Exposure class twin light and youth. We also provide educational grants to collegebound students. Port us and follow us online. Eccta. Org. As we work to enlighten our youth to the opportunities that aviation provides. And promote the legacy of the tuskegee airmen. I would like to thank you. A round of applause for our panelists. Also speaking at the Conference Last Week were members of the legendary who conducteders the first raids on japan in world war ii. The panel included the man who served as Jimmy Doolittles copilot. They make a historical comparison between the knot sees nazis and isis. This is about 45 minutes. Thank you. I appreciate your support. A little nervous in the front row. Can you guys hear me in the back . Think of some questions. Make this an interactive panel. It is not so much me asking the questions. We want you to be able to ask the questions of these legends of world war ii. A quick introduction before the speaking program begins. The highestjames decorated officer in the history of the 82nd airborne division. He fought in italy. He jumped into market garden. Also fought in the battle of the bulge, where he should have won the medal of honor, but due to a snafu, he did not. He is a great platoon leader from world war ii. A guy who i am happy to call a friend. The gentleman to his left is Lieutenant Colonel cole. Plain number one of the doolittle raid. Copilot andtles the pride of dayton, ohio. We talk about moments of history to having a front row seat moments in history. To onea front row seat of the most amazing moment in history. To his left, the pride of montana. Plain number 15. Mber 15. Nuymber maybe . I said engineer. Offense, navy guys. You are in the engineer. And engineer. Ofanted to have the honor opening remarks by the ambassador of the taipei economic and cultural representative of their office. During world war ii, the republic of china suffered at the hands of the japanese but fought with great dollar. Valor. The chinese risk their lives to help the doolittle raiders, helping many of those guys to safety. As a result of the sacrifice of the chinese and in retaliation for their helping the americans, 250,000 chinese were killed by the japanese in retaliation for what happened. Their help of the doolittle raiders. To this day, there remains a bond between the raiders, america, and the republic of china. We are happy to have the ms are here to say a few words. Ambassador here to say a few words. Ambassador . I have more than just a few words. Capacity asg in my ambassador or representative from taiwan. The official name is still the republic of china. I think i am qualified to be a spokesman for the work will world war ii china. Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek. That you the order were supposed to land. To tell all the people and soldiers in the province that you have to offer the best totection, the best help, american flyers once they reach or territory or airspace. [applause] thank you. Even though Chiang Kaishek has passed away for 40 years, believe it or not, today in taiwan, his Lyrical Party is still the ruling party of the Political Party is still the ruling party of the country. We know the Doolittle Mission is a big success. Probably the most daring, stimulating, aerobic heroic in the early part of world war ii. Retaliation against the japanese surprise attack at pearl harbor. Also, the first time the japanese homeland was attacked. You, the japanese warmongers realized their own security was in danger. When president roosevelt was heard about the great news, he held a press conference. Where did the bombers take off from . A secret base in shangrila. We know this is not the case. A b 25ery difficult for to take off from an Aircraft Carrier. It is not long enough. Because the Aircraft Carrier has to stay away from the japanese homeland, from being detected, it is almost 700 miles in between. It is too far. Can fly to the b 25 japan, it does not have enough fuel to fly back. They all took off as planned. The penetrated into japanese airspace. They bombed the japanese cities. Not heavy bombing but symbolic bombing. They bombed tokyo, nagoya, yokohama. Is the miracle, they managed to get out almost unharmed. Where would they go to land . To have aal plan was chinese airport. They fly across the East China Sea to a chinese city. The Chinese Government built an airport for them to land at. But just a few hours before the mission started, colonel, you wasmber well, the fleet spotted by japanese ships. They moved out earlier. , two hours. To thesage did not get chinese authorities. The ward Time Commitment the wartime communication was not so good. Airspace, thehe airport, during the night. It was in a blackout. They had no place to land. The 16, except for one, which went to the soviet union, the others had to crash land or bailout. Members, 65 almost 90 , thankfully because of chang kaisheks order. That was a dangerous province. They were rescued by the chinese guerrilla soldiers. Chinese people rescued the american flyers. They offered them the best protection, sanctuary. They assembled them and sent them to the airport the next province. 7 pick them upc4 and took them to chongqing, the wartime capital. They were warmly received by generalissimo changi scheck. Chiang kaishek. Colonel chongqing, order to havethe him promoted directly to general. It is a beautiful story, but the story did not end. You can imagine how angry the japanese were. They mobilized and nine divisions and started what they called a Punitive Campaign against the chinese. More cities were taken. More villages were burned down. Civilians,usands of soldiers, women and children were massacred. The japanese used chemical weapons. The chinese suffered a lot because of the american mission. But these selfless chinese feel only regret that that night, they did not receive general too little his flyers well doolittle and his flyers well. Because there are 10 crewmen who did not make it, some of them were captured by the japanese and executed. Some died in japanese persons. Only four survived until the end of the war. People always feel a little sorry, a little regret. Let me tell you a story. In may ofolittle, 1976, he visited taiwan. Onwas no longer a general active duty. He was a Business Executive representing mutual of omaha. He went to taiwan for an International Insurance conference. Of course, it became big news of his arrival. A chinese gentleman in taipei wrote him a letter. He was the provincial commissioner for the Civil Defense during the war of the province that the general and in. Were supposed to land he had retired. Felt regret,rs, he sorry for not receiving the general and his flyers. He wrote the general a letter to the hotel where the general was staying. The general was so graces. Askingessed his regret, why, general, you did not land in our airport as scheduled. The general wrote back. I have the letter. I found it in the gentlemans memoirs. I is in chinese but translated it. Now allow me to read this letter from general doolittle. It says, i was delighted to receive your letter of may 18. We are grateful that our chinese friends built in airport for us and helped our crew members. Unfortunately, the aircraft that carried the navigation apartment crashed. Therefore, there was no beacon to guide us. We did not provide you with enough information. We were successful in creating an astonishing result. Signed, jimmy doolittle. 1976. Why ir friends, this is will say that the doolittle will be the most reroik, most touching, most moving episode of the u. S. China wartime cooperation when china was in the leadership. And that episode deserves our heart felt remembrance generation after generation. This is why i was very surprised that last month i went to a special Photo Exhibition about wartime u. S. China cooperation cosponsored by a Research Institute in china and a think tank here. And i was surprised that out of some 200 photos there was not even one about general toledo and his missions. Instead to my surprise, maybe there was one hiding somewhere i didnt find. But to say the least he was outnumbered tremendously by the picture of American Army colonel. And he was the chief of u. S. Military leeze son during the wartime. So the colonel had lot of pictures so they showed those pictures instead. This is why today i appreciate this opportunity offered by the center even more because i can get this chance to tell you the true story, the true t spirit, the true legacy. And this today is honored, its well preserved and inhittered by the people of taiwan. R sincere, most profound salute to the general and those Chinese People who sacrificed or even died for the success of the american mission. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you interior. Ambassador. Thank you very much. Very nice. Our first question is for colonel cole. The impact of the raid of 1942 was felt by the entire nation. It was a huge morale builder for a country that had only known defeat up until that point. 72 years later plus now, it doesnt seem to have lost any of its importance. How come the raid on april 18 of 1942 has not lost its impact and importance on america . Well the raid on japan was very important to president roosevelt. After pearl harbor, he continued the chief of the Army Air Corpse and he continued to battle the navy chief of operation. Ot many people that i have contacted realize that the idea of the raid came from a navy captain who was a submariner who happened to be flying over Norfolk Naval air station one day and the runways at norfolk are marked off and i dont know they are es but carrier markings. Looking down he saw an army bomber take off from the runway. And he got the idea and he passed it on to his support and it ended up on roosevelts desk and he said do it. He did say do it. No question and he chose the right man to lead the mission. On t. N. T. Plane number 15rks you had a problem with the plane getting off of hornet and something you had to fix. You guys on plane number 15 almost didnt make it off, correct. Could you tell the crowd a little bit about that . Well, the right engine on my airplane developed a problem which meant it couldnt fly anymore. I had to remove the engine and repair it on the deck of the carrier. General doolittle asked me if i could fix it and i said probably. Didnt say it very loud [laughter] i was about to get in over my head. I knew i would have to take the engine off the airplane, take it half apart, put it back together and hope i done it right. This was a job we did not do at that level. It all worked out. The navy helped me get the engine off the airplane. Is is a 2,000 pound engine swinging around on the end of a chain hoist on the flight deck of the carrier. The navy helped a lot with tall ropes. They kept it from getting out of control. Took the engine down below and took ate part and put it back together. The tricky part was taking the engine off the airline on the flight deck of a carrier and the carrier refused to hold still. You couldnt lay anything on the deck of the carrier, not a nut, bolt, tool, anything would go right overboard. The suggestion was made by some friends i ought to toss something overboard and be done with it. I didnt. That complicated the job. Everything had to go up inside the airplane. I had 100 items up in there. I didnt know what they all were or where they went. Got the job done. Had no parts left over. At that point i felt pretty good about it. [laughter] and every bolt and nut is somewhere on that airplane. Hopefully they are in the right holes but well see. The engine ran fine. We flew about 12 hours or something around that. Everything went fine. So i was kind of given credit for us having the full 16 airplanes. Could have well been 15. I got away with it. It worked out. [applause] plane number 15s its still in the bottom of the ocean but a different ocean. Thats not your fault though. Plane number 15s target was coban japan. You did an incredible job. Maggie, youve talked about fighting in the mountains of italy and fighting the germans and you always said that you learned a lot from watching the germans and how they fought and you applied that to yourself as a soldier. Could you talk to the crowd a little bit about what you learned from watching the germans . Youre not only in charge of watching the germans, but you are in charge of shooting a few as well. But you had a deep respect for their soldiers. Id be delighted to talk about that. Id like to interject one thought here if i may about our presence here. The three of us, and i am pleased to be with my colleagues and with ed who i appreciate and have known for a long time. And when i have the say i want to put in some historical chronology our presence of veterans of the great war they call it of world war ii. And i remember going through the grade schools and i remember on november 11, we all stood up and we faced east and all the whistles and horns sounded, church bells sounded and we were celebrating world war i had just ended. I want to you know that i was born 52 years after the end of the civil war. And were talking here about world war ii that ended almost 70 years ago. We o remember the parades had downtown in wisconsin. Civil war veterans were riding in cars because they werent capable of marching. There were few that followed along and also the world war i veterans, that was their time when i was in grade school. And also spanish american war veterans. I scood out there and watched the veterans go by in great amazement. I was like what a great thing this is and what a wonderful thing it would be if i had something from one of these veterans from the civil war, what it would mean to me. Now here we are from world war ii and were talking about that. And i always say that because i remember at the the way the country had responded in world war i, how we were united and how we fought together. When we honored veterans people stood up when a flag came by and saluted it and honored it somewhat different than the way we honor it now. So we stood up on november 11 known s coming soon, now as veterans day. But in regards to your question about what i learned in combat or what i learned as an officer in the war. I had graduated from rotc and had a commission when i went in the service and i was a Second Lieutenant and i had gone to summer camps and done other things. And we were learning about war from the manuals from world war i and how we moved in large forces and jumped out of trenches and charged into enemy fire and the like. And that was pretty much my training n. Parachute school we learned other things. New thoughts about jumping behind enemy lines and securing lines of communication and to tade troops that would be making landings wherever it was we were jumping. And so thats the way that was my training. So when i got to africa and went to Airborne Training center and after that into the mountains of italy and everything, i really had not had any training that was appropriate for what we were about to nays italy. But the germans did. And let me say this i highly respected the german soldiers as an enemy. They were good. They had taken over everything. They had military down to a science. And what i watched them do in the mountains of italy, whenever they went in to attack, they prepared their target. They came in with bombers or artillery to soften up the target for their infantry that would follow. We didnt do that. I wasnt taught that at all in my training. We didnt do that. But the germans did. And when they charged out of their position, they didnt come in mass but they came in units. If it was a rifle company, there would be three squads and theyd approach from another angle. And what they did that from behind them machine guns would fire overhead. Here these guys come charging at you and machine guns firing overhead. If things got bad you could look for the lift would haver. They brought all of their went tons bear on the target in a way i had not been taught. I said i was wounded twice. And eventually evacuated and went to england before i jumped in holland. I learned more from the germans fighting against them in italy than i had learned in all the training i had before that. I dont knock the military training now. I think its adequate for our purposes. But in world war ii, i want you to know that when we when the war clouds were brewing over the pacific and over the at lath lant i can, we had a military force in 1940 of 140,000 people, 140,000. But in short order, after the draft was instituted and the japanese bombed pearl harbor we went to 16 Million People, 16 Million People that had to be trained, that had to have officers and leaders and all of that. And the question that i was asked, i write about that because i was sincere in what i had to say they learned an awful lot from the germans. Not only did i learn a lot from them, but it was obvious they were an enemy and their purpose in being here was to kill us. It was either we killed them or they killed us. I would like to tell a story that kind of sticks in my crawl when this story comes up. After i got back to wisconsin sometime after the war, i was invited to a grade school to tell what it was like to jump out of an airplane, what it meant and all of that. And so i did. And in talking about it, i said when i jumped in holland, i carried with me a thompson submachine gun strung over one shoulder and m1 rifle over the other, a pistol and hand grenades all over and i was loaded down with am in addition and guns. Ammunition and guns. I said why do you think i jumped with all those guns. They all had something to say but one boy got up and this is what he said. The side that kills the other sides soldiers wins. I thought this decpwy smarter than tall historians writing about world war ii who would have us believe it was won elsewhere. He said the side that kills the other sides soldiers wins. I learned that in germany and they were out the kill us. It was a matter of them or us. And i can tell you that while im on this subject and ive got the floor, i may not get back here again. They may not invite me. All of us, when we went in service, we knew we were in a cause greater than ourselves. We knew that. What we were fightin