Acknowledging any World War Two veterans, homefront workers or Holocaust Survivors that we may in person or watching online another online. So lets give them a round of applause. You know, next as part of our tradition, if you know, id like to acknowledge any veterans of any era or any active duty service members, if you would please stand to be recognized for your service to our country. And ive got ive got a little adjustment here, too. And then any veteran of military spouses, would you stand to so we can say thank you to you for what youve done as well. You know, probably the one of the toughest jobs out there, the so so this Evening Service to our country is definitely one of the themes of this focused on general william h. Preparedness and those of you familiar with the museum are are aware that we we try to track anniversaries as they come up. 80 years ago the First Marine Division was completing training in the u. S. Down in north carolina, preparing to deploy to the pacific because this august will be the 80th anniversary of the start of the battle of guadalcanal, which turned into a Grueling Campaign between the american and Imperial Japanese forces, not only on land, on sea and air in the pacific. Now, one of the men who led the First Marine Division id met guadalcanal was general william h. Burtis, whose life career was more than just this first Pivotal Campaign in the pacific. And for most people, not really sure who he was. You dont know much about him and, but but ultimately led first as the assistant Division Commander and then as the Division Commander for over two years in theater from guadalcanal through, peleliu. You know, during that, the First Marine Division was awarded three president ial units, citations. Now, typically described as every of the unit would have been recognized for heroism. Now, he was key to the first two of those three president ial units, citations, which an incredible achievement. Now, tonight, we have with us two guests who coauthor the book were about to hear about, amy robertas peacock, is a granddaughter of general robertas and keeper of the family archives at the sea. What that looks like a family. Its kind of cool. And then shes a graduate of the university of georgias journalism school, and shes written for various newspapers. Her her coconspirator is dawn brown, a former u. S. Navy jag officer and special assistant u. S. Attorney. Now hes written 14 books, including a series on naval just of naval justice, novels of prison zondervan and the expose, a call sign, extortion 17. Thats pretty cool. And why was mustang six . Which i thought was real cool. But exhaust in 17 is kind of neat. Yeah, everybodys got a call sign. The. So with that, let me welcome or join me and welcome to the stage amy and don. We look forward to launching this event. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Appreciate that. Hello. Good evening. Thank you for being here. Thank you, michael, for making this happen. And thank to jeremy for all your work. And thank you for everyone for being here and everyone thats online and at cspan. And i appreciate you being here. I hope that you will enjoy the story that and i are about to share. We worked on it for, well, quite a while. A couple of generations actually. And my sisters, who my sisters, kimberly and heather couldnt be here today, but they helped with this greatly. And kimberly, a lot of the research so what don and i have done today is a powerpoint. So im going to share my grandfathers story of pre the pacific. And then im going to hand it over to when the marines land in the im going to hand it over to don to share that story. So for those of you dont know, general william h. Henry were part as was my grandfather. Yeah. He was born in 1918 or 1889 in washington dc to a germanamerican community and lets get this going. This powerpoint. There we go. Whoops. Let me back up and he was died in 1945, so he didnt get to see the end of war. But during his lifetime, he accomplished a lot. Hes most for many things, but id say probably my rifle. The creed of the United States marine he wrote in 1942 after the japanese had bombed us at pearl harbor, he was an expert rifleman and felt as though the young marines, the young recruits his just flooding the system needed to slow down, better understand their rifles before they went out to the pacific. He did two tours in china as ceo of the fourth marines, also known as the china marines in the twenties and thirties. He led the First Marine Division in the pacific, which mike just talked about for quite a while. He was the longest serving division in the pacific during that time the uss apprentice was named in his honor in 1945. Its a naval destroyer, and it served our country. From 1945 to 1973. Theres still an active association on facebook, and they try to meet every year, which is kind of neat. He did lose his first family and scarlett to scarlet fever while he was stationed in china. In peking, china was at the international settlement. And his story has never been told until now. So here we go. He came again from a german family. They immigrated to the states in 1850, landed in washington, dc to join a big germanamerican community that lived, work there and thrive there. These are the patriarchs of the family and bills father on the left, or grandfather bill referred us his his family were retailers in dc and they also they his grandfather a luxury goods store with merchandise from you know europe and his father owned a restaurant and then a cigar store for some reason. Our grandfather, general curtis, decided to go to the military route and he might have been inspired by his his great grandfather who served in the civil war. Im not sure. But he attended mckinley tech and high school in washington as a cadet and. Then he went into the us revenue cutter academy, which is the predecessor to the Coast Guard Academy and he was toured all the world on their summer cruises and he graduated. Second in his class of 14. But upon a medical exam, when he graduated, the doctor said that the coast guard or revenue Cutter School doctor said that he had breast disease and he would die in five years. So heres this young, young kid cadet who had just graduated and he was told he would die in five years. So obviously, that was kind of devastating. He didnt go forward with the revenue cutter service, which he really wanted to do. And he thought about going back to i skip this, but he after he graduated school, he went into the Dc National Guard and he worked there for about three years and he worked in naval gunnery. So he went from there to be cut out of the revenue cutters service academy. And when he was told he would not live. He thought about going back to the national guard, but something inspired him to join the marine corps and give his life whatever left of his life he had to the marine corps. So he joined the marine corps and he got a commission,. 1913th november 1913. He was immediately up to join the rifle, so i guess he was an expert rifleman and a couple classmates of his picked up for the rifle team and they competed from 1913, 1915, all around pretty much the east coast. But they did exceedingly well, as the marine corps says. And here in the meantime, he also was asked to be on the uss florida. So he was kind of a needle need picture from 1918. But he had been working on the uss florida for a couple of years when this picture was taken. And he was junior officer for the marine detachment and they were on their way to helping their our allies in the war. And he was really an expert in fire control batteries. So. Back during this time, also had his first son, william jr. The next big station was haiti. So there was a lot of unrest in haiti in the early of the well. For a long time. But he the marines were called in. I think also, you know, the germans were prowling around about that time. And the marines were called in. He went to haiti in 1919. And was there from 1990 to 1923. And he was in charge of the gendarme de haiti. If anybody speaks french sacrifice that better than me. But the guard to haiti. So hes the chief for about three years and right here this picture is pretty cool because you have the the guard and behind. So its a Diverse Group and then you have the haitian president. The middle is retiring and then they the man on the right looking at him is the future president. Louis born now, which is a neat picture and were partisans on the right side over there. So that was accompanied. So he brought his wife, son as well. There. Look. Next big station was to picking bill and his wife marguerite and their son william jr and daughter and rodney because now they had a daughter got their first far east assignment to go to picking. Then it was called picking and joined the legation guard there. So im assuming you all are pretty knowledgeable crowd you know, back in the twenties and thirties we had an earlier but we had, we had these island enclaves where americans and europeans do business in china as, part of part of the boxer, the result of the boxer rebellion that happened in the 19 1900. But anyway they the each country would bring in their guards. The american sector brought in the and the and his family went there. So here is a picture of the legation quarter. So its a walled area. You can look it up online. Theres a great about the china marines there. The fourth marines were called the china marines. And you can see if you can see this, that there were a lot of countries in there from the americans to the russians to the germans and the french and on and on. So again, each country brought their guards. So were pernice was one of those guards and Commanding Officer sadly. This was really hard when i was writing that research thing. This report is we always knew kind of that hed lost his first family. But we really know enough about it. And then when i researched it, i couldnt find anything about them. So eventually i got oral history reports and that sort of thing. He certainly didnt write about it, but scarlett does. So in 1929, didnt give that time. But 1929, they arrived in peking and by december. Of 1929, his little daughter came down with scarlet fever. And that was right before christmas. And she died 12 days later. And then his wife marguerite, whos 38, and his son will write their god scarlet, also got scarlet fever. And back then they couldnt cure it. So they were in the hospital for two months in quarantine, reporters went into quarantine and his wife and son died in february 1930 and 24 hours after it, within 24 hours of each other, he was still quarantine. So he never got to see them or say goodbye. Kind of like what happens with what happened with covid. But so here he is, officer. Hes his children and wife have died. They were shipped bodies were shipped back to washington to be buried at arlington cemetery. I dont think there were a lot of telegrams that went back and forth from the marine corps to recorders and referred us. He wanted flags on their caskets and he wrote a check to pay for the flags. And of course, the marine corps said, dont know, well pay pay for them. But so he lost his entire first family and people who are in the hospital at. The time knew his wife and said she went septic and it was just devastating. I mean, he wasnt the only one who there were other marines that got scarlet fever. But it really obviously affected him. And his mother, augustina why why would her to him from washington said, you know, bill, you need to come home from this is a huge shock. You need to come home. And he said, no, i can i can be better here. He can be better with his marine corps. I mean, was at that time the only family he had left there . And so and he couldnt really leave. Hes still he was just coming out of quarantine and it was his job, you know his duty. And there werent that many marines to to the far east and fill his position. So he stayed there until 1931 and the next picture you see colonel hokum holcomb, who was there when i who went on to become an on really one of the marines officers is to play polo to stay in shape and all everybody back then pretty much knew how to ride horses so he thought that would be good for bill to general purpose to get back in the saddle if you will. And this is kind of a cool picture because here he is with right next to him is roy chapman, who was an explorer in the gobi desert and. He was always hanging out with marines and picking because he had gone out and explored so much. Terry territory and would would map it. And then also put gas around. So that was very helpful. The marine corps, when they went out on their adventures. So heres another picture. I think this is kind of an epic picture. Youve got the marine corps band there. Theres reporters to figure out, i dont know what. Hes thinking, looking at the race, i dont know who this and this gentleman is with him. But then the next picture. You got the japanese officers and theyre kind of by themselves. And keep in mind, this is. 30. So by 1931, the would invade manchuria. And then in 1932, they invaded bombed ships and in shanghai. So you can see i wonder what theyre thinking in 1930 sitting there. But anyway, okay, so next event in his life he comes back, hes at a party. The Chinese Embassy in washington, d. C. , and its a, you know, china veterans. And he meets sleepy curtis. And whos sleepy . Her name was alice hill. Rupert is she was much younger than he was. She came from a navy family and who had served the country a long time. And anyway, they met each other and fell in love and married in three months. And so thats sleepy. And bill on their wedding day, thats your grandmother . My grandmother, yeah. So thats sleepy. So he got a new he got a new lease on life. And sleepy was perfect for him. So they did a couple deployments together. Everything seemed to be accompanied back then and their next big event at big station was shanghai at the Shanghai International settlement. So same thing its an island enclave is you can take you can see from this picture its from the 1930 but it still was pretty accurate night by 1937 when they got there and but here you had again its much more cosmopolitan. Politan there are probably 3 Million People living in the city at the time. And it was a lot of fun at first. And again, they arrived in april 1937. This is the this is actually the photo that was online that don found when he was researching his other book on jerry allen and sent it to me, he said, amy, is this your grandfather . And hes like, you should write him or tell a story about him. And but yes, this is a party at the french club with a couple of marines and, navy officers, the calm before the storm. And theres another picture with sleepy and and curtis on the right. And then thats admiral henry yarnell, who was the commanding naval officer in that area at the time. Then the japanese came rolling in and everything changed. On august 13, 1937, and as you can see, these are these are pictures. I dont know where our grandfather got these, but im assuming he took them or a friend took them, but it was just total devastation overnight. Everything changed. The japanese had slowly eating away at china and then came in and did this huge attack on shanghai, which i think is underreported. But he was right there. So happened is the marines immediately went in. Everyone went into lockdown. You know, they they the gates went up, the sandbags came out. The marines went out with their rifles around the perimeter, at least the american sector, every nations guard on alert. And it was pretty intense. Heres a picture again. Shanghai in 1937. Hes the only one. Well, the guy on the right with little hair, theyre obviously having some kind strategy session here. And here is photo i love its marine photo. But obviously this guy is on the this marine is on the perimeter. Perimeter and hes ready for anything thats going to come him. But as you can imagine, theyre seeing around this perimeter. The outside is total war. I mean, the japanese were very brutal and it was a very violent scene before them. But they were told to hold fire. From the president on down. They did not want to engage the japanese. In 1937, but these marines did. They didnt engage, but they sat there for months having to do this and beyond learned stay fire and they had stray shrapnel come into their eyes and stray gunfire and the japanese would taunt then but they held held strong and did not fire. There might have been fistfights, but they didnt get into any real action. So heres some more pictures is a picture. So i forgot to say that. When the japanese bombed shanghai, our grandmother and all the anybody that could be evacuated would could be or did get evacuated went either to the philippines or someone back to the United States. Our grandmother went to the philippines where her sister joe was with her navy, but they did come back in december. So they were they evacuated in august. They got back about and heres a picture of a japanese officer escorting them around. And theres the repurposes the kulaks or their general kulak and his wife. Then and some other marine officers. So thats what he got to see. And heres the situation. Its kind of tough to see, but it was obviously pretty intense. And you can well, in the book, i have lots of some information about this, but lots of theres lots of stuff online. Okay. So fast forward 1938, they finally come back august 1938, they finally come back from china and my dad is born at the marine barracks. And ethan i big celebration referred to it as an opportunity to have another so that was good dad went on which the Naval Academy and he went on to be marine aviator and he flew in vietnam so his name is hill referred us. So right after let me back up here real quick and then well move on quickly from here. So this is 1938. He had a couple more deployments to Guantanamo Bay and in the then he got to in 1941 november he arrived in san diego the Marine Corps Base. San diego, and he was going to be the chief of staff to general or well, he was, im sure. And then of a sudden on december seven, 1941, the japanese attacked. And it was interesting. I wonder what his perspective because back in shanghai you had marine officers in 1937. Colonel brice being one of them, writing to general vander graf vandergrift to blow off