Cspan. Great to see our programs getting wider distribution and attention. Faithfulon to our many who come to attend all of these in person. For those that are ever faithful here, you know exactly what im going to do next. Part of our tradition is to recognize those who are the purpose of this museum. So, do we have any world war ii , homefront workers, or Holocaust Survivors with us today . Please waive and be recognized. [applause] thanks for coming tonight. How about other veterans . Veterans from any other era . If you could stand and be recognized for wave and accept our thanks. [applause] thank you all for being here with us. You know, this week marks the many famoussary of or infamous world war ii battles. The invasion appellant the took place onluja september 15. Operation market garden, the failed operation that became wasn as the bridgetoo far launched on september 17. In fact, this aircraft above our heads is a veteran of that battle. Twoears ago in todays, days, this drop the Airborne Division into battle. Arraymarks the 70 that an of the start of the battle of the forest on germanys western border. As you may know, we at the museum pride ourselves on bringing personal stories to life. I like to call it the Patchwork Quilt approach of kelly history. By telling enough personal stories of those involved, you start to understand larger human saga that the war became. Chris hartley, our author tonight, understand that intimately. Thats the approach he has taken with his book and thats exactly what he has done. In his book, the lost soldier the ordeal of a world war ii g. I. , he tells the story of one soldier and his wife and their two daughters. This is truly a family story, not just a story of taken root, chris chriss family, for is the father of chriss wife who is here with us tonight. Would you please stand and be recognized . [applause] here, people will come and say, my father did this, my grandmother did that, my grandfather did this. And thats what youre seeing here tonight. So lets learn a little more about chris hartley. Ill put my federal union blue cap on and let you know that hes the author of stonemans raid, 18 65, which won a prize from the North Carolina society of historians. It was a finalist for the ben franklin award in history for the independent Book Publishers association. Speaker,o a andlefield tour guide, author of articles for other publications. Joining chris on stage tonight is our own Research Historian in the museums institute of the study of war and democracy, where he writes narratives of Service Members from world war ii for their families around the country and worked over the last two years to help solve cases of missing Service Members as part of our partnership with the defense pow mia accounting agency. Gentleman . Let me extend my welcome, its great to have you. Its a fascinating read. Ruthtories of pete and during the Great Depression of world war ii. As you know, the museum takes great pride in the fact that we somea massive collection, 10,000 oral histories, personal testimonies here. Several questions this evening, can connect to what you turn the eal of private first class Getting Started on this, could you tell us how this book came about . Do you have a particularly close connection to this story . Its wonderful to be here tonight. Im honored. If you can see what a fabulous facility it is. Think it out there is a personal connection here, right . Its 1984, im in high school. Reagan is president. Ghostbusters are on at the movies. And i ask a young lady out on a date. Date, weccessful continued for a little while point over the following months, these two young kids have an opportunity to go down to a little town in North Carolina where her grandmother lives. We go down to the Village House that she lives in and we are sharesatting and lori with her that im interested in historical time periods and world war ii, civil war, a delightful lady, singsong kind of voice, and she says, wait just a minute. So she gets up and walks to the back of her little Village House there and opens up the closet door and comes out of that closet and walks back on the hallway and she says, with a duffel bag in her hand, she says take a look at this. And so i open it up and my eyes probably bulged this wide because inside of this old duffel bag or letters and a diary and official documents related to her husband, a soldier in the u. S. Army. I was it was brief, i didnt have a chance to spend much time told me but something there was a story that needed to be told. I told myself that im coming back to look at this again one day, i hope. Fortunately, my dating skills are not terrible, so i married that young lady. [applause] thank you. In spite of myself, right . Some years later, i thought it was time to try to put that story together and indeed, it was a fabulous story about a guy named peter lin. I should say, his name was film filmer lonzo. We did not name any of our o, buten after fimler lonz it proved to be a story that really needed to be told. Youve got about 65 pages of material sources, about 65 pages of notes. You will see it is extensively documented. Could you tell us a little more about the materials that were in that duffel bag and things you supplemented those with . The items in the duffel bag for the beginning. There were letters backandforth. Grandma ruth who met that day. Many were in bundles and they were marked return to sender. They had never been opened. They have been sent back to her undeliverable because her husband was missing in action at that time. Diary. As a as ruth try to find out what happened to my husband when he was first reported as missing in action, later reported as killed in action. She tried as best as she could with her limited education to try to find more. That was the starting point. Thats when i had to turn through other sources of history. I interviewed a handful of Family Members who were still living and able to offer information and memories about that day. Other Family Members as well. But then you had to turn to the documentary evidence. What do the official records say about the battle in which he served . So, i looked at after action i talked to other veterans of the war to try to understand what that was like. That helped me put together the story of the lost soldier. I know its a remarkable range of sources that you found and they are extremely rich and personal. You describe early in the book the lost soldier as a postage stamp in history. A very interesting phrase. Did you tell us what you mean by this term . I learned a lot from a professor of history at North Carolina, and he uses that phrase often in his own historical projects. Wes a great phrase because all think of his we dont think of history books until heres what is happening in d. C. Coming years will the president is doing. Iris is the story of each individual persons history. Telling the story one person at a time, which is what this museum does so well to bring together the common experience of the war. They could be the story of any person from any part of the united states. Could have been from North Carolina, california, nevada. Their story is also very common from soldiers who have served our country and other time periods and that is what is so powerful about this postage stamp history. Its a common story, but its a story we need to tell. That then old saying victors are the ones who write the history. You might also say that the survivors are those who write the history books. We dont often hear the stories of those who dont come home and thats what the story of people in pete lynn is. What did like to be a soldier facing her mortality, what did like to be a Family Member of someone who goes through a tragic experience like the death of a loved one in combat . Thats what this story is all about. The book has this wonderful movement back and forth between ownle in obviously petes journey to eventually the forest which we will get into in a few minutes. Why dont we talk about pete and ruth if it . Could you talk about their background and life in North Carolina, the life that they had . That was one of the things that i did not expected to be as fascinating as it was, to really learn about their lives. They were born in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, which is a mill town. It is there because of the railroads. And in a mill town in that day and age, everything was where you live. You went to church at the mill, you went to school at the mill. You shopped at the mill. You fell in love at the mill. Your parents, your brother, your sister, theyre probably living just down the street. You all go to work at the same building every day, every night you come home. Everywhere you go in your little world, that mill is always there clocking away every single day. And the jobs they had were hard jobs, they were very repetitive jobs. You did the same thing over and over and over again. Had is ahat pete lynn dangerous job. There are pulleys and there are belts and there are sharp teeth that are clawing at the cotton to try to pull the cotton off of the fabric. If your hand is in the wrong place at the wrong time, youve got a problem. But that the world he lived in every day as he walked home from the mill covered in lint. The family still tells today the family of pete lynn whistling on his way home every day because he was happy, because he was surrounded by his friends and his family and he had everything he needed right there. He did make a whole lot of money, but they were happy. Some of the most memorable passages in the first part of the book i when you talk about mill, and youe are just breathing the stuff in all the time. That was a kind of norm for people doing this work like ruth and pete. Theiryou tell us about initial connections, we talked about people marry their whole lives, based around work, how does that play out . They definitely met in the village, the complex that they both lived in, two complexes were separated by the railroads and the highway. And they both had Family Members on both sides of the complexes. They were separate companies, but they were so close together they might as well have been the same complex. They got to know each other, pete was about five years older than ruth. He started working in the mills of the age of 12. Ruth cap going on with her education, but they met in that complex, probably a church, maybe a grade school when they both attended. Courting would be very much the way you did it in that day, around Family Members, around trends. The story is told that they liked to go out on the Railway Tracks in the Southern Railway gleaming in the moonlight and pete was a romantic guy apparently, he liked to sing to ruth and he would sing songs like carolina moon or i love you best of all, you probably all have for those songs. He may not have been the best singer but it sure worked with ruth. Singing,e loved the she really appreciated his romantic side so much. Havekind of life would been challenging anyway, the hard work not exactly the greatest, the conditions were often difficult. But its also a Great Depression story. How did the Great Depression impact them and this area . It wases no question, something that impacted their lives. There was a saying at the time that if you had a job during the Great Depression, the depression was not that bad. They were among those fortunate enough to have a job during the Great Depression because the textile industry was still worshiping and as a result, pete and work ruth were employed during that whole time. Together, pete made roughly 600 a year, and ruth may roughly 600 a year. The poverty line was about 600 a year. Together they could be somewhat comfortable. They also can make positive ends with different jobs. Paint, that actually came in handy when he was learning about wearing a gas mask later in his military service. Ruth would do odd jobs as well. That also put food on the table. There was always credit at the Company Store if that was necessary. The Great Depression did not affect them that much. As much as other americans. If anything, they certainly saw what was going on with their friends and neighbors but they were in good shape as a result. Thats a really interesting distinction relating them to other regions of the country. Speaking of things getting worse, what did they know or what were they interested in, how much were they drawn to the International Context of that time . Nazi germany, was only mussolini, japan and china, where these things that matter to them a lot . If so, how do they know about them . Is no question they follow those events. Their favorite things to do as a couple, they had family radio. They like to sit around and charlotte where you can hear broadcasts. They did that every sunday morning at least on a regular basis around the radio and listen to others. They also love movies. , andis a avid moviegoer certainly you can go and see those footage of things happening overseas. Before anything happened in america, their first child which is loris mother was born in 1940, october of 1940. About the same time the blitz was taking place overseas in london. Ruth could certainly hear stories of was annoying on but that did not slow them down very much. Pete did have to show up for registration day when Selective Service was launched in 1940. He registered with the Selective Service a few days before loris mother was born. Concerned, he went down to Kings Mountain itself, filled out all the paperwork. Im 150 pounds, thats only was. Tall drink of water, piercing blue eyes. And did his duty, but he did not think much of that. They were so unconcerned about it but the second member of the family came along in 1942, about the same time the u. S. Marines landed on the canal. One that is not as concerned. What they were more interested their next child was born in 1942, barbara, or bobby, as they called her. That was that they were worried about. The letters that you say where p is talking about how really arees a son just hilarious. They are really funny lines about how we are going to send her back if its not a boy. Obviously in just but that is something they really want, and family meant everything to them during that time. Could you take yourself to when he is called up, and this is older, we he is should make sure he is clear about that, about his age, when he was called up, and how his life takes a dramatic turn. Pearl harbor does change everything, the war arriving in the united states. If nothing else, it changes right out of the gate the things that are happening at the mill. At, theill they work orders begin to flow in strongly. The mill they work in our making cloth ending up in body bags for the u. S. Government. Men are leaving, going off to serve, more and more women are going out into the workplace. As a mention, ruth has already been an employee, so its not unusual. Nonetheless, things are changing in the workplace. Of course theres rationing they had to deal with. Theres certainly news about the war. Its certainly part of their lives, but it does not become as critical to them until in about , our military forces begin to experience tremendously high casualties. You had someint, protection around draft laws. They were not going to draft you early on, you would leave from that duty because you had a child before pearl harbor. 1943, that changed. Gotu. S. Government said we to end this, we got too many casualties, we need more men on the field. At that point, he was 33 years old. Draftynot your normal age, the average age was about 20 years old. By the end of the war, they would be a million fathers in the u. S. Army, and the u. S. Military that shows you how that switch from early on in the war because they needed that manpower. Which is a perfect segue into talking about being 33 years old, now into the army for the first time. Realizing just how difficult the , it obviously concert. Home. Your future is completely caught up in that. Tell us how training impacted pete once he entered. Very jarring in many ways. In march of 1944, he receives his draft notice and after induction at North Carolina, hes off to texas right outside of tyler, texas today. The replacement training center, a place were about 20,000 soldiers are located in going through a 17 week course to learn how to be an infantry man. For pete, in some ways its familiar. Thats no problem. Hes used to squirrel hunting he rabbit hunting, so it thinks Walking Around the was with a rifle is a little bit different. There are other things that are a little bit more difficult. Home, but the at , hee that he learns about thought it was a little heavy, he was talking about a farm animal back home. Up recoil of a rifle popped to the point where he said his lip was swollen up like a big hens egg. Bart with an the bazooka. He trained on grenades, he trained on the gas mask. One of his favorite things was when they all went outside of texas, and looked up at the sky and observe the stars. One of the most challenging things of all that he encountered was actually a dental issue. As the u. S. Military began the war, one of the requirements from being drafted was that you had to have a good set of teeth. That was one of the first requires the military had to do away with because there were not many people coming out of the depression with a good set of teeth. And pete lynn was one of those people. He had a terrible set of teeth. The u. S. Army proceeded to pull every single tooth in his mouth. The u. S. Army during world war ii had to pull 15 million teeth and theyrvice members, would set 10. 5 million sets of dentures along the way because of the severe dental problems. And petes experience was one where they would pull if you teeth. The