Showed small acts of bravery and brotherhood known only to those with whom they fought and served. This is the story of their unknown valor. Im martha macallum, growing up, my mother told us the story of her cousin harry grey. In the summer of 1944 at age 18 he left after High School Graduation to join the marines and serve in the pacific. I was always intrigued and i knew harrys death there left a deep grief in my mothers family. A few years ago struck me to tell the story. The guys who get hit on the beach or in the villages just trying to carry out the mission, they are the extras in the movie, but for some families, somewhere they are their harry grey. The line on the family tree that just ends. A young man who never got to have a life, get married, grow old. To learn about harry and what happened to him on march 13th, 1945i started with a trip to new york to visit his sister, my aunt nancy. She told me about their lives growing up with their mom, migrant aunt anne and her dad harr
Please stand and be recognized if you could from any other era. [applause] we have an Incredible Group of friends with us tonight. Cspan is here filming tonights event. I want you all to be on your best behavior. Cspan is forever. Paul, stand one more time. [applause] and ted is here with our friends from california. He has been involved with the Summer Teacher Institute and now the guy on the site for all things specific. Graduating from the university of missouri after which he served four years in u. S. Army during the vietnam war as a platoon leader of the 101st airborne division. Then graduated from the georgetown law center. I met him on History Channel shoot. I thought he was already pretty famous. I wasnt i thought he was 200 percent nice to me then he had to be. He is an expert in his field he make sure you become an expert in the field. Hes a compelling speaker but also one of the nicest people anyone has ever met and thats the best thing of all. Tonight he will be speaking a
Showed small acts of bravery and brotherhood known only to those with whom they fought and served. This is the story of their unknown valor. Im martha macallum, growing up, my mother told us the story of her cousin harry grey. In the summer of 1944 at age 18 he left after High School Graduation to join the marines and serve in the pacific. I was always intrigued and i knew harrys death there left a deep grief in my mothers family. A few years ago struck me to tell the story. The guys who get hit on the beach or in the villages just trying to carry out the mission, they are the extras in the movie, but for some families, somewhere they are their harry grey. The line on the family tree that just ends. A young man who never got to have a life, get married, grow old. To learn about harry and what happened to him on march 13th, 1945i started with a trip to new york to visit his sister, my aunt nancy. She told me about their lives growing up with their mom, migrant aunt anne and her dad harr
Thank you for hiring me. I appreciate that. Every two weeks. I appreciated pretty. Im also the samuels Senior Historian at the museum which is perhaps my proudest post. Welcome to another installment of our author series will we bring you the best world war ii literature and the men and women who create it. People tonight author, the truly needs no introduction, we carry out that tradition. Any chance are there any veterans in the audience tonight. There we go. [applause]. I knew there were some. [applause]. To say that we thank you for your services is an understatement of the century. Any veterans of any other service or any other era, please stand and be recognized if you would. [applause]. Wonderful. And again, thanks to all of you for your support and service. We have an Incredible Group of friends with us here tonight in the museum. Cspan, the good folks from cspan are here filming the event printed that is always wonderful that wanted to be under your best behavior. Because cspa
Woody is a farmboy from quiet dale, West Virginia. Kind of a juxtaposition of what he went into the muck coming what he went into, coming from a place named quietville. He was a young man when he received the medal of honor. I am sure he will share his story with you. I dont need to tell you what he will tell you. Without further ado, woody williams. [applause] woody thank you. [applause] woody thank you. Thank you. Thank you for that nice welcome. Wow. Thank all of you for coming today. I dont know that i have ever spoken to a larger group than we have here today. So thank you. Today is a day important in my life. I dont know that it is anymore important than the 70th or 73rd when we had an opportunity to go back to iwo jima for a visit. It naturally brought back a lot of memories, some good and some bad. But i am very humbled to stand before you today. I am grateful for the opportunity of sharing with you some of my thoughts. 75 years ago, at this moment in time, thousands of marines