Accounts can help galvanize the stories of world war ii for you as teachers and students head back to the classroom and you can enhance your lessons hopefully and have a more personal understanding of what these gentlemen and their compatriots have gone through. We know the gentleman gentleman sitting here before us, and the other infants, we have a short the other infants, we have a short time. It is amazing they are sitting here with us today. We also want to make sure everyone in the audience has a chance to participate and ask questions of their own that you will find valuable in your classrooms and for your students. When you ask them, i will probably step forward to make sure i can hear you properly, repeat the question so the audience can hear and the cspan audience can hear and our honorees in here as well. Lets introduce our panel. First to my left in a handsome red blazer [laughter] charles mcgee, one of the Tuskegee Airmen and a career officer in the United States air force for 30 years. He holds a u. S. Record 409 fighter combat missions. To his left, herman, who i met on my very First World War ii event. He landed on utah beach in normandy, france. He and the other soldiers endured heavy machinegun fire, extreme bloodshed and personally witnessed the loss of 5000 troops. To his left allen howarton. He and i have a connection. He has a soft sought soft spot for broadcasting. That is one of the things that he was working on before he got into world war ii. He served with company k. A messenger. A radio operator. A communications sergeant. He served in germany and in belgium. He is also the author by the way he is a great resource of 3 world war ii books. He tried his hand at writing a novel, too. He said that was very challenging. We had a great discussion about that. On the end, colonel james ricky. He started in the army as a private, finished as a colonel. He commanded a platoon that invaded the japanese island of okinawa. He attended the Airborne School in georgia. He commanded an airborne battle group, airborne or brigade and was chief of staff of staff of the 82nd airborne division. Before we get started, a little context oh, also by the way to other people to mention two other people to mention. Carol george in the front row there. He wanted to be part of this. He was in okinawa and he lives in falls church virginia. He was with the u. S. Coast guard. He served on a battleship. We also invited Barbara Martin from the womens medical corps. She also served in world war ii. She had to cancel. We want to have her and our next event. We thank her for her service and the fact that she committed to being here today but had to back out at the last minute. Lets talk some numbers here. 1939 to 1945. We are in the midst of a great depression. And the allied forces, including the United States and britain and others fought against the axis forces of germany and japan and others Battle Forces all over the world. These gentlemen were teenagers, they were twenty somethings. Similar ages to our high school and College Students now that we talk to on a regular basis both my educating but my reporting is an education reporter, you as students and teachers, they left college. They skipped out of high school, they lied on applications, saying they were 18, getting ready to go and serve. That is what it meant to these gentlement and so many who did the same thing. These twenty somethings and teenagers were killed and did killing. Conservative estimates the total casualties, 60 million dead thats conservative. Some say it is upwards of 80 million dead overall. The stories of survival are legendary as they faced down tyranny, these gentlemen did. We want to continue to thank them for their service and try to put it in the context of the students we know today, the students we spend time with today, to help them understand they were their age when they decided to take this on for the fate of the world as we know it, and that is not overstating it. If we could, i would like to start please, by all means, raise your hand and i would like to dig questions so we can make this valuable for you. We want you to have a take away today. Lets start with mr. Mcgee as a Tuskegee Airmen, today you are considered a National Hero peer review are told that much to your face. We want to continue to tell you that. Initially when you started and you decided im going to go for this career, how were you treated initially . Was your race and major factor . Did they just need so many people with the guts and the determination to do it . How were your first the days in the military . Mr. Mcgee race was indeed a factor. Also, the experience all through the end of the war, separated from the ground forces, there was segregation. It begins with a War College Study determining that 1 10 of the population, now called black, would be used if america got involved in another war. Paragraph four of the report mentally inferior in other words, second class citizen, if you will. That report said to use and service roles, cook food, dig ditches, build roads, fine. Do anything technical . Impossible. So, that was the attitude in washington as far as policy was concerned. So, when world war ii broke out, the civilian Pilot Training program was established to help pilots, military units. Initially did not include black pilots. Subsequently it did. They graduated from our University Program in the washington area. I said i wanted to be a pilot. The army said, we dont have any black mechanics. We cant use a black pilot. Also, there was a young man who graduated from west point in 1936, benjamin o. Davis junior, who when he graduated pretty well up in his class, that segregated through his training years, said he wanted to be a pilot and they said, sorry, they did not have any black division units. So, he was denied that. So it took world war ii and the pressure was, the army said, we have the issue if you keep pressing us, we will authorize a squadron. I will be glad to talk on that. But segregation was the name of the game. Segregation overseas. It came back home. It took our United States air force to make a decision. Mike in your biography, it says you have a record of 409 combat missions, which would mean over time, i would think that attitude would start to change and you started to be considered eventually a valuable member, and effective fighter pilot. When did you start to notice the tenor of communications with you, when did that start to change . When did you start to get more respect . Mr. Mcgee thats interesting. You did not want me to lecture for 20 minutes . Mike so what youre saying is you have plenty to tell . Mr. Mcgee the air force ended segregation here in the states in july 1949. We were scattered around the world. I received assignments overseas that i would not get here at home. In other words, log burn airbase was a segregated based near columbus ohio. And when that base closed in july of 1949, i became the commander of the airbase wing in june 1960 1972. The first such assignment in the United States. Change came very slowly. We received assignments overseas we would not get here at home. We had a reconnaissance squadron. It was in the cold war. We did not get credit for the cold war. We commanded units in the jupiter missile deployment against russia. Change came very slowly. And that is something to understand. But the value of the lessons sustained during those days are just as important for the young people today who are americas tomorrow and they need to understand. Mike utah beach, normandy, france, how old were you . 18. Mike did you enlist at 18 and immediately get sent there when you started . Were you drafted, first of all . Or did you enlist . What happened was, we were playing stickball out in the street, and one of the boys came over and told us that japanese just bombed and then we went president roosevelt was president at the time. And he said everybody 18 and older had to register at the local post office. I went to the local post office with my dad, and they gave us a number. And sure enough, that number came up very quickly. From there, we reported to fort dixon new jersey. Mike before you go, what was the conversation like in your household . How did your family respond . Did they look at it that you have a duty, you have to go . Did your mom and dad get upset . What was the conversation like at your dinner table . They were sorry to see me go. They did not want me to go. What it was either register at the post office or, i guess there was no choice. Mike were you scared . Mr. Zeitchik no, i wasnt scared because i was a boy scout. [laughter] mr. Zeitchik i was used to going out, sleeping overnight, spending time in the woods. Mike there isnt artillery fire in the boy scouts . You are very brave, sir. [laughter] mr. Zeitchik and then after training, the most important thing i can tell you is i happened to take a course in typing. And everything in the army is typed. Everything is typed. Nothing handwritten, so there can be no errors. And because of that, they sent me to fort bragg, north carolina, home of the 82nd and 101st airborne. From there, the training put me into a howitzer unit. 105. Its a big gun. Its the kind the president used on the fourth of july here. And then after the training, they sent me overseas to england, spent training in england, and finally they put me into the Fourth Infantry Division artillery. With that, i did well. You learn a lot about fighting, and the next thing we knew, a few short months flew by and we were on a ship headed for utah beach. Landed on normandy on dday, hhour. That day, they tell me we lost 5000 boys the first day. Mike what time of day was that and describe what it sounded like, what did it sound like that morning . Do you remember . What were the sounds . Was there a lot of artillery fire . Was it quiet the moment you landed . What did it sound like . Mr. Zeitchik im sorry . Mike what were the sounds that morning on the beach . What did you hear . Mr. Zeitchik oh. We crossed the English Channel its only about 23 miles rather quickly. I must admit, there were about 500 ships. We were not the only ones in the army invasion. But it so happened there were two points to go in and ours happen to be utah. We landed there just as the light started to come in, and then we sorry. Continue, please. Mike absolutely. Im going to let you collectors self, mr. Seitchik, mr. Zeit chik, and i will ask you again in a moment. Mr. Howard in, you started your College Education and it got interrupted. How old were you when you started in the service and describe what led to you getting in the service. Well, my experience all of our experiences are unique, but i grew up in western kentucky in the 1920s and 1930s. A very deprived area at that time. Electricity only in the towns that had generators. I was a bookworm kid, and the schools down there mustve been very, very good at the time because i think i got an excellent education, a small high school. I was an academic inclined at that time. I finished second in my class, was salutatorian, but there is no number four college. I wanted to get out of the house there is no money for college. A way to get out of the house. 17 years old, graduating from college, turning 18, so i ended up in all places in northern new jersey working for white castle system incorporated. You all know what that is mike one of the great hamburgers. Mr. Howerton i was able to live on 18. 50 a week, in a was able to audition and get enrolled in a Radio Broadcasting school within the vicinity of radio city. So, when i was not flipping hamburgers or working on curb service at white castle, i was reading soap opera scripts and learning to be a radio actor and a radio announcer, which was my interest at the time. So, pearl harbor came along. I worked saturday nights. I woke up sunday morning, maybe noon 2 00, the radio next to my bed and heard about pearl harbor. Well, i did not enlist at the time. I wasnt unpatriotic. I did not enlist. I was not waiting around to see what really was going to happen. So, while i was waiting, they lowered the draft age from 20 down to 18. So, in february 1943, i got the greeting greetings, you have been selected. Mike for the infantry. In the infantry . Mr. Howerton no, i was at fort dix, fort dix, new jersey. Took a bunch of tests, ended up training as a medic. I had no interest in medicine, but they needed medic trainees at the time. So, you become medics. So, when i finished there at the end of 90 days, basic training except medics not get any weapons training so when i finished i was called into the cp one day. I was expecting to get an assignment overseas somewhere as a combat medic. Instead, there was a corporal sitting behind the desk. He said, howerton, you have to make a choice. I looked at him and i said, i cant believe it. The army is going to give me a choice . A smart alec remark like that. He said, yes. He said you can go to medical administrative ocs or you can go to the aspp. Mike which is . Mr. Howerton which is that was my next question. What is that, corporal . He said, i dont know. [laughter] mr. Howerton he fumbled in his desk, pulled out a brochure, handed it to me and then i knew what it was because i knew there was a college program. This was called the Army Specialized Training program. The army but about 200,000 young men into american colleges across the country. The idea was to develop a trained cadre to go overseas and rebuild whatever was being torn down during the war. We were studying engineering, various other things like that. I learned later in doing research on a book i wrote but there was another reason the University President s were raising cain with the Defense Department because the colleges, some of them were going bankrupt. They were depleted. Mike they were taking all of the College Students and their prospective students. Mr. Howerton i ended up starting studying engineering. I had no interest in engineering. I was interested in history and english and social science and those kinds of academic things. But i was able to get pretty good grades by listening to lectures in trying to memorize what was being said and boning up on tests, so i was pretty good. But after the first nine months, in april 1944, the army decided because of a severe manpower shortage, and mounting problem with the invasion and so on 1943, i mean with the invasion coming up, they really needed the troops. So they made the decision to break up that program halfway through. We entered as cadets with not a strike on our shoulders. So, we ended up on the troops train, 2800 men from northeastern schools. Among them was Henry Kissinger by the way mike no kidding. Teachers and students, imagine there is a train pulling up youre 18. Youre getting on the train. Imagine that happening today. Never. Never. We were joking before hand you are like cattle. And you said educated cattle. Mr. Howerton we worked cattle and we work to debts. Cadets without any stripes. We go down to camp clayborn louisiana and late at night when we were finally trained, stay in your seats until your name is called, get out on the platform, follow your sergeant into your company. Here i am out on the platform, all of my friends on the train. I had no idea how they selected people. At random, i presume. We went to bed, got up the next morning, stood formation. There was a very, very competent draft or First Sergeant out there, drill sergeant, typical world war ii jewel sergeant. He was from georgia. He had a wonderful accent. So he stood in front of the company. He says, yall men here. You are not supposed to move your heads in my company. You may move your eyeballs if you wish. But you are not supposed to move your heads. You are going to see something. You heard about these young men, the College Students went down here to help us win this war . They are right in here among us and you can tell them, because they look late they look like they have not had no sun in six months. [laughter] mr. Howerton that was my entrance into the infantry. Mike thats a great story. I love that story. Colonel, you had a varied experience when you started in the service as an army private and you finished as a colonel over 30 years you had a chance to see all different sides of the service. How old were you when you first saw combat in what was that like . Well, i was 21 years old when i first saw combat on the island of okinawa, which was the last battle of world war ii, and it was the bloodiest battle in the pacific, particularly for the navy. I was entered in the service in august of 1942 as a private. By december, i was a Staff Sergeant based on my previous military experience in rotc and a program at that time called Citizens Military training camp, which most of you probably never heard of, but if you attended that camp for four summers, you would get promotion to a second lieutenant. The military bases were being used for the training of the National Guard folks. I was ordered to go to fort benning, georgia to attend the Officer Training School and i graduated there in march 1943 as a second lieutenant. My assignment was as a student at the Officers School in california. The School Admission was to Train Company grade officers for assignments in the pacific here. After the onemonth course, i was an instructor, where i stayed for your. After that, i was sent to the pacific. First on the island, i was there for a short time. End up on the island where i joined the 27th division. I started my military career as a First Lieutenant in the infantry. What were you responsible for doing . You are the leader of an infantry, which consisted of three squads, 12 men in each squad. Then there was the headquarters, the sergeant, a bazooka team, so about 40 people led by a lieutenant. A bazooka shell is how big . 2. 36. It was small. How big of a whole could