Nationalgi anthem. All of you who are able to, please rise. [inaudible] [inaudible] present arms. Oh, say, can you see, by the dawns early light what so proudly we haild at the twilights last gleaming . Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro the perilous fight oer the ramparts we watchd, were so gallantly streaming . And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air gave proof thro the night that our flag was still there. O say, does that starspangled banner yet wave oer the land of the free and the home of the brave . [applause] [applause] please join me in thanking the air force tc honor guard for that very special presentation in tribute to our nation. Please be seated. Ladies and gentlemen, i am the events director for the Richard Nixon foundation and its a pleasure to have you all here tonight. Thursday of last week marked the 75th anniversary of operation overlord, the largest sea, land invasion in history and the turning point of world war ii. A day remembered as dday. At the time to remember and honor the heroes of americas greatest generation in the heroes of world war ii. It is a time to remember the sacrifices made in the face of evil to protect our essential freedoms. If the time to show the tremendous respect appreciation and admiration deserved to the great warriors of world war ii and all who served. We are lucky to be among some of those great patriot tonight and will all of our veterans and current arm servicemembers stand and be recognized. [applause] [applause] please allow me to express a special thank you are not only myself but on the Richard Nixon president ial library and museum, Richard Nixon foundation and the nixon family. We are truly indebted to you. Thank you for your service. Pp [applause] a recipient of the distinguished flying cross. Tonight special guest speaker is one that won the title of hero. a title earned noter only a brod fighting in the skies high above world war ii theater of war but also at home as an africanamerican prevailing in the face of racism. At 17 years old Harry T Stewart junior signed up for war Service Volunteering before being drafted. He had tohe fit in a segregated rail car on the journey to basic training in 1943 but in two years time would be at the control of the mustang with the distinct makings many of his fellow servicemembers will get a sigh of relief especially when an escort in the belly of a b17 or be 24 bomber and the markings were of course named for the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African American military aviators in history of the United States armed forces. The red tails. Ry colonel stewart was 40 blue 43 combat missions amassing an outstanding record which included being one of only four Tuskegee Airmen with three aerial victories in one day, amazingly taking down three german aircraft on april 1st, 1945. Moderating tonights discussion is retired air force colonel wayne and scott. Colonel scott served for nearly three decades as a communications and Computers Systems officer in the United States air force. As a Service Career took him to 19 different assignments at 11 tcations around the world that included tours of this quadrant commander responsible for the o 500 personnel. Colonel scott retired from the air force in 2005 to join [inaudible] where he served as project manager, senior project managerio excuse me, project manager, the Senior Program manager and Business Development manager. One of his notable projects was the arresting systems used aboard our aircraft carriers during landing at seas and still currently used to this day. Colonel scott retired this past march after spending, i believe, 13 years with the company. He retired this past month but remains incredibly busy with veteran initiatives across the Southern California area. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome colonel wainscott and colonel Harry Stewart. [applause] [cheering and applause] now that was appropriate. During my 29 years in the air force i was routinely taught that we stand on the shoulders of giants. Its a phrase that, in todays air force, means we are the greatest air force in the world because of those who went before us and the standards they set and the courage they displayed. I am honored to sit here tonight with one of those giants. [applause] ive had the opportunity to read this book cover to cover and it is absolutely fascinating. I was putting together the questions to discuss with colonel stewart and we could talk for two hours with the stuff in this book. I promise you we will not do that but i wanted to pick out just a couple of incidences in the book that i would like you to share with our audience. You see the photos going by on the screen and these are all about incidences covered in the book and the photos are in the book and we will just give you a taste of some of that here this evening. While the book is subtitled Tuskegee Airmens firsthand account of world war ii really did not include much more than that and you and philip began with a very detailed account of the early pioneers of black aviation. Their stories are fascinating but you have little direct contact with them. What started your interest in aviation . What made you want to fly . Im sorry, i think it started early when i was a baby in a crib. I was raised in virginia and my folks lived near Langley Field and the vented aircraft, at that time, flew over the house where i was and my parents would have me out in the crib and they would tell me, i dont remember, but i would look up at the airplanes and make all the gurgling sounds when i thought and airplane go by. At two years old my parents decided to move to new york city and they moved to queens, the borough of queens and the location was about a mile and a half from the local airport by the north Beach Airport 1939 and the name was changed to Laguardia Airport but there is a young teenager i use to watch the airplanes take off and i used to fantasize about sitting in the cockpit and having the controls and flying around. That engendered the dream of someday getting up in the air and flying an aircraft and itge stuck. The fascination started young and you were a 17 yearold High School Student when pearl harbor was bombed and you had read about the 99th squadron and you immediately went down to list and tell them you wanted to join the 99. I told them i wanted to join the 99th and recruiting sergeant said you will join whatever organization we want you tot. Left back anyway, i had to wait till i was 18 to be pulled into the service and the draft is going on at the time and it so happens that the very day that i was supposed to report to the Induction Center i received a letter in the bottom of it read arnold and i was general arnold at the time but it had his signature or rather his literate documents it was calling me into the service the same day i would have been indoctrinated through the draft. For those of you who dont know the history that would be general arnold went on to be the first chief of staff of the United States air force. March of 1943 you reported to basic training for the air corps in mississippi. I was stationed there twice during my career but you had c o travel back through the south be reintroduced to the racism and bigotry that her father hader taken your family out of. This was the first trip south that i had after two years after moving to new york where i was two years old and i dont think not to create i dont think i was anything west of the hudson river as of that time but anyway i got on the train at pennsylvania station, downtown new york and with me were some of the neighborhood kids that i grew up with and it was very much interracial neighborhood there so all except one of the kids were white and we went as far as washington dc and the train stopped in washington dc to change engines and the conductor came back in the car we were in at the time pointed to me and said youll have to go up to the front car that the jim crow car. rightparenthesis said and had warned me about this and said what it would be like in thats where i had to go. I know the youngsters said will go up with you and the conductor said no, its for the white people back here. He has to gole to the car for te colored people which is the jim crow car. We will talk more about indians like that and their impact on your life. Youre going through basic training and one of the things you have to complete their before you can move on to tuskegee is past a flight physical. Yes. But when you are four years old you contracted polio connect yes. And you lost some of the use of your right leg including your reflexes for mac yes. How did you get to a flight physical . I think it. [laughter] i knew that but i wanted him to tell the story. Its great. They have the test with the achilles tendon here and the rubber mallet and they hit the achilles tendon and of course your knee jerks and i think i overplayed it and almost kicked the doctor off the podium so i think when i kicked my leg there and of course if you find out i had atrophy in the cast of my right leg there that prevented me from certain movements or maximizing certain movements. But that got you to tuskegee. Yes. So, you started at tuskegee in december 43 in a class of 75 cadets. Yes. But by june of 44 only 26 finished. Thats correct. How old are you or how old were you when you started there . I was 18 when i started. And you okay, you were talking downstairs one of your vivid memories from that was your very first solo. Tell us yes, well i threw a plane called cornell and it was an all plywood aircraft, lowing, open cockpit in tandem and i forget Something Like 175horsepower or Something Like that butr i received seven hous instruction in it before the instructor thought i was capable of soloing the craft. The difficulty i had in first find the aircraft was i had not been in flight or been in an aircraft before at the time and i was a little surprised because it did not react in trying to flight was not the same as i had thought it would be. When we were kids we used to push we used to call them [inaudible] and they had a wooden cross beam wheels but if you wanted to go left you push your right foot in and it went like this and if you wanted to go right you pushed your left foot and it would turn like that. The plane was just the opposite. I had difficulty overcoming left and the instructor would say give me a left turn and i was pushed to the other side there that i had but i overcame that and finally after the end of seven hours the instructor said taxi me over and thats a large structure underground that tells you what direction the wind is coming from and he got out of the cockpit in front of me there and stood and started to pass the buckle where he got up and i realized what was happening that he would do for me so i told him do it the way you do and that was it. The force i did and when i broke ground it was just a new sensation that i got it overwhelming feeling of pleasure and a compass meant a an advancement and the plane started gradually going up into the air and i saw the pattern like the instructor told me to kand i taxied by the team to tae it back around again and that was my aviation soloing by myself airborne at that time. What an incredible experience. Eighteen years old and did not even have a drivers license. Did not have a drivers license. From new york and they had the Rapid Transit system in new york so you didnt really need a car. Again, june 44 you finished and had gone through with over 200 hoursra at this point and ia series of different aircraft including the 86 on the screen right there and eightysix. After some fighter intro training in the p40 in early january of 45 you arrived at the 332nd Fighter Group in italy. Yes. You get qualified to fly the p51. Yes. And you go by your First Combat Mission that night yes. Tell us about that. I flew the First Combat Mission and there was nothing like it. [inaudible] Something Like five or 600 farmers that would be involved and we were one of the seven Fighter Groups that were assigned to escort for the bomber groups, they were both b17 and be 24s and of course for the mission they would not run into it but they stretched out for a period of distance ofa maybe 100 miles but my squadron was going to escort the last of the bombers going over and i was relegated to not only been in a position of the last squadron to escort the bombers but with the last member last flight and which is called. Tail and charlie. Yes. I remember taking off and i was a little befuddled as to just what we to turn except that i was fine on the element leader and just did whatever he did. Then we got on the course and climbing out and going up into germany and asked for the bomber to start reaching a certain temperature and altitude and they would start [inaudible] they go over the white condensation trails they have and each of these 600 bombers had four engines and they began when they reached that atmospheric height where the stick place they started building each of these engines and putting streamers and i could see this for miles, 50 miles in front of me and it was just a beautiful site but then the fighters that were in front came over and they maintained the same ground speed and the fighter was so much faster than the bombers and they were doing as turns over the bombers so there was this ballet in the sky of these paper trails and it was a stream going ahead and then the streams of the fighter planes going above them and it was awesome. It was a site we will never see again because well never put a force like that in the air again. Thats the last of what we will see as far as the big bombing raids. One bomber now can do as much damage with its payload as all of those bombers during the entire war. Thats a sight to behold and a site i will never see again. It brings back the memories back incredible. Thank you. So, lets see. You are you were stationed in italy and blue 43 combat missions in 1945 and the most memorable one, i think, we will say was april 1st smack the memorable one was april 1st, 1945 which also happened to be Easter Sunday and we were on a mission to up near vienna, austria and the entire three squadrons assigned to escorting a Certain Group of bombers but however, the air was quite peaceful at the time there and there wasnt much activity save for the bombers dropping their payloads there and we were dispatched to make a fighter sweet in that area around the danube and in vienna there. The later sweep was to involve the opportunity what we call opportunities [inaudible] gisabling the freight trains and moving traffic and enemy aircraft if necessary and we were looking for trouble. Trouble found us. It was a horde of german fw 190 and we were attacked by them. There were seven of us and it was quite a horde of them. I dont remember how many but three of us got shut down and one of them got shut down in his plane was damaged enough for him to try to make it home and got as far as friendly territory in yugoslavia and landed there without any incident. The second private that was with us was shut down and killed instantly. The third one was named Walter Manning from philadelphia, pennsylvania. His aircraft was disabled and he had to bail out and we were around [inaudible]. We landed a mob of civilians pick them up and delivered him to a ogle jailhouse for confinement but two nights later another mob formed and they took walter out, beat him up and then hung him from the lamp post. That is not to claim that this was an dignity reserved for the members of the Tuskegee Airmen but this happened to a lot of our airmen, especially among the bomber crews that went down near the territory and you can understand the sympathy of the civilians where the bombings had taken place. Incidentally, not last april 1st but april 1st a year ago i was invited by the austrian government to come over and participate in a memorial to the second lieutenant, Walter Manningec, who was lynched at te time there. They felt as though it was their obligation to show their [inaudible] as far as the mob doing that to walter and gave him a very dignified remembrance there and i was pleased to have been invited over to participate in the ceremony. That is a memorial to the Walter Manning on the territory of that former german airbase it is that where the memorial yes, thats exactly right. I forget inn german how to pronounce the airbase now but it was in austria, the airbase they are. Finally, honored for his bravery as well. Yes. In that battle you were credited with shooting down three german aircraft. Yes. For that you were awarded the distinguished flying cross. Yes. The war in europe and in may of 1945. Thats correct. You returned to the states in september 1945 decorated war herote. How are black servicemembers treated upon their return . Not much recognition except for the black press. I would say there was little recognition and as far as social atmosphere of the country i returned to the same old, same old. He it was the exact same as it was when i left to go in the service and the changes did not start taking place four years after our return. Yet again, we can talk about how some of those things were rectified later on in your life. You remained in the 32nd and as it transitioned to the air force one of the things you learned is that flying isnt only dangerous when youre in combat and so, march 20, 1948 you had a little engine trouble. Yes, a little engine trouble over [inaudible] in kentucky. [laughter] hhad to bail out and my aircraft dove into the ground, p47, it smashed into the ground 100 yards from the cabin who is a western singer now of lorettaf lynn. [laughter] i parachuted about half a mile