Conscripts Alex News Today

Almost always the case. >> theres also alex as tom just alluded to a village called st. marys which is about a 45-minute drive from colville sur mer here and a fairly large cemetery at st. marys, about 4,400 americans buried there, and if you go through the logs of those who were buried there, you find to your complete shock, that there are 20 sets of brothers buried side by side in that cemetery, and that was, the burial site is not far from where there are enormous tank battles that occurred, ...

His hand over his heart and he saluted in his child-like way all of those that had lain their lives before him to give him that sense of freedom. i think its what fueled his love of history, what hes studying now in college and as a parent to give that sort of experience to your child and help them understand the significance of this, last night i had him watching "nightly news" with me because hes home and he said "i remember that mom. i have a profound memory of that, and you that," and its ex...

What real war was like. they know what it was like and i think you hope in this sense with putin and obama that in an odd way it would make sure that rift didnt get too wide. >> its a very intersection in history. >> alex just a few miles from here, from colville sur mer, where we are now, a few miles down the road there is a german cemetery at le cam and you go into that cemetery and the stones are very dark its the exact opposite in terms of what youre looking at compared to whats behind us. y...

I was going into battle. >> alex at this point, one thing that we ought not to overlook is that theres a lot of talk these days could we do it again? the fact is less than 1% of our population has been doing it again. theyve been in iraq and afghanistan for ten years. they stepped up right away raised their hand went into uniform and served their country. the big, big difference is that if you were at home you made sacrifices. you were constantly aware of what was going on paid attention to it. ...

That check to young john forbes kerry, but, alex the area here looks remarkably the same. the villages, the hedge rows it looks remarkably the same as it did 70 years ago. >> yes we should say were look at the president and french president francois hollande as they approach a very dignified and inspiring ceremony to say the least. it is interesting how many things can look the same and the way americans are received particularly in that part of france, talk about heroes. >> oh, boy. >> it are r...

I know youve gotten to talk with some people you followed a group of students that came there to study with a veteran, and see firsthand what happened in history. mike made a point earlier about how he did not know if he would have had the courage as any of us would certainly wonder about ourselves, have the courage to do what all of these heroes that are gathered today whom we honor and whom we pay tribute to did, and you had some interesting reaction when you talked to young kids. i mean i thi...

Watching it i could clearly identify with it because i grew up in a home where we all lived together and my grandmother was a gold star mother whose son, zwrer gerald, died two years earlier on june 6th, 1942, at the battle of midway and every day of her life, if i can get through this every day of her life she thought that gerald would come up the street and come home but alex the stories are numerous and we have them for you. >> you sure do. i tell you, its hard to keep a dry eye. i know tom h...

Rangers coming up the point du hoc, the 100 sheer cliff thinking to themselves theyre coming up after us theyre coming up this after us. he said they were probably more frightened than we were. >> and with good reason and a lot of them were conscripts alex. >> yes, they were. gentlemen, were so glad to have you there. well take a very short break. everyone, do stay with us. well have more coverage of the 70th anniversary of d-day. portion of president franklin delano roosevelts d-day prayer he d...

Quantify it in some ways. theyd been trained to do missions. they knew how many people had been left behind. when they came in they didnt talk about the war in part because they wanted to talk about their new life they wanted to talk about their future and how they could have a life that they never anticipated they would, and so they give back to us i think, every day in that sense, mike? >> frank devita is one of many, many stories, alex that are represented here today in the dwindling numbers ...

Least 2,000 french civilians were killed in the first 24 hours and the resistance was critically important in terms of identifying where communication lines were and rail lines were. the president of france ten years ago when we were here president at that time was president chirac and he had a big difference with president george bush 43 over the war in iraq so times have changed, although these two presidents dont always see the world the same way either >> no. >> and in fact only last night, ...