details, but i put it in the book because i felt it had to be understood. many people reported the abuse being snatched out of the arms of mothers into this inferno wind.o tokyo's canal, so people who got out of the asphalt and out of the shelters wind with their families into the canals to escape from the fire. but the canals were broiling in tens of thousands in the canal. the winds were all but flipping them over. thousands of feet still above, the crews had to put on their oxygen masks to escape the stench of burning flesh. so, as lemay, who was in charge of that, curtis lemay tells it in his book, it was the greatest man-made killing in the history of the world. >> book tvs live coverage of the savanna book festival now continues. youom will hear from author bryn curtis. he's talking about his vote that looks at the only rose bowl to ever take place outside of pasadena, california. this is live coverage on booktv. >> good morning, book lovers. my name is nancy lieb and i'm delighted to welcome you to the 11th annual savanna book festival, presented by georgia power coming david and nancy cintron, do she and family foundation and mark and patsy lynn. many thanks to jack and mary raman l., our sponsors for this glorious venue at the trinity united methodist church. we'd like to extend special thanks to our literary numbers and individual donors to have made and continue to make saturday's free festival event possible. 90% of our revenue comes from donors just like you. thank you. we are very excited to have a savanna oaks festival ask for your phone available. very easy to get it from the app store in our direction the program. please try to download it. before we get started, i have a couple ofrt house keeping order. immediately following this presentation, bryan curtis will be signing festival purchased copies of his books right across the way. if you are planning to stay for the next author presentation, please move forward to seats in the front so we can accurately count how many spaces are available for the next group. these take a moment to turn off your cell phone and no flash photography is allowed. for the question-and-answer portion, please raise your hand, all calling you and the ushers will bring a microphone to you. in the interest of time and to be fair to the other attendees, let yourself to one question and please don't tell a story. bryan curtis is with us today courtesy of bill steckel and chris akin and belle and chris anders, who are here with us. bryan curtis is a "new york times" best-selling author ofes several books and has contributed to "sports illustrated." curtis has served as a national reporter for cbs college sports and was nominated for two local emmys for his work as a reporter for fox sports net. please give him a warm welcome. [applause] >> thank you coming nancy. good morning. how are we? i love savanna. you have great restaurants. every day is beautiful weather like this. can i do see a show of hands. how many of you live in the landings? good lord. all i've heard about is how phenomenal it is. i am truly honored to be here in savanna to talk about one of the most impactful books for me that i've done. i want to tell you a quick story about rings. i don't wear a class ring, linked university of virginia. some men wear jewelry, some don't. i was researching this book and i heard about rings. rings that are given to participants who play in the rose bowl and in particular come in the 192 rose bowl that i wrote about, players and young men from duke at oregon state were all given a roseor bowl ri, signifying that they would participate in historic king. i didn't think much of it in my research until i had a military researcher work to get me to military files of a lot of these men out of the u.s. archives in st. louis. as a reconstructed their lives and unfortunate need their deaths as well, there were four men that played in this game who died on the battlefields of world war i ii. what was interesting is that three of the four men when they were killed adhesive that come at you with gmail, places in the south so sick, the only possession on their body was the rose bowl ring from 1942. those rings were mailed home to mom md and dad, often arriving months if not years before their bodies actually made it home tot america. i was relating this toy to a gentleman named bill halverson in the halverson's live in oregon and i was working on a o book project, researching him. his father had participated in this game and had served his country and he happened to mention me when his father had died years earlier, he was buried with his rose bowl ring on his finger from 1942. again, this rain kept coming up in my research as i was crafting theea story. i got a call about two or three weeks after meeting with mr. halverson and he said bryan, i've got to tell you a story. sure, i'm all about stories. everyone has a story. he said that with you a few weeks ago the lobby of the marriott hotel in downtown portland and i was telling you how my father, blessed be his memory was bored, excuse me, was varied with his rose bowl ring on. you tell me that story. he said well, i've got to tell you something. you got me thinking about the 1942 rose bowl and i wanted to go online advice and memorabilia from from a kids and grandkids. so my children and i went online and we started googling and wend on ebay and there is a rose bowl ring for sale. they just want my heart if he's telling a story that it meant so much to him that he wanted to buy thee ring. but then he said, we looked at the rate more closely emulates dad's rating. he said i don't understand. he said many years ago m there d been a robbery at my parents house and unbeknownst to me one of the items taken was his rose bowl ring. so while i believe this whole time he had been buried with the ring on, in actuality, someone had stolen the ring and was selling it for thousands of dollars on ebay. he and his family cobbled up enough money. they've gone to the authorities or the authority said the dirt the statute of limitations are gone, et cetera appeared to harbor since gathered together money and bought his ring back in us back in their possession. this theme of rings kept coming up to my research for this book. what started out as an article for "sportser illustrated" in te summer of 2013 and a debt the fields of battle. i thought this was a sports book, but it didn't turn out that way. then i thought it was a military and war book, but it really didn't turn out that way either. he really is a story of a young group of men and what sacrifice means and what service means and what happens when you come home for more. so, i was struggling to find my next book topic about four or five years ago. i've been a year since i last spoke. i was reading the news the rose bowl put out in there is little facts section and they said did you know the only rose bowl game never to be played t in pasadena was played in dorm, north carolina in 1842. as a former sports reporter and sports author of a shock i'd never come across that little known fact. so i did what historians and researchers have done for centuries and they went to google and i typed in 1942 rose bowl. there was then a tremendous amount of research done on it, but what few articles i read, i was fascinated by how this granddaddy of them all at transplanted from pasadena over to duram, north carolina and that is what started to peak my interest in this story. what i didn't know at the time that i wrote the "sports illustrated" story and certainly i didn't know during my research is that the 80 man who coached and participated in the game, only one is still with us today. if i w had written this book 30r 40 years ago, it probably would've been a completely differentpl book. i literally had to reconstruct a story of men lives without the men there, without much first-hand or secondhand source knowledge. so, one of the gratifying things for me in this early research process was just trying to find a family member. so i would be online reading an obituary in trying to find the name of a son or daughter now it finally trackedau him down after two or three months, introduce myself on the phone and say mrs. parker, my name is bryan curtis. i'm writing this book. to talk to you about your dad in world war ii and the rose bowl. most of them would get emotional immediacy and say brian, we would like to tell you this story, but we don't know because dad never talked about were in dad never talked about the rose bowl. we knew he played in the rose bowl, but we don't know much. as excited as i was kicked to track down his family members, it was equally disappointing to understand they could not be helpful to c me. it would get on a plane and go to work in a small towns of jefferson in albany and hoodff river and a limit on theut outskirts of ceylon and try to collect as much information that it could from long-lost cousins are from local libraries for the archives of oregon state and similarly doing the same thing at duke university where i found purse the letters written home from the waterfront that literally probably have not been touched since they were donated to the archives. partf of the project was piecing together military a files, academic transcripts, what little newspaper stories they were about this game in 42 through 44 and then coming up with a narrative. one of b the blessings for me in doing this project is that i have been able to educate the families about their dad and their grandparents. i can tell them where they went to his school. i can tell them what classes they took a college. a lot of them got decent maps. and i was not shy about passing that information on as well. all those stories about how they worked hard. your dad washe and is hard as yu thought. [laughter] but i was also able for many of them to get a hold of their full military files so we knew when they enlisted in what shape they shipped w out on him again, it s beauty for me because even though i could've used 80% or 9% of the a information i was ableo pass it on to the families that have a little bit closer to mom and dad. so really, this is about building this dory about a group of men who played in this now remarkable game and ended up coincidences in the battlefield. what really hooked me on befitted research to discover the story of charles haynes and frankfr barber appeared charles haynes played for duke university, grew up a couple blocks from campus, and all-american rest are in boy scout and everybody in the room knew him. he enrolled at duke. he didn't play much on the football team, but he suited up and played in the game. well, shortly aftertl the game, haynes found himself in the army. he tried to enlist a couple times earlier in the air force, but his eyesight had prevented him from becoming a pilot. so he invents a flash forward two years from the game in 1944 and a thriving in the hills of italy against the germans. it just so happens a month before overt the 19th, 44, he's had an encampment of the front lines and is talking to a gentleman named frank parker. frank parker happened to play in that same rose bowl game before the other side, oregon state. so here they are two years later, not really knowing each other, but having a connection of playing in the granddaddy of them all so toto speak. they both are leaders in the platoons in one of their job was to be up the hill. imagine charging up a hill, knowing the enemy is on the other side. you are the first sitting dozens if not hundreds of men charging that the random played number two in one day october 4, 1944, charges that the hill and as he makes progress, and there's no bullets coming his way. there's no bombs. you can believe it. he keeps going further and further. he had the apex of the hill when the germans openedns fire. they rip open holes in his legs. he gets shot in the chest in england about the size of a solid ball is in his chest. bullets are flying. his fellow soldiers can't get in to pick them up off the battlefield, so he's laying there, bleeding out to death. he says prayers for his mom, he thinks about his parents back home in duram, he says his goodbyes and closes his eyes. it starts to rain, then it starts to snow appeared an hour goes by, two hours, five hours, seven hours. 17 hours he lay dying in the snow and mud on this hill and italy until someone grabsli his arm. charles, charles, wake up. wakeke up. charles barely opens up his eyes. he still alive at this point. and who does he see? he sees frank parker and frank parker, the man who played against him on the football field twol years earlier with help from another soldier picked up his bloody body, carried him down the hillnh under gunfire coming gets into a medical tent. it's eventually transferredom to house killing naples in charles haynes makes a full recovery. frank parker after taking him to the medical tent turned around immediately and went back up the the saved other lives over the next 244 hours. charles haynes gets released. imagine almost dying on that hill in a few months later he's back on the front lines because we needed bodies as americans at war. frank parker in charles haynes create ar friendship. they say goodbye in may of 1945 in the austrian alps. they say in such a little bit when they get back in the states but never laid eyes on s each other until approximately 1991. it was celebrating the 50th anniversary of the rose t bowl game and the folks at oregon state wanted to recognize their only rose bowl champion. so they hosted a banquet for whoever was still remaining and able toai attend. they also invited any of their opponents who had played against them at duke and they were just a handful of duke players who came, but one of them was charles haynes in charles haynes said, i know we at duke are going to host their own reunion inos a month, but i can't wait o see them in his saved my life. i need to see if he's still alive. charles haynes traveledd from duram out to oregon and as they read about in the introduction of the book, sure enough he starts weeping as he looks across the room and sees the man that saved hisoo life. four weeks later, frank parker and his wife traveled to duram and the same kind of reunion takess place in until their death, the men stay in touch. charles haynes went through a couple marriages in his last partner,r, girlfriend milt may last year many of his last possessions, including some of the kids frank parker had given to charles haynes. i wrote about the two men in this book because few are two guys, one dirt poor from oregon, one who had lost his father at the age of 11 or 12 in a car accident. his uncle married his mother. he had to work all through high school and college just to make ends meet in here is charles haynes in duram, middle upper class family, father was an executive of the american tobacco company. they both go off in war. they both killed dozens of men. they both get awarded medals for service in action but theyom coe home to america and their allies could not be more different. charles haynes was a war hero, open up a restaurant, had fun, took spanish in cooking classes at duke university with friends with mike scioscia ski was known for walking around in full duke with alea. open a company, was very successful, frank parker moves back to oregon, the state and italy in extra year after the war. he couldn't y go home to face hs lifetime sweetheart in life yet he thought he had fundamentally changed is the man because of the horrors that he saw in the crimes in his eyes that he had committed. so he delayed returning home. he suffered from alcoholism most of his life. he became a fisherman, never went back to complete his college education. lived his life on the seat, almost died a few times. after his wife passed away from an aneurysm, considered suicide multiple times, finally one of his eldest daughter's got into at the house of in kodiak, alaska and then in portland, oregon where for the first time after the d., 60 years who started to open up and talk about some of the demons off wa. many other players in the game came home suffered from drug abuse and alcoholism. sin committed suicide. we talk about the greatest generation and in my eyes, they all are. but we think about her rates and homecoming and the men who were really boys sent to violence in places far away, struggled with this the rest of their lives. part of "fields of battle," what started as the rose bowl from one city to another and it to another ended up being a story about how boys go to war. my own curiosity kept it from ending the war because i said to myself, what happened to these guys when they got home? did they become teachers? get more impact them? did football remained a piece of their life? i'm a former sports broadcaster and those of you who follow sports, you often hear broadcasters use war metaphors when talking aboutut sports. it's the battle of the century. they left it all out on the battlefield. these are soldiers and my men need to hit hard. after doing this book, i realize how silly that is because war is nothing like the all. and what i learned is that these boys, as eager as some of them were to sign up to 19, 20, 21 years old thought that war was again. they thought war would be just the above because the coaches what they meant, going fight hard and had strong. all itnd took was an hour and battlese for these young boys to realize that war is nothing in common in football. as a side note, some of the lessons they learned on the football field could certainly help them in war over common adversity, getting knocked down and getting right back on your feet. the tough get going when toughness faces them in theires account was raised not only what these players, but other athletes who fought and were talking about the lessons he learned on the sports field kept them alive. so it is a triumph stories in ways. we won the war for those of you who don't know. those of you in savanna, i hate to say it, but the north actually want the civil war as well. the parts of the story that were great often overshadowed the sadness of not just to death, the suicide, the alcoholism, the stories like jackie yoshihara. jack was two years old when he came over to america from japan with his mom. they settled in portland. he was raised in a public school in portland, living a life in the small i japanese community n downtown portland, bowing to public schools, was a great athlete, picked up the game of football, waske a great basketbl player,at matriculated to oregon state and made the football team under coach ron steiner and everybody loved jackie yoshihara. the only thing that set him apart was his japanese class name and where he was born. for all intents and purposes jack was american. so he plays throughout the 1942 season for the oregon state team and everything was going well until december 7, 1941 at pearl harbor gets bombed and immediately anyone of japanese ancestry was looked upon with suspect, certainly on the west coast. at that time there were about 42, 44 japanese ancestry students enrolled at oregon state. they kicked them out of their apartments orf doors. many of them immediately withdrew from school to go back home. so they went home to sell theiry possessions. but jack was a college student here jack was a football player at the pacific coast conference champion. he was headed to the rose bowl. a couple days go by the people gave chapter he looks, but all is well. his practicing time getting ready to get on a train to take it across in a few days on aew rainy go, two men in suits and trenchcoats show up on the sealed at oregon state and they go over to coach ron steiner and whisperednd to him and he says, jack, come here. jack ishihara kind of jobs over. good student, good player, listens to his coach and introduces into the two men who probably told them they were with the fbi, escorted him off the field, told them he was not allowed to play in the rose bowl game. fast forward a few days later the trains tatian in portland and they had a great farewell of people from all over portland. you've got to understand the magnitude of oregon state in 1942 plane in the rose bowl game. this legitimize the university. this made the entire state proud. and who is there on the train platform but jackie yoshihara crying, waving that is team away on this train trip. jack would go back home in portland. heam listened to the rose bowl game on a small radio in his parent's home. within months if parents are forced to close down the restaurant. jack was forced to sell his possessions includingd a car. they were sent to what was an animal livestock holding area and portland, him and his family and a few months later sent to an internment camp in the desert briley of idaho for jack would spend his time. youd know, jack yoshihara passed away not before oregon state recognized him and the other japanese americans basically expelled from school andf never completed. they were awarded honorary degrees.gr he was given his rose bowl ring. i was able to track down his daughter, linda, who lives in theis northwest and so much stil resentment and anger inge the family for how they had been treated. it was fascinating to get to know the t family. i did my research. i promised that i would treat her and her father's legacy the rightel way because i really believe that in so the family up enough of it to me. flash forward to september of 2016 and oregon state recognize the 75th anniversary team and i helped the university contact all these families to come back. told you everyone is to cease from that gave our team except for one, a deep player in louisville. but the sons and daughters came back, and many for the first time at oregon state. jack fo ishihara's daughter, grandkids and great grandkids came back and was probably one of the more emotional memorable nights of our life to see the embrace between the descendents of these former players in the common bond that all of them had shared together. at duke they honored that team about a week later. oregon state won the game so they were much more in thrall to an anxious to team. jim smith is 96 years old. he lived in louisville, kentucky, about us find a manual ever meet. he's a widower, mind as sharp as a tack. they befriend a gym. i now call him and his family good friends. jim went back to duke with me and september 2016. we had the chance to talk to the duke football team to go out to practice in the honored him on the field beforen the game. her excuse me, halftime of the game. but every day that went on, not just in my research, but after the publication of the book, the book took on new meaning for me. how many of you in this audience served your country in some capacity? thank you. thank you. [applause] probably many of you have a relative who served, whether afghanistan or iraq or koreagh r vietnam or world war ii or world war i. thank you. because families sacrificed too as they learn. one of the greatest appreciations i got from this book is g the respect they have for the men and women who serve our country. because what they see and what they go through is dramatically changing their lives. and so, this book has made a difference for me in my life, and my appreciation is speaking to groups, see the eyes and faces of men mainly, but women as well because as i'm talking about what these world war ii guys went through, the veterans from vietnam and korea start to tearrt up. or from iraq and afghanistan because they can kind of understand where theyhe came fr. for gentlemen lost their lives would late in the game and something else that hit me as their lives were stopped so yelling. you know, one of the gentleman was bosnia and who was killed on iwo jima. i remember doing the research and i went to go find his wife was still alive. i went to see if his kids were still living. but of course coming he was killed when he was just 18 or 19. there was no wife. there are no legacy children. i found a third or fourth cousin somewhere in pennsylvania who maybe had heard about a guy named bob nanny, but for all intents and purposes it's almost like this gentleman didn't exist. that was true with some of these other men. i've made it a point not to make make contributions to places in their memory if only someone continues to recognize and that is just four out of 80. imagine the tens of thousands of men who sacrificed their lives in all of our wars, who did not leave behind a spouse or children or grandchildren. we always need to keep them in mind. the parallel stories that i write about in "fields of battle" is this climax take rose bowl game anymore, but at the same time, they are playing for foot tall team. fdr and churchill are in d.c. planning for war. in these little nuggets that i was to pull out of my research committee work in state team gets on the train and as i write about in the book, it's got air conditioning, menus, beautiful white linens in silverware, things that these young boys have never seen before. they stopped in all these small towns in goddess in chicago to practice and stretch their legs. it turns out as i was doing my research, the origins of the manhattan project, the scientists overworking in the early stages of other scientific things that produce the bomb were working in an undisclosed lab about 200 yards from where then organs they football team was practicing in chicago. when they suit up for the game that oregon state won on january 1st, 1942, fdr church earl are in the wake of the one of their conferences of the war deciding where should we send our allied troops first? where are we going to attack? kind of these two parallels going on that is following the sportster in it, also our journey to war. another little known fact that i discovered is pearl harbor, when it was attacked there were two college football teams in hawaii at the time of the attack. the players from atlantic college university outside of portland, oregon where there is this a team from san jose university to play a round robin of teams from the university of hawaii. early in the morning having bright face, getting ready to board a space to go towards the island and they start seeing these bombs dropped in the water in the sea planes overhead and these boys turn to the waiters and waitresses and folks working atse the hotel and say what is going on? don't worry aboutut it. it's just u.s. navy exercises. they go back to eating food and pretty shortly thereafter, the smell of oil at their hotel six or seven miles away stars wavering. word comes over the radio pretty shortly and those men were immediately conscripted intoer e hawaiian police forces. they were given roles of barbed wire, told to patrol the streets and go to the beaches, late r. breyer the beaches. it would be weeks before most of those boys have returned to the united states. in fact, handful of them had never left hawaii. they served in the army or the hawaii national guard in hawaii, got married, had children and never came home. it's these little tidbits i learned along the way that at least are fascinating for me. two quick last ironic stories. one is the head coach at duke university, previously had won national championships in alabama and during this time decided that if my boys were going into the service, so was i. the 49-year-old football coach shocked when he asked shortly after the rose bowl enlisted into the army, rose in the ranks, woulde go overseas in 1944, would participate shortly after normandy, controlled the 242nd artillery, air guns in the work, would face battle hymns of. and at one point in the battle of the bulge battle of the bulge, in the snowy forest on the edge of belgium, he's freezing mannyum jumps into a foxhole to try and get some coffee and says to this young private, may i borrow a cup of coffee? and wait as freezing for the gentleman takes up his coat, gives him the jacket, a cup of coffee, just in food, weight was a a lieutenant colonel at this point says to the gentlemen, what's your name? stand check. are you from? i'm from oregon. he had played on the oregon state rosese bowl team that had lost or had one, excuse me, against the team. so they are in a foxhole to years later the middle of war. here is one of these other coincidences of the two teams comingnc together. there are more of those stories that i write about throughout the book. the game ended the winning score with an unbelievable catch by a tiny little guy named jean grey for oregon state at the time called the longest rose bowl touchdown pass in history that won the game. four years later, those same hands and arms that had caught the c winning touchdown were now gone. after the war decided to stay in the armyin air force and lost bh of his arms in an awful train accident after the war. so this book is meaningful to me. i hope for those of you who get a chance to read it you can take something away about service, about sacrifice, about a unique time in our history. you know, some of the same things for those of you that are sports fans we hear about today paying players, academics, concussions, all the same issues byam the way 75, 80 years ago. i hope you enjoy this book as much ashi i enjoyed the journey that i wrote about and i'm happy to take someou questions. thank you. [applause] >> if you have a question, would you please raise your hand? i will call on you. the pressure will come over and the people from c-span would love it if you're feeling comes to both standing when you give us your question. raise your hand,es please. over here. >> being a sportscaster, do you have a favorite player or favorite team that you follow? >> you know i can answer that question. the mac you've got to be a yankee fan. >> i am a not. are you a yankee fan? then i love the yankees. i don't know what to tell you. now, actually in a fan of the philadelphia eagles. i grew up in wilmington, delaware just outside of philadelphia could because of the work i do a kind of backed up my allegiances from pro or college teams. i'm generally a fan of whoever's winning. other questions? >> can you talk a little bit about -- [inaudible] can you talk about the decision to cancel the rose hall? a lot of the others are played near their actual site with the orange bowl, et cetera. >> great. what is your name? >> in price. >> thank you to the question. when pearl harbor got bombed, a lot of folks across america wondered if the game is going on. the rose bowl organizers saturday said the game. oregon state and duke both wanted it to play. someso of the men immediately enlisted or ran off to war, but we are america. we are not going to stop because we got bombed. slowly, day by day are starting to build a backlash by the military. why?y? 50, 60,000 people aread tempting targets for the bombers that i was still so much insecurity about it. a week after pearl harbor, december 13th, general dewitt who was in charge of the west coast for the u.s. military telegram recalled the governor of california and had a request that should not play this game and not have a parade. the governor at that time abided by their wishes and canceled the game. their editorials in the charlotte observer, "new york times" going back and forth about whether or not wish to indicate and when is the right time to restart sports? as soon as it was canceled and spread, chicago raised its hand, the cotton bowl in texas, nashville, why don't you play the rose bowl game here? in the end, wallace wade, the head coachla at duke was a very powerful coach at the time and said we are in the game and why don't we have the cancellation of the game it was announced at the rose bowl game would be played in durham. the tournament come whoever sees the game gave it an official sanction. so it still counts as an official rose o'kane. there was the people in north carolina they didn't want the game to w be played because now they thought they would be a target for german bombers and as i write about in the book, they wanted to get an aerial shot of the stadium filled, that before they flew a plane over, and they made multiple pa announcements toto the crowd to see when you e a plane it's not the germans bombing, it's the good guys trying to take a picture. it's a a great question becauset led me to my own thoughts about 9/11, which for someone like me is the best i can recollect. i was too young when vietnam was going on and i wasn't born in the korean world wars. but i thought about 9/11 in the first game the mets played in the yankees played in the struggle to whenf should we play football again. the closest i can compare it to is when they wrote about 75 yearsbo ago. when is the right time to play sports? if it fair to get our country back? are they s there to serve as a necessary distraction nor do take away police in manpower and should be focused on o other things other than sports? i don't know the right answer. it's a great question. >> thank you. brian, you've written a number of books, a lot about sports. could you answer the question of what are your favorite books you've written and y why. >> i think -- so i've written eight. i think the two most impactful books because of the difference it made on me, not the difference it made on people, not how many books for sale or what was the best seller or not. learning about service andus sacrifice. general five or six years ago thee legacy letters. i had written five or six and i was looking for would have more meaning. when 9/11 happened, i was living in los angeles as a sports reporter and always felt guilty that i couldn't do more. i wanted to go to new york. i wanted to help. i wanted to search the rubble of groundte zero. all i could do was give blood in los angeles which i did do. flash forward years later looking for a meaningful book i wrote about a camp that exists for the children who lost their mom and dad on 9/11. i read this article and said that isk. my next book. and so i with an organization called tuesday's children which is ill in existence in new york that was created to serve the children and the families, the widows and widowers of 9/11. what i did was decided to see a families would be willing to write letters to their lost loved ones on the ten-year anniversary of 9/11. the response was overwhelming. i got to know many of the families of the families intimately. as you can imagine, there's a lot of emotion even 10 years after. so thereld would be a 14-year-od girl writing a letter to l the d that she lost is such a tender age or the 2-year-old who never knew mom or dad for the widower who still can't get over the loss of her o house and has nevr gone on a date, has never been able to move on in life. so that book had a clear impact on me. it makes you want to hold your kids c m tighter. it gives you a better appreciation for how quickly life can disappear. so if all my books would be this world war ii book and the 9/11 book legacy of letters. yes,rs sir. >> thank you. brian, you mentioned a number of soldiers, a number of players who went on to live afterwards. but for their sake he made a point of saying that the four who were killed never had a chance to have families have never had a chance to have children. you remember their names? >> thank you for sharing that. i can remember three off the top of my head. bob nanny, everett smith, al hoover in the fourth will come to me. one was killed on patrol in iwo jima. one got off the ship in the waters south side of the louvre in the shop before they ever reached the shore. al hoover was a marine on paley live and legend had it that he died on a grenade to save some of his comrades. i think a grenade that killed t him. i'm not sure he intentionally had jumped on j a grenade. the fourth name i'm going to think about because i'm embarrassed i can't remember it. [inaudible] >> that's okay. a great question. other questions? yes. >> my senses that after world war ii they didn't have a lot of services available to them for it today hopefully it a lot better. is that basically true? >> it's absolutely better. so have the issues and the va today. some people may argue they are worse, but they came home. there is no such thing as ptsd. it was called the stars of war or bomb trauma or things like that. the va did exist, but it certainly was not there for mental. it was there if you have lost a limb to teach you how to use a prosthetic atos that point. i think for me, after the gulf war we started having a different appreciation for soldiers coming home and while va services are not where they should be, certainly we understand better the mental costan of war then these gentlen did because remember, imagine seeing someone's head blown off to you. backo to your life, not your kids, not to a therapist and then expectinghe to come home, t a job or finish school, get married and live life happily. back to me is why so many gentlemen are the greatest generation because of what they did in doran were able to carry on and how successful lives. you know, women, we overlooked an important role in world war ii as well. most of it was on the homefront serving as nurses. certainly in those days we think of, you know, the little woman staying at home, taking care of the c kid who in the gardener while the men went out. a lot of women served on the courtside, putting together manages to make caring for when they came back, et cetera. yes, ma'am. [inaudible] >> you speak to a lot of veterans groups have you been askedou to speak to the ones who go to washington d.c.? i'm not sure what the program is. >> yeah, i believe it's called on hered flight. it is one of the cherries i contributed to an honored these four gentlemen. on herse flight pays world war i veterans and a family member to fly backck to washington to tour the world war ii memorial, which if any of you have ever done, di it. as n far as he can come off between a veteran group to care whether there's two in the room or a thousand veterans in the room. so i've never turned down an invitation to one of those groups. i've never gone to d.c. to do it. certainly if anybody wants to vi do it because i feel like that is part of my payback to them. it is the least i can do for their service. any other questions? yes, ma'am. you need a au microphone. i can answer that question until you get a microphone. [laughter] >> what is your next book? >> now i am able to answer the question. i have no idea what my next book is. i did too they came out in the fallll of 16. i took a little time off and frankly i am kind of struggling. that is not an invitation for any of you to give me an idea. i was joking with bow and chris would've been such such gracious hosts. they asked me what are the most common things. either everyone wants to know what my next book is her this.the great story to tell me to write about, which happens to a lot of authors. i know that i'm not going to do it for money although someone will pay me for it. i'm not going to do it for any reason other than i'm attracted to the story, i'm passionate and it's going to make a difference. .. have you read the book the boys in the boat? do you see, if you have do you see the parallels between your book and that book? >> is a great question. how many of you read noise in the boat? how many of you have read field ofba battle? [laughing] do see you see the problem we'e having here, people? [laughing] i believe if you are for in the tent. "fields of battle" is a tremendous book. the books laura has done, unbroken, you know, the genre of historical nonfiction of which is false and, those brooks tied a paved the t way for publishers commercial interest in books like this. taking what ostensibly as a sports story like rowers in the olympics unless 100 is a goat but making it into much more of a cultural story, iq and interest story, in no way am i compared my books to theirs. their books are phenomenal, but yes, this all falls in the genre. the publishing world goes in cycles. a book works so that everyone wants to write a book in that genre, and maybe in a few years this genre of historical nonfiction related to sports made away. maybe 20 years to comedi back again. so it just depends dick and i'll take one more question. [laughing] [inaudible] >> well, one more question. i'm going to ask myself the question. andd say, brian, what is your oe take away from writing this book? brian, that's a great question. i think the take away is that everybody's lifee is amazing. and to me whether you in war or didn't, whether you've lived a very quiet life here in savannah, worked at a company, clocked in for 35 years, raised a good family, you are a hero, too. and i think too often in our society we put certain folks on pedestals as he rose because of something famous they did for the sacrifices they did, but every day, i mean, i was walking over here just from the hotel looking at people curious about the sacrifices they have made for their own kids or for their marriage or for caring for an ill person. so for me while the veterans and war and everything else has become close to my heart, it reaffirmed my belief that everyone's got a great story. everyone should share that story. story. so even if you think i your stoy is important, , make sure you share it with someone. make sure you share it with your kids. unfortunately, those folks that passed away, when you talk to them right before death, often they will sayay their biggest regret isn't i didn't write a book or star in a movie or make more money. wish i'd spent more time with my kids, or i wish i told my kids a little bit more about my life. so i know that my legacy is going to be carried on. so maybe tonight bo and chris anders are so kind as my host and sponsors, i hope it's okay, they will pay for all your dinners tonight. [laughing] to dinner and share with a lovedha one your story. so thank you very much. thank you guys, very much. thank you. [applause] >> pleased in a given thinking brian curtis. as you exit, you will see our wonderful volunteers with yellow buckets to accept your donations to the savannah book festival. it is because of your generosity that were able to keep the festival saturday, , free. please help us to w continue. thank you. thank you for coming. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] and that was author brian curtis on the 1942 rose bowl. in humans would be back with more live coverage of the savannah book festival. up next author scott shapiro talking about the 1928 leaseback outlawed war around the world. our live coverage will continue shortly. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> what i trace in here is, is what happened to this country in the 1960s. opportunity was not the same person in 1968 that he was in 1961 and no one in the country was. they are worthry segregationists in 1961 who were not segregationists in 1968. when you look at what happened to peoples opinions and their view of the world, bobby kennedy was someone who changed i would say an average amount for someone with their eyes open in that time. there were people who went through much more dramatic changes, much bigger pendulum swings in their lives and bobby kennedy did. and that something i get into in-depth about the '60s everyone. gene mccarthy and everyone else in the same except for one senator voted for the gulf of tonkin resolution. that was the resolution. gene mccarthy then, , i mean president johnson didn't used to wage full-fledged war. gene mccarthy wanted that boat back a few years later. gene mccarthy ended up running for president because the cats and back who had been the hero, --ck nick katzenbach, the hero f the integration of university of alabama when his deputy attorney general, it was nicholas katzenbach who was standing in the doorway steamrolling over governor george wallace to integrate that university. a couple years later he's an undersecretaryge of state and hs testifying to the foreign relations committee working mccarthy is a member and nick katzenbach says he believes declarations, of war are outmoded. and that the president has all the authorityde he needs to wage war in vietnam at any level he wants to, and there's nothing that congress can say about it. and that was the moment, that was the hearing. that was the statement in that hearing that may gene mccarthy walk out of the room, too angry to even speak about it and ask a question. and he said to his chief of staff when he got out into the hallway, if i have to president, i will, to stop what lyndon johnson is doing. everyone knows, but bodies resumes much more vivid in everyone's minds everybody knows that sort of conservative or moderate whatever you want to call it democrat bobby was in the 50s to the liberal democrat and also to question about what kind of opportunism was that, what was that. it was the kind of experience and enlightenment that people are going through in the 1960s. before the assassination, the sumt of 1963, bobby goes to noh dakota, which jfk lost and that no hope of ever winning. there was no conceivable political benefit for bobby kennedy to go to north dakota for anything. and he went there to address a convention of the indian tribes that were meeting in north dakota. and he delivers a speech to them in north dakota that is a breathtaking piece because if you read it, and if you stood up out of standing rock at the reservation where i i was last summer during that demonstration and if you read his speech, every word of it would be relevant to what theyum were dog there that day. and he actually quoted chief joseph he gave a speech in 1877 about what chief joseph's hopes for the way the united states, and when you would be able to live together as one tribe under one son and all that. so there's much in his evolution that in here that i think clarifies that question which i think is always the central biographical question about bobby. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. >> here's a look at some books and published this week. published this week. yale law school professor examines how parties impact our political system in political tribes. >> look for these titles in bookstores this coming week and watch for many of the authors in the near future on booktv on c-span2. >> i want bernie and his supporters, because i wanted them to be a part of what was going to happen. hillary won the primaries there and square. she had 4 million more votes than bernie. she gha did not set the primaryd in florida or alabama my beloved louisiana. she also had more pledged delegates and more unpledged delegates. i don't know if you read that tim kaine call for the elimination of unpledgeds. delegates. we need to have these debates within the party. we need to have this conversation. if not now, when? what are someav of the specific reforms you like to see at the dnc? >> they unity commission is going to pick on a lot of those so-called electoral confirms, that plagues versus unpledged delegates. they are also going to take a look at the window, what states go before i was in new hampshire. once upon a time oc people in florida, we penalize you for going early. >> 2008. >> i just want to make you sure you know i'm still the same donna. i also think that internally the party is making -- tom perez is doing a great job in reforming the party. that's why with so many great victories last week across the country. first let's start by being honest. howard deant. was absolutely right. we have to have a 50 state strategy. i love you florida. i love all of your electoral votes but there's no reason why from florida all the way across new mexico there's no other state on this side of the line, virginia gets a few dollars, north carolina gets a few dollars but again look across the vast country specially and the south. northern states. we have missed opportunities over thehi last ten years this deal democrats in all the states. on tuesday, tom perez invested in down ballot races. that enabled us to victory after victory after victory. and by the r way, we are now 450 votes short of winning three more seats in january. so it's important that we invest down ballot, and we put resources across the country, that howard dean's prescription which is all 50 states matter. >> should they get rid of superdelegates? >> somebody has been a superdelegate for 20 years, can i just say no comment? i think we need of help debate anything to his wife we should have healthy debate, i don't want voters to think that my vote matters more than their vote. as long as you that, that i am somehow special, supra, that i've got power, i don't want that. so with that in mind i can understand that people, if i want to be the delicate to the convention i need to run. i don't know as a former chair, i still may have special status but i don't know. don't take away all my love. >> so the point of the book where you say why wasn't obama saying, time but the intelligence, where were the intelligence agencies? this was a national emergency. that's a point effort a lot of republicans make. why wasn't come if this is all happening why wasn't president obama talking about it? why wasn't he? >> my understanding is that president obama went to the leadership in congress, republicans and democrats, , and they said, and mitch mcconnell said you should not make a big deal out of this. you should not go public. and so the president decided because he told the president that it would tip the scales. i know that leader pelosi went to paul ryanpe and paul ryan ignored her. i know that chairman lujan went to his counterpart at the national republican congressional committee. he was ignored. on october 18 after a briefing with dhs i went to reince priebus. i went to reince priebus on october 4, which was the republicans vice president joe, money the debate in virginia, and you looked at me. there's a picture come he looked at me because i was all in. i said you know this is happening. >> he always looks that way. >> oh. this is another revelation in the book. i try to reach out to sean spicer. not to melissa mccarthy sean spicer. [laughing] but but i try toth reach out ton spicer threat, the entire -- first i wanted to know what was in the hacking. secondly one and no about -- just in case he opened it. if the dnc went down, we would corrupt the election systems across the country and want to make sure the republican system was protected. we had two major political parties and we have databases all of american voters and i was worried. every time i went out to the republicans, people call me angry. i am a little bit, a little upset that the republicans ignored it. the reason why obama didn't use the bully pulpit more the way you saw angela merkel use it in germany, is because he was told he would tip the scale. i also think there is one of the reason. and that is because they hillary clinton campaign were convinced they wouldld win. they were so convinced that they would win that i don't think they even hold in the last three weeks. there were public polling states that she's going to win. in the meanwhile and putting cold water on their little -- not so fast. i mean, who else would know about how polls can -- i mean, on the day of election i mention i walked into the boiler room at their all filling out what positions they would have in the administration. in the presidential -- i'm sittingth there like you know te polls are open because the machines are not working because of so electricity? and look at me like, you know there's a long line of philadelphia because people -- and look at me like it wasn't until like 7:00 that night they started like -- and i'm like, really? and i was so angry at this point. i went to a so-called victory party in the first person i ran into was stevie wonder. i worked with him on the campaign that made king stay and nationality. i said what are you doing? victory party. i said people are not -- you should be on the radio like me. they were not panicking. they thought they were going to win. all day they kept saying when i was sitting, that , madam chair, addressing exit poll? i don't believe exit polls. remember florida? [laughing] >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. >> the national book critics circle comprised of literary critics, authors and members of the book publishing industry recently announced its finalist for the outstanding books off 2017. 2017. some of theis findings include jack davis is look at the gulf of mexico. france's fitzgeralds history of evangelism in america. russian-american journalist report on the generation of russians who came of age during the putin regime. anhe

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