And the exhibits of what would have happened on the ground didnt matter the closing months of world war tii. To do this we asked our own rob citino. She among the seniors, i will beat him to the punch line and say he has the longest on staff. He is a Award Winning historiah. He taught for three decades including stints at west point, the u. S. Military economy, and the war college. He came in 2013 for the International Conference. He is one of our featured tour historians. He came to our 2015 tour, but he did not come to our 2015 International Conference because we did not invite him that year. We invited him to join the staff as the Museum Senior historian and we could not be luckier to have a topnotch scholar to guide us, so ladies and gentlemen, our friend george citino. What was up in 2015 . What did i do you sit at home and there is a big party in new orleans and youre wondering what happened. Thank you for those comments, ger my. I remember the first time i spoke at the conferenc
[applause] plaws [applause] as we were downstairs getting ready to start, captain yellin was asking me, do i stand for the army . Or do i stand for the air force . Because he was in the Army Air Forces. I said, sir, youre 93 years old, you can stand for anybody you want to. [applause] captain jerry yellin is an Army Air Forces veteran who served in world war ii between 1941 and 1945. He enlisted on his 18th birthday, just two months after the bombing of pearl harbor. After graduating from the air field as a Fighter Pilot in august of 1943, at the ripe old age of 19, he spent the remainder of the war flying p40, p47, and p51 combat missions in the pacific with the 78th fighter squadron. He participated in the first landbased fighter mission over japan on 7 april, 1945, and has the unique distinction of having flown the final combat mission of world war ii on 14 august, 1945, the day combat ended. On that mission, his wing man was the last man killed in a combat mission in world war ii.
Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and josef stalin. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen for our next event. Its more or less the keynote of the day because it is the talk on the yalta conference though all of the programs, all of the sessions will be wonderful. We have Serhii Plokhii here from harvard. Hes the professor of ukrainian history and director of Ukrainian Research institute at harvard. As i mentioned the morning hes been on our list for a longtime and we have finally found the right time to bring him down here to enlighten us. His many titles include the last elm pmperor, the cossack myth and forgotten bastard of the Eastern Front. Ladies and gentlemen, dr. Serhii plokhii. [ applause ] thank you very much for this introduction. Thanks to the organizers of the conference for bringing me here, and i also want to thank all of you because coming from boston and thinking that the weather is like today decided to come inside and listen to presentations like mine, i really appreciate th
Welcome back to the Madeleine Paul hilliard Conference Center here at the higgins hotel. I hope everybody enjoyed their lunch. We spent this morning doing some pretty high Level Analysis of the political and strategic situation that existed amongst the allied leaders. But as we all know, wars are fought on battle feels, not in board rooms, and these summits, though they dictated much of what would happen on the ground, they wouldnt have mattered much if we didnt have armies in the field. So our next session will look at how yalta affected the execution of the closing months of world war ii. To do this, we asked our very own rob citino, dr. Citino is the executive director of the institute for the study of war and democracy as well as the Museum Samuel and mary stone Senior Historian at the National World War Ii Museum and ill beat him to the punch line and say hes got the longest title on staff. Hes an Award Winning military historian, published ten books, primarily on the german army.
Much if we didnt have armies in the field. So our next session will look at how yalta affected the execution of the closing months of world war ii. To do this, weve asked our very own rob citino. Dr. Citino is from the institute of war and democracy, swlt the Museum Senior historian at the National World War Ii Museum, and ill beat him to the punch scompline say hes got the longest title on staff. Hes an awardwinning military historian. Hes published 10 books, primarily on the german army. Hes taught for three decades, including stints at west point, u. S. Military academy, and the u. S. Army war college. He first came to the museum in 2012 for our International Conference. Then he came in 2013 for our International Conference. Then he was one of our featured tour historians at the 70th anniversary of dday cruise. Then he came to our 2014 International Conference. But as he always reminds me, did not come to our 2015 International Conference because we didnt invite him that year. Bette