ocean, the final victory should not be far off. I guess the point im making is that the battle of midway frs not about the japanese or the u. S. And the pacific. It was affected all of world war ii. And affected north africa and russia. China. There was a threat to cut off the supply of from the u. S. To the british troops. To the troops of russia. And so the chinese through the burma. It had a worldwide effect. It was significant. April 14, 1942, midnight meeting of the British Defense commission. If japan advance along the Southern Shores of asia was not halted, that would cut off three quarters in the middle east. And bring about the dreaded. Bring about the dreaded junction of the ak says partners. Turkey would be surrounded. And russian oil supply would be threatened. After the war, churchill spring of 1942, the most dangerous moment of the war. The greatest most dangerous momt of the war. Facing defeat at the hands of germans. And the japanese. If they could combine. Churchill repealed to roosevelt, he needed help. Roosevelt replied came in several forms. But i believe that one of the answers that were given by roosevelt was the battle of midway. There was really no other reason to fight the battle of midway. Let me in view of the clock. George made a really critical point. We tend often to think of midway something that happened in the pacific between japan and u. S. Its related to the pacific war. It truly had just as he described a ripple about allied strategy across the globe. In fact general eisenhower in a chief planner for general marshall wrote a memo in february 45. The three essentials for winning the wart were keeping the british in. Russians in and preventing a link up of japan and germany across the indian ocean. So the three enforcers the same point. If the japanese and germans had achieved this link up it would have impacted the war. A tremendous Ripple Effect on allied strategy and what could be done in europe. For the war. We have were down now to just a couple minutes left. And i want to say that i much appreciate our panel today. I think we have time for maybe one or two quick questions. So anyone has any questions to ask, anybody on the panel. I will entertain at this point. Well be down to one question. And george could you talk about the intelligence and particularly the code breaking and how that contributed to the success in the battle . Thats more than a quite simply. Japanese made naval code. Was kept in place for much longer than necessary that gave us time to break tli the cipher. Extract and you cant emphasize enough theyre not reading complete messages. Theyre getting bits and pieces. Theres where the great genius was. To take from the pieces and see the bigger pattern. I think now in vow of the other panel we have to call it an end. Once again thank the panelists i believe they deserve a salute. As great americans. [ applause ] well hear from hstorians and novelists. Including house of cards creator michael jobs. Cspan, where history unfolds daily. In 1979, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas Cable Television companies. And brought by your cable or satellite provider. During world war ii, the United States military was racially segregated. Up next well hear from a member of the tus key gee airmen. And also from a veteran who served with the 442nd regimen combat team. Compromised of japanese american soldiers. This is 35 minutes. Im glad to be here this morning. Im a graduate of the Virginia Military institute. Im glad to see the key vets on hand. Okay. As i have in the past im honored to be here. This morning to moderate the panel about the greatest generation. Like many of you i enjoy hearing storying about world war ii. For the last 15 years or so i have been involved with projects that center around world war ii. The memorial and the library of congress collecting stories from veterans. I have heard hundreds if not thousands of stories from veterans. My ears always perk up when i hear the stories about airmen. And the 442 rnd combat team. If you dont know what either are, most of you do. Youre about to hear from them this morning. The american patriots the american patriots who served in the units bring a different perspective to service to country and bravery under fire. This is a very special morning we have two members. One of each served in each unit. Chief Master Sergeant robert bob. Is a veteran of world war ii. Who joined the 442nd team and the 101st airborne division. Well find out what thats about. Its unusual to have a japanese american with the division. In world war ii. We have lieutenant jefferson. Who flew 19 missions over italy and france. Except the last mission in which he crashed and was captured by the germans and was a pow. Let get started. Id like to start as i mention earlier, you hear me okay . Okay. Lets start with mr. Alexander. Could you give us more about your background, where yo grew up, where you came from and why you joined . Im a College Graduate. You had to be a College Graduate to go into the army air core. In 1941. I remember japanese bomb pearl harbor in december. I graduated six months later. From college. And the draft board was after me. Trying to bite me to send me to the army. If the draft board had caught me, i would be a buck private. Making 21 a month. But i stayed allowed joined the army air core. And as a cadet learning how to fly with the excitement. 75 a