Generation. The stories of word war 2. You can enhance your lessons and have a more personal understanding of what these gentleman and their compatriots have been through to get here today. We know that the gentlemen here in front of us, and the other events that we do, we have a short time to tect to them and understand them and the fact that they made it through one of the most significant experiences in history. We also want to make sure that erin everyone in the audience can ask questions that you will find valuable in your classrooms. Ly probably step forward to make sure i can hear you properly, repeat the question so the audience can hear, and the cspan audience can hear, and the honor res can hear as well. First to the left, in the handsome red blazer, charles mcgee. He was in the United States air force for 30 years. He holds a record 409 fighter combat missions flown in korea and vietnam. To his left, who i met on my very First World War ii event, he landed on the beach in normandy france. They endured heavy fire, extreme bloodshed, and witnessed the loss of 5,000 troops. We had a great discussion before we came here this morning. We had a little connection. It was a soft spot for broadcasting. He was in the 84th infantry division. He was a rifleman, a messenger, and a communication sergeant. He is also the great resource of three world war ii books. He tried at writing a novel, too, and he said that was very challenging. And at the end, colonel james riffy. He started as a private and finished as a colonel. He was in the infantry. He invaded okinawa. He got parachute and airborn glider badges. A contest. Two other people to mention, we would also like to recognize here george who was in okinawa and he now lives in falls church, virginia. He was in the u. S. Coast guard, and he also invited barbara martin. She also served in world war ii. She had to cancel but we want to have her in our next event as well. So before we get started, were in the midst of a great depression. And the allied forces fought against the access forces of germany, japan, and others. Battle fronts all over the world, they were teenagers, 20somethings. Both my reporting as an education reporter. They skipped out of high school, they lied on thar application saying their were 18. Thats how much it meant to news gentleman and so many people and these teenagers were killed and they did killing. The total casualties over world war ii, 60 million dead, some say upwards of 80 million dead. The stories of survival are legendary. We want to continue to thank them for their service. We want to put it in the context of the students that we spend time with today, to help them understand they were their age. I would like to jump in, and we can make this valuable for you. That is the most important thing for you. When youre greeted in person, youre considered a national hero. And we want to continue to tell that. Snishlly when you started and you decided and you said im going to go for this career, how were you created . Was your race a factor. Did they need people who had the cuts and the determination to help save our nation and the world . How are your first days in the military . Race was a factor, also experience all through the end of the world and still the United States air force separated from the ground forces. There was segregation, but it begins with 1925 war study determining how this 1onetenth of the population, now called black, would be used if america got in another war. Physically qualified. Mentally inferior, fizzly inferior, a secondclass citizen, if you will. That report said dig ditches, build roads, do anything technical was impossible. So that was the attitude and washington bought that as far as policy is concerned. So the civilian Pilot Training program. The military units. Initially they subsequently did. But theyre graduates from Howard University program here. And i wanted to be an army pilot and the army said we dont have any black mechanics so we cant use a black pilot. Also, there was a young man who graduated from west point in 36. When he graduated, pretty well up in his class, but segregated through his training years, said he wanted to be a pilot and they said sorry, they dont have any black aviation units. So he was denied that. It took real world war ii action. Willing to help their allies in europe. But the pressure, the army said we studied asia. We know it could fail, but you keep pressing us. It is a pursuit squadron. Well be glad to talk on that as we go down the line, but segregation was the name of the game, it went back home, it took our United States air force to make a decision. It says you have a record of 409 combat missions which means overtime i would think that attitude started to change, and you were considered eventually a valuable member and effective fighter pilot. When did you start to notice the communications with you and added responsibilities when in your military career did that start to change . Where you started to get more respect . That is interesting. If you want me to lecture for 20 minutes. So you have plenty to tell. But what happened is the air force and its segregation here in the states in july of 1949, we were scattered around the world. I received assignments overseas that i would not get here at home. In other words, the air base training closed in 46. When that base closed, that was july of 49. I became commander of the base in the 1840 air base wing in june of 1972. The first of the states. Previously assignments overseas we would not get here at home. I commanded a Fighter Squadron in the philippines. I was in the cold war, we had not even gotten credit for the cold war because we did not fire anything, but commanded units against russia. The change game very slowly. And that is something to understand, but the value lessons that sustained us are just as port for the young people today who are americas tomorrow, and they need to understand that. The beach in normandy france, how old were you . 18. Did you enlist at 18 and immediately get sent there . What happened right after you enlisted . We were playing stick ball out on the street. A couple boys came over and told us that japanese just bombed and then we president roosevelt. He said anyone 18 and older had to register at the local post office. I went to the local post office with my dad and signed up. Then we reported top fort dixon, new jersey. What was the conversation like in your household, how did your family respond when you found out you were drafting that quickly. Did your mom or dad get upset . Were they supportive . What was the conversation like . They were sorry to see me go. They didnt want me to go. But it is either register at the post office or i guess luck out. No choice. Were you scared . No, i wasnt scared because i was a boy scout. I was used to going through out and sleeping overnight, spending time in the woods. There is not artillery fire in the boy scouts. You were very brave, sir. And then after training the most important thing i could tell you is i had to take a course in typing. And everything in the army is typed. Everything is typed, nothing handwritten. There can be no errors if because of that, they sent me to fort brag, North Carolina, home of the 101st airborne. And from there the training put me into a unit, 105. Its a big gun. The kind that the president used on the fourth of july here. After the training they sent me overseas to england. I spent training in england. And finally they put me into the fourth infantry. With that i did well. You learn a lot about fighting and the next thing we knew, a few short months flew by and we were on a ship heading for utah beach. We landed on normandy, dday, h hour. That day, i think, we they tell me, that we lost 5,000 boys, the first day. What time of day was that and describe what it sounded like. What did it sound like, do you remember . What were the sounds . There was a lot of or till ri fire when you landed . Was it quiet. What did it sound like . Im sorrying. The sounds what were the sounds in a morning when you landed on the beach, what did you hear . We crossed the english channel, it is only about 23 miles, rather quickly because there must have been about 500 sh 500 ships. We werent the only ones in on the invasion. But two went in and ours happened to be utah. We landed there just as the light was starting. And then we im sorry. Continue please. Mr. Howardton. I will let you collect yourself and i will ask the question once again in a moment. Mr. Howerton, you started your college career, started your education, and then some of it was interrupted and thats how you how old were you when you started in the service and describe what led to you getting into the service. All of our experiences are unique. I grew up in western kentucky. It was a very deprived at the time. There was no tv, so i grew up in that area and i was a bookworm kid, the schools must have been excellent. I was an academic, but there was no money for college. So i wanted to get out of the house, but i wanted to make some money, and try to figure out how to get an education. This was, i was 17 years old, graduating from college, turning 18. I ended up, of all places, in northern new jersey working for white castle system incorporated. You all know what that is, im sure one of the great hamburgers. I was able to live on 18. 50 a week and i was able to audition and get enrolled in a Radio Broadcasting school within the vicinity of radio city. So when i was not flipping burgers or working on curb service at white castle, i was reading soap opera scripts and learning to be a radio broadcaster which was my interest at the time. Pearl harbor came along and i worked a saturday night, woke up sunday morning, it was maybe noon or 2 00 in the around, and i turned on the radio and heard about pearl harbor. I didnt enlist at the time. I wasnt i was patriotic, but i didnt enlist, i was a procrastinator. Waiting around to see what was really going to happen. So while i was waiting they lowered the draft age from 20 to 18. So in february of 1943, i got the greeting. Greeting, you have been selected. For the infantry. In the infantry . Well, no i was at fort dixon, new jersey. Took a bunch of tests and ended up training as a medic. I had no interest in medicine, but they needed medic trainees at the time so you, you, and you become medics. When i finished there, at the end of 90 days basic training but medics didnt get any weapons training. So when i finished i was called into the cp one day. I was expecting to get an assignment overseas somewhere as a combat medic, and there was a corporal behind the desk and he said you have to make a choice. And i looked at him and i said i cant believe it the army is going to give me a choice. And he said yes, he said you can go to medical, administrative ocs, officer candidate school, or you can go to the astp. So which is . That was my next question. What is the astp, corporal . And he said i dont know. He fumbled in his desk and pulled out a brochure, handed it to me, and then i knew what it was because i knew there was a college program. This is called the Army Specialized Training program. The army put about 200,000 young men into american colleges across the country. The idea was to develop a tra Training Academy to go overseas and rebuild whatever was being torn down during a war. Studying engineering, and various other things like that. I learned later in doing some research that there was another reason. The University President s were raising cane with the defense department. Some of them were going bankrupt. They were depleted. They were taking all of their College Students and perspective students. So we became College Students. So i ended up at the institute of technology. I had no interest in engineering. So i was interested in history, english, social science, and those kind of academic things, but i was able to get pretty good grades by listening to lectures and trying to memorize what was said, so i got pretty good grades there. After the first nine months in april, 1944. The army decided because of severe manpower shortage, 1943, with the invasion coming up, they really needed troops. So they made a decision to break up that program halfway through. We ended up on a troop train. Imagine a train pulling up, and theyre saying youre 18, get on the train. We were joking before hand, right . I said you were like cattle, and you said highly educated cattle. Cattle and cadets without any stripes. So we go down to louisiana late at night when we finally detrained. Stay in your seats until your name is called. Get out on the platform, follow a sergeant into your company. So here i am, out on the platform, all of my friends left on the train, i had no idea how they selected people. So we marched through, late at night, got up the next morning and stood formation. A very competent draft a typical world war ii drill sergeant. And he stood out in front of the company and he said yall men here . Youre not supposed to move your heads in my company, but you can move your eyeballs around if you wish, he said when you move your eyeballs youre going to see something here. You hear about these young men, these College Students helping us win the war, theyre right in here among us and you can tell them because they look like they havent had no sun in six months. That was my entrance into the infant infantry. Thats a great story, i love that. You had a varied experience when you start in the service as an army private and you finish as a colonel over 30 years. How old were you when you first saw combat, and what was that like . Well, i was 21 years old. When i first saw combat on the island of okinawa, which was the last battle of world war ii. And it was the bloodiest iesies in the pacific for the navy. I fsz in twas in the service ana staff based on my previous experience and a program called Citizens Military training camps. If you attended that camp for four summers you would be commissioned as a second lieutenant. It was terminated because the military bases were being used to Train National guard folks. I was a star sergeant. And the officers candidate school, and i graduated there in march of 1943. The first assignment was being at a student at Officer School in california. They had to Train Company grade officers for assignments in the pacific theater. After the one month course i was selected as an instructor where i stayed for a year. After that i was september to the pacific. The first on the island of new caladonia. I was there for a short time. We ended up on the island where i joined the 27th division, and that started my real military career as a First Lieutenant platoon leader. What were you responsibility for doing when you were in position . You were the leader of an infantry platoon which was three squads, 12 men in each squad, each one commanded by a master staff sergeant. Then there was the platoon head quarters. A platoon sergeant. And there was a bazooka team, about 40 people lead by a lieutenant. A bazooka shell is how big . It was a 2. 36, one of the first they had. It was a small how big of a hole could it put in a wall . What kind of damage does it do . It had a range of about 75 to 100 yards. It would destroy a machine gun nest, or a mortal position, but it didnt have much penetrating power. I suppose on okinawa there was nothing to penetrate but trees, mountains, homes, things like that. We used it if we knew where a machine gun was located or we saw a hole, we would train the bazoo krksz a on that hole to destroy it. The motto for a lieutenant was follow me. I think that is why i survived the military combat because i was always leading up front. I would normally have one or two scouts in front. And the rest i would leave behind on the command of the platoon sergeant until we contacted the enemy. You always have plans to what youre going to do, but when you contact the enemy, then you have to make new plans. You cant participate exactly what youre going to run into. How many people, what kind of guns they have, where are they located, the artillery, the mortal. I was wounded, but i started out with 29 men and three weeks there was nine of us left of the 20 who were evacuated, seven were killed. And 13 were wounded. So i started with 29 and in three weeks there was nine of us left because 13 were wounded or killed. Now youre in your early 20s, coming from home and doing all of this training. How did seeing all of that death so quickly affect you emotionally . It is something you never forget. To me it was like it happened yesterday. Even now . Even now you fell that . Beg your pardon . Even now you feel like it happened yesterday. This is the first time i have ever talked about okinawa. I have been invited by the history club of Fairfax County and arlington, virginia to talk about my experiences in world war ii, but this is the first time i have been invited from the world war ii memorial friends, but everything happened like it was yesterday. Like yesterday. Like you never loose it. Does it still hurt . Do you dry and have nightmares . What is your life like when you recall it . It makes me sad, my wife will say jim, whats wrong, and i say ill be okay, but i think people here will also confirm that it is an experience that lives with you forever, the biggest problem i had of the seven men in my direct control that got killed and the 13 seriously wounded and evacuated, is what happened to them and what happened to their families . And you know when youre up front and a man this close to you is killed and you can hear the bullets going by your head, and this man is killed and you can hear the bullets but you survive, and you ask why not me . To this day i dont know why i survived. Hopefully i have been a good citizen of my country. I did serve in the army for a little over 30 years. I had many wonderful and challenging experiences, so i appreciate the opportunity to be here today and im happy to answer questions about my experience. So now that we had a chance to go across the board. Does anyone have any questions they would like to ask . Yes, sir. As young men enrolling into the army, would you see your life any other way . As young men going into the army, as you look back, could you envision your life in any other way . Not with the war declared . You felt a sense of duty. Herman, would you envision your life in any other way than the way you did by going into the service . I dont know, but i would go again. My primary thing is that i wanted to continue school. But the germans would not let us. Good point. And were lucky we have an ocean on each side of us, but if the election the people that we have running on the election dont do something quickly, were going to be in a lot of trouble. Im worried about that. But i did want to say one thing. It was a bad war. Especially nor mmalmondy. We had a company of american young soldiers that young soldiers that were surrounded. Instead of having them shot by the germans, the officers surrendered. They marched the soldiers off to a field. There were trucks, german trucks there, and they machine gunned all of them. This was the winter of 44, and the weather was the worst winter europe had. I was part of the group that went out and happened to see everything, and it was frightening, absolutely frightening. Then another place we went to, the germans had confiscated all the art work, hid it in caves, mountains and we found some of the caves, and i did see art in crates that they were sending back to germany. We stopped that. Then we had the battle of the bulge, which the germans tried to break the american troops and get to the gasoline and oil that they needed, but we wouldnt let them. I think the battle of the bulge was the final big battle of world war ii. Another first was the liberation of paris, which was great. French people woke up in the morning and found the american trucks sitting on a main thoroughfare and there where we were, they brought down their whatever food, flowers and just want to do everything with us. I have pictures of all my happenings. If anybody is interested in seeing any of the pictures, ill be glad to show it to you. As we listen to you talk we can see in your eyes that youre accessing those memories and youre going through some of those scenes and its probably very, very clear. Mr. How areton, would you change anything . You said you wanted to be a broadcaster. You thought you were going to be an economist. Then you were in the war. Looking back, if you could have, would you have done Something Different . Im sorry, if i could have, what . Would you have chosen a different path . Thats a hard question to ask. I suppose so. I think, yeah, i probably would have chosen a different path. But i would like to say this in response to the question. I actually have been through the war twice. In the 90s i gathered up all the records of my company because i really didnt know what had gone on there. Because you see only a few hundred yards in front of you. So i wanted to find out what really happened. I got the records all together and i set up a database of everybody who was in the company, 572 men served in company k during six months of combat. Company strength was less than 200. You can see what the turnover was. And you explained it very, very well. We had similar experiences. So i wrote a book. It took me years and years to do it, but it went back through the war again, day by day. The book is called dear captain the agonies and ecstasies of war in memory. So in one regard, the young man who fought the war in a sense is actually not sitting here today. Why is that . Because after going through it a second time, this young fella seemed like somebody else, not me. And ive recommended to world war ii veterans that they dont have to necessarily publish a book, but write down the experiences. Yeah. Put it down on paper. When you do that, you see perspectives that you never knew that you had when you have to write something. So words are very, very important. Along with memory. I have the memory of it, sure, but by going through that a second time, i purged an awful lot of the terrible memories that we all had coming back and i have tried to tell the story in a very, very objective way and i documented every casualty. And we had 41 men killed in action, more than 100 wounded and evacuated for various other reasons, 90 men captured. Most of those people came home but every once in a while you hear a story about someone in that latter group who did not. I learned just last week through websites that i have and i used to Research World war ii that one of those men who was captured at the first battle in the siegfried line had died in prison camp. I didnt know that. So it goes on. The knowledge, the research, and the so you remember it but you put it behind you if you can. I think i was reasonably successful in doing that, but it took years after the war. And you mentioned that you realized you did suffer posttraumatic stress but it just wasnt called that back then. Yeah. Both mr. Mcgee and colonel riffe, you chose to make the service your career. You could have gotten out. You went through everything you went through, the pain, seeing people killed, being in the middle of combat, you chose to stay in. Ill start with you mr. Mcgee, why . Why did you stay in as long as you did . Well, i had planned when i was in college to be a teacher because i was very fond of my High School Teachers and i went to a very Small High School in southern West Virginia where a teacher they were called teacher coaches. They would teach classes in the morning and they would coach in the afternoon. And i experienced three years of that with the same coach, and i admired him. And i wanted to be the same thing. So, i went to college with that in mind. Of course, on december 7th, 1941, the japanese bombed pearl harbor and of course that changed not only my life but the life of practically all americans. One thing i do want to say about world war ii and that period, i believe its the only time in the history of our country when we were completely united. I dont think weve been united before that, and we havent been united since. Everybody that i knew and heard of and saw and met, they were behind the United States and defeating the nazis in europe and the japanese in the pacific. And if you go to a restaurant, probably they wouldnt charge you for your meal. If you road a taxi, they wouldnt charge you. If you went to hitchhiking, which we all did, if there was room in a car, they would never pass you up. So what i remember the good thing i remember about world war ii is the unity of america, our hope that in my lifetime i would like to see that again. Im not very enthusiastic that i will but thats my hope and prayer. And mr. Mcgee, why did you choose to stay in the military . Well, there are a couple of reasons why i stayed. I was called in to go to Cadet Training with this two years of college so i hadnt set that course, although i was in engineering. And i did like flying. Training was good, and although i fortunately came through combat all right in the late 50s, i was kind of interested in to getting into commercial aviation, but at that time, the airlines werent hiring blacks or women. That was the only place you could fly. So i because i enjoyed the flying i stayed in the service and ended up as you have said. But it was doing something i enjoyed. I couldnt have written a script for better opportunities that i ended up with, although i didnt know that in front but it also prepared me. And one other thing i would say, because of service, and education was mentioned earlier, i was able later to go on and get a College Degree because of what the service offered. And that served me in postservice career time. But it was the circumstances that caused me to stay in for a career. And as id like to pass on to young folks today, i hope you find something you like doing, although i wasnt for fighting, it turned out to be part of the experience but the fact that i loved aviation, its hard to tell somebody what its like to be able to get in the air and to loop, roll, spin and come back and put your feet on the ground. And the other side of it was to be able to fly a plane at 40,000 feet taking off at sunset, see the sunset again, see the stars come out. Make you realize we individuals are just one small aspect in a mighty grand universe. It provided an amazing opportunity for you to grow and learn and what an amazing career. Any more questions from the audience . Yes, sir . First of all, id like to say thank you to all of you gentlemen. You guys have the right stuff. My question is for colonel dr. Mcgee. Every black pilot in the cockpit, whether the military or the commercial industry, are standing on the shoulders of you guys and particularly whats going on in society today, i want to ask you this question. At the time, did you have any idea of the impact that you would ultimately have on the lives of those who came after you . Did you have any idea of the impact you would have on the lives of those who came after you, mr. Mcgee . I would say not at all. It was mentioned earlier, countries came out of ten years of depression when war was declared. Everybody it was mentioned, the country came together behind that act. The jobs that were now available, you can talk about a car in every port and it was a different time. The country came together because of what was going on in europe and what hitler had done. And so even though there was segregation, again, it was america. Our country, willing to put our lives on the line as well as anybody else for the freedoms that we enjoyed. We say freedoms we enjoy, we dont all enjoy all of them in the same way or even to the same extent, but its still america when you look at whats going on around the world. Thank you very much. I, too, am in awe of the service. But i tell you, im very interested in knowing your perspective on military Service Given whats going on today and the opportunities the military should offer young people. If young people are the audience that were going to be using these lectures for, i think you would have Something Special to say about education, youth, commitment to country and as it pertains in todays context. And what im impress ed about i that it appears its a question that you obviously have been thinking about also. Thank you. Your impression of the military, its value to young people, and how it can play in their lives. Today. Today. How it can play in their lives today. Well, i really wish we had everybody serve two years and then go about their business supporting our country and whatever you want. Then we would havent the problem that we have faced with military. Weve made it a problem because its voluntary and what we have to take care of the soldiers when they return. But the future of our country requires that there will be those who will take that step. Very quickly, id put for you teachers and so on, get the kids four ps perceive, dream your dream dreams but find what your talents are to support the country. Prepare, get the education. Youll learn to read, write, and speak well as well as develop your talents. Perform, let excellence be a goal in everything. Were talk about kids being bullied and so on. Let excellence be your goal treating others as you want to be treated. And finally, persevere. Dont let the circumstances be the excuse for not achieving. Its too much of that going on. Mr. Howard . One of the things i would like to say about that question is that i think one of the great things that happened in mobilization for world war ii was the Selective Service system. I say this because it brought together men from all walks of life. In one company, in my company, in the 84th infantry division, we had illiterates. We had people who had graduate degrees. We would never have crossed each others path except for the Selective Service system. We learned a lot about each other. Now, i know that the volunteer army is about the only thing we can do in todays situation where you dont need masses of people, but i do think we have a problem in that theres clearly unequal sacrifice when it comes to military service. I have always favored for most of my life some sort of a universal Service Requirement and supported various schemes along that line. So far none of it has come to pass, one of which would be a military option. But i think the phase you hear today so often, thank you for your service, thats a telling phrase. To me, thats somewhat of a guilt complex. Thats said to many people. I dont know if the people on this panel would agree with me or not but my perception is that when we came back from world war ii, that phrase would have sounded strange to us, thank you for your service. Everybody was in the service of the country in one way or the another. And i quibble ed for a while wi the term greatest generation. I wasnt sure that wasnt much more than an excellent marketing slogan for brokaws book. Ive come to terms with it and i accept it, i think, only if we include the whole country. As you said, the country was unbelievably unified. And it happened in an instant but it stayed right on through the war. And how we get that again none of us here in this audience can say today, certainly i cant. But the unity was the great thing during world war ii. My grandfather used to tell me and this could translate maybe to some students prior to seeing the movie, you would see a newsreel regarding the war and it would say, please dont buy canned food. We theed to hneed to ship it to soldiers. It would be general public items, things you do everyday would help the entire war effort so both on the radio movies, everywhere you would see some sort of effort, you are at home but you can pitch in to this effort. Yeah. You dont see that anymore. We were welcomed home, as the troops are today. Ill tell you a humorous story about what happened, just very briefly. Were on a troop ship going out of a new york harbor on our way to europe. And when the convoy was making up outside new york harbor we had a collision with a tanker and so knocked the whole bow of the hms Sterling Castle and we went back in the next morning. Well, when we came back into the port, same port wed left from, we were considered to be returning soldiers because [ laughter ] returning soldiers were beginning to come home at that time. [ laughter ] so on the ferries coming across new york harbor we were waved and everybody was yelling bravo, bravo. [ laughter ] we had been gone 24 hours. And we went down the ladders of the dock and the bands were playing, the red cross people were passing out donuts and coffee, and we were welcomed home. I didnt hear anybody say thank you for your service but they said were glad to see you back, fella. [ laughter ] ten days later we went out again. Colonel, how important it is to help todays youth understand how we need our military and what can we do to help them understand the sacrifice that you all have made, so many people have made, the millions have made is something that can play into their lives now, today . How is our life how, as our attendee decided, how can we stress to high school students, College Students how the military can play a role in their lives . You chose it as a career. Its still an option for a career today. Is that important to impart, do you think . I was asking im sorry, i was asking colonel riffe. I agree with allen. I believe that there should be some kind of universal service. Today only about 1 of americans are serving in the military forces. One percent. I believe we could unify our country again if all young people, ladies and gentlemen, would have to perform some type of service for our country. It necessarily doesnt have to be in the military but some position, some organization that supports america and our values and i believe that would also help us unify because today we are not a unified country, unfortunately, and, of course, we are seeing the conventions for the republican nominations and next week for the democratic nominati nominations, and according to a great divide between those who claim to be republicans and those who claim to be democrats. It appears to me, unfortunately, that many politicians have put party above country. Country should come first. Party should come second. But i dont see that today. [ applause ] as i mentioned, only about 1 of americans are in uniform today and, of course, were still in afghanistan. Were going to stay there for quite a while. Were sending more troops to iraq. Weve got troops in jordan. And weve got military personnel practically all over the world. I get a map once a week showing the location of all military personnel, and we have military personnel of all the branches truly serving in probably 35 or 40 countries in the world today. And, of course, its costing us a lot of money. But i recently attended what they called airborne week at ft. Bragg. I was a paratrooper for 25 years and a member of the 82nd Airborne Division as a major, a Lieutenant Colonel and a colonel so it was a great opportunity for people who serve in the airborne to get together. And while i was there, i got a call from the Japanese Television. They had first in april, they had come to my home with a television camera, a director who asked me questions. And i thought they were going to talk about the pacific world war ii, but they was only interested in talking about secretary kerrys visit to hiroshima. And later on, when i was in ft. Bragg on the telephone call, i didnt know it, but president obama also had visited hiroshima. And i told the Japanese Television that in no case should an official of the United States government go to hiroshima because i felt the japanese would consider it as an apology for two bombs we dropped for. Have i answered your question . That was a wonderful answer. I might add one thing. Yes, sir. I have two questions, ones for jim and the second question would be for all of yall. Jim, i know that battle of okinawa was fierce, there were 24 medal of honor winners on okinawa and i just met with the the 96th infantry division. Can you tell me in your unit how many medal of honor winners, how Many Distinguished Service crosses, how many silver stars and how many bronze stars and purple hearts in the 27th, if you could . Well, all i can tell you is i had two of my squad leaders recommended for the silver star and about seven of eight of the members of my platoon are recommended for the bronze star medal. What would happen, when you, for example, if you recommend someone for the silver star, it had to go through your battalion, Regiment Division and often times they were changing. Myself i was recommended for the silver star for a battle in which the entire battalion was pinned down and the Battalion Commander asked me to go around the flank and see if i could find the enemys flank and destroy them. My platoon, we conquered the battalion objective with one rifle platoon and i was recommended for the silver star for that and it was downgraded to a bronze star, i got two bronze stars. Thats all i have information about. I dont know what happened to i do know that some men in the division, and reading the history of my division, the 27th, there were several people who got the medal of honor. And, of course, there were a lot of distinguished Service Crosses and silver stars. The silver stars that i recommended for two of my squad leaders, i dont know whether they received them or not because they were both wounded and evacuated. So i dont know what happened to their recommendation. I do know that i should have recommended my platoon medic for more than a bronze star, because we were fighting to retake cocsuh ridge. We took it once. We had given it up. We had to take it again. I was leading a platoon, i had two scouts in front. I had a b. R. A. Man. We ran into a japanese strong position. The lead scout was killed immediately. The br man was seriously wounded in his leg, and i could hear him. I crawled up to see what i could do for him. Somewhere or other the platoon medic, which was back in the draw, heard about it, and he came rushing up. And he was he reached in his bag to get a bandage to put on the br mans leg, and as he was doing that, he got killed. So i only recommended him for the bronze star. But in looking back, he gave his life to try to save another man and somewhere along the way, i believe that whoever read the recommendation somewhere along the way, looking back now, i believe they should have upgraded to at least silver star or distinguished Service Cross because heres a man who was treating a wounded man, came out under fire, gave his life and today i know that individual would probably get the medal of honor, but things were different in world war ii. My second question, this is to all of yall, if harry truman was here today standing here or in the audience, what would you say to him . What would you say to harry truman if he were in the audience today . Well, id like to answer that. [ laughter ] hes on a roll. Harry truman made one of the most important decisions in the history of our country when he authorized the atomic bomb of japan. First of all on the 6th of august, they bombed dropped the bottom on hiroshima. The death toll was anywhere from 120,000 to 170,000, 140,000. That did not convince the japanese to surrender unconditionally, so on the 9th of august, the president authorized dropping of the second atomic bomb on nagasaki. And the death toll there was about half of what they had said it was in hiroshima, around 70,000. There are people even today who say that those atomic bombs saved lives. Saved lives. Because we had planned to invade japan in november of 1945 on the island of kyushu and then the spring of 46 we were going to invade tokyo, honshu. It was estimated that that invasion would cost 150,000 american lives and it would cost 10 million japanese lives. So on that basis, people today are saying the atomic weapons killed, say, 240,000 people, but if we had invaded japan, we would have killed 10 million japanese. So i believe that president truman, by authorizing the use of the atomic bomb, saved hundreds, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of lives, both american and japanese. Another thing which some of you may or may not know about was the military, the army particularly, was segregated. In other words i served during world war ii and in my division i never saw a negro soldier. I never saw one. And after the war, it went on and on. In 1948 president truman said were going to quit the segregation of the military and were going to put all the people together. So, president truman is the one who said we will no longer have segregation of the military services. Well put all people together. At that time, i was commanding an Infantry Rifle Company in salzburg, austria. We highway Quartermaster Company there that was all negroes, all black. I called my company together, many of them were from the south. And i said were going to get black soldiers and theyre americans. Theyll be treated just like anybody else. So i made sure when we got three back soldiers to my Rifle Company that we had a special welcome for them. A special welcome for them and we were integrated in and they were just like we were all together, all americans. Unfortunately i look back today and i cannot understand why america has been segregated for so long, for so very, very long and its unfortunately today its seems like there are more controversy among the blacks and the whites today and thats very sad. But at least president truman did something when he decided there would no longer be a segregated military service. So those are two things i applaud president truman the atomic bombs and ending segregation of the military services. Mr. Howerton . Oh, sorry, mr. Mcgee, go ahead. We owe president truman more than that. He is the president that said the buck stops here. He issued two executive orders, the air force had said we need to integrate because we need to use people based on training, experience and where needed, not the happenstance of birth. And were not getting enough money to keep bases open segregated and meet our requirements. We need to integrate. Ten months later, truman issued two executive orders, 9981 that mandated all of the services need to integrate. He backed that up, but he also issued 9980. There should be equal access and equal hiring throughout the federal government. Unfortunately, even though that executive order was written, it hasnt been followed throughout as you know, but truman was a very you need to read his history. He was a southerner from southern missouri but he believed in america and what america should be all about. Mr. Howerton . Do you have thoughts on president truman as well . Or mr. Zeitchik . The only thing i have to add to this, i did receive four bronze clusters and two years ago the french president , french legion of honor made me a chavalier and i think just receiving the medal by the french fwost put a highlight to my life. Thank you. Mr. Howerton . What id like to say about this is that i, too, saw very few, if any, black soldiers. And, you know, to me the cultural mix that we had otherwise was great, and if i would say anything in response to the question about how can you advise people going in the military today it would be that, you know, a couple of things. First of all, they are going to be exposed, thank god, to all americans in the military even with a volunteer army, i think. So another factor about that is that the military will give a young person a family, a second family. I think we would all agree to that. I think those of us in combat units and i know in my case, those of us in company k with such heavy casualties knew, we knew in our own minds that we may not ever come back. These people were our family. We might never get back to our families so i think that kind of bonding still exists. I think it does, i dont know for sure but i think it does in modern American Military units. I think that is very important. And i know, ironically, for a few days those of us in my unit coming up from Normandy Beach well after the fighting but on the truck line that took us to the war, we were in effect under the command, for about three days, of black drivers. The bulk of the drivers of those trucks were black drivers, segregated black driver unit but those guys were in command. We listened to what they said. When they said 10minute break, they meant 10minute break and we were back in the trucks. And if we werent there, they saw to it that we were. So, that little bit of exposure was great. I came home as a radical civil rights guy, growing up in kentucky in the segregated school, that today seems remarkable to me but i did. In college in the forefront of the civil rights movement, an organization that closed the bar near the campus of the university of denver sitting in one time. That bar went out of business but it started serving black students, our comrades in that university. So, weve come a long way, regardless of all the problems we have, weve come a long way, folks, i think. One last question before you go. Many of the students and the teachers who teach them they talk and they have conversations with them and they try to teach world war ii, they are the age that you were when you enlisted or were drafted. Do you have any advice, life advice, moving forward for students that these teachers can impart and for some of the students from Prince Georges County who are in the audience as they move forward and choose a career in life and their connection to our nation as far as patriotism is concerned . Can you impart one last thing of advice to them before we leave today . Well, what ive been saying, im not sure i directly answered the question, but as i go around talking to students and schools theres certainly to me a need to include what is taking place in our country. I ask often youngsters who knows what the thrust of one engine on todays 777 commercial airline is. No idea. Why arent you teaching where technology is taking us . Technology is taking us way beyond what i flew but our youngsters arent getting it. How can they take their place so on . So something is wrong in the textbooks youre using or the attitude. One of the things, i enjoy talking to middle schools most because at least middle school kids listen. [ laughter ] present company excepted. High schools thats another story. But to you teachers, hang in there. I know youve got such a challenge, and its too many parents are coming, saying dont you know, dont tap my kid. Were missing the boat, folks, for the future of what our youngsters need besides the education complete and all the best to you. Mr. Howerton, any suggestions for our youth . I think its important to remember, for teachers to remember that students today are as far from world war ii as we were from the civil war. Wow. So what did we know about the civil war . Not too much when you come right down to it. I heard about skirmishes of forces in little farm communities in western kentucky but we didnt know much about the civil war in high school. I have a lot of confidence today in todays young people and i think they are curious. Ive high school groups, particularly that i have talked with, i think you i get a couple of reactions. One is i get intensive interest on the part of a few students in the classes. In others they seem to be sleeping. [ laughter ] so i dont know. I think i would emphasize to teachers that youre not focused entirely on the military aspects, today every world war ii veteran is a hero to many. Well, we know that thats not true. All of us know that thats not true. We appreciate that but we were not all heroes, we were ordinary young people, good, bad, effective and not but i think the point that jim made is extremely important. The unity of the country that resulted for one reason or another from world war ii is important to teach and what went on on the home front. The wonderful things the war was managed. And ive studied this in economics and Political Science classes and history, but the war, to me, was managed greatly ingeniously by the administration at that time. The war production act, the mobilization of american industry, the institution of price controls and rationing, all those things made the home front what it was and supported the troops serving overseas and so never forget that as teachers. Were not all heroes but theres a lot of heroes on the home front as well. So its a very hard subject, i think, for you to teach. Mr. Zeitchik, some advice for our young people . Sorry . Would you like to give advice to our young people, our high school students, about life . Well, ill tell you, when i was discharged, i missed my high school graduation. While i was landing at normandy, my class was graduating. 70 years later i got a call that the governor of new jersey wanted me at the high school to present my high school diploma. [ applause ] 70 years later. And i did go there and it was wonderful, but ill tell you, i was a musician, i played in the band, sang in the acapella choir, did a lot of musical things, was sort of a gift to me, and it made me so much better in the army. I dont know how shooting a gun and playing music mix, but evidently it worked with me. Thank you. And colonel . I believe education is one of the primary factors to success in life, and the department of education does have statistics to show, for example, a High School Graduate what their annual salary would be, those with a baccalaureate degree, what their salary would be, which is more. Generally, the more education you have, the better chance you have for success. I learned that sort of the hard way. In 1937 and 38 i was in the civilian conservation corps, i shouldnt have been there. Youre supposed to be 18. I was 16, but i lied about it because i couldnt afford to go to school. So the time i was in the civilian conservation corps in 37 and 38, i realized the importance of education. Ooh so i made an application to be released so i could go back to high school. I finished high school. And i had an opportunity to go to college on a scholarship. Of course, pearl harbor came along. But after the war, i did everything i could to increase my education. I went to school on nighttime, weekends of the finally in 1957, the army sent me to the university of maryland to get a bachelors degree in military science. And then a few years later i was sent to George Washington university to get a masters degree in international affairs. And then later on, i went to night school again, weekends. I got another masters degree from George Washington university. When i got out of service, when i presented to particularly employees my educational background, i had i was fortunate and got many, many job opportunities, including an opportunity from the university of North Carolina and George Washington university, a member of the staff, not the faculty. I got an opportunity to join the b o railroad as their training officer. I got many other offers. And i attribute that all to the fact that i had a pretty good sound background in education. So i would encourage our young people today and parents who can influence them and friends, to get all the education you can. Because the department of education has statistics to prove that the more education you have, the better opportunities you have for success and, as i say, the department of education has statistics to show that thats true. Just very recently, there were some articles in the Washington Post comparing salaries of High School Graduates to College Graduates with a bs or fouryear degree versus those who had advanced degrees. Thank you, colonel, we appreciate it. Before we make our final remarks, id like to call Josiah Bunting iii up. Would you like to speak . Make some remarks and thank some people for today. Only about 30 seconds. First of all, we have a representative of the enterprise corporation, jack taylor who was the founder of enterprise died two weeks ago at the age of 96. He was responsible for this program and many of the programs that the world war ii memorial is able to sustain. So, our hearts go out to his family, and our gratitude to you. [ applause ] if anyone here doubts that these gentlemen are members of what should be called the greatest generation, those doubts have been erased this morning. Thank you. [ applause ] charles mcgee, herman zeitchik, allan howerton, mijam riffe, thank you so much. One last comment, we know were about to get a new president in the coming months, its important to remember as our leaders make decisions to send our young men and women in harms way, to remember that its these families who sacrificed for our freedom. Its not just numbers. Its not just location around the globe. We got to hear personal stories on how these people not only saved the United States but the world. Thank you very much. Can i make one comment, please . Of course. Have at it. Its about world war ii and i want you to know the sacrifices. In world war ii, 16 million americans served in uniform. Of that number, 408,316 gave their life. 408,316 out of the 16 million gave their life for our country. Thank you. [ applause ] thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This saturday, live at 8 00 a. M. Eastern on American History tv, a look at the advanced placement u. S. History exam. Our guests, Matthew Ellington and jason stacey, coauthors of fab recognize of a nation will talk about the exam structure and answer strategies. Theyll also take student question business phone and on facebook and twitter. Sunday at 4 00 p. M. Eastern on reel america, the 1965 u. S. Army documentary covering the attack on pearl harbor to the japanese surrender. On the 2nd of september, 1945, japanese officials signed the articles of formal surrender on the battleship missouri in tokyo bay. And at 7 00 p. M. , well look at events that led to germanys surrender with rick atkinson, author of the guns at last light this weekend on American History tv on cspan3. 75 years ago on march 9th and 10th, 1945, nearly 300 u. S. B29 bombers executed operation meeting house, the firebombing of tokyo. Much of the city was destroyed and the estimates of civilians kills range from 80,000 to 130,000. Next on reel america, the last bomb, nominated War Department film details a similar tokyo Bombing Mission in the summer of 1945, showing planning, execution and return after 3,000 miles of flight