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 introduce
Theres the heavy guns. This is a forgotten aspect of world war ii. There were real guns in france and heavy artillery. One of the body bearers is represented there. The field artillery, the forgotten branch, in many ways. These are men that were with, in most cases artillery pieces that moved up with the infantry. In some cases, they were in combat with the infantry. As they moved up and provided close artillery support, thats the infantry advanced, this is the story that is in the unknowns. General pershing is trying to be comprehensive in the way that he told the story of world war i through the eyes of these men. Then, of course, the extraordinary story of the tomb itself and how the unknown was selected. And i follow a chicagoan. A dough boy through the entire war. Younger was part of the second infantry division. An elite unit within the American Expedition theary forc and younger is there. Hes a dough boy. A regular grunt. A sergeant that fights from battle to battle. Hes wounded
Also the actions of individuals. A number testified to the great sacrifice, death and combat. The National Cemetery in arlington, virginia is the resting place of more than 400,000 people, including nearly 5,000 unknown soldiers. In 1921, a single unknown soldier was chosen to represent all of those who have died without being identified. The soldier of world war 1 was laid to rest with so many lemm ceremony attended by those of the highest ranks. On Film Documents the progress of that soldiers remains from france to the United States. And the newly built tomb of the unknown soldier. As the ceremonies at the u. S. Capitol where the unknown lay, general pershing stood to fill the role of the nearest relative. Along the way, eight men personally selected by general pershing accompanied the body of the unknown. So well hear from Patrick Odonnell and learn the story of those eight bearers and their hair rheroism on the battlefiel. He is an expert on elite units. Author of 11 books includin
Distinguished professor of history at North Carolina university. Hes the author of six bucks, editor of four. Others his latest book in the reason that we are here this evening is ulysses s. Grant, the buck will be available for sale and signing outside of the conference room. Hes the founder and society of the his story guilt in this era, hes held several research grants, we are thrilled to have him here tonight, and of the year all in for a great presentation. Thank you on behalf of the smithsonian for joining us. We welcome you to the stage. Good evening. Thank you very much elizabeth for that introduction. As all of this with said, i have spoken here, before my wife and i have attended many all the events here. I find a lot of these audiences are intelligent, curious, enthusiastic, and have Attention Spans of more than 140 characters. Speaking of technology this is actually the first presentation ive given with powerpoint, i know what shocked you but it happens to be true. So any g
disagreements it s a reminder of how much it would mean to reach out. that does it for me tonight, the rachel maddow show starts right now. i love that closing story. that was excellent, and you do not know this, but it is very much in keeping with the theme that i m going to be talking about this whole hour, so i know we didn t coordinate this, but this was we have a mind meld today. i will be looking forward to that. just a reminder of humanity even with disagreement which is sometimes hard to remember in this time. yeah, and it is the thing that most frustrates the people who want us to forget that for their own political purposes but it s the only way out, thanks, my friend. much appreciate it. well done. thanks at home for joining us. the capital of the great state of mississippi is jackson, of course. the airport in jackson, mississippi, is called jackson medgar wiley evers international airport. it is named for medgar evers, the civil rights leader. after he