Its been wild and woolly couple of days, lot of history packed into a short period of time. I want to begin today, as i did yesterday with a quote, and in the introduction to the quote, has anyone not seen saving private ryan . Anyone not seen it . Thats what i figured. For those of us that have served and particularly those of us that have faced combat that opening scene is something that youll never forget, ever. I hope you never forget it, but the scene most important to me actually came later in the movie. Tom hanks laying on the rubble called over private ryan and he asked him to kneel down, and he said to him two words, earn this. Any victory Worth Winning must be deserved, and as the victories are increased in scale, so must be our exertions. Deserve victory, Winston Churchill said. We shall not win through the evils in our enemy, we shall win through the merit in ourselves. Deserve victory, and let that be the touchstone of every thought, word and deed. Frankly, i think about that pretty much every day. Am i living up to my own expectations, let alone the expectations of others . Today were going to hear from people that deserved victory and earned it. Yesterday and the day before, we heard from a lot of people that fought on the ground. Were going to hear this morning from some incredible legends that fought in the air. So it is truly my pleasure to introduce mr. Jerry burton. He is the past president of the tuskegee Association East coast chapter and former air force veteran himself. So with that, well begin todays program with mr. Jerry burton. [ applause ] thank you, everyone. Thank you. It is my honor to be in the room again with the original Tuskegee Airmen and a second pow in the room, another Fighter Pilot from world war ii. So you will have a special treat of gentlemen that a lot of people, one, dont even know still are around. So without further ado, i want to make sure you have enough time to see them all. Lieutenant colonel james harvey iii. [ applause ] colonel harvey, a Fighter Pilot of three wars. Next well have Lieutenant Colonel alexander jefferson. [ applause ]wnwnwnwnwni colonel jefferson, combat pilot, pow. Colonel joseph petersburst. [ applause ] colonel peterburst has a special designation with his name, as well. Call him ace. He did 49 missions before becoming a pow, and then somehow escaped and evaded and flew with the russian army. Incredible stuff. So with that, lets give them all a round of applause and thew well dig into this. R so well start on the end. Colonel harvey. Colonel harvey has a special hat on. I like to see it because a lot of people think of tom cruise when they see the hat. The unfortunate part is, tom cruise wasnt the first. Colonel harvey was a part of a top gun squadron, a group that went to nellis field, took their airplane, took their Maintenance Group and became top gun, the First Top Gun of record for the u. S. Air force. Right. Colonel harvey, if you want to tell us a little bit about yourself. What do you want people to know about your service and about your time flying combat airplanes and then becoming a top gun . Oh, boy. [ laughter ] i know its a long list. Never made any model aircraft or anything like that, never did anything as far as aircraft goes. I lived in a small town in northeastern pennsylvania called nangola station so you can imagine how big that is. Anyway, i was standing in my front yard one day and i saw this flight of p40s fly over in formation. I said id like to do that and that was it. [ laughter ] so i got into the military. I was drafted. I tried to enlist in the Army Air Corps in january 43 and they said they werent taking enlistments at that time and i was out of the war and the reason they said that is they didnt want me in the Army Air Corps. So i got into the military. I was drafted. I tried to enlist in the army uniform issued and went to jefferson barrack, missouri, for basic training and finished my basic training in Jefferson Barracks missouri and based on my score that i had on my written test they put me in the Army Air Corps. The Army Air Corps engineers, and they sent me to fort belvoir, virginia, and at fort belvoir, my mission was to go into the jungle, doze out an area and build an airfield so i was part of the engineer battalion and we used to go out and practice every day and i said no, this isnt for me, so i applied for Cadet Training and there were ten of us, nine whites and myself. Two of us passed, and from there went to biloxi, mississippi, for 30 days of basic training. More basic training, and finished there and went to tuskegee and the rest is history. Thats good stuff. Thank you. A lot of times you do things and you start off not realizing how far you will go. Colonel alexander. I see colonel alexander is another one of those that did some things that a lot of people wouldnt expect. I know when he started he didnt figure hed write his own book and i see the book sitting here, and the title red tail captured, red tail free. So to go to the red tail free part, i want to ask you first, where did you come from, what squadron did you fly in . And then can you tell us the day you remember that you said im a pow, but im going to be okay. Okay. All right. Guys and girl, ive got five minutes to talk about something that takes me two hours. Lets start out real quick, alexander jefferson, born in detroit, michigan, went to Clark College in atlanta, georgia. The war is going on, 19 i graduated in 1942. The japanese bombed pearl harbor on what date . Anybody . What date . [ inaudible ] okay. The United States congress made see, i have to do this short, damn it. [ laughter ] congress developed the 99th squadron. They allowed blacks to fly and they said we started in 1941. I graduated in 42. The war is going on. The draft is about to get me so rather than get drafted i went down and volunteered for this new air force that was just developed. I graduated in january 42, and i flew combat with the let me tell you the 332nd Fighter Group made up of blacks, all selfcontained first of all, and i flew combat with the 301st Fighter Squadron commanded by general, at that time, colonel davis. Well get back to that. I flew combat and had 19 missions escorting the b17s from italy up into germany, we flew top cover. We had one mission, number 19, and trying to knock out radar stations on the coast of Southern France. I got hit and the damn thing came up to the floor and i had to bail out. I bailed out in Southern France occupied the germans at that time. I spent nine months as a pow half of the time in poland and then in germany. Liberated in whats the 1945. Liberated, and came back to the United States, spent the rest of the time in the air force. So you can tell i put all my thoughts on paper. Its all written down from there. I tried to make it quick and i can show stuff in there, but we dont have time, so i ended up with nine months, nine and a half months in germany as a pow. I think that was significant and there were 32 of us blacks who were pows in germany by the end of the war. 32 yeah. Wow. We can go from there. Thats incredible. Thats it. Thats incredible. Colonel peterburst. Yes. Wx4 listening to the other the other two Tuskegee Airmen, a question came to my mind, first of all, well do the same thing and ill go back to colonel harvey, but first thing is where are you from . Where did you go through training . Where was your training at and then tell us about your time as a pow . Well, my time as a pow isnt very long. Okay. Anyway, i was born in st. Paul, minnesota, on the 25th of november, 1924, and we moved to wisconsin, and i did my informative years growing up in the milwaukee area. I had a vocation to become a priest and i went to a seminary after grade school, and i was my third year of a 12year trek to priesthood and ordination, and i was coming down the stairs of the gym to play pool on a sunday morning and i heard the 7th of december 1941, japanese bombed pearl harbor, and i knew at that time i was going to join the service and fight for the country. So i left the seminary, and on my 18th birthday of 1942, i was accepted into the Aviation Cadet program and i did my training through the Southeast Air command with georgia and florida and i graduated as a Second LieutenantFighter Pilot, 19 years old and went through combat training. After that, the p40s and accumulated about 150 or so hours and the p40 and was assigned to europe on the 55th Fighter Squadron and they had converted from p48s to p51 and i had about 20 hours and i started flying, bat. Im the 12th of december 194437 then through 49 Subsequent Missions and the last of very exciting, most of them and the last one was the most interesting. Do you want me to continue . Go ahead. On the 49th mission the air force was putting about 1500 bombers and targets in the berlin vandenberg and the area. My squadron was escorting some 450 b17s with the escort. We were around the area and uneventful until the bombers dropped the bombs and we got hit by a swarm of 262 turbo jets and i was flying high cover and i observe served the 262 blew up the b17 full throttle, and came in at the 6 00 position just about the time he blew up the second b17. He rolled over and started down to the deck, and i chased him and he disappeared into some clouds. Id gotten hit in the left engine. I saw some smoke and a little fire and i did follow him into the clouds and i said to heck with it, and i saw an airfield full of german aircraft. Any of the Fighter Pilots know youre not spozed to be seen and what the heck . [ laughter ] so anyway, id made too many passes and i destroyed at least five on the ground and set the hangar on fire and i felt a thud. And i had the condor and the fourengine aircraft, part of hitlers fleet. Anyway, i blew that up and i felt another thud and got oil, and made it to 10,000 feet and made it bag to vandenberg losing altitude and i finally had to bail out after 300 feet over berg and was captured immediately, interrogated and went to p, w camp and after a five, six it was pandemonium, and refugees are up and down on motorcycles trying to keep some sort of sense to the pandemonium. Anyway, got the stalin 3 which was mostly russian prisoners of war. This was near berlin and right outside of berlin and the russians were fighting in berlin and the security at the camp was too lax and i escaped. You walked away . I started down the road and after about five or six miles i heard a rumbling and i hid in the ditch and here come a tank unit and i came out and fortunately the lieutenant of the russian tank, the lieutenant could speak english and he gave me a rifle and he said were going to wittenburg. So i sat with the russian tank to berlin up to wittenberg where i was repatriated to meet the russians. Eventually, got back to paris and got stabbed at delaos and all that stuff and started my way home on the last convoy through europe. I got home and i anxiously married my fiance josephine who i named my aircraft after, josephine, and in the process of doing the paperwork i had to get my moms permission to get married because i hadnt turned 21 yet. [ laughter ] very nice. Thats it. Very nice. You were in the northern part of germany. I was in the southern part, stalog. I was in stalog where there was close to 10,000 american pows. There was a heck of a lot of us, and i didnt have any chance to escape because we were heavily guarded and it was heck. Wow. Okay. Colonel harvey. Germanys leading ace was in the states in 2013 looking for the pilot that shot him down. Did you make contact, by chance . I cant hear him 37. What did he say . Say your question again . Germanys leading ace was in the states in 2013 looking for the pilot that shot him down. Did you make contact, by chance . Oh, yes. [ laughter ] see, i never claimed a 262. By the time i got liberated and everything the war was over and to heck with it and you didnt worry about that sort of stuff. I didnt. Got home and got married so six years went by and finally, through various, many european researchers, swedish and norwegian and german researchers they came to the conclusion that i was the one that shot down walter shook who was a top german ace. He had 206 confirmed aerial victories. He had 198 victories on the north sea area with russia. Most of his victories there were against the russians and he transitioned into the me262 turbo jet, and on his First Mission he shot down three aircraft, and the first time he was in the 262, and he shot down three aircraft, and he was the one that, in fact, he had on the 5th of may of 2005, we met in california and became close 14s and he was a real gentleman. We spent the rest of his life and i together doing various shows and stuff, but he tells me that when he went into the clouds he made a left turn hoping to avoid me if i tried to follow him, and he said as soon as he started his turn his left engine disintegrated and he had to bail out and he bailed out at about 1,000 meters and he broke both of his legs and ankles when he bailed out so he was basically out of the war at that time. When he said my friend joey, joey saved my life because if he would have got up again and flown he felt certainly he would have been killed and thats the way it was during the end of the war. How fortunate you were to be able to bail out. I had to bail out, and i thought about it when you were talking. Out of all my nine, about a year of training in the tuskegee, i never had one minute on, quote, how to bail out. [ laughter ] you bailed out of 51. You bailed out on the right side. Are you kidding . No. I bailed out of the left side. Ill be damned. Our job was to knock out radar stations on the coast right on the shores of Southern France. Later on, i found out that these radars control the guns around Southern France, out to harbor on Southern France. It came in at 15,000 and we dove in and we came in at 250 miles an hour, and went right across the top of these radars and huge touers with a lot of buildings underneath and the machineries going on and had about 200 feet, and boom and as i went along, fire came up out of the floor and it hit the square, and i said to myself, how do i get off of this with the boom, boom, boom . Finally decided real quickly, full power, pull up and i think i may have gotten to about 1,000 feet. At the same time, down on the left side you have a little wheel and it controlled the flaps back and forth, pulled over a red lever and the canopy popped off. As i was going up, when i got to about 1,000 feet. I think it was 1,000 feet, i dont know, and turned the stick loose and quite naturally, the nose would drop abruptly and when it dropped abruptly, bang i hit the big buckle and it threw me out and i remember the tail going by nice and slow and easy, but they told you if you bailed out you count one, two, three and then you pull the dring and a parachute will deploy. Well, heck, i came out, and i saw the tail go by, and i looked down and i saw trees and i said oh [ laughter ] i abruptly pulled the dring and bang, the parachute opened and i swung down and hit a tree. I said well, and all of a sudden i heard a voice real german, quote [ speaking Foreign Language ] and i said oh, hell. My nine months in germany started right there in Southern France for about a week, and with two or three with two or three german soldiers escorting me out of germany. On that same mission we lost one guy, joe gordon was killed. Macon was a prisoner, daniels was a prisoner, i was a prisoner and one other guy. We lost five men on that one mission. What we later found out, it controlled the guns firing off the post and one guy that was a pow and the four guys were pows and the rest of the time they were hungry, but as a pow, we existed. Ill leave it there and later on go into the book where very good. Good. Colonel harvey, i was going back to you and you asked a question of the panel, but i want to give you a chance, first of all, we want to know where youre from first. I didnt do that at the original outset and then, two, im curious, flying so long with the military, what airplanes are you were you actually qualified in to fly out of all those throughout those years, what airplanes . So where are you from . What airplanes . Like i said before im from a small town in northeastern pennsylvania called noongola station. And we were the only black family out there, and so there wasnt any prejudice whatsoever. I got along fine with everybody. I was the only black in the school in high school, and we didnt have the only sports we had were tumbling and basketball. I was the anchorman on the tumbling team, captain of the Basketball Team and my senior year i was class president and valedictorian, and i was treated just like every other person and like i said, i didnt the only when i noticed the world was subjected to segregation is when i took the train from 44th pennsylvania to fort mead, maryland and we stopped in washington, d. C. , and we had a twohour layover on the way to fort meade. So i got off the train, went, had breakfast, came back and went to get back in the car that i was in, and they said no. You ride in the car where negros ride. So welcome to the south. Your introduction, in other words, to segregation and discrimination. Yes. I can feel it. Same thing. That was my introduction to segregation, but i didnt let it bother me. The way i looked at it, i didnt have a problem. They had the problem. Yeah. So i just did what i had to do to accomplish what i had to accomplish, and like i said before, i went to Engineering School in fort belvoir, and didnt care for that. Applied to Cadet Training and got accepted and off