Its may 29, 2014. Im in florida. What is your name . My name is harold w. Berkman. Harold, when were you born and where were you born . I was born on february 22, 1926 in brooklyn, new york. I have been a resident of florida since 1975. Im 88 years old. In order to accurately trace my military odyssey, i have drawn from four sources. One, my memory. Two, my discharge papers. Three, letters that i sent to my parents when i was in europe. And fortunately, my mother had saved my letters. And four, regimental and battalion history of the 317th regiment and second battalion that had been declassified. A neighbor of mine who was an expert in terms of accessing the internet did the research for me. Lets back up for a minute, please, harold. Sure. You said you were born in brooklyn, new york . Yeah. Were you raised and did you grow up in brooklyn some. The first 11 years of my life i spent in brooklyn. Then my father retired and we moved up to a small town in Sullivan County called monticello.
And the exhibits of what would have happened on the ground didnt matter the closing months of world war tii. To do this we asked our own rob citino. She among the seniors, i will beat him to the punch line and say he has the longest on staff. He is a Award Winning historiah. He taught for three decades including stints at west point, the u. S. Military economy, and the war college. He came in 2013 for the International Conference. He is one of our featured tour historians. He came to our 2015 tour, but he did not come to our 2015 International Conference because we did not invite him that year. We invited him to join the staff as the Museum Senior historian and we could not be luckier to have a topnotch scholar to guide us, so ladies and gentlemen, our friend george citino. What was up in 2015 . What did i do you sit at home and there is a big party in new orleans and youre wondering what happened. Thank you for those comments, ger my. I remember the first time i spoke at the conferenc
Welcome back to the Madeleine Paul hilliard Conference Center here at the higgins hotel. I hope everybody enjoyed their lunch. We spent this morning doing some pretty high Level Analysis of the political and strategic situation that existed amongst the allied leaders. But as we all know, wars are fought on battle feels, not in board rooms, and these summits, though they dictated much of what would happen on the ground, they wouldnt have mattered much if we didnt have armies in the field. So our next session will look at how yalta affected the execution of the closing months of world war ii. To do this, we asked our very own rob citino, dr. Citino is the executive director of the institute for the study of war and democracy as well as the Museum Samuel and mary stone Senior Historian at the National World War Ii Museum and ill beat him to the punch line and say hes got the longest title on staff. Hes an Award Winning military historian, published ten books, primarily on the german army.
World war ii memorial hosted the event. Mr. Kershaw good morning. On behalf of the friends of the National World war ii memorial, it is my tremendous honor to welcome you to the magnificent world war ii memorial. My name is alex kershaw, i am a member of the board of directors at the friends of the National World war ii memorial. I have written several books about world war ii, including one called the longest winter, which is about the battle of the bulge and americas most decorated platoon from world war ii. It is my great honor to serve today as your master of ceremonies. Thank you all for joining us on this chilly, beautiful day, as we mark the 75th anniversary of the battle of the bulge. The largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the United States in world war ii. In fact, the largest fought by the u. S. In its entire history. Friends of the National World war ii memorial is a Small Nonprofit Organization Whose Mission is to honor and preserve the National Memory of world w
School, scott green, is here tonight. Scott, can you waive your arm . Thank you. [applause] mark in uniform at the back of the room. This lecture series, which is about great military events, great commanders and sometimes great controversies in the art of war, has been ongoing since almost the beginning of my tenure 15 years ago. It has been our great series on the library. This is probably my last introduction because i have been drafted by the president so if you can identify with that, to go to washington to save the republic, which as you know needs saving. Say, thealways like to command school is the intellectual center of the army. It is selfcritical, selfaware, it plays no favorites and is the best place to learn from the experience and history of the battlefield and with extraordinary teaching and technology, to learn from todays battlefields and commanders. It is also a school for our allies and partners, and the future military leaders from around the world, a place where th