This is a very special occasion. I had a chance to meet some of these gentlemen. We get underway and honor our greatest generation and look over the goals of what we would like to get done, i would like the chairman of the friends of the World War Ii National memorial. [applause] our greatest ally and most famous ally during the Second World War was winston churchill, who famously said succeeding generations must not be allowed to forget their sacrifice and their example. To me, the beauty and the urgency of assemblies like this, with people like this is what sir winston urged us to do. It is a great honor for all of us and we cannot wait to hear what you have to say, thank you. [applause] as we get underway, we would like to set a few goals to see what we would like to achieve because these gentlemen are valuable resources and we need to soak up as much as we can because they can have a story to tell. We would love to try to learn as much as we can from this panelist panel of heroes. The lessons they have learned so we can share them to generations to come. We would love to because this is a teachers conference, try to explore the best way to teach their stories to our students, our family members. If you try to teach a lesson on world war ii, it is pretty complex. Maybe they can give us some insight. Casualties, conflicts, all the things they were able to go through. Introduce our distinguished panel. Left,e way over to my far 96 years young as of this month, colonel james riffey. Purple heart. [applause] purple heart recipient, went into the service as a private and came out a kernel with 30 years of service. One step closer in the red jacket. Tuskegee airmen, pauls the record for 109 total air missions and is a proud eagle scout. Holds the record for 109 total air missions and is a proud eagle scout. Over, these are brief introductions because i want them to tell their own story. Each one has a list of accomplishments we will let them share with you and we will have workedise visitor who the room when he came in. You will see what i mean in just a second. I will make the announcement say you can hear him and then bring him in microphones you can hear him. School,to dunbar high howard university, 95 years young. A lot of fun. [applause] [indiscernible] [applause] one of the things that today can bring us is perspective. We start looking at statistics and they can be dizzying when you are trying to find how many casualties happened in each theater for each country and they vary. One of the things we can gain today is perspective. One of the more recent statistics we have had, the war in afghanistan, 13 years long, nearly 2500 we lost. That happened alone on omaha beach in one day. These gentlemen have seen and experienced things to a far greater degree than pretty much every other generation. One of the things we would like to do is give them a chance to talk about themselves. They will open it up for questions and where the discussion leads is up to you because we would like for you to leave with valuable information you can teach your students. Why dont we start with colonel riffee. What you would like them to take away from this conference . What i would like for you to take away is the fact that those of us who served in world war ii are noted as the greatest generation. Ive always had some exception to that because i remember the millions of americans who were on the home front. We definitely could not have won the war without the things that they produced, the tanks, the planes and the ships. The millions that were necessary. When i hear that we are special people from world war ii, i have to say that what i believe is that the people who served in uniform on the war front and the people who served on the home front, that was the greatest generation. I would like you to take away that not only to honor those of us who served in the military, but those of us who also served on the home front. Thank you. [applause] colonel mcgee, if you would, could you discuss your , considering when you entered service and how you progressed throughout your distinguished career . Certainly. Understandneed to where the army stood at the time. My experience begins in the 1925 war college that after world war i, determined how does 1 10 of our population would be used if america got involved in another war. Thee of the report says negro is physically qualified, mentally inferior, morally inferior, anything else you could name inferior, second class citizen. If they got involved in another we could build roads and bring food and drive trucks, but the do anything technical was impossible. They had studied the issue and knew it would be a failure. That was sent to washington and would become a part of army mobilization. Our country declared war in world war ii and provided what it took to win the war. The army did not change the policy, but they gave us an opportunity to serve and we dispelled those generalizations and racist ideas about the negro population. But the army never changed the policy. 1947,k the air force in two years after the war was over to determine America Needs to change. I am glad to have had the opportunity to serve and be among those who helped dispel those biases and generalizations. , think we need to understand world war ii, we declared war and provided what it took to win. Korea is still divided, vietnam is not any better. When you use military power for political purposes, no one wins. Politics is a compromise. We need to understand that. Lives are lost. When need to recognize and remember those who give full member full measure. We need to understand where weve been, where we are and where we are going. [applause] mr. Miller, if you would, your service, 22 years, talk about what your personal experience was like on a day to day basis. Oftentimes when we try to relay stories to our students, when we talk about the larger picture, sometimes the things that can grip them are the personal stories. What your day today was like during world war ii, how the emotions you had, the jobs you had, the people you met that had a impact on you because the stories could really help students understand world war ii. I am probably the strange one of the bunch. I got into service when i was 15. My father had died when i was 12. My mother died when i was three. I always wanted to be a soldier. I dont know why, except we had a small army post where i was born and i always wanted to be a soldier. Anded about my age, went in had my first assignment overseas with the 7 74th tank battalion. All i had was training in armor which was all i needed at the there,xcept when i got two months before the battle of the bulge started and all of a sudden i realized i did not know a lot. Me,daytoday coverage for they assigned me to the assault gun platoon of the Headquarters Company and the assault gun platoon was a standard sherman 150th a 155 tube on it,ain whereas most of the tanks had 75s or 76 is 76s. Our first action with the assault gun platoon was in belgium. Beginning, the bullets started on december 16 and on december 19, we went into action on the first time. For the first time. On the first day, we sent three tanks down to stop the first ss panzer divisions which was one of hitlers first favorite outfits. Our Company Minutes to stop the three leading tanks of this first panzer and they turned around and left. Meanwhile, the rest of us were , andchateau just outside our colonel decided he wanted to flatten the next town down so that the first ss panzer would not turn around and go back at us that way. He lined up all six of our assault guns and he also commandeered a 155 that was down the road. He stopped them and made them come over to us and he stood on the back porch. It was more of a veranda. With binoculars, he looked at over and decided we should flatten it because the ss Panther Division was in there, already. We opened fire and demolished the town. And thes a chapel left skeletons of other buildings. We had seven guns firing. Day. Happened in one were civilians involved in that . You say you leveled the town. The civilians were smart enough to get out. That was one thing about the belgians. They got out when they knew trouble was coming. Right after that, we had to go back into the town and clean out that was one long building and there was a Catholic Priest that had taken 50 belgian kids into the basement of the hospital because he figured it was a safe place, not knowing the germans. He hid these kids and meanwhile on the first floor, part of the 30th infantry people were stuck in the different rooms of the hospital. At both ends of the building, there were openwindows and they had a german tank sitting out there and he was firing down the hall and anybody that got near, they were hit. With finally got three tanks up on to this slab land because it was steep. They had to build a corduroy road. We got three tanks up there at night and managed to knock out that panzer tank. We cleaned up a lot of the germans that were in there and we freed the Catholic Priest and the kids. They were mighty happy to see us. I can imagine. Generally, the people would get out. They knew when things were coming. They got out and they went into the woods or someplace. Did,hing that the germans they would drag down the roads and see a group of people, for peoplee i remember looking at the tanks coming through. The germans would just shoot you, no reason. Nobody could figure out why. When we saw those kinds of and we it made us mad heard about the massacre, later on. If you dont know what that was, it was when the germans captured a unit that was on the road and they held them prisoner for a short while and then all of a sudden, somebody opened fire from one of the german tanks, so they all opened up. They killed a bunch of americans that were there. When we found out, i really believed the attitude and maybe the gentleman on the end can agree with it. The attitude over there changed quite a bit. All of a sudden, it was a do or die thing. I dont work i dont think anybody wanted to take anything from the germans they didnt have to. Idle me material things, im talking about tricks. Everything was on guard, from then on. Other than being scared as hell all the time, that was it. Cohn, as you look back at your service, what were some of the emotions that you think about that hit you, still today, after all these years of being back in civilian life . What is the first thing that comes to your life to your mind . What are the things you recall first . I sort of came in differently. Born in germany and i fromewish and we escaped germany at age 13. This was 1938. Knew about thei germans this was in 1938. At that point, i knew about the germans, and it certainly was a different situation when i came back in 1943 facing the germans in a different capacity. That was a feeling that you just cannot describe. It was different. I was in charge, when, in fact, in germany, i was the victim. I turned from victim to being in charge. Mr. Hydeck thats called payback. [laughter] mr. Cohn it wasnt really payback because the one point we were making was we are not going to be like them, and that was very important. The other point i would want to make is that as you listen to us, each one of us really was in a different war. We only saw a certain segment, and you cannot generalize on any one of us. You really have to listen to everybody, and then you can make your generalizations. As far as my service was concerned, i came into the battle of the bulge. Because i spoke german, they put me in intelligence. Mr. Hydeck can you hear him, by the way . I just want to make sure. Mr. Cohn as intelligence, we worked initially as counterintelligence officers. While i was only a pfc. , i did not show any rank. I was always u. S. , u. S. Because they were not to know who was what when we were intelligence. Our mission during the battle of the bulge was to find germans who had penetrated in u. S. Uniforms. They were a hazard for us because they could do all kinds of damage in the back of our lines. We did find that this was a legitimate mission because when we hit an infantry roadblock in belgium, they had wiped out four of those fellers with a bazooka. We searched those people. They do not have anything on them except u. S. Dont tax, which we confiscated because we could tell that these people were either prisoners or they were dead. Our mission in germany was that we had to move into the big cities as they were captured and we had personality and building targets. The personality targets with the people who were going to be tried in war crimes. Anything that could be useful to the forces afterwards. First of all, government buildings are nazi party buildings for prosecutions. They were utilities that we could use. They were industrial complexes, military complexes. The ends were all target that we had. The first city was cologne, and then we moved. We had duesseldorf. We went into frankfurt. The last one we had was magdeburg. And you never know what is important, really. The captain needed a russian interpreter, could not find one. He said im senator vitter, come with him. I was trying to get out of it because i dont speak russian. He said no, youre coming, carry the mat. Mr. Hydeck flooding alert, by the way. Im sure all your phones are going off. I apologize. Mr. Cohn it was really a singular type of thing because eisenhower had indicated u. S. Troops were not to cross the elba as well as soviet troops were not to cross so the armies would stay across. It was the dividing line. We went across because he had a topsecret map to show where the occupation zones were. They were not going to do it until maybe six months later. They were not going to tell me with the mission was, but i figured it out. Anyway, the reception you cannot imagine. We had not the need to fight because the germans knew the war was over, and they were giving up, coming from all sides trying to give up to us because they were hungry. The russians, on the other hand, had to fight all the way up to the river. They saw for them the war was over and they had survived. That was the reception we received. Mr. Hydeck i want to open it up to questions in a couple of minutes. Im going to ask the panel one more question, but can i have a show of hands how many of you are teachers . Ok, wow. How many of you are teachers at the elementary level . Middle school . High school . Beyond high school . Ok, looks like middle and high school are the book. What i would like you to do is ask questions that could relate to how and going to ask the panel one more question, but start thinking about it how it could relate to making your job teaching world war ii easier because as mr. Cohn so aptly put it, we should look at this as individual conflicts and wars, and a lot of these gentlemen never crossed paths. Oh, yeah, because you cannot see them. If anybody needs water, give me a shout. Got it. Check. As the teachers start thinking about their questions, i will start with you. When you he or other people talk about world war ii and any of the various conflicts and theaters, what do you believe is maybe misunderstood or maybe often stated incorrectly . Do people state things incorrectly about the war because they have only read a smidge about it and could probably do more study . There are things that are misconceptions about world war ii . I think the experiences of each individual is so different its pretty difficult to come up with something that might be normal. However, i find that, for example, going back to the history to answer that question, i have about probably 10 or 12 books on world war ii history, and you can read each one, and theres a lot of differences in what historians have your say about world war ii. I would say that if you are interested in the history of world war ii, you can go to the library, get you a book about world war ii, and read it, and you will find a perspective at least for the individual who is the author of that particular book, but one thing i do not like to talk about world war ii is because it is not very pleasant. I think this is about the third time since i turned in the 90s mr. Hydeck 96 as of july. [laughter] colonel riffe i have talked about world war ii. I came out alive. I was wounded. I was the First Lieutenant leavy leading an infantry of men most of home were 18 or 19 years old and i was the leader of that platoon for about a month before i was transferred to another job, but during that one month, seven of those Young Americans gave their life for our country, and 14 others were seriously wounded and evacuated and i never saw again. A couple of them may not have survived because they were very seriously wounded, so i believe that if you talk with each of us of hear that you will get a different perspective of what they view as world war ii and how you should approach any study or consideration of it. Mr. Hydeck currently gi, misconceptions, things you are stated incorrectly about world war ii colonel mickey colonel mickey colonel mcgee. Colonel mcgee there was a lot i had not heard about it, but i think there are some people that do not like war. I dont ink any of us do, even though we sit here and have served our country. Still, the prayer is that one day wars will cease. Will that come in our lifetime is the question. For your teaching our young people is what do we give them and what do they get from our experiences that help Carry Forward into the future of our country and what we so much enjoy about america, even with its problem areas. That is what we have to, i think, pass on to the young folks. They need to understand world war ii to me is different than any of the others because war was declared in the country coming out of 10 years of depression behind the Job Opportunities in the service being the various elements brought a change for the world. It changed europe. It changed our country, and we have to realize that. As i say, the key is what do we give our youngsters for whatever the future is . Some of us will not be here in the future, but certainly we need to be mentoring them in a way that preserves the freedoms that we have so much enjoyed. For those of us in the room who have connections to world war ii through our families, oftentimes we learn and maybe you guys can say yes or no the people in our lives who have connections to world war ii very rarely was begun about it. I would ask my grandpa. He did not want to talk about it at all. Same with some other family members who have connections. Do you believe that could lead to people maybe not understanding the war as well as they could . Other misconceptions in your mind that maybe people could do better with . Its funny you ask me this because this morning, i have the opportunity to wake up at 4 00, and i was wondering why i could not go to sleep, and i got to thinking about just what you are asking about. I dont know how we people i have talked to. I have gone to schools, talked to classes. I have talked to teachers. I have gone to history buffs who have programs, and they all say the same thing i had a father or grandfather, but he never won to talk about the war. Can you tell me why . I have given that a lot of thought, and the only thing i can come up with is you see so many things i hope i dont break down, but you see so many things that you cannot believe that are actually happening in front of you, and i think about it right now, and i dont want to. I want to think about this. But i think the reason they dont want to talk about it is because they dont want you to know how terrible it can be. I think probably if any of you have fathers or grandfathers that would not talk about it, ill bet you they went maybe into the bathroom, locked the door, and cried. Or ill bet they went to the basement down to their workshop and cried. They dont want to talk about it . That is the reason they dont want to talk about it. Just dam horrible. Continuing on, at the end of the war, when some of us went to the concentration camps, if you see some of those, you dont want to talk about it. Everybody has a memory of what that was like. Kids have asked how it is spelled. I tell them you think of everything that you can think of that smells and stinks and put it all together, and you still dont have the smell. It is indescribable, but you think about the people that went through this, and this is terrible. I remember going through the crematorium, and there were bricks on the floor, and there was a grave matter of some kind. I looked at it, could not figure out what it was, but i went to the rear of the ovens were the people had been burnt up, and there was a pile of ashes, and i thought my god, ive been walking on all these people. It still gets to me. Hope it doesnt bother you. Mr. Hydeck thats why. Thats why. Would you think that having at least small versions of these conversations could help with misperceptions and lessons learnt so we do not repeat some of these awful things . Mr. Cohn first of all, the end of the war is perhaps the big lesson in the whole thing. In germany, there was no question of how we won the war, but it was still going on in the far east. Japan had not really suffered much from the war from us. There were some attempts made to get there and bomb and so forth, but we were going to have to invade japan, and it was going to be rougher than the way we invaded europe. That was predictable. When president truman dropped the atomic weapon, it was not a problem for us. Now it becomes a problem on debates as to if it was the right thing to do, the wrong thing to do, if it should have been avoided. Maybe just one, not two bombs. There was no discussion. If he had the bomb and he put he could end that war, that was it. That is what we wanted. There was just no question about it. That is something that develops in hindsight with history, putting a different light onto to the situation as it developed. Mr. Hydeck was that because the lives lost after dropping that bomb were much fewer than the war had a continued . Mr. Cohn it saved a lot of japanese because many more japanese would have been killed if we had had to invade japan, as they had proclaimed there were going to resist to the last man or woman, for that matter. I have some numbers on that also about japan. My unit was on okinawa when the war ended, and we were so happy that it did because in november of 1945, the u. S. Army and marine corps were scheduled to invade the southernmost island of japan. They were going to use 14 army and marine divisions, and president truman was very interested in all of this, so he asked general macarthur, for example, who was going to command all the forces, with the casualties would be. That initial invasion which would be in november 1945, macarthur said about 100,000 in casualties. That was to be followed in the spring of 1946 by assault on honshu were tokyo was located. At that time, president truman again in quiet as to the casualties, and the best estimate was the japanese would lose 10 Million People in our conquest of japan or americans would lose one Million People. They also briefed president truman on the casualties of okinawa, which were significant. Bloodiest battle in the pacific. Based upon those, president truman gave permission to start the atomic bombing on the sixth of august. Then the ninth of august i beg your pardon, six of august, they bombed hiroshima. The ninth of august, they bombed now the sake. There had been all kinds of questions about how many japanese were killed during those two bombings. I have contacted the Japanese Embassy in washington, d. C. , and the number of casualties they report on hiroshima was about 270,000. And now the sake, it was about 100 40,000. You are talking about less than half Million People, but if we would have had to invade japan and conquer japan, the japanese could have lost best estimate 10 Million People and we would have lost one million. Actually, the atomic bombing saved not only american lives but probably saved at least 9 million japanese lives. [inaudible] the word casualties is that killed, wounded, and missing, or is that killed . Mr. Hydeck when you say 10 million, one million, is that they believe just killed specifically or killed, wounded, and missing . In japan, every man and every woman had a pledge to the emperor, that they would die for him. The japanese did expect we would invade the homeland, so even the women were given bamboo spears, they would have fought to the last person. The only reason the war in did was also the commander of the military forces in japan. The imperial staff told the group they did not want to surrender. He said the enemy has dropped a bomb on us the likes of which we have never known before, and if we continue this war, the whole country will be wiped out. So on the 14th day of august of 1945, hirohito, through his imperial staff, got word to the allies that japan would surrender, but it is an amazing thing also that on the 15th of august of 1945, in for hirohito went on the radio and explained to the japanese people why they were surrendering, and that is the first time that they had ever heard the voice of emperor here he took hirohito. Even though he was aware, for example, of the raid on pearl harbor he knew about that. He could have stopped it, but he did not, but he did and his authority he was considered to be a member of the sun god. He did stop the war in japan and surrendered officially on the 14th of august. The formal surrender took place on the second of september on the battleship missouri in tokyo bay. Mr. Hydeck thank you. I would like to open it up to the floor if we could. Trying to tell the stories can be complex when you try to lay out a curriculum for your students. Maybe we can help create some organization or you to bring back to your classroom. [inaudible] how did i pull it off . My father had died, of course, when i was 13. I wanted to go in right away. I almost went to canada because you could go to canada and they would take your word for anything. They needed people bad, but my sister found out that i was doing this, and she asked me not to do it. She said wait until i could go in the american army, and i said ok. I found out from a friend of mine that the army had what they called the enlisted reserve corps during world war ii, and the purpose of this was to get kids interested in the army because the navy had a reserve unit, and the marines had reserves, but the army did not worry about reserves. Everybody was on active duty already or were being drafted. So i thought ok, i will join the army reserve because i wanted to go in the army. After i got into it, i found out this is another story about birth certificates. I found that i could put in for active duty, which i did. They accepted me. When i look at my pictures from those days, i dont know how anybody was fooled, but i kept my mouth shut everywhere i went, and i did when i was told. I stayed out of the way of officers because they were generally looking for people to do something and i did not want to do anything i did not have to do because i did not want to get into any trouble, and that was how i did it. But i did not need a birth certificate. I wanted to bring this up. About 20 years ago, i put in for a passport so i could go back over to europe. They said you have to have a copy of your birth certificate. I said i dont have it, the army sent me all over the world, why do i need it birth certificate to go as a tourist. Well, theres no reason for it. Its just our policy. Sounds like the army again to me. Anyway, i wrote off for a copy of my first certificate, and they had a copy of it, which they did not have before. I think the reason was because they put it on they put all the information on computers and could bring it up. Anyway, i got the birth certificate, and it had my mothers name, fathers name, where i was foreign, when i was born. My name was blank. So i was always sorry i did not tell them my name was clark gable or somebody. Could have made a little money off of it, you know . [laughter] mr. Hydeck for our friends at cspan, are you ok audiowise . Just want to make sure. [inaudible] he talked about macarthur as being an ok guy. He did what he had to do. However, the history books talk about the men not liking him. I was wondering what your perspective on Douglas Macarthur was. I served in macarthurs headquarters during the korean war. That is really the only thing i can talk about there. I heard in the pacific that the marines in the navy hated him. The army, some of them liked him, some of them did not, but during the korean war, he was not liked at all by anybody, i dont think. I certainly never met anybody except people that have been with him in the philippines, and he still had a lot of his people that were still with him from world war ii at that time. Mr. Hydeck are you looking to weigh in on this as well . Colonel riffe only that he was talking about the philippines, which as he indicated, japan declared war on the United States on december 8, 1941, but that same day, they started bombing the philippines. A few days later, a major army of japanese soldiers invaded, and at that time, there was about 75,000 u. S. Army troops, and they were with about 30,000 filipinos. Within several days, the americans and philippines got pushed back into sort of a peninsula sticking out into the pacific ocean. After the ninth of april 1942, 75,000 americans surrendered. That is the largest surrender of americans than any battle in our country. They had no ammunition, no food, no water. You probably heard about the death march. 7000 americans died, and 3000 filipinos died of starvation, disease, but mostly from the cruelty of the japanese guards. Macarthur, of course, did not stay in the philippines. Macarthur and his wife and the president of the philippines view boats and airplanes, macarthur finally made it back to us trail you, and he, of course, committed the armed forces committed the armed forces in the southwest torsion of the pacific. You can say what you want to about him. He was a very conceited individual, but he was also remember, he was a medal of honor winner in world war i. Mr. Hydeck i think colonel mcgee may be also has a personal story. Colonel riffe but he was a fourstar general, so i have Great Respect for him. The americans were surprised and south koreans were surprised when the japanese attacked on the 30th day of june 1950. We had troops there, and they got pushed all the way to the southern end of korea. Macarthur was behind the Japanese Forces that were south, and it was a complete success, and from that, of course, we went on to drive the koreans north. Colonel mcgee when you talk about like and dislike, it is what happened. I flew several missions. I also served with the army. Macarthur wanted to keep the chinese out of the war. Washington said no. Like and dislike sometimes depend what is your outlook on where we are going and what we are going to accomplish. We could not have won that war. We still have a divided korea, and look at that now. Were concerned about intercontinental missiles that can be rained on our country. Likes and dislikes come from different sources. I think we have to understand that. Washington moved macarthur out because he wanted to do something they did not want, and the only way to do it was moving farther away from the action at the time. [inaudible] mr. Hydeck he was not in physical danger because his office was in tokyo. Speaking of the korean war, can i indicate the casualties we suffered . The korean war started june 1950 and in and in july 1953. During that period in korea, killed 33,006 hundred 29. Wounded, 103,284. Missing missing korea, 5470 eight. Total casualties in korea, 142,091. It did not come cheap. Mr. Hydeck mr. Miller, you had something to say . Mr. Miller no, i was just wondering if this had just answered that ladys question . [laughter] i teach in richmond, virginia. One of the units that we teach for eight graders civics is duties and responsibilities. One of the things our conference has been talking about in fact, this morning, talked about plants up in michigan and how the entire nation pitched into this war effort, which is something that todays that today seems kind of foreign to us, the citizen army you had back then and the home front. Today, we have a very professionalized army. Certainly no draft. We have contractors who do a lot of our work, and i was just wondering how we could square and we are in the longest war we have ever been in, and sometimes it doesnt even seem like it. When we have our students and we teach them duties and responsibilities, i was wondering if you guys had any advice for our students or any thoughts on how we should frame this for our students, that we are in a major war continually right now. How should they think about that . What should they do . How should they pitch in . Mr. Cohn i would think that it has to stay it has to start at a different level. It has to start right in the beginning with what we used to call civics. You have to build up the identity of the student to coalesce his thoughts with the country, so theres that term of patriotism that you are going to have to develop. If you do not develop that right in the beginning, it is not going to come later on. It has got to come right from the start in the Elementary Schools, and we do not even have the Elementary School teachers here. Mr. Hydeck email then. [laughter] mr. Cohn the other point is that politically, it is a completely different situation because the army was drafted. Everybody had the ability or the threat to go into the army, and that is not true here. We have a volunteer army, which is something completely different because everybody here probably does not have anybody in that army, and you are divorced from it. If you are reminded theres a war on, you suddenly say thats right. This is not something you are thinking of from one day to the next. World war ii, it hit everybody. Everybody did not have to be reminded any day because they knew there was a war on. First of all, one of their loved ones was involved personally. Secondly, there was rationing, for example. The household was impacted by it. So everybody was impacted. It did not happen in the korean war. It did not happen in the vietnamese war. In the korean war, we still had the draft. In the beginning of the vietnamese war, we still had the draft. This is completely different now. As i indicated, if you want the kids to identify with usa, its got to be done right from the beginning. Mr. Hydeck patriotism element to school. Other questions . I just want to thank you for your service. We appreciate you. Thank you for protecting our freedom. Have any of you written a book or memoir that we could read to our classes . I did. Mr. Hydeck theres a few books here. I wrote one, but its not for anybody to read. [laughter] the reason i did this is because i found out my kids i have two sons, and i realized they did not know anything about what i had done, and they seemed not to even care for the longest time. I guess one of them still doesnt, but the other 1 they both went into the navy, of all things, which i could not excuse, but they turned out pretty good, i guess. But i wrote a book, and i sat both of them down, and they read it, and i noticed their faces got read a couple of times, but i dont think i did them any harm. But that is as far as it went. At least its on record. Colonel mcgee folks keep telling me to write my story. Im not a writer. But my daughter has written my story. Its called Tuskegee Airmen the bio of charles mcgee. I love flying. I stayed in the service, but i could not have written a script for better opportunities and getting to actively fly 27 of my 30 years. That does not happen often. But for the teachers, i will give you 4 ps to pass on because it is important to motivate the young people to face whatever their future is. Proceed, prepare, perform, persevere. Proceed dream your dreams. Find your talents, but i like to help you find what you like to do. But prepare. Get a good education. Learn to read, write, and speak well and develop those talents that you discover that are important. Perform. Always doing your best, but let excellence be your goal in everything that you do. Finally, persevere. We could have hung our heads and gone on and written bad things about general macarthur. Dont let circumstances be an excuse for not achieving. Some of the future of the country we dont know, but i tell kids plan to go to mars. The planners are going to be too old. When they get old, it is going to be one of those middle or high school or to make the trip. Then i am often asked, and that i will shut up, how did you get through what you did. I learned as a little kid you treat other people like you want to be treated. Probably all of you have heard the saying sticks and stones may break my bones, but words wont hurt me any fighting never really accomplishes anything. You get bruised up, but you have not solved the issue and youre still mad at each other. Then a little bit later, being a scout. If everybody lived by the scout oath, we would have a very different country if you think about it and what it means. I joined a fraternity, but one thing i learned if you are going to be first of all, you first must become a servant of all. If you are one of the men that needs it had on the back and a direction to keep them going, thanks. I wrote down things because there were so many facets that you cant remember. Memory is like a sieve, some of that nasty stuff gets discarded. That is the danger of going and telling about world war ii, because what you cant put across is the emotional aspects, the fear that was involved. The horror that was involved. The physical discomfort that was involved, like the battle of the bulge, the worst whether you can imagine. It was around freezing, but if you were in an open jeep and you were driving 25 Miles Per Hour and that wind hits you, how can you describe that . You really cant. I want to give a plugin on a program that the Rocky Run Middle School does every year, they have world war ii day. What they do is they solicit in the Community Anyone who was a world war ii who was in world war ii and invite them to come to world war ii day. They get the bio in advance. They get the bio they divide students into lets say they have 50 world war ii veterans. They divide the students into that 50 so maybe four or five students will get that particular world war ii veteran for one hour, and there are five hours involved. They do get a mix of other people. Because they have the bios, they can formulate the questions in advance. As they come in, we get into these groups and they know what they are talking about. They knew who they are facing. They know what questions they want answered. It is a wonderful thing. Very smart. Other questions . I lived on the world we want to try to get it on the audio as well. I lived on the road in virginia. Thank you for your service. I am incredibly humbled to be standing here. You said you left in 1938 when you were 13, can you talk a little bit about what that was like and how you got to the United States at a time when that was a difficult thing to do . That part is amazing to me. First of all, there was a difference with the german and austrian jews. We had time, really, to prepare to get out. When it hits the poland and russian jews, they had no time. That is where the great casualties were inflicted on the jews, in the polish and the russian and baltic regions. On the the german side on the german side, the problem was nobody wanted you. You wanted to get out, who was going to take you . The United States had a great obstacle put in for refugees. They did not want refugees. They were willing to take people who were on an affidavit and somebody had guaranteed that they would not become a burden to the state. But, that was a trickle. So many more wanted to go and they could not. You might have heard about the st. Louis the ship that was going to cuba and they thought they were going to be received in cuba, but cuba would not let them off. And it sailed past the United States and nobody would let them in. They finally had to go back to europe. Anyway, with us, every misfortune that happened to us ended up being a good thing in the end. For example, in 1933 when hitlers can to power, my father lost his store because they were parading in front, do not buy from jews. These were all what you might called salami tactics. It was not a big thing immediately, it was Little Things that happened to you and it got worse and worse. You always said, well, ok, it cant get anywheres. But it did. So, it took my parents until 1938 to figure out that they could not persist anymore in germany. My father went the states to find distant relatives to get an affidavit. This thing was ridiculous because it would take about five years after you got an affidavit before you could go on. 9038 plus five, you can see where you end up. 1938 plus five come you can see where you end up. The future was not visible. A lucky thing happened to him where he thought it was dumb luck, he could not find any relatives who had the capacity to give us an affidavit. The country was under the depression, and people do not have the money. He had to stay longer. When he stayed longer, i think gestapo came to our door looking for him. My mother try to think what we should do. He was on a visit there were no computers. She was able to go to the consulate and get a visitors visa for herself. Had they known my father was there, she never would have gotten a visa. The real miracle, we ended up, my mother and i, i was the only child, we ended up in new york the 30th of october 1938 with a visitors visa. When we saw my father, we met him on the dock. He said, we have a problem. We are at the mercy of the relief organizations, and they said you only have a finite time to do something here because we cant support you for ever. Youre going to have to go back. Well, november 9, less than two weeks afterwards, was crystal night. Crystal night was the was the thing the germans thrust upon the jews because it was a preplanned action. They were waiting for the incident. The incident was the assassination of somebody in the parisgerman embassy by a jewish student. That initiated that program. Another catastrophe. Our luck because president roosevelt issued an executive order that anyone in country would not be forced to return. We could stay. That is how we stayed. Now that is a story. We would like to hear from garnet hannum, 95 years old. Ok. I have been there. I have seen a lot. I have experienced a lot. Of course, i started off as a boy scout. I took it seriously. I still take it seriously. I am a christian gentleman. I am a christian. So, [indiscernible] my first visit as a candidate [indiscernible] my first training in washington dc, then i went to virginia for my basic training. I had some kind of training [indiscernible] we used it by world word world war ii. It was part of my training. [indiscernible] im that education at the same time and got to the education at the same time. It was pretty tough because most people stayed at home. Duty int on active 1943. [indiscernible] it was cold and freezing. Then i went back to massachusetts. [indiscernible] [laughter] [indiscernible] my experience i had a gift. I was being earmarked. He was in an accident. I is that im going to transfer out. Later on, i filed it. Stayed in myi career. It the experience i had in the training i got pardoned me. I was in the northern part of france during the invasion. I remember when George S Patton put his tanks up from italy to the name of the general who was trying to split the english forces and the American Forces at the battle of the bulge was general the supreme general at the time. That is the information i got. I knew for two weeks, those germans were raising fans. I give credit to general eisenhower because after that two weeks when the sun came out, i ordered George S Patton said i was assigned to the third army. He brought his tanks up. They stopped the germans of the battle of the bulge. It was the air force but was accompanied not accompanied but a brigade, as eco college. They were the ones that stopped the battle of the bulge. I want to diverse from my conversation on that to get to general mcgee, a famous general. I also want to tell you that i happen to be a Dunbar High School washington dc and in 1939, when i entered Dunbar High School, my pack my captain was captain roscoe brown. He was a war hero. I want to tell you about roscoe brown. Harry truman gave roscoe brown two clusters. Roscoe brown had 100 and some chips from england as far as hungary. Of course, roscoe brown did not win the confederate he was in the honor society. But i want to honor roscoe brown today. I want to honor him. He is the one who got harry truman to integrate the army. I am here to testify to that. I take my hat off to mcgee. I want to complement churchill for standing up. They were trying to surrender, but churchill went out of that. I want to complement another who leapfrogged in these japanese territories. I want to thank him for the battle of midway. Where they sank three aircraft carriers of the japanese. That was a turning tide in the war. I want to thank those guys on iwo jima, the slaughter. A lot of those people killed. They had to take that and the land in a place prior to the invasion of japan. These are strategic things. I want to thank macarthur. Macarthur was number one in his class. He was the chief of staff prior to the war. He never got the bonus. But he was a great general. I want to thank another general who was in the italian camp. I want to thank George S Patton. I was in france at the time patton went 90 miles in one day in france. I was present at the time when patton went too far one day and in a german fashion. They close in on us. They thought they were trapped. They did not. We got out of that. It was good for 250 yards. When i was at dunbar as a 19yearold, and it would travel three miles [indiscernible] the point is, i want to thank bradley who was outstanding. Of course, the point is that we have to thank montgomery who was a british high military officer, because he and i were colonels together. I am up on my history. But i have been there. Yes, you are. [laughter] the point is, they did a remarkable job. I want you to remember roscoe brown. And i had a question to you. You were supposed to be at the veterans Day Celebration this november. [laughter] and i was looking forward i got inhe materials the mail, said you would be one of the speakers. Why didnt you show up . [laughter] i will have to take the fifth amendment. [laughter] gentlemen, we are running out of time. Lets have a round of applause for our panel. [applause] and of course, [indiscernible] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] we have a facebook question are therer, saying any Historical Resources on the people who died in detroit . There is one in particular. You can be featured during our next live program. Join the conversation on facebook. This might be the only government class you ever take. You will be able to forever, need to give, so i eutelsat help you for the rest of your life in those pursuits. Tuesday night, high School Teachers discuss how Current Events affect the lessons on history, politics, and government. As a history component, this is a chance for them to learn about their story. Their story doesnt begin a moment they are born, but people who came long before them, shaking the way shaping the world around them. What i contribute, where i come in from is a part of this bigger story. Tothat way, allowing them take another peoples opinions through social media and also through video. It gives them a chance to be able to really think and ask, how do i see the world this way . Easternay at 8 00 p. M. On cspan, cspan. Org, and listen using the free cspan radio app. Weekend on the presidency, Herbert Hoover talks aboutge nash the defining relationship between the 31st president and his oval office predecessor, Calvin Coolidge. Heres a preview. In the end, just four days ,efore the election, coolidge ever the party regular, finally gave hoover an extraordinarily diffusive public extraordinarily public endorsement. , he declared, has shown his fitness to be president. He said coolidge was trustworthy in safe. Hoover was grateful. Republican leaders were jubilant and relieved. In ahen hoover won landslide, coleridge hailed the of hisas an endorsement own administration, and announced he could now be he could now retired from office in contentment. The president s term still had four months to run. And he was known to be very touchy about his prerogatives. No doubt with the sensitivities and mine, who were proposed that officialr, take an goodwill tour to latin america after the election. Coolidge agreed. 1928o, from november 19, until early january 1929, hoover not only stayed out of washington, better still, he stayed out of the country. On march 4, 1959, fulfilling an ambition that attached his stole his soul, Herbert Hoover became president of the United States and had done so without ever having held elective public office. For an hour and a half during the ceremonies, he and Calvin Coolidge stood, sad, walked sidebyside, without saying a word to each other. Address, whoral were politely paid tribute to his predecessor. When the ceremonies of the capital were over, the two men said goodbye. And the expresident took a train home to new england. Watch the entire program on sunday at 8 00 p. M. And on midnight eastern on American History tv, only on cspan3. Iithe American World war Orphans Network is an organization for the soon knows and daughters of missing soldiers, founded in 1991. , members of the organization discuss their exper