This is a very special occasion. I had a chance to meet some of these gentlemen. We get underway and honor our greatest generation and look over the goals of what we would like to get done, i would like the chairman of the friends of the World War Ii National memorial. [applause] our greatest ally and most famous ally during the Second World War was winston churchill, who famously said succeeding generations must not be allowed to forget their sacrifice and their example. To me, the beauty and the urgency of assemblies like this, with people like this is what sir winston urged us to do. It is a great honor for all of us and we cannot wait to hear what you have to say, thank you. [applause] as we get underway, we would like to set a few goals to see what we would like to achieve because these gentlemen are valuable resources and we need to soak up as much as we can because they can have a story to tell. We would love to try to learn as much as we can from this panelist panel of heroes. The lessons they have learned so we can share them to generations to come. We would love to because this is a teachers conference, try to explore the best way to teach their stories to our students, our family members. If you try to teach a lesson on world war ii, it is pretty complex. Maybe they can give us some insight. Casualties, conflicts, all the things they were able to go through. Introduce our distinguished panel. Left,e way over to my far 96 years young as of this month, colonel james riffey. Purple heart. [applause] purple heart recipient, went into the service as a private and came out a kernel with 30 years of service. One step closer in the red jacket. Tuskegee airmen, pauls the record for 109 total air missions and is a proud eagle scout. Holds the record for 109 total air missions and is a proud eagle scout. Over, these are brief introductions because i want them to tell their own story. Each one has a list of accomplishments we will let them share with you and we will have workedise visitor who the room when he came in. You will see what i mean in just a second. I will make the announcement say you can hear him and then bring him in microphones you can hear him. School,to dunbar high howard university, 95 years young. A lot of fun. [applause] [indiscernible] [applause] one of the things that today can bring us is perspective. We start looking at statistics and they can be dizzying when you are trying to find how many casualties happened in each theater for each country and they vary. One of the things we can gain today is perspective. One of the more recent statistics we have had, the war in afghanistan, 13 years long, nearly 2500 we lost. That happened alone on omaha beach in one day. These gentlemen have seen and experienced things to a far greater degree than pretty much every other generation. One of the things we would like to do is give them a chance to talk about themselves. They will open it up for questions and where the discussion leads is up to you because we would like for you to leave with valuable information you can teach your students. Why dont we start with colonel riffee. What you would like them to take away from this conference . What i would like for you to take away is the fact that those of us who served in world war ii are noted as the greatest generation. Ive always had some exception to that because i remember the millions of americans who were on the home front. We definitely could not have won the war without the things that they produced, the tanks, the planes and the ships. The millions that were necessary. When i hear that we are special people from world war ii, i have to say that what i believe is that the people who served in uniform on the war front and the people who served on the home front, that was the greatest generation. I would like you to take away that not only to honor those of us who served in the military, but those of us who also served on the home front. Thank you. [applause] colonel mcgee, if you would, could you discuss your , considering when you entered service and how you progressed throughout your distinguished career . Certainly. Understandneed to where the army stood at the time. My experience begins in the 1925 war college that after world war i, determined how does 1 10 of our population would be used if america got involved in another war. Thee of the report says negro is physically qualified, mentally inferior, morally inferior, anything else you could name inferior, second class citizen. If they got involved in another we could build roads and bring food and drive trucks, but the do anything technical was impossible. They had studied the issue and knew it would be a failure. That was sent to washington and would become a part of army mobilization. Our country declared war in world war ii and provided what it took to win the war. The army did not change the policy, but they gave us an opportunity to serve and we dispelled those generalizations and racist ideas about the negro population. But the army never changed the policy. 1947,k the air force in two years after the war was over to determine America Needs to change. I am glad to have had the opportunity to serve and be among those who helped dispel those biases and generalizations. , think we need to understand world war ii, we declared war and provided what it took to win. Korea is still divided, vietnam is not any better. When you use military power for political purposes, no one wins. Politics is a compromise. We need to understand that. Lives are lost. When need to recognize and remember those who give full member full measure. We need to understand where weve been, where we are and where we are going. [applause] mr. Miller, if you would, your service, 22 years, talk about what your personal experience was like on a day to day basis. Oftentimes when we try to relay stories to our students, when we talk about the larger picture, sometimes the things that can grip them are the personal stories. What your day today was like during world war ii, how the emotions you had, the jobs you had, the people you met that had a impact on you because the stories could really help students understand world war ii. I am probably the strange one of the bunch. I got into service when i was 15. My father had died when i was 12. My mother died when i was three. I always wanted to be a soldier. I dont know why, except we had a small army post where i was born and i always wanted to be a soldier. Anded about my age, went in had my first assignment overseas with the 7 74th tank battalion. All i had was training in armor which was all i needed at the there,xcept when i got two months before the battle of the bulge started and all of a sudden i realized i did not know a lot. Me,daytoday coverage for they assigned me to the assault gun platoon of the Headquarters Company and the assault gun platoon was a standard sherman 150th a 155 tube on it,ain whereas most of the tanks had 75s or 76 is 76s. Our first action with the assault gun platoon was in belgium. Beginning, the bullets started on december 16 and on december 19, we went into action on the first time. For the first time. On the first day, we sent three tanks down to stop the first ss panzer divisions which was one of hitlers first favorite outfits. Our Company Minutes to stop the three leading tanks of this first panzer and they turned around and left. Meanwhile, the rest of us were , andchateau just outside our colonel decided he wanted to flatten the next town down so that the first ss panzer would not turn around and go back at us that way. He lined up all six of our assault guns and he also commandeered a 155 that was down the road. He stopped them and made them come over to us and he stood on the back porch. It was more of a veranda. With binoculars, he looked at over and decided we should flatten it because the ss Panther Division was in there, already. We opened fire and demolished the town. And thes a chapel left skeletons of other buildings. We had seven guns firing. Day. Happened in one were civilians involved in that . You say you leveled the town. The civilians were smart enough to get out. That was one thing about the belgians. They got out when they knew trouble was coming. Right after that, we had to go back into the town and clean out that was one long building and there was a Catholic Priest that had taken 50 belgian kids into the basement of the hospital because he figured it was a safe place, not knowing the germans. He hid these kids and meanwhile on the first floor, part of the 30th infantry people were stuck in the different rooms of the hospital. At both ends of the building, there were openwindows and they had a german tank sitting out there and he was firing down the hall and anybody that got near, they were hit. With finally got three tanks up on to this slab land because it was steep. They had to build a corduroy road. We got three tanks up there at night and managed to knock out that panzer tank. We cleaned up a lot of the germans that were in there and we freed the Catholic Priest and the kids. They were mighty happy to see us. I can imagine. Generally, the people would get out. They knew when things were coming. They got out and they went into the woods or someplace. Did,hing that the germans they would drag down the roads and see a group of people, for peoplee i remember looking at the tanks coming through. The germans would just shoot you, no reason. Nobody could figure out why. When we saw those kinds of and we it made us mad heard about the massacre, later on. If you dont know what that was, it was when the germans captured a unit that was on the road and they held them prisoner for a short while and then all of a sudden, somebody opened fire from one of the german tanks, so they all opened up. They killed a bunch of americans that were there. When we found out, i really believed the attitude and maybe the gentleman on the end can agree with it. The attitude over there changed quite a bit. All of a sudden, it was a do or die thing. I dont work i dont think anybody wanted to take anything from the germans they didnt have to. Idle me material things, im talking about tricks. Everything was on guard, from then on. Other than being scared as hell all the time, that was it. Cohn, as you look back at your service, what were some of the emotions that you think about that hit you, still today, after all these years of being back in civilian life . What is the first thing that comes to your life to your mind . What are the things you recall first . I sort of came in differently. Born in germany and i fromewish and we escaped germany at age 13. This was 1938. Knew about thei germans this was in 1938. At that point, i knew about the germans, and it certainly was a different situation when i came back in 1943 facing the germans in a different capacity. That was a feeling that you just cannot describe. It was different. I was in charge, when, in fact, in germany, i was the victim. I turned from victim to being in charge. Mr. Hydeck thats called payback. [laughter] mr. Cohn it wasnt really payback because the one point we were making was we are not going to be like them, and that was very important. The other point i would want to make is that as you listen to us, each one of us really was in a different war. We only saw a certain segment, and you cannot generalize on any one of us. You really have to listen to everybody, and then you can make your generalizations. As far as my service was concerned, i came into the battle of the bulge. Because i spoke german, they put me in intelligence. Mr. Hydeck can you hear him, by the way . I just want to make sure. Mr. Cohn as intelligence, we worked initially as counterintelligence officers. While i was only a pfc. , i did not show any rank. I was always u. S. , u. S. Because they were not to know who was what when we were intelligence. Our mission during the battle of the bulge was to find germans who had penetrated in u. S. Uniforms. They were a hazard for us because they could do all kinds of damage in the back of our lines. We did find that this was a legitimate mission because when we hit an infantry roadblock in belgium, they had wiped out four of those fellers with a bazooka. We searched those people. They do not have anything on them except u. S. Dont tax, which we confiscated because we could tell that these people were either prisoners or they were dead. Our mission in germany was that we had to move into the big cities as they were captured and we had personality and building targets. The personality targets with the people who were going to be tried in war crimes. Anything that could be useful to the forces afterwards. First of all, government buildings are nazi party buildings for prosecutions. They were utilities that we could use. They were industrial complexes, military complexes. The ends were all target that we had. The first city was cologne, and then we moved. We had duesseldorf. We went into frankfurt. The last one we had was magdeburg. And you never know what is important, really. The captain needed a russian interpreter, could not find one. He said im senator vitter, come with him. I was trying to get out of it because i dont speak russian. He said no, youre coming, carry the mat. Mr. Hydeck flooding alert, by the way. Im sure all your phones are going off. I apologize. Mr. Cohn it was really a singular type of thing because eisenhower had indicated u. S. Troops were not to cross the elba as well as soviet troops were not to cross so the armies would stay across. It was the dividing line. We went across because he had a topsecret map to show where the occupation zones were. They were not going to do it until maybe six months later. They were not going to tell me with the mission was, but i figured it out. Anyway, the reception you cannot imagine. We had not the need to fight because the germans knew the war was over, and they were giving up, coming from all sides trying to give up to us because they were hungry. The russians, on the other hand, had to fight all the way up to the river. They saw for them the war was over and they had survived. That was the reception we received. Mr. Hydeck i want to open it up to questions in a couple of minutes. Im going to ask the panel one more question, but can i have a show of hands how many of you are teachers . Ok, wow. How many of you are teachers at the elementary level . Middle school . High school . Beyond high school . Ok, looks like middle and high school are the book. What i would like you to do is ask questions that could relate to how and going to ask the panel one more question, but start thinking about it how it could relate to making your job teaching world war ii easier because as mr. Cohn so aptly put it, we should look at this as individual conflicts and wars, and a lot of these gentlemen never crossed paths. Oh, yeah, because you cannot see them. If anybody needs water, give me a shout. Got it. Check. As the teachers start thinking about their questions, i will start with you. When you he or other people talk about world war ii and any of the various conflicts and theaters, what do you believe is maybe misunderstood or maybe often stated incorrectly . Do people state things incorrectly about the war because they have only read a smidge about it and could probably do more study . There are things that are misconceptions about world war ii . I think the experiences of each individual is so different its pretty difficult to come up with something that might be normal. However, i find that, for example, going back to the history to answer that question, i have about probably 10 or 12 books on world war ii history, and you can read each one, and theres a lot of differences in what historians have your say about world war ii. I would say that if you are interested in the history of world war ii, you can go to the library, get you a book about world war ii, and read it, and you will find a perspective at least for the individual who is the author of that particular book, but one thing i do not like to talk about world war ii is because it is not very pleasant. I think this is about the third time since i turned in the 90s mr. Hydeck 96 as of july. [laughter] colonel riffe i have talked about world war ii. I came out alive. I was wounded. I was the First Lieutenant leavy leading an infantry of men most of home were 18 or 19 years old and i was the leader of that platoon for about a month before i was transferred to another job, but during that one month, seven of those Young Americans gave their life for our country, and 14 others were seriously wounded and evacuated and i never saw again. A couple of them may not have survived because they were very seriously wounded, so i believe that if you talk with each of us of hear that you will get a different perspective of what they view as world war ii and how you should approach any study or consideration of it. Mr. Hydeck currently gi, misconceptions, things you are stated incorrectly about world war ii colonel mickey colonel mickey colonel mcgee. Colonel mcgee there was a lot i had not heard about it, but i think there are some people that do not like war. I dont ink any of us do, even though we sit here and have served our country. Still, the prayer is that one day wars will cease. Will that come in our lifetime is the question. For your teaching our young people is what do we give them and what do they get from our experiences that help Carry Forward into the future of our country and what we so much enjoy about america, even with its problem areas. That is what we have to, i think, pass on to the young folks. They need to understand world war ii to me is different than any of the others because war was declared in the country coming out of 10 years of depression behind the Job Opportunities in the service being the various elements brought a change for the world. It changed europe. It changed our country, and we have to realize that. As i say, the key is what do we give our youngsters for whatever the future is . Some of us will not be here in the future, but certainly we need to be mentoring them in a way that preserves the freedoms that we have so much enjoyed. For those of us in the room who have connections to world war ii through our families, oftentimes we learn and maybe you guys can say yes or no the people in our lives who have connections to world war ii very rarely was begun about it. I would ask my grandpa. He did not want to talk about it at all. Same with some other family members who have connections. Do you believe that could lead to people maybe not understanding the war as well as they could . Other misconceptions in your mind that maybe people could do better with . Its funny you ask me this because this morning, i have the opportunity to wake up at 4 00, and i was wondering why i could not go to sleep, and i got to thinking about just what you are asking about. I dont know how we people i have talked to. I have gone to schools, talked to classes. I have talked to teachers. I have gone to history buffs who have programs, and they all say the same thing i had a father or grandfather, but