Generation. The stories of word war 2. You can enhance your lessons and have a more personal understanding of what these gentleman and their compatriots have been through to get here today. We know that the gentlemen here in front of us, and the other events that we do, we have a short time to tect to them and understand them and the fact that they made it through one of the most significant experiences in history. We also want to make sure that erin everyone in the audience can ask questions that you will find valuable in your classrooms. Ly 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 the honor res can hear as well. First to the left, in the handsome red blazer, charles mcgee. He was in the United States air force for 30 years. He holds a record 409 fighter combat missions flown in korea and vietnam. To his left, who i met on my very First World War ii event, he landed on the beach in normandy france. They endured heavy fire, extreme bloodshed, and witnessed the loss of 5,000 troops. We had a great discussion before we came here this morning. We had a little connection. It was a soft spot for broadcasting. He was in the 84th infantry division. He was a rifleman, a messenger, and a communication sergeant. He is also the great resource of three world war ii books. He tried at writing a novel, too, and he said that was very challenging. And at the end, colonel james riffy. He started as a private and finished as a colonel. He was in the infantry. He invaded okinawa. He got parachute and airborn glider badges. A contest. Two other people to mention, we would also like to recognize here george who was in okinawa and he now lives in falls church, virginia. He was in the u. S. Coast guard, and he also invited barbara martin. She also served in world war ii. She had to cancel but we want to have her in our next event as well. So before we get started, were in the midst of a great depression. And the allied forces fought against the access forces of germany, japan, and others. Battle fronts all over the world, they were teenagers, 20somethings. Both my reporting as an education reporter. They skipped out of high school, they lied on thar application saying their were 18. Thats how much it meant to news gentleman and so many people and these teenagers were killed and they did killing. The total casualties over world war ii, 60 million dead, some say upwards of 80 million dead. The stories of survival are legendary. We want to continue to thank them for their service. We want to put it in the context of the students that we spend time with today, to help them understand they were their age. I would like to jump in, and we can make this valuable for you. That is the most important thing for you. When youre greeted in person, youre considered a national hero. And we want to continue to tell that. Snishlly when you started and you decided and you said im going to go for this career, how were you created . Was your race a factor. Did they need people who had the cuts and the determination to help save our nation and the world . How are your first days in the military . Race was a factor, also experience all through the end of the world and still the United States air force separated from the ground forces. There was segregation, but it begins with 1925 war study determining how this 1onetenth of the population, now called black, would be used if america got in another war. Physically qualified. Mentally inferior, fizzly inferior, a secondclass citizen, if you will. That report said dig ditches, build roads, do anything technical was impossible. So that was the attitude and washington bought that as far as policy is concerned. So the civilian Pilot Training program. The military units. Initially they subsequently did. But theyre graduates from Howard University program here. And i wanted to be an army pilot and the army said we dont have any black mechanics so we cant use a black pilot. Also, there was a young man who graduated from west point in 36. When he graduated, pretty well up in his class, but segregated through his training years, said he wanted to be a pilot and they said sorry, they dont have any black aviation units. So he was denied that. It took real world war ii action. Willing to help their allies in europe. But the pressure, the army said we studied asia. We know it could fail, but you keep pressing us. It is a pursuit squadron. Well be glad to talk on that as we go down the line, but segregation was the name of the game, it went back home, it took our United States air force to make a decision. It says you have a record of 409 combat missions which means overtime i would think that attitude started to change, and you were considered eventually a valuable member and effective fighter pilot. When did you start to notice the communications with you and added responsibilities when in your military career did that start to change . Where you started to get more respect . That is interesting. If you want me to lecture for 20 minutes. So you have plenty to tell. But what happened is the air force and its segregation here in the states in july of 1949, we were scattered around the world. I received assignments overseas that i would not get here at home. In other words, the air base training closed in 46. When that base closed, that was july of 49. I became commander of the base in the 1840 air base wing in june of 1972. The first of the states. Previously assignments overseas we would not get here at home. I commanded a Fighter Squadron in the philippines. I was in the cold war, we had not even gotten credit for the cold war because we did not fire anything, but commanded units against russia. The change game very slowly. And that is something to understand, but the value lessons that sustained us are just as port for the young people today who are americas tomorrow, and they need to understand that. The beach in normandy france, how old were you . 18. Did you enlist at 18 and immediately get sent there . What happened right after you enlisted . We were playing stick ball out on the street. A couple boys came over and told us that japanese just bombed and then we president roosevelt. He said anyone 18 and older had to register at the local post office. I went to the local post office with my dad and signed up. Then we reported top fort dixon, new jersey. What was the conversation like in your household, how did your family respond when you found out you were drafting that quickly. Did your mom or dad get upset . Were they supportive . What was the conversation like . They were sorry to see me go. They didnt want me to go. But it is either register at the post office or i guess luck out. No choice. Were you scared . No, i wasnt scared because i was a boy scout. I was used to going through out and sleeping overnight, spending time in the woods. There is not artillery fire in the boy scouts. You were very brave, sir. And then after training the most important thing i could tell you is i had to take a course in typing. And everything in the army is typed. Everything is typed, nothing handwritten. There can be no errors if because of that, they sent me to fort brag, North Carolina, home of the 101st airborne. And from there the training put me into a unit, 105. Its a big gun. The kind that the president used on the fourth of july here. After the training they sent me overseas to england. I spent training in england. And finally they put me into the fourth infantry. 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 heading for utah beach. We landed on normandy, dday, h hour. That day, i think, we they tell me, that we lost 5,000 boys, the first day. What time of day was that and describe what it sounded like. What did it sound like, do you remember . What were the sounds . There was a lot of or till ri fire when you landed . Was it quiet. What did it sound like . Im sorrying. The sounds what were the sounds in a morning when you landed on the beach, what did you hear . We crossed the english channel, it is only about 23 miles, rather quickly because there must have been about 500 sh 500 ships. We werent the only ones in on the invasion. But two went in and ours happened to be utah. We landed there just as the light was starting. And then we im sorry. Continue please. Mr. Howardton. I will let you collect yourself and i will ask the question once again in a moment. Mr. Howerton, you started your college career, started your education, and then some of it was interrupted and thats how you how old were you when you started in the service and describe what led to you getting into the service. All of our experiences are unique. I grew up in western kentucky. It was a very deprived at the time. There was no tv, so i grew up in that area and i was a bookworm kid, the schools must have been excellent. I was an academic, but there was no money for college. So i wanted to get out of the house, but i wanted to make some money, and try to figure out how to get an education. This was, i was 17 years old, graduating from college, turning 18. I ended up, of all places, in northern new jersey working for white castle system incorporated. You all know what that is, im sure one of the great hamburgers. I was able to live on 18. 50 a week and i was able to audition and get enrolled in a Radio Broadcasting school within the vicinity of radio city. So when i was not flipping burgers or working on curb service at white castle, i was reading soap opera scripts and learning to be a radio broadcaster which was my interest at the time. Pearl harbor came along and i worked a saturday night, woke up sunday morning, it was maybe noon or 2 00 in the around, and i turned on the radio and heard about pearl harbor. I didnt enlist at the time. I wasnt i was patriotic, but i didnt enlist, i was a procrastinator. Waiting around to see what was really going to happen. So while i was waiting they lowered the draft age from 20 to 18. So in february of 1943, i got the greeting. Greeting, you have been selected. For the infantry. In the infantry . Well, no i was at fort dixon, new jersey. Took a bunch of tests and ended up training as a medic. I had no interest in medicine, but they needed medic trainees at the time so you, you, and you become medics. When i finished there, at the end of 90 days basic training but medics didnt 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, and there was a corporal behind the desk and he said you have to make a choice. And i looked at him and i said i cant believe it the army is going to give me a choice. And he said yes, he said you can go to medical, administrative ocs, officer candidate school, or you can go to the astp. So which is . That was my next question. What is the astp, corporal . And he said i dont know. He fumbled in his desk and pulled out a brochure, handed it to me, and then i knew what it was because i knew there was a college program. This is called the Army Specialized Training program. The army put about 200,000 young men into american colleges across the country. The idea was to develop a tra Training Academy to go overseas and rebuild whatever was being torn down during a war. Studying engineering, and various other things like that. I learned later in doing some research that there was another reason. The University President s were raising cane with the defense department. Some of them were going bankrupt. They were depleted. They were taking all of their College Students and perspective students. So we became College Students. So i ended up at the institute of technology. I had no interest in engineering. So i was interested in history, english, social science, and those kind of academic things, but i was able to get pretty good grades by listening to lectures and trying to memorize what was said, so i got pretty good grades there. After the first nine months in april, 1944. The army decided because of severe manpower shortage, 1943, with the invasion coming up, they really needed troops. So they made a decision to break up that program halfway through. We ended up on a troop train. Imagine a train pulling up, and theyre saying youre 18, get on the train. We were joking before hand, right . I said you were like cattle, and you said highly educated cattle. Cattle and cadets without any stripes. So we go down to louisiana late at night when we finally detrained. Stay in your seats until your name is called. Get out on the platform, follow a sergeant into your company. So here i am, out on the platform, all of my friends left on the train, i had no idea how they selected people. So we marched through, late at night, got up the next morning and stood formation. A very competent draft a typical world war ii drill sergeant. And he stood out in front of the company and he said yall men here . Youre not supposed to move your heads in my company, but you can move your eyeballs around if you wish, he said when you move your eyeballs youre going to see something here. You hear about these young men, these College Students helping us win the war, theyre right in here among us and you can tell them because they look like they havent had no sun in six months. That was my entrance into the infant infantry. Thats a great story, i love that. You had a varied experience when you start in the service as an army private and you finish as a colonel over 30 years. How old were you when you first saw combat, and 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 iesies in the pacific for the navy. I fsz in twas in the service ana staff based on my previous experience and a program called Citizens Military training camps. If you attended that camp for four summers you would be commissioned as a second lieutenant. It was terminated because the military bases were being used to Train National guard folks. I was a star sergeant. And the officers candidate school, and i graduated there in march of 1943. The first assignment was being at a student at Officer School in california. They had to Train Company grade officers for assignments in the pacific theater. After the one month course i was selected as an instructor where i stayed for a year. After that i was september to the pacific. The first on the island of new caladonia. I was there for a short time. We ended up on the island where i joined the 27th division, and that started my real military career as a First Lieutenant platoon leader. What were you responsibility for doing when you were in position . You were the leader of an infantry platoon which was three squads, 12 men in each squad, each one commanded by a master staff sergeant. Then there was the platoon head quarters. A platoon sergeant. And there was a bazooka team, about 40 people lead by a lieutenant. A bazooka shell is how big . It was a 2. 36, one of the first they had. It was a small how big of a hole could it put in a wall . What kind of damage does it do . It had a range of about 75 to 100 yards. It would destroy a machine gun nest, or a mortal position, but it didnt have much penetrating power. I suppose on okinawa there was nothing to penetrate but trees, mountains, homes, things like that. We used it if we knew where a machine gun was located or we saw a hole, we would train the bazoo krksz a on that hole to destroy it. The motto for a lieutenant was follow me. I think that is why i survived the military combat because i was always leading up front. I would normally have one or two scouts in front. And the rest i would leave behind on the command of the platoon sergeant until we contacted the enemy. You always have plans to what youre going to do, but when you contact the enemy, then you have to make new plans. You cant participate exactly what youre going to run into. How many people, what kind of guns they have, where are they located, the artillery, the mortal. I was wounded, but i started out with 29 men and three weeks there was nine of us left of the 20 who were evacuated, seven were killed. And 13 were wounded. So i started with 29 and in three weeks there was nine of us left because 13 were wounded or killed. Now youre in your early 20s, coming from home and doing all of this training. How did seeing all of that death so quickly affect you emotionally . It is something you never forget. To me it was like it happened yesterday. Even now . Even now you fell that . Beg your pardon . Even now you feel like it happened yesterday. This is the first time i have ever talked about okinawa. I have been invited by the history club of Fairfax County and arlington, virginia to talk about my experiences in world war ii, but this is the first time i have been invited from the world war ii memorial friends, but everything happened like it was yesterday. Like yesterday. Like you never loose it. Does it still hurt . Do you dry and have nightmares . What is your life like when you recall it . It makes me sad, my wife will say jim, whats wrong, and i say ill be okay, but i think people here will also confirm that it is an experience that lives with you forever, the biggest problem i had of the seven men in my direct control that got killed and the 13 seriously wounded and evacuated, is what happened to them and what happened to their families . And you know when youre up front and a man this close to you is killed and you can hear the bullets going by your head, and this man is killed and you can hear the bullets but you survive, and you ask why not me . To this day i dont know why i survived. Hopefully i have been a good citizen of my country. I did serve in the army for a little over 30 years. I had many wonderful and challenging experiences, so i appreciate the opportunity to be here today and im happy to answer questions about my experience. So now that we had a chance to go across the board. Does anyone have any questions they would like to ask . Yes, sir. As young men enrolling into the army, would you see your life any other way . As young men going into the army, as you look back, could you envision your life in any other way . Not with the war declared . You felt a sense of duty. Herman, would you envision your life in any other way than the way you did by going into the service . I dont know, but i would go again. My primary thing is that i wanted to continue school. But the germans would not let us. Good point. And were lucky we