Tuskegee airmen. We have the pleasure of hearing from jim pride former Radio Operator of the Tuskegee Airmen. Major anderson, former Ground Support serviceman of the Tuskegee Airmen. Bill fontroy, former pilot cadet. And finally, steven mccoy. Chairman of the speakers bureau. Please help me in welcoming these brave men of the Tuskegee Airmen. [applause] good morning, everyone. How are we this morning . Excellent. Except. First id like to thank the wonderful production the general gave us and give her a round of applause again. Thank you. Id also like to thank cadet cable for her wonderful introduction of us. The Tuskegee Airmen seated here and i will like to welcome you to this Panel Discussion about the history and legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen. We wish to thank the American Veteran center for allowing us to speak this morning in this wonderful venue. We wish to express our special thanks to our contact within the American Veterans center, wes smith. Please feel free to chat with our donors at the completion of our panel this morning. Id like to start off with a brief introduction. Seated before you you have ivan ware, bill fontroy and major anderson. This morning, they are here to represent the 16 to 19,000 men and women who are part of the Tuskegee Airmen story. During world war ii, it is often referred to as the tuskegee experience. This morning, id like to start with the definition of a tuskegee airman. A tuskegee airman is any person, man or woman, military or civilian black or white, who served at Tuskegee Army airfield or at any of the other locations that supported programs stemming from the tuskegee experience between 1941 through 1949. All these individuals are considered Tuskegee Airmen. The tuskegee experience that we will be discussing was a unique and Important Development in Race Relations in the history of our country for black citizens and the nation as a whole. It established in 1941, through political and legal maneuverings americas ability to be enlightened and to be challenged. To appreciate the significance of the tuskegee experience, it is necessary for it to be viewed through the content of the american Racial Climate and the timing that it was executed. The impetus of establishing a flying program for blacks began at the beginning of world war ii as a consequence of black discontent resulting from decades of maltreatment as second class citizens and specifically the denial of opportunities serve our country in the military in jobs other than service or labor. In the face of strong resistance from the military establishment and most officials in the war department, a relentless effort was carried on by a number of black organizations and a sympathetic white minority to persuade the government to accept blacks for military Aviation Training in the Army Air Corps. After considerable debate on the subject, the government agreed to establish a program in which plaques would blacks would be trained in all aspects of military operation. Morton field tuskegee, alabama was selected to conduct the Flight Training for pilots. The first class, designated 42c began with 13 trainees, 12 cadets and one military officer. Their training started on july 19, 1941. Up to 13 students that began that initial training, five graduated from the final training and received their wings. On march 7 1942. The first five graduates were benjamin excuse me, captain benjamin o. Davis jr. , future commander of the 19th and 3 32nd fighter groups and First Black Air force general. Second lieutenant Lemieux Curtis Second Lieutenant charles depot, Second Lieutenant george s. Roberts and Second Lieutenant mack ross. One of the key evolutions to getting to this point was in 1941, first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, at the urgings of her close friend and social activist moved to help expand the Pilot Training program at tuskegee, alabama. In march of that year, Eleanor Roosevelt not only visited the Tuskegee Institutes field but incredibly and against the advice of her secret service detail, she asked the chief flight instructor, charles a. Chief anderson, to take her on a flight. This single act of flying the first lady for more than an hour had great symbolic value to the advocates of black military aviation. It brought a visibility to tuskegees Pilot Training program. This in turn, helped open the door for the deployment of black military aviation units to the european theater. Unfortunately, they still were in segregated units. In a total there were 2,483 pilot trainee that is entered training in tuskegee, alabama of which 992 graduated earning their wings as pilots, from 1942 through 1946. There were 352 pilots that deployed to the european theater of operations. They flew the p39, p40, p47 and finally the p51 mustang with the 99 and 33nd fighter groups. The Technical Training of the ground crews was connected at chanute Army Airfield in illinois. At chanute, the enlisted personnel were quartered together in world war i era barracks separated from the main base. A portion of the barracks was divided to provide a separate estimate for the trainees to eat, sleep and study. At the onset, the Tuskegee Army airfield was under the direction of a white command staff and flight instructors. After a couple of false starts, the Army Air Corps made an excellent selection of a base commander in the person of colonel, later Brigadier General noel f. Parish. Colonel parish applied his Broad Knowledge and understanding of racial problems and concerns during his command of the base. He devoted his heart and soul to providing a fair opportunity for military aviation in the cadet trainees. Colonel parishs job was extremely difficult. He had to comply with the war departments regulations requiring segregation. He also had to maintain some level of segregation on the twice keep the bases white complement contented, as well as the racially intolerant population of alabama that surrounded the base. Meanwhile, along with the racial pressures, the cadets of tuskegee were subjected to the standard rigid military training and discipline similar to that experienced by cadets at military academies. The mental and physical stresses that were prevalent throughout the air corps was specifically designed to test each cadets respect for Authority Commitment to the duty, and honor. It also prepared them for the rigors that they would experience later in their military careers while in combat. Over the period of a year, colonel parish was able to remove the first doubts about black performance in the air corps. It was a resounding success. Blacks could be taught, trained to fly, fight and maintain aircraft to the same standards that the air corps was applying to all of its aviation units. That moved on to their combat record. The airmens combat achievements included the instruction of enemy aircraft, ammunition depots as well as the destruction of one destroyer by machinegun fire. The outstanding performance of the ground crews armorers, ordnance and other technician as well as the Administration Staff was critical to the success of these pilots in combat. To give you an idea how effective they were, while operating with the 12th air force, they flew 6,381 combat sortees. From june 1943 through may 1944, they flew 9,152 combat sortees in support of the 15th air force from june 1944 through may 1945. They flew 179 Escort Missions or bomber escort. The key to remember with this is during that era, the loss of a single bomber was 10 men lost. The United States at that time could put together aircraft quickly. The loss of highly trained individuals to man those aircraft and to operate those aircraft in combat was a real loss and the Tuskegee Airmen fought to make sure that capable was maintained by war fighting sources. The total combat sorties was 15,9543. Total aerial kills was 112. Id like to ask everybody a question. How many of you have heard that the Tuskegee Airmen never lost a bomber under their escort . Ok. Education time. Ladies and gentlemen im here to tell you that the myth of never losing a bomber is false. The total number of bombers lost while under escort by the Tuskegee Airmen was 27. This is going through air force records both on the enemy side and on our side. By comparison, the average number of bombers lost while under other p51 squadron protections in theater was 46 for the same period of time so even though they did lose aircraft, their effectiveness showed they were a stretch above the average p51 unit in theater at that time. Please feel free to pass that information on. To date, 66 tuskegee pilots gave the ultimate sacrifice and were killed in north africa and european combat zones. Differential 32 were shot down and captured and later repatriated after the war. A little known side note, was that the air corps also had a Bombing Group made up of black airmen. They were the 477th Bombardment Group at selfridge Army Airfield. They trained plaque pilots, navigators bombardiers, radio men and Ground Support staff on the operation and maintenance of the twin engine b25 mitchell medium bomber. The unit was programmed to deploy to the Pacific Theater but they never deployed due to the ending of the war. Id like to touch base on another aspect of the Tuskegee Airmen that doesnt get a lot of light. Womens contributions to the Tuskegee Airmen. Unfortunately most of us see hollywood and their idea of what the Tuskegee Airmen are. In reality, it was very different. As the Tuskegee Airmen fought in the skies of world war ii, they were supported by a dedicated and often forgotten cadre of women. They were nurses, mechanics supply and ferry pilots and secretaries. They nursed injured bodies and injured souls. They packaged and repackaged parachutes cleared land for runways and base buildings delivered supplies and did many other duties to help keep a base operational. When black activists urged president truman to desegregate the military in 1948, they pointed to the example and heroism of the red tails their air cruise ground crews and base support staff. Many of those personnel were women. The actions of black servicemen and women proved they earned the right for equal treatment enjoyed by all loyal americans. Its important at this point in time to note this one aspect and please, this is what id love for you to carry away with you. Without the bold imagination of mary mathune the sheer stubbornness of her friend, first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and numerous unrecognized women warriors, it is doubtful that the Tuskegee Airmen would have come into competitivence or been as successful as they were. At this point in time, i have a few questions for the gentlemen on our board. I would like to ask mr. Pride to please come down. Mr. Pride is one of our distinguished dodas. Thats fine. Excellent. Id like to ask the first question of mr. Fontroy. Im the youngest guy up here. Mr. Fontroy, please give us one moment, folks. Mr. Fontroy, where are you from . Washington, d. C. , Columbia Hospital for women where i was born. Ok. Several years ago. Not too long ago. Mr. Fontroy what was your inspiration when you first left home . We had an officer in the Police Department here who was an all american football and basketball player and you can look at me and see that i was interested in basketball. No doubt. Yeah. I idolized that gentleman. After my father, he was the greatest man that i knew. He joined the Tuskegee Airmen shortly after the war started graduated and was killed in an airplane accident in michigan. He was my inspiration. Of course, i was just 15 years old when the war started. By the time i turned 17, i decided that i didnt want to go in the navy so i went to 11th and new york avenue to the bus station where they recruited in the army and i, with permission of my mother, asked if i could go in the Army Air Corps and they gave me a test. Apparently i passed it, to my mothers surprise. And i went off to bowling field to take a physical, psychological, psycho motive and some other test and on february 51 1944, i was sworn in the Army Air Corps reserves. May of 1945, i was sworn in to the Army Air Corps because i had turned 18 in march. I went to keisler field, took some more tests and to my surprise, i passed and was sent up to Tuskegee Army airfield as a preaviation cadet. I stayed there until may of 1945. I was put in class 45i. You mentioned 42. 45i was my class. And for you folks that dont know it, the war ended when they found out 45i was being trained. Thats not true. But thats what we like to say. I was able to go through three of the four phases to become a pilot before they declared a surplus and i was discharged at andrews Army Air Corps base november 8. Tomorrows my anniversary 1945. The main thing about my training, i like to think, is that the gentlemen who went over before me came back and taught me. My instructor in basic flying was lieutenant captain Leonard Jackson out of fort worth texas. He came back and taught meow me how to fly the at6 and do night flying, cross country. Those men came back and they taught me well, they taught us well. I guess my other claim to fame is that in primary my first check ride you guys or girls interested in flying know that after 20 hours of flying theyre going to give you a test. And its the test is for you to prove that you learned what your instructor is supposed to have taught you. My first check ride was with c. Alfred anderson, chief anderson, who happened to have taken mrs. Roosevelt up. I didnt know any of this until i came out of the service. But, man, was that a big deal with me when i found out that that was the man that took me up and gave me my first check. I am very proud to be associated with the Tuskegee Airmen. All of these gentlemen are idols of mine. But to you young people, my god has done with me what ive done. I didnt do it alone. Thank you. Id like to ask mr. Pride. Mr. Pride, what was your inspiration when you were growing up and where are you from . Im from washington, d. C. Also. Home boy. And my inspiration was the local African American newspapers. About every other week or so there would be a photo of a Tuskegee Airmen event and when i was about 16 years old i decided i wanted to be one of them. I wanted to fly. And like everybody else at that time we all wanted to serve our country. Our country at the time was 160 million people. Onetenth of them went to war. I am very pleased to be a tuskegee airman. There were many workers during world war ii. Thank you, sir. My next question is for dr. Ware. Dr. Ware, please tell us where your from and did you dream of joining the military when you were young . If not, what were you aspiring to be . What was the question again . Did you dream of joining the military when you were young . No, i didnt dream on joining the military when i was young. I found out after i came out of the military that my grandfather had been a military person in the civil war. But i found that out later, that i had a heritage, a military heritage. I was just unaware of that. I was in junior college, my sophomore year of junior college. Its only two years there so it was my final year of junior college, when the war broke out. And of course our whole class of six guys, we went down to a place where you could sign up. We already we hadnt drafted but we were enlisting people and enlarging the military service. This was in the 1940s. And it was nothing that was unusual. We just thought this was the way that most Young Americans reacted. We were all athletes. We played ball and baseball in the summer, football in the fall. But whatever the normal things that young men did we thought we were doing. But the exception came when you completed high school. Everybody, it was compulsory to complete high school. So if you had any ambitions and practically everybody had ambitions to go on, it was beyond high school. Well, there are many problems. There werent that many schools. And if you had to go some distance, then you had to maintain yourself while you were going to school. I selected, not out of choice, but forced choice, to go a junior college. It was only seven miles from home. But it gave you everything that a regular college would give you academically and in my sophomore year there, i got my call to active duty. I took the it was an honor to me to join the enlisted reserve corps. It was first started up because there was a war going on and you wanted to be part of something and they said no, stay out, get your college training, get as much education as you can, then join up, that way youll be of more use to the service. And i tried to do that. However, in my sophomore year in junior college, my final year, i was called to active duty as an enlisted reservist. That was what i got for joining the enlisted reserve corps. It was to stay out until i completed my education. Well, it worked out just as they said. Junior college is only two years. So at the end of my sophomore year, myself and the other four gentlemen who were members of mammoth junior college, we all reported for active duty because we all had joined the enlisted reserve corps. I was in the service i think about three weeks when they gave us an opportunity to ask questions and get whatever answers we needed and i wanted to find out how i could get from the army to the air corps. And the answer was, forget it. And that was best advice that they could have given me because there was no way to get out or to change at that time. But in a short period of time i was on the Atlantic Ocean in november, and we were fired on twice on our way to england. But we landed there. A majority of the ship made it through. We were not an exception. After about five months in england, we were just about ready to hit the channel and finally general eisenhower gave the order and the largest assembly of ships in the history of warfare and of mankind took off and headed for france. I dont know what went on there. We were just standing in line day after day waiting for your outfit to be called. And the third week, we got our call. We went to South Hampton and boarded up to go to france. We didnt know where we were going but we landed at the primary landing point for american g. I. s. There were several beaches. Americans had omaha and utah beach. We landed at omaha. The british had their beaches. It was not a difficult thing as a young man to adapt to the military life. It was demanding. But we had somewhat of a family history. My grandfather had been in the service. I didnt know too much about that. But we were just responding to the things that went on around us. Rest of our buddies were signing up so it was only natural for you to want to be a part of what was going on. I did not intend to be a professional military person. But after world war ii, coming back to school, i needed to have as much as many funds as i had in order not to have to take a fulltime job. And what was the governments package for g. I. s, your g. I. Benefits, would give you a certain amount of money but it wasnt enough. They took care of the payments to the school but you had to live off of 60 a month. So a growing male or female for that matter, would find it very difficult to manage on 60some a month. So i took rotc. That gave me some additional money and it was just enough to make ends meet and with my military service, rotc was something that i enjoyed doing. It was expanding what i had learned from scratch leadership. I realized when i was taking rotc the tremendous leadership among the men that i had served with. A young First Sergeant who was 27 years old, never been in the service before was our leader. Everything that i learned, sort of was learning by experience. And as i said, i never looked forward to having a career in the force but once i got out of college and had a commission and examined my possibilities, used the experience that i had 3 1 2 years of service, to start with, and go back in the service not as a staff sergeant, which i retired as, but as a Second Lieutenant, i knew all about Second Lieutenants by that time it was not a difficult choice, and ive never regretted it and i would recommend it to all of you. Im really inspired as i look out and i see so many crisp young uniforms. I was not the neatest soldier. We were a medium automotive maintenance company. We repaired trucks, vehicles, jeeps. If it had wheels on it, we could repair it. And we did. We did that for 2 1 2 years in europe. We cannot win the war but we made our contribution to the war effort. And we were proud of that. Some of the edge was taken off when we got back to the states. We had to readjust to what we had left in the states. But that was what everybody had to bear, so it was not unusual. But i think ive said enough. We need to hear from you sir. [applause] my next question is going to go to major anderson. The good thing about it is, you never lose your rank, major. Major, please tell us where your from, and also, when did you decide to get involved with the military . My name is major anderson. Major is my first name. Never got a promotion. The name my parents gave me. I was born march 5, 1925. Makes me 89 years old today. Glad to be here with you today and to speak to you. While in the military, i was enlisted. While in the military, i was an enlisted personnel. I considered myself representing the enlisted men in the services. I recall vividly in boot camp during world war ii, when i was in the service, we called it basically training. With that sergeant. The sergeant was telling me, he said private anderson, you dont address a noncommissioned officer as sir. Yes, sir. Private anderson, what did i tell you . So thats the way it was with me. In 1941 when the war began, all eligible men 18 and older were required to sign up for the draft, to be drafted into the military. When the war began in 1941, i was 15 and when i became 18, i signed up, being obedient to the law, i signed up, and within three months time i was drafted into the military. Received my boot training at keisler field mississippi. After boot camp, basic training, i was sent to chanute field illinois for Aircraft Maintenance training. For your information the pilots , like bill fontroy to my left here, the pilots were sent to tuskegee, alabama. There in tuskegee, they had the classroom, Tuskegee Institute for classroom study. They also had morton field for the pilots to learn how to fly planes. The pilots went to tuskegee. The enlisted personnel like myself went to the chanute illinois, not far from chicago, for our training. My training was an aircraft sheet metal worker and my occupation was to repair bullet holes of aircraft. So the Maintenance Crew was a part of. Our job was to keep the planes flying. I was stationed at gortman field, kentucky and most of my time at good godwin most of my time in the military was spent at godwin field kentucky, 1944 to 1945. The unit of the group that i was assigned to was the 47th bomber group. General davis later became the Commanding Officer of that group. Before 77th bomber group never saw action. Before we completed our training, the war was coming to an end so the 477th bomber group remained stateside. I was discharged for the convenience of the government in 1945 and that is my career with the military. Thank you. [applause] gentlemen, i have another question for each one of you, in turn. Id like to ask you what is your most vivid memory of serving in the military . Id like to start with mr. Pride. Sir, your most vivid memory . My most vivid memory was Gunnery School, central field florida. We started off with the shotgun shooting skeet. During the training, we ended up shooting skeet out of the back end of a truck. Thats so you could learn how to shoot things while you were moving. On one particular day, i made 50 out of 50. And i thought i was going to be the hottest thing. I went back to the squadron and said hey you got the day off from Gunnery School because you did so well. You got k. P. Tomorrow. [laughter] gunnery was something that i enjoyed. That was one of the two Technical Schools that i finished. The other was Radio Operator. Maintenance guy. I flew 1600 hours during world war ii. Thank you. Thank you sir. Mr. Fountroy, your poignant memory . Solo. My instructor, cecil ryan, after eight hours of teaching me, asked me to pull up to the t out in the middle of the field at morton field was just a field. It didnt have runways. Just a grass field. And we pulled up to the t. He got out of the pt13d and stood on the grass and looked up at me. Go on up there and kill yourself. I took off, because i knew what to do. I took off went through the pattern, came down, bounced all over the place. Never landed, just kept going. I came back and landed properly. See, it taught me to do that and i pulled up to the t to pick him up. He said, no, no, no, go on up and kill yourself. So that was one of the things that i remember. After you solo, with two more days you have to shoot three landings at the airport. I shot those three landings and fourth day, they said, go out, youre on your own. Im supposed to go out and practice what they taught me. But believe me that first hour out there, all i did was ride and look and think how proud my mother would be to see her little boy flying an airplane. [applause] dr. Ware . Thinking back, i think the memory that i cherish the most occurred when i was in korea. It was a night when i was assigned to be the officer of the day and as night was approaching, my responsibility to be in charge of the flag detail. All of you know, in handling the flag, this is a very significant task, you have to be very meticulous in carrying throughout responsibility. So it happened at the headquarters for the air force and the headquarters for the army are side by side. When you went up on the top of the roof to lower the flag, each one had its own flag, they were on the adjacent ends. So i could look right across to the next building and there was an Army Lieutenant who was doing the same thing that i was doing. He was in charge of the flag detail, to lower the flag. As they played the notes and the flag was lowered, it struck me that i was the person representing all of the people in korea. They were hard at work doing their jobs. My duty, safeguard the flag and to represent them. So i felt an unusual feeling. I cant really describe it. Witnessing the flag come down. I may have held that salute a little longer than ive ever held a salute because it struck me that we were here, many thousands of miles from home, doing our duty. That was significant to me. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, at this point in time, we are noted to keep our program moving. I have a few brief comments id like to make and then were going to close. We the members of the east coast chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen, thank you for joining us this morning. Id like to impress upon you that we are still in service to our country today. The mission now is to expose our youth to education opportunities, specifically within the aviation realm. To achieve our goals we have established a youth in afs program where we expose youth to Career Opportunities in the aviation. A flight school, Aircraft Maintenance Training Facilities and air Traffic Control exposure class to enlighten our youth. We also provide educational groonts collegebound students to our scholarship programs. Please continue to support us and follow us online at eccti. Org as we work to enlighten our youth to the opportunities education opens for their futures and promote the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen. Ladies and gentlemen id like to thank you for your time with us today personally and a round of applause for all of our panelists. [applause] the 114th congress gals gavels in tuesday. Have your say as events unfold on the cspan networks, cspan radio and cspan. Org. New congress, best access, on cspan. With the 114th Congress Starting tuesday, we recently talked to house historian ray smock on the history of the House Speaker position. The constitution requires the house of representatives to choose a speaker. What is the speakers job . Speaker has a big job and its evolved over a long period of time, over 200 years. It started out as a Constitutional Office because the constitution says the house will choose the speaker and other officers and there were no other duties mentioned. And it was assumed since the founders knew all about speakers from colonial legislatures and from the British Parliament going back to the 13th century what a speaker was. A speaker was a presiding officer. But in our congress the speaker was not only a presiding officer, he quickly became a powerful person because he appointed committees and evolved, as Party Systems evolved, First Congresses didnt have organized parties, as a twoparty system developed, the speaker became the leader of the Majority Party and took on political ramifications. The constitution is silent on the powers. The powers of the speaker are what the speaker can make of them and thats the unique part of it. Some speakers have exercised great power where theyve even rivaled the presidency in terms of setting the National Agenda. Most of those in recent times but also 100 years ago, two powerful republican speakers, thomas bracket reed and joe cannon of illinois. Reed was from massachusetts. They were powerful figures who set the agenda of the country. First speaker millenburg of pennsylvania in the First Congress he simply was a presiding officer. He was paid 2 more than the other members. 6 a day. He got 8 a day. And for that 8 he said i spent most of it on oyster suppers for the members so he didnt feel like it was much of a bonus. He thought he was losing money on the deal. But even mulenberg, quickly as he got power to appoint committees, found that he was elevated above the other members. The door to the House Chamber is behind you. The speaker is second in line to succeed the president after the Vice President. What does this say about the speakers authority . The speaker has Great Authority in the constitution in that respect. That was changed in 1947 with the secession act which brought the speaker up into a higher position as the highest elected officer after the president and Vice President. And then it goes to the president to protemp of the senate after that. So the speaker is, after the Vice President , something happens to the president , the speaker is in line to succeed. And that 1947 act was an effort to look at having someone in line that was an elected official. In the old days, it was the secretary of state. So but since 1947 its been the speaker. How has the job evolved since the time of the founders . As i mentioned before, it has evolved into something where the speaker today modern speakers, their role is to be the chief administrative officers of the house even though they have other officers that are elected. But the speaker is where the buck stops in terms of administration of the house. The speaker is also the head of his party and if that party is opposite that of the president of the United States, it means that he is the highest ranking officer of the opposite party. And therefore, the spokesman for the other party visavis the president. The speakers are also have at various times have great power to bring legislation to the floor. Thats handled by other committees but with the speakers sayso. So they control the agenda. The Majority Party controls the agenda and the speaker is the person that has the final authority. What qualities do you think makes for a successful speaker . The best speakers through history have been those that have tried to find a way to be problem solvers, to be compromisers, to work with president s of their own party and the opposite party those who understand the relationship with the chairmen of the committees of the house and thats a tough job to balance all those forces. Speakers dont always have complete control of their own caucus. Theres divisions within the system. The house runs by the numbers for the most part. If you have the majority, you can push the legislation of the Majority Party. And control virtually everything that goes on in the house. Thats one of the differences between the house and the senate. The senate no matter which party is in charge, each senator, theres only 100 of them has considerable more individual power but the house runs by numbers so if youre the speaker, you can push the agenda. But that comes at a price if you do it against best interests of most of the members of your caucus or sometimes where your party is in opposition to a National Agenda that is different from your own. In a few minutes, well see speakers tip oneills remarks from 1985 on the opening day of the 99th congress. What is the purpose of the speakers opening day remarks and how old is this tradition . I dont know how long theyve been doing the opening remarks. My guess is its a fairly modern device. I dont know when it first started. A lot of things have started since radio and television. Otherwise the house and the senate, even though their chambers were open, they didnt really do a lot of ceremonial events. Even the stateoftheunion address was not resurrected to be something that was held in congress until Woodrow Wilson did it in 1913. And l. B. J. Made it an evening event on television in 1965. So those other things, like opening day, its an important event. Theres no question about it. Its been televised for many years. But it is a wonderful day when despite the differences, this is when the members try to put their best foot forward, they try to be cooperative, they try to hand the olive branch to the other Party Majority and minority, they bring their families on to the floor. Youll see lots of children. Some of them sleeping. Some of them paying attention. And so its a apply day family day to a large extent and also former members come on to the floor and its sort of like meeting your old friends and patting them on the back so its a very friendly thing but it also has a serious tone in the sense that sometimes speakers have used it just to say hi, im glad to be here, im humbled to have the office. Other times they want to speak of what their agenda is going to be like and this is the first opportunity. Its usually a lighthanded approach and a friendly exchange. In the minority party, the person who has lost the speakership, has to hand the gavel over to the winner and thats usually done with great style and dignity. Tell us about tip oneill. Where was he from . How long did he serve . Tip oneill was from massachusetts. Hes a classic liberal politician of the old school, a newdealer from f. D. R. s days. He was born in 1912. His First Campaign he worked as a Campaign Manager for al smith in 1928 when he ran for president so tip oneills whole life was politics. He was on the cambridge massachusetts, city council. He was born in cambridge. He served a cambridge district. It was a district of North Cambridge that was mostly irish. It was even called old dublin. So he that was his power base forever. He never forgot where he came from. He always said that was important. He said all politics was local. And that was a pretty good true observation about the nature of politics, whether youre fixing a pothole in a local street or whether youre dealing with the national budget. Somebody has to have the money to fix the problem and someone has to set the priority of what problem to fix so in that sense all politics is local, whether i pothole or trillion dollar budget. What kind of a speaker was he . Affable, i think thats a good word to use. He could be partisan and tough on the floor but he was the kind of guy that liked to put his arm around you and call you pal. And if it was a lady, he would say darling. He would sometimes go out on the floor just to sit on the floor because he knew members wanted to talk to him. They didnt have to come to his office. He would have times when he would make an appearance on the floor. So he was he was a classic liberal in the sense that he believed in a government could do things for people, in their lives. He grew up during the depression watching Franklin Roosevelt change america and put people back to work. Whether those programs were always successful or not didnt matter. It was the government that was leading the struggle to restore the economy of the country and he always thought that was important. That was a hallmark of his politics. Ronald reagan was in the white house in 1985. What was happening in the house of representatives . His relationship with president reagan is really quite interesting. Both irishmen. After hours, they could still be buddies after 6 00 and have a drink together but they were tooth and nail against one another. By 1985, tip oneill had survived the reagan revolution of 1981 when reagan came into office and of course the senate went to republican in 1981. So it was very hard for the speaker to stop reagan policies even though Many Democrats wanted him to and he simply said, i dont have the votes. So in the early years, the reagan agenda of cutting taxes and other programs went through without much trouble. And even though tip oneill had a majority of democrats in the house, there were always 40 or 50 sometimes 60 members of the Democratic Party that were conservatives who would frequently side with the minority. So tip oneill didnt always control his own delegation. Thank you, ray smock. And now, heres tip oneill from 1985 on the opening day of the 99th congress. The 114th Congress Gavels in on tuesday. Well see the swearing in of members and election of the House Speaker. With the new congress, youll have the best access, the most extensive coverage anywhere. Track the g. O. P. As it leads on capitol hill and have your say as events unfold on tv, radio and the web. Q a is 10 years old and to mark a decade of compelling conversations, were featuring one interview from each year of the series over the holiday season. Heres the last one in the series from september. This week, our guest is rory kennedy, who speaks about her film last days in vietnam. We are racing down the runway. Running along grabbing there. We are pulling them along as best as we can. Impossible to stop the crowd. Youre pulling away, lea