sacrifice themselves on the basic principle that we should live free. while the cause is the same everyone has a different reason for serving. maybe they are following in their father s footsteps or felt a calling after the terrorists tore down the twin towers. for me it was a patriotic parade or a series of them in a small town. motherly day and fourth of july parades in a tiny town in southern minnesota where my parents grew up. the whole town lined up on the tree sign side of the main street waiting for the veterans to walk by and when they came older vets and younger vets, crowd clapped and saluted. the reverence that town had for the veterans made me say, wow, those men really did something special. something bigger than this town. something bigger than themselves. these men were willing to put on a uniform and face danger for me, a kid they never met. it was just a handful of veterans, from one town. but every town in america gave men like that. out of sheer patriotism
That greatness didn t just happen. it was earned through decades of sacrifice, from the generations that came before us. like the men and women of world war ii, who stood up to fight for what s right. and their honor and sacrifice should never be forgotten. martha mccallum sat down with one of those proud americans, world war ii veteran pat rudd. we celebrate the united states as the home of the brave, thanks to americans like pat rudd. at 101 years old, she s a remarkable member of our greatest generation. during world war ii, she missed her deployed brother so much that she wanted to follow him into the service. when she was told that she could not do that, her response was, oh, yes, i can. she went on to make history, becoming one of the first women deployed overseas during the war through the volunteer program. she served in hawaii after pearl
Self-celebration was mostly alien to the men and women of world war ii greatest generation started with the supreme commander. and so as we end this segment, the big question to you, is that lack of self-aggrandizement, is that a thing of the past when it comes to our leaders? i sure hope it is not. and the eisenhower case is so interesting, he was president in 1954 on the 10th anniversary of d-day. the first big anniversary. had he been a different person, he might have run to normandy and said wasn t i a great hero, on d-day and he was and extol himself. instead he said this day is about the heroes of d-day, not me. he basically shut himself away at camp david and was silent. and when eisenhower in public a number of times when the subject came up of the heroism on d-day, there was one famous occasion, 1952, where he took a a hanker chief and covered his
on his latest musical cd, john tesh captures the era of swing, the big band sound so popular during world war ii. america s greatest generation. john says it s music he learned from his parents. these are songs that my parents were playing on the victrola and it was everything from, you know, count bassi to duke ellington, benny goodman, all of those songs, when we decided, trying to decide what project to do this time around, why don t we go back and do our roots. my first day, and i miss you my love more than i know. i can only imagine what, god to guide me and bring you back to you. kelly: in the musical project he produced for pbs, john reveals a very personal connection to the men and women of world war ii, reading excerpts of letters from his dad s diary. his father, john tesh, sr. was in the navy and wounded during the war. every day from the moment