So were going to hear from Patrick Odonnell and learn the story of those eight bears. Patrick odonnell is a critically acclaimed military historian and an expert expert on elite units. He is the author of 11 books and he is the recipient of several national awards. He served as a combat historian in a marine rifle platoon during the battle of fallujah speaks often on espionage counter operations and counter insurgency. Foras provided consulting the awardwinning series band of brothers and just to read you a couple of snippets of reviews on this, his newest book, Exhaustive Research with fluid, mr. Odonnell relates the history of the unknown soldier their part in world war i through the soldiers experience. And from usa today a gripping story from one of the best and most gripping stories. Few authors have the same kind of enthusiasm that odonnell brings to this topic. Ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome Patrick Odonnell to the stage. It is really quite an honor to be introduced by the archivist of the United States. I have spent over two decades here at the National Archives researching 11 books from the American Revolution all the way to the unknowns. Right here in this building, several of the stories about the navy audio bearers were drawn from research here at National Archives. Im honored by all of the individuals here today that came to the unknown, especially many of the former team guards. I like to recognize the former sergeant of the guards as well as richard asaro. These are some of americas finest. Thank you so much for your service. Asc ossks of the society and many of my friends are here. I really appreciate your support over the years. I have written 11 books and all of those books onto in one way or another and what i mean by that is not a cliche. And washed ans me immortal, i was walking with the battalion and we found a rusted old sign that said here line maryland hundreds of soldiers buried in a mass grave and i wanted to know the history of that story. It is history in plain sight and the unknowns is no different. Was given the opportunity to be a guide in france for the marines and later the Wounded Warrior regiment. As we walked the Hallowed Ground of bella would which happened exactly 100 years ago to this day where the marine corps and Second Division helped save paris and they stopped a german drive. We look around the news and theres very little talked about that battle that generation of doughboys. Its the reason why i wrote the and unknown generation, forgot generation the change the world. Around, there is still mustard gas entombment some of the trees and bella would and length scarred by world war i. I was joined by the brothers with fallujah and it was quite striking. It was a situation where fallujah nearly killed all of us and iraq without the direct result of that. It was that meeting of generations that made me wonder and then i found out that ernest agents in made an epic charge on a place called hill 142. 142, walked up to hill this was the high ground. It was crucial. The marines on june 6, 1918 charged across a wheat field under heavy machinegun fire. They were maximum machine guns. They charged in civil war formation because they were ordered to by the french. It was a bloodbath. Many of these men dropped from machine gun bullets. They kept charging and making their way towards hill 142. They were able to take out a position held by a battalion of germans. They seized the hill. Against all enemies took it, but within 20 minutes they knew what was coming next, a german counterattack. And janssen and George Hamilton and the 49th company, this book is a band of brothers on the 49th company, the story of the unknown soldier, braced for the counterattack. Janssen saw in the distance nearly one dozen making their way up to his position, setting up several maxim machine guns. He knew if they were able to set those up, they would sweep the hill and take it. He let out a cry and charged or and charged forward and stopped the attack and potentially saved the hill. For his actions he was the first medal of honor recipient from the marine corps, but he was also pershings body bearer. I wanted to know who the other men were. It was at that point the unknowns found me. I spent years uncovering their story which is untold. It is untold within multiple untold stories. It is hidden in plain sight. The tomb itself has an incredible history, but it is history in plain sight. It is the back story behind the tomb. Who were the people selected to bring back the remains, how the unknown was selected, all of these stories are woven into a single story, a narrative history that is very cinematic that brings you to world war i through the eyes of the men, the most decorated in listed men of the war, who saw some of the toughest action. In nearly every major battle, but general pershing, when he selected his eight pallbearers, he chose the army, marine corps and navy and within that individuals from the combat specializations, engineers for instance. These are not guys that build things. They blew things up. In the case of thomas sanders, a native american, given some of the most difficult assignments in the war, had to breach the wire with only a pair of wire cutters and breached the wire, making a whole to allow the rest hole to allow the rest to go through. There were mounted troops in france. One of the Great Stories is body bearer harry taylor who was practically born in the saddle, a cowboy, that was raised in wyoming. Taylor fought with the first cavalry at the beginning of his career. Was involved in numerous conflicts, lived on in france training men, the wild west division, who makes an epic charge, a suicide charge in the argonne. There is also the infantry, samuel would fill, one of the most decorated doughboys. There is the heavy guns. This is a forgotten aspect of world war i. There were rail guns in france and hillary heavy artillery and one of the pallbearers is represented there. The field artillery, forgotten branch. These are men that in most cases french 75s, pieces that moved with the infantry. In some cases they were in combat with the infantry as they moved up and provided close artillery support as the infantry advanced. This is the story that is in the unknowns. It is general pershing was trying to be very comprehensive and fair in the way that he told the story of world war i through the eyes of these men. And then of course there is the extraordinary story of the tomb itself and how it was, how the unknown was selected. I follow a chicago in, a doughboy named edward younger through the entire war. He was part of the second infantry division, and elite unit in the American Expeditionary forces, that fought through the greatest battles. Younger is there. He is a doughboy, a regular front, a sergeant that fights from battle to battle. He is wounded twice severely, then i will get into the story how he is selected. It is extraordinary. Then there is the story of how all these men and individuals come together. Here in washington, dc, first on november 9, 1921, then they bring the most extraordinary individual, the unknown soldier, to his final resting place in arlington, virginia. Let me go back in time and talk about these body bearers because this book is about the stories. It is about extraordinary stories. It is about extraordinary individuals that in many cases did the impossible. What you will see in this book is individuals that had to overcome extreme hardship, talking about gas persistently, all the time as they fought, bodies that were covered with life and mites as they fought through combat because they were not able to change their uniforms. They also had to battle and fight the greatest army in the world at the time, the german army. Let me go back in time to 1917 when america was unprepared. America went from an army of 220,000 regulars to an army of over 4 million strong at the end of the war. It is an extraordinary story of growth in a time of great need. We mobilized. One part of the story is a forgotten story. That is the story of the navy, the American Navy in world war i. In march 1917, president wilson had a real threat on his hands. German uboats were sinking american shipping at an alarming rate. Even before we entered world war i. There was a decision made to bring naval guards onboard merchant ships, to arm them with typically five inch guns and give the merchant ship a crew of about 15 naval personnel. They are naval guards during one of those was James Delaney. James delaney was a tough irishman from boston, massachusetts. His body was inked with the ships he served on, serving since 18. His life was the navy, and he was given command of a naval gun crew on the uss the ss cam pana, merchant ship. Their journey in the summer was going well until midsummer and they were making their way back to the United States, and all of a sudden a torpedo nearly hit the ship. It was then quickly followed by artillery fire. The men manned their guns and began to respond. Uboat 61 was cruewed by an expert, lieutenant captain dickman who had sunk 40 ships, and no his prey was the campana. They manned their guns and started to fire, but victor, the captain of the uboat, was quite knowledgeable on these affairs and had sunk many ships. He stayed out of range of the campanas guns but it in suit a cat and mouse chase for hours. Both sides fired their guns as the ship tried to flee the battle space. Eventually uboat 61 surrounds are able to hit the side of the campana, one near the engine compartment. James delaneys men were firing so many rounds their eardrums again to believe, but they ran out of ammunition and several of the uboats shells struck the campana. The captain on the campana decides to strike his colors and surrender his vessel. The uboat moves in closely here they go by the actual rowboats, the crew and James Delaney are in, nearly wiped them out as they go so close to it. Now they have a boarding party that goes aboard the campana. They set several charges, but before they do that, they raid the food locker on board the campana, as life on a submarine was harsh. They only had canned goods or whatever they could bring on board once the journey began. The journey was also dirty and filthy. The engines on the uboat 61 let off a lot of grace, and there was inside the boat something called uboat sweat, literally condensation inside the boat. It would get on the mens clothes, their coffee, food, everything. Remarkably the first thing they did was when they went on board was look for soap. They went for the soap and tried to clean themselves and got the food, and they also look for anything of intelligent value and detonated the ship and sank it. At that point the men including James Delaney were brought on board. Six were brought on board uboat 61. The captain is a remarkable figure. He speaks perfect english and he begins to question James Delaney. Here is a meeting of two men. They both, they become i would not say there is a friendship formed, but there is a Mutual Respect that is formed including respect with the crews because the men, James Delaneys crew and his men endure what the men of the uboat indoor. If you have ever seen the movie das bot, it is a world war ii version of a uboat undersea. This is a world war i das boat. They are deft charged. They have to endure what is known as a q boat, the the that the allies have, disguised as a merchant ship but is designed, as in of the uboats surface, to reveal hidden guns and attack the uboat. They go through a minefield. It is an extraordinary story. I will not tell the entire story , but i will tell you at the end of the voyage, both crews lined up for a photo. What James Delaney did not know and the other americans that day was uboat 61s crew were all walking dead man because within a matter of weeks or months, they would never be seen again. This is the powerful story that is inside the unknown that took me years to unearth, including here. Some of these stories were found here in the National Archives as i unearthed them. Another incredible story is the story of the 49th company of the marine corps. The helmet to me is the 49th not the 49th. It is the 205, the second battalion, fifth marines. Their story really begins at bella would which happened 100 years ago to this day. I mentioned the epic charge on june 6 where the men this was world war i dday that no one has heard about unless you are in the marine corps or a world war i buff. This is where the marine corps advance over several fields under heavy machinegun fire. What happened before that was extraordinary. At the end of may, early june, the germans had launched a major offensive geared at rome sorry, paris. They were breaking through the french lines. Literally the french army was melting away. The archives talk about how it was like water on a hot iron. It was evaporating. The french army was evaporating. Men from the 49th company and 25, the Second Division were all being trucked as quickly as possible along with the Third Division of the u. S. Army into the vortex of battle to hold the line at all costs. These were the only reserve units at the time. They were in many cases super divisions. The u. S. Divisions were twice the size of a French Division and sometimes more, larger, much more larger than a german division. They were rushed to the front. As they were in their trucks or camions, they saw french civilians passing them by an french, french members of the army, throwing down weapons saying the war is over. These men pushed forward into the front, and it was here that Lloyd Williams from 25, the men set up behind parts of the french army near bella would. The decision was made by colonel preston brown, chief of staff for the Second Division, the french wanted to immediately commit the marine corps and army piecemeal, thrust them into the line. He insisted they be able to dig in behind the french in shallow foxholes and wait. This potentially helped save the war because the marines and army were ready. If the german army advance over the wheatfields, the french were clearing fleeing. According to the marine corps lore and other documents, Lloyd Williams was confronted with this dilemma, and he said retreat, hell, we just got here. They began to fire with their rifles, accurate rifle fire. Most marines were marksmen. They took down the germans. They stopped them and on june 6, the allies go on the attack. The french order them to push forward. It is janssens company, the 49th company which i followed through the entire war is advancing through the whitfield the wheatfield. They seize the hill against all odds. Many of these men are killed as they cross the wheatfield. They take the hill, janssen survives. He is badly wounded but survives. He is able to disrupt the attack. These men fight. The 49th Company Fights through the entire war. They are in the major battles the aef fights in. It takes about three weeks to clear bellau wood. What happens is a newspaper report of what happened with the Chicago Tribune is in the field as they advance on the sick. Shot through the eye, but before he goes, he writes his report. The sensors it is for been to provide any unit designation of who is in the field. The censors believe Lloyd Williams is killed. He is shot through the eye, badly wounded. He is badly wounded, but they believe he is dead. They go ahead and say let the report go through, which identifies the marine corps. All of a sudden the papers all read the marine corps helped save france, and paris. The army as well, but it creates a sensation. It goes viral. What happens is belleau wood, instead of just a local attack, takes on nation significance. The germans see the papers, and they rush their best units into belleau wood to try to crush the marine corps. Over the course of three weeks, there is very heavy fighting and casualties, but ultimately the marine corps and the army prevail at belleau wood. And the 49th Company Continues to advance. And they fight, you know, in a place that is a turning point in world war i, where the allies go on the counterattack or counteroffensive. They are able to turn the tide of battle. And the germans, the war is changing, changing nature of the war. The 49th fight through another battle as san miguel where the americans go on a true offensive to take down the germans. Several of the body bearers are involved. One of my favorite stories is a forgotten battle the marine corps fought in. It was one of their bloodiest, even in some cases more bloody than june 6. It was a place called blockmont ridge where the french army insisted they take the Second Division to take this impregnable fortress. Here it is called that because the face of the mountain is white. White mountain. It shows, but White Mountain was deceptive in the sense it was ringed with machine guns nests, machine positions. They had tried to take this, and nothing worked. There were bodies all over the place. There was an attack only days earlier. The french army failed to take it. They called in the Second Division as well as the 49th company and marine corps. 1 5 is what they were a part of. Here was also another member of this book, edward younger, the chicagoan. Many of these converge on blanc mont, the field artillery, combat engineers. Theres always converge as they attack this seemingly impregnable position. They have to go across a mile of open ground. The bodies of the french are littering the area. They literally go by one of the positions which was shaped in a phalanx or arrow. It is all dead frenchmen. There was one with a beard, a large richman with a beard that has his eyes wide open with his bayonet pointed at the germans in horror. They passed them and continue to attack. It is a remarkable story. They seize blan