How they coped with their losses. This program is part of the friends of the National World ii veterans conference is conference and is over one hour. Good morning and thank you for coming. A great opportunity for all of us to learn to some of the greatest resources to world war ii that we have. Session two, is connected with American World war ii orphans network. I am the morning anchor karen washington d. C. In this is my first exposure to this network, so i am interested in trying to learn with you. I am also an education reporter, too. So i can infuse that in some of my reporting. I learned today by doing research and talking to our panel here that 183,000 children were left fatherless as a result of world war ii. These folks are among them. Joining us on the panel this morning, we will start on the other side. , an is bob meake industrial engineer and serving as a staff member of the congressional person and senator. Next to bob is nancy craig. And i hope i pronounce the rest of this right. American defenders and society. Is inea of Expertise Technology and she graduated from ucla. We will let her go through the amazing thing she has been a part of, having to do with navigation and aircraft. And up next is walter carter. His father was an army doctor and world war ii. And arthur shelton. In the civily Rights Division of the justice department. With ted kennedys campaign. If i could start with bob. Experience, how losing your father, how old you are, what was it like for your family in those days, and how did you end up with this organization . Bob i never knew my father. My mother was four months pregnant with me when she got the telegram that he had been killed in action in italy. She was able to keep me close my paternal grandparents. She remarried when i was five. I had a wonderful adoptive father who died at the age of 61 from colon cancer, which was contracted by being among the first troops that went to nagasaki at the end of the war. My mother ended up losing two husbands to world war ii. Through at about this book. Memberseen a member 18 i have been a member 18 years now. 183,000 documented children at the v. A. Paid to children. The mother was from another theiry, and they lost fathers, too, but they did not get v. A. Benefits because of the lack of marriage. Craig, craig nancy your experience with losing your father, and how you were able to achieve so much because i also have a mother who lost her mother very young. You have achieved a lot. Nancy thank you. I am a little older than you. I was in the philippines. She looks much younger though. [laughter] doctor. Y dad was a he was posted to manila. I was with my parents during the war. They were evacuated in 1941. The only picture i really have a earlyher with me was in may in 1941 when they found out we would be evacuated. Parentsts without my went outside of their quarters and took parents my parents went outside of their quarters and took turns taking pictures of me on their laps. Fathers tour of duty was to be up in 1941. So, she decided to stay on the there whento be ther the he arrived. All, they were abandoned by the government, who did not seek reinforcements when they were attacked. , there wererrender two surrenders, one in maine one in june of 1941. My father was listed as missing in action for a year. He was finally registered as a pow. Story and i dont know how much you want me to go into it right now, but he spent japan. Ears in used as slavee labor. Ship out ofe last manila in december of 1944. I have a picture of the ship burning because we bond it. Most of the men swam to shore and were rounded up, put on a second ship several days later. Bombed. She did not know that for probably six month after he died. I grew up in l. A. He was referring to my career i think. I became a Computer Programming in 1959 working on the air forces for Surveillance System called sage. 1960s, i was a part of the Apollo Space Program and had a long career in i. T. And retired in 1999. That is an inspiration, right . Very inspiring. When i looked at mr. Carters by outcome i saw International Relations, and i wondered, did International Relations come to because of your farther . Because of your father . It was a combination of history, political science, and economics were my field and undergraduate. I only stayed in the International Relations program for a year before transferring to an economics phd program. My career was in economics. You wrote a book about your father, yeah . Yes. He was a doctored who volunteered for the doctor at a time when doctors one fathers were not required to serve, but he volunteered in 19 42, which was also the year he left for basic training to england. Requested a transfer out of thehospital in england to 29th division, which was training for the invasion of france. He wanted to be closer to the soldiers in the field, and he served as a Battalion Surgeon in the 29th division, landing on omaha beach on dday. 17 tryingled on june to rescue a wounded soldier from beyond the front lines. Old at the time of my older brother i was four years old and my older brother was seven years old. My mother did not remarry and i grew up trying to accumulate a oral history of my father, which was somewhat difficult because my mother did not want to talk about the experience. But after she died, i found that she had kept in her attic, a collection of letters between her and my father dated only that the 1920s when they lived across the street from one another as childhood sweethearts. And grew up and finally married each other. In the collection of letters included 150 letters from his two years in the army. I was inspired by those letters to try to put together the story of my fathers lifeanddeath, which led not only to the publication of the memoir about also led me to discover organizations such as the orphans network. The 29th division association, which was my fathers unit of national officers. And to a group called normandy allies, which is a nonprofit that take students and teachers to normandy every july for about a 12 day history study tour of the beach. I distributed a flyer about that. They do have funding to some for teachersavel and students, so if youre interested in an indepth study tour of normandy, the landings area, you may want to look into that. The next trip is in july. And i went on a trip as one of the Group Leaders for about 12 or 14 years. And i still serve on that board. In my life, i have continued to get more deeply involved in the history of telling of the story of world war ii. How old were you when you lost your dad . He shipped overseas when i was 10 weeks old and was killed when i was 11 months old. You never know your dad . I never knew him. Actually, he was killed after the war was over. He survived the war only to die on his way to headquarters in brussels, where he was going to be processing the paperwork to bring his unit back home. And he was killed in an Automobile Accident in a collision with a truck. Youre kidding . Yeah, not everyone who dies in war is a hero, and not everyone who dies it more, diane battle. Die in battle. It is random. And you have been able to process your experiences with your family over the years, and you see the ongoing conflicts we have around the world. Mystery of lost another missile today and that possibly in the sea of japan. I had a chance to interview some families who have lost loved ones in these current conflicts. When you see those stories on the news, does it immediately give you a pain in your stomach . How do you deal with that emotionally because it is something you dealt with as a child, now youre seeing other children go through it. I just got goosebumps when you said that. It is very personal to me because two of my three son knows are on active duty two of my three sons are on active duty. I am retired. I serve 32 years. In my experience with all of this, i have come to believe in serendipity, or whatever you want to call it. , will thegritty circle be unbroken. Two incidences. Gentleman sitting in the seat was a first kernel and i was second lieutenant. And the Tuskegee Airmen unit were involved. We were all connected. Obviously, when my own sons were deployed, it was very nerveracking. I have beeny to many blue to gold ceremonies were mothers, wives, children traded their blue Service Stars for the goldstar. When we say this is the goldstar , you never want because you have a Family Member that has died in service. And i get lots of talks. I go out and talk about my father as often as i can. I try to keep it upbeat and then talk about his legacy of his short life. He is survived by men, three grandsons and three great grandsons, greatgrandchildren of this point. It is very nerveracking. Something that can make it pertinent to your students, by the way, even though i was an engineer, i have a ba in American History and my mother is a retired high school in which teacher. I taught english parttime at the high school level. When the kernel was talking about the invasion of japan, do when iis a soldier was talking about the invasion of japan, did you know that there were hundreds of purple arts ordered there were hundreds of purple hearts ordered. Higher quality because they make them better back then. They were not made in china or wherever. [laughter] that is a way to related, and yes, we are still losing troops, and personnel in combat, but it doesnt make it any less painful for those members of those families. It also reminds me of the situation. The big difference i think is that after world war ii, the widows were considered a threat to the married wives because they did not have a father or a husband. People did not want to talk about it. They thought it would be better off. Today, the military offers much better support. My old boss has even started a foundation for the caregivers to the wounded. And there are all kinds of grief camps, particularly for the children to learn to do with it. So i think in that sense, we have learned something from that. But the biggest thing is, i guess now, people talk more about it. But it does not lessen the pain any. Yous. Craig, how old were when you lost your dad and how did you cope with it . Nancy i was seven. So old enough to understand what was going on . Nancy yes, yes i did. Up a goodhad kept facade for four years. For birthdays and christmas, my sister and i would get packages in the mail as if they were from daddy, as if daddy was ok. It was difficult to deal with the fact that he was not coming home because she had kept up this facade that everything was going to be ok. Know how awant to 10yearold child processes this information, i did not know until just now whether i would read this and not. I owe this poem to a man in crowded as who wrote a poem. He so captured in reverse my experience as a 10yearold that i had never been able to verbalize that i rewrote it, and with his permission, i am going to read it now. This is a 10yearold. , who to thisher day, remains are unrecovered. And to thought someday her father was going to walk out of the jungle having suffered from amnesia, or not knowing that the war was over. In my other life, my dad survives the war and comes home to his wife and daughters. In my other life, my family moves to other exotic places that the philippines, where she was when the war started. Only now, we are at peace and i grew up in a two parent family. In my real life, my dad dies as a prisoner on a japanese ship. And my mother raises her two daughters alone on her widows pension and what she earns of the Public School nurse. A sum that pays for a modest home in a nice neighborhood. My mother works and i have no father. I spend hours each day turning the pages of stories about wizards, giants, and captive princesses. In my real life, i choose a nontraditional career and work for equality for women in the workplace. I become a Founding Member of the american defenders of the memorial society. Hard is it to read Something Like that . You didnt very, very well. Nancy five rated about 25 times. I read it about 25 times. [laughter] that helps. Are there organizations like yours that helped like yours that helps families . More hasorresponding each war has corresponding organizations, but they do not like to talk about each other. Is sons andst one daughters in touch, which are the children of vietnam. We need to do more . Do we need to do more for these kids now . Other organizations . Can we connect the knowledge that you have two new generation to help . We allalk about talk about reading of the past and the line, those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. I think every generation goes through this. How the new generation wants to listen to an older generation. When you add one thing asked about the news about current conflict having an impact. It has an impact on all of us. In addition to what has already been set because there are that the political people make to send people into war. And the consequences dont stop with soldiers, minute women, who might be killed or wounded, permanently affected by the events they have witnessed. The consequences filter down to their families, children, friends. For every soldier who is buried at it American Military cemetery somewhere, they let parents, brothers and sisters, and many of them left thousand children. So, the impact is not just of the one soldier. The impact extends to everyone in society that we live in. And politicians need to understand that for the cavalierly send people off to war. I want to open some questions up to the teachers who might have something they like to say. Sharing the stories, i imagine, could really bring some of these images home because theyre talking about stories of when they were seven years old, or eight, or 10. And some of your students on the younger side are not too far motive of that, even if they are in middle school now. That is something they could probably grassed, especially because i have a sevenyearold and an 11yearold. And i am on the news. So when they ask me about terrorism or if we are going to be bombed by north korea, have to come up with answers. I know students in your classroom probably need answers. Can you think of some questions you can ask our panel that can help you relay that message . Or if any of you been put in that particular position as you try to teach some of these modernday lessons . Does anybody have any questions . We can keep going if you dont. Weaken continue on. Im sorry. I did not see your hand, i apologize. Hello. This is for the whole panel. This morning, we heard a presentation from the American Battle and monuments commission. I think the purpose is to commemorate and to ponder. Im sure you may have gone to some of the cemeteries and memorials. How do you respond to them . Memorials bringing measure of closure or purpose to this, or are there things that the memorials and cemeteries still leave open . Well, my father is buried at one of those cemeteries. He is buried in the netherlands. The first time i wife and i went, my mother never went there. She can never bring herself to do that. The first time my wife and i went there when i was 30 years old, i had never seen a more peaceful place. I had never seen a place that seemed so appropriate to be the final resting place an american soldier place for an american soldier. Besides the netherlands, there besides theeople netherlands, 13,000 people memorialized. Soldier has been adopted by a dutch family, and the dutch families come to the cemeteries on a regular basis, leave flowers. Many of them have communicated with the families to the soldiers buried there. We had the privilege of meeting the family that adopted my fathers grave. There was something done several years ago called the faces of mark broughton, where the group got together to get photographs of his many of the soldiers buried there is possible. Now they have over 4000 photographs. They put the photographs next to the grays and over one weekend in may, over 20,000 dutch and came tond belgian folks visit the cemetery to see those craze. Es. Grav we met the organizer of this, 22yearold young man. We asked him, why did you do this . It wasnt for those soldiers, i would not be here, or i would not be free. So yes, those cemeteries are meaningful, and i think they do a lot of wonderful Educational Programs there for people in those countries. His years for 22 years old. That is special. The cemeteries are a means of closure. I have been to the American Cemetery in normandy numerous times when my father is buried. But a point i want to make is at the American Cemetery in normandy, like most of the others, they are putting films and visitor centers. We saw fragments of them in this mornings presentation about the lives and deaths of soldiers buried in those cemeteries. In one reason why they did that as young people, Young Students were coming to the cemetery having seen movies like saving private ryan, would ask of the staff, are all of those headstones movie props. And they wanted to have some means of conveying to the visitor that eat headstone that each headstone marked a life that is missing and a family that is impacted. Those cemeteries are also doing the job of conveying to the new generations that it was a very personal affair as well as a geopolitical affair. Nancy i would like to say something. Died. Fathers case, he he waser always said buried at sea. That is it. Remains unrecovered. It is been a Lifelong Learning process to find out what really happened, and it continues to this day. Bodies ofut that the the 300 men who died in that bombing were loaded onto carg it turns out that the 300 men who died in the bombing were loaded onto cargo nets. After the war, those bodies were exhumed, but only 27 were identifiable. So, none of the families of those men were ever notified that that is what happened. So years of research by various people have unfolded this story. The bodies that were exhumed, they were taken to punch bowl of reinterred in 20 graves mixed remains in each grade. 400 mene are about represented in mixed graves. It says in a row and unknown, generally nice, 1945. I discovered this over of period of years. Point in time, the organization that i belong to, the american defend