to tell you something about julius becton. we are former comrades in arms. meeting first and september, 1967 at fort campbell, kentucky. when he and i were newly designated commanders in the 101st airborne division. the division was preparing to move by air to vietnam to join its first brigade, already there, which we did that december. . .

earned by members of the second brigade task force, during the month of heavy fighting, in which with our vietnamese friends, we drove out the north vietnamese army units that on january 30, had launched the at the time owe -- tet offensive and brought security to the countryside. on june 22, 1968, the president of the republic of vietnam recognized that task force performance by placing a battle streamer, bearing the vietnamese

cross of gallantry with palm on the colors of the second brigade and figuratively on the colors of each task force unit. recognizing that the credit for that hayward goes to our soldiers, -- award goes to our soldiers to truly earned it, julius and i wore that decoration with pride. so those few months in 1968 are just part of the remarkable life in and out uniform of julius becton. for whose lifetime achievements the association of the united states army presented to him two years ago the george catlin marshal award. so here to describe that life story is my friend, lieutenant general julius becton. [applause]

>> jack, thank you very much. as you may remember, sir, we always -- we sometimes had difference of opinion. but you were the boss. that's right. and it worked out ok. don, it's always good seeing you and thank you for letting me come to your facility and frankly, as i look around, i didn't realize that i would know so many people from past experiences. let me start by giving a brief comment about my background to set the stage, so to speak. my father was a januar janitor,y mother was a domestic worker. they had third and tenth grade education, respectively. my wife's patients were similarly -- had similar backgrounds. but the two of us started working together with a lot of help from a lot of friends,

reached the heighth in our world of academics, politics, military, and society. this autobiography, was initially decide for our grandchildren and our great grandchildren with the simple message that you can do whatever you want to do and for the records, we have 11 grandchildren and three great grandchildren. and just point of pride that i always throw in our oldest great grandson, 19, 6'8" inches tall. he doesn't play basketball. i started to work on this book back in 1992. in collaboration with joe galloway and i'm sure most of you have heard, others know him personally, but he got busy selling his own book and then

making a movie, that he had to drop out of working as we had planned and he just became an adviser to me, and was very helpful in helping me to negotiate some of the pit falls that come from writers. i should point out early on, that i am a slow learner. i justifyished this book about two years ago, which meant that from 1992 to 2007. of course, along the way i had several unique challenges. some more unique than others. and i think don knows what i'm talking about in some respects. this book is about my almost 40 years as a soldier. plus four follow-on jobs post-army. i entered a segregated army in

1943. december. when i joined the army air corps enlisted reserves, still a senior at lauren marion high school, suburban philadelphia. my joining was the result of a former graduate coming back and talking to an assembly of students about joining the army air corps and wearing your silver and gold bars, that speaker was hep arnold, who graduated from lord marion in 1903. quotquite a few of the seniors, particularly the football players, took the battery of tests, and six of us were sworn into the army air corps enlisted reserves, on the 28th day of december, many 40 throw. -- 1943. he entered on activ active-dutye following july, following high

school graduation, but none of us ever graduated from flight school. before leaving the subject of lord marion, let me do a little name dropping. by mentioning some of the other graduates of lord marion. jim billington, librarian of congress. al haig, former secretary of state and a few other things. larry summers, harvard and now national economic adviser. vice admiral jim zimbel, former president of uniform services, university of health sciences. jim vance, the anchor an channel 4 nbc. and for the most recent graduate, to the pride of some people, kobe bryant. plays for the los angeles lakers.

a graduate. and i could name five or six others, residents of where we live in fairfax. at least once a month or so, somebody comes up. i went to lord marion too and i found out that the catholic priest who has been working there longer than of would been there, graduated -- than we've been there, graduated in 1950, so just a few name droppings, it helps to set the stage. ok. all six of us went off to preflight school after graduation. five went to florida. and i was sent to keifler field, biloxi, mississippi. a great place for a young black from main lane to go to in 1944. after failing the eye examination, some four months later, i was admitted into officer candidate school at fort

benning, georgia. i was 18 years when i started the course. did well, and was commissioned in 1945, august of 1945, second lieutenant of infantry and sent to join the 93rd division. at that time i was 19 years old. i joined the 369th infantry regiment just north of north guinea after the end of world war ii. now, some of you old time, and i use that term very politely, can appreciate the anomaly that the 93rd division and the 31s 31st division nicknamed dixie division were a signed to the same outfit throughout the war. i have yet to find anyone who can tell me why that happened that way. i was separated from active-duty a year later, in november of

1946, but stayed in the reserves. i interviewed college in february of 1947. memuelle berg -- i entered as te first black student as a premed major. i lost my football scholarship by which i got in to college. a couple months later, due to an injury. in july of 1948, some 18 month after, i arrived to mullenberg, i was at aberdeen proving ground as an army reservist as an active-duty for training, earning some money between semesters, because money was not that plentiful, and i was there when president truman issued his executive order 9/9/81, on the 26th of july. officially declaring equality of

treatment and opportunity for all personnel. theoretically, ending segregation in the military forces. by the way, a copy of that executive order is in this book. the aberdeen proving ground commander held a postwide officers call, read the order to the entire assemblage, and then said this. as long as he is the commander, there will be no change. officer club number 1, officer club number 2. nco club number 1, nco club number 2. swimming pool number 1. swimming pool number 2. now i'm assuming that you do know the difference. as i said, at the time, the summer of 1948, i was a premed student, and while i was doing ok as a student, i wasn't all that keen about becoming a medical doctor, which was my

father's biggest hope. because as far as he was concerned, the only thing that -- there's nothing higher for a black person was than to become a medical doctor. i had enjoyed the army as an officer during world war ii, albeit, in all black units, so after the executive order, i volunteered to be recalled to active-duty. now, the decision for that volunteering was prompted in part by the fact that i married my high school sweetheart. in january of 1948. we bought a house in philadelphia. in june of 1948. and we were expecting our first child in december of 1948. now, i know there are some counting. december, january. ok. louise had to stop working as a registered nurse in the early

fall. and the g.i. bill stipend certainly wouldn't cover our expenses. plus, no football scholarship, therefore $35 a month, which i was paid, went away. i was called to active-duty in november of 1948. and even with the executive order, i was initially eye signed to an all -- assigned to an all black unit at fort bliss, texas, following our daughter's birth. of after a refresher course, at fort bending in the infantry basics, in the summer of 1949, i joined an all black battalion to include the commander, in the second division, in fort lewis, washington, where he was there to participate in an armywide program call competitive tour to become a regular army officer, and i suspected many of you recall what that program is all about. i should point out for the

youngsters, that in those days, while the army may have been segregated, all of the schools were not. none of the schools were segregated. they were integrated. now, some of you senior soldiers may remember, comp tour was designed to take the non-regular officers and give them a chance to become regular officers. reservists, guardsmen, officer candidate types, like myself. normally, they would bring on about 1,000 officers annually, and after a year, we had minimum of four assignments, about a -- about one-third of the group were selected or offered the opportunity to become regular officers. the korean war, as you may remember, started in june, to be exact, the 25th of june, 1950. in july 1950, we deployed to

korea and i was st. louis in that same all black battalion, except the commander. he was replaced by a white commander. whose reassignment orders had been made before the war started, that is, the outgoing commander. of course, some of us had hoped that he would be in command when we got to korea. but that was not the case. lieutenant colonel d.m. mcmains, the former commander, was brought back and he took command and replaced lieutenant colonel chase. some 30 days later, my battalion, the third battalion, 9th infantry, was desegregated. august of 1950. why? because battlefield decision, the difficulty or inability department of army to provide replacements, based on race. i'm estimate talk being about -- estimate talking about some of

those unique challenges that we had. another interesting coincidence, a sergeant charlie rangle was a member of the other black battalion, field artillery. and you may have heard about charlie lately, in good things and not so good things. from march of 1951, when i assumed command of company l, 9th infantry, my first company, and i later had two other companies, until i retired in 1983, some 32 years later, i was fortunate to have commanded at every level in the army through corps. my first job following the army came if january of 1984. some five months after retiring. at fort monroe. where i was the deputy commander for training, training in doctrine command and was also cast to be the army inspector of

training, that shy mighter set up as a separate program and by the way, i had four jobs after leaving the army and in each of those four john's, i followed someone who had been fired. that also makes for a challenging opportunity. the circumstances about why i took that first job, which was subject to duel compensation, that is, no army retired pay, falls in again, that unique category. as some of you know, duel compensation simply said preclude a retiree from collecting two paychecks from the federal government at certain grades. in effect, i did not draw retired pay for six years. so why would i do that? well, the answer is very simple. when i retired, louise gave me 30 days to get a job. if i didn't, she would. i didn't, and she did.

and she became a staff supervisor at hospice in northern virginia and while she was working, i decided to help out in the kitchen. i decided that i would help her cabinets look like my mess hall cabinets. all the chance, alphabetical order, facing out, all the bottles, same size, facing out, all little boxes, same size, in alphabetical order, so you can find what you're looking for. ok. i was in great shape until she came home. and took one look at that, and i knew my days retired were numbered. since i became the director in the office of foreign disaster assistance, aid, agency for i understand national development, retired pay, but i was not in her kitchen.

office of foreign disaster assistance is the agency responsible for providing aid, mostly humanitarian ahead, to foreign countries, when they have a disaster, and they ask foreign disaster help and our ambassador says yes and we went to work. i had that job for 21 months, that was followed by becoming the third director of fema. the president zester -- my predecessor was forced to retire -- wrong, he got fired by the white house and i was offered the job. i had two principal supporters. a senator from tennessee, al gore, and a vice-president of the united states army, -- vice-president of the united states, george herbert walker bush. my fourth years at fema were

positive but organizationally challenging and the fema i had is the different fema than you read about in katrina. when president bush took over, in 1989, his selected chief of staff, john sununu, who had previously made it clear that he would not permit or tom rate me being the continued director of fema, because we had several difference of opinion about a nuclear power plant being brought online when he was the governor of new hampshire, and he wanted me to cut some corners and i refused to do that. because i was no longer the director of fema, president bush offered me another job, the position of secretary of veterans affairs, the first one, and i was delighted with that opportunity. louise was not. as a matter of fact, she was very unhappy about that. but she was saved at the 11t

11th hour. president bush gave the job to a defeated member of congress. from illinois. who turned out to be a disaster himself. and by the way, i would be remiss if i did not point out that in my judgment, i think the current secretary is just doing an outstanding job. plus he's a personal friend. just what the v.a. needed. about the same time about job talking taking place -- was taking place, the president of prairie view a & m university got fired. by the board of regents at texas a & m university system and the system has eight schools. texas a & m being one of them, prairie view being another, and they had six other schools. some 30 years earlier, i had been an assistant professor of military science at prairie view. where i pursued my b.s. degree as an non-traditional student,

which meant i was sent there to be an instructor and also work on my degree. at the same time, louise, who was a registered nurse, received her degree in nursing education. surprisingly, of after being urged to put my name in, as a consideration, i made the short list in the fall of 1989. and was subsequently selected as the fifth president of prairie view a & m university, over a sitting university president from tennessee. i later found out that the board of regents, all ag gillespie e graduates, hence, all army officers, were looking for a butt kicker, their term, not mine, rather than academia. after arriving on campus, i discovered that the texas legislature had previously threatened to put the university under conservatorship, if the

management of funds did not improve. among my unique challenges in prairie view was the fact that i suspended football for a year. this is in texas. and if you can appreciate that, then the next thing will make sense. have you ever been burned in effigy? five years later, the finances were in order, football was back, albeit, without scholarships, and no victories i might add. as a matter of fact, from 1990, for the next eight and a half years, we set a record. for ncaa 1, 2, 3 and 4 of losing. in this respect, it wasn't till 2007 that prior review man dove a winning season.

the first one since 1964. last year, 2008, we had a 9-1 season. this year, so far, we're ranked in the top 25 of two. ncaa 2. and i'm assured by the president and the football coach, we're going to win it this time. the championship. our graduates, engineers, nurses, scientists, educators, premed, predental, prevet, prelaw, students have always been in much demand. and by the way, another interesting almost phenomena, prairie view has produced more black three star admirals and generals than any other school,ality least up until last year. and i haven't checked since then. all programs were fully funded.

or fully accredited. all research programs were fully engaged. endowments and other positive things were on track. and we returned to springfield in november 1994. of course, as i said, the work on the book has started two years earlier. finally, my fourth and last job. superintendent, c.e.o., d.c. public schools. turned out to be my most difficult job of any that high had. and that includes three wars. in 1996, the financial responsibility and management assistance authority, commonly called the control board, had been appointed by the congress and the white house to run the city. on 15 november 1996, the control board appointed me as the

superintendent/c.e.o. and also formed an emergency transition education board of trustees, nine members, all pro bono, headed up by bruce mcglory, the former c.e.o. of brookings institution. the federal takeover removed the mayor, marian barry, the city council, and the school board, the elected school board for any control over the schools. the district of columbia public schools is the only school district in the country that has to go to the congress for the money. which meant that i had the potential of 535 experts who did my job better than i did, and they delighted in telling me that on occasion. by the way, not one member had a

kid in hour schools. how bad were the schools? here's a short narrative by kpmg. the deplorable record of the district public schools by every important educational and management measure has left one of the city's most important public responsibilities if a state of crises, creating an emergency which can no longer be ignored or excused. the district of columbia public schools is failing in its mission to educate the children of the district. adversely, every air -- virtually he area and for every grade level, the system has failed to provide our children with the quality education and safe environment in which to learn. shortly after i became the superintendent, i went to chicago based on a recommendation of senator jim jeffers, to visit their system,

because they had undergone a takeover as well. we met with paul valas and other folks that mayor daley had appointed to the schools. again, i ask, how bad were the schools? well, the city council member, who was the chairman of the education committee, used private school for his kids. as i point out in the book, i also had a superior court judge, who presided over a an ongoing lawsuit, initiated by one of the many interest groups, parents united. as such, this judge was closing our schools with great regularity over what some thought were trivial matters. it got so bad that the "washington times" published an editorial that said this. in part. how ridiculous could things

become? this ridiculous. if workers need to hammer a hole in the wall of -- to install wiring and cable for internet access, the work creates a fire code violation. when a janitor moves furniture into the hallway to clean and buff the floors in a classroom, the work creates a fire code violation. etc. and as far as the judge was concerned, any fire code violation required the school be closed. on the positive side however, we recruited partners for all of our 160 plus schools, partners being mom and pop shops, interests, business, individuals, to come in and help the principal to be available to him or her. i had six schools, the last six

have a partner. they're all east of anacostia. i went to see doc cook and some of you may know doc cook from the pentagon. doc, i need some help. he was the mayor there. i don't believe this. the last time that happened -- the last time that happened, i found colin powell sitting in front of me. he said give me that phone. but anyhow, doc cook said, i'll help you. and within a week, i had all schools with partners. he went to the army, the navy, the coast guard and the air force. and they brought in people to help the principal, my partners. they had soldiers show up at some of the schools and that had

a great boom to the student body. to the teachers. that worked. first lady hillary clinton had six trips to our schools. she brought her husband on two of them. senator kennedy and his staff were readers in our schools. industry chipped in, general dynamics. permitted their people to come over and become readers in several of our schools. and janet reno, attorney general, conducted monthly conflict resolution classes. to help us out. those positives not withstanding, in the spring of 1998, 18 months after starting, with pressure from my wife, and several family members, i

resigned with the admonition from louise that if you take another job like that, we may not be together for our next anniversary. that was in 1998. as i said, i'm a slow learner, but i'm not stupid. we celebrate our 61s 61st anniversary last january. two last comments of before closing. district of columbia public schools have had 10 superintendents, c.e.o.'s, chancellors, whatever you want to call them, in 20 years. i've said many times that i think that would make an excellent study to find out what the problem is and make an excellent doctoral evaluation. during the post-army period, i served in five corporate boards, received five honorary doctorates, one of which my good

friend here was there at carlisle not too long ago. been a member of a federal district judge oversight board committee. in a desegregation case in alabama. knight versus alabama. been a commissioner on the american battle monument commission. as you know, responsible for all of the overseas american cemeteries, and the building of the world war ii memorial. and i've been a friend of the court in two supreme court decisions, and of course, on quite a few pro bono boards. throughout my career, i've worked with some of the best people that you can find. people who have truly been dedicated and encouragers. my parents never discouraged me from trying, no matter what the challenge. plus, louise has always been my severest critic and my biggest supporter. as i said, the work in this book

started back in 1992, and was finished some 18 months ago. and my wife wrote the foreward. i had a major problem finding a publisher. when we finished. they said that it was too long. well, this is what it looked like. 885 pages. and it was just too long. i said ok, i can fix that. i'm going to go through it and review it and end up with 910 peages. i -- pages. i then turned to my good friend joe galloway and said i need help and joe gave me a reviewer and we got it down to this. i'm happy to say that i'll be talking with the publisher about

doing something he promised he would consider, depending on how well this book went, to publis publishing this on a restricted number that i can give to friends, libraries, and folks like that. we have not discussed that yet, but we're working upon it. the other problem i had, the title was too long. as you may have read, the title of this one, autobiography the becton, a soldier and public servant. by the grace of god, only in america the autobiography the lieutenant general julius wesley becton jr., obviously that's a mouthful. to make a long story short, in a nut shell, that's my story. thank you for being here. thank you for inviting me. and i'm prepared to respond to

your questions. i've already been told where the first question is coming from. sir, do you have a microphone? [applause] >> before i ask the supervisor a question, i want to congratulate you on the most illustratous and inspiring career. i hope lots of people read it and follow your example. my question has to do with the -- with your most challeng challenging jobs you take, the school system and the -- in washington, d.c. i remember you said that you requested to -- because of the pressure on you, i remember reading it, essentially was that

a lot of people thought you were trying to put some discipline into the school system, which i thought was severely needed, and a lotf disagreed, saying that they didn't want any discipline in our school system. anyway, my question is, what's going on today, is there some -- [inaudible] do you hope that the school system is going to rise up to some reasonable eyes? >> thank you very much for that question. first place i should point out that i have talked with michelle reed several times and we've exchanged e-mails on occasion. for those who may not be aware of it, she is the c.e.o.-superintendent, called now chancellor. i believe, and i told her this,

that early on, she would need someone besides the mayor as her protector. her fire wall. because she's picking up as already demonstrated, the slings and arrows aimed at him and she's getting some of the flack. she also fell into the trap that i fell into. when i wanted to close 18 schools, i did not do as much homework as i should have done by going to the public and explaining it to them and getting them to be supportive. she wanted to close 23 schools. and had the same challenge. the same problem that i had. recently, when she wanted to fire 280 some people, for

budgetary reasons, sort of raises the question, somebody must have known about in budget back in july when they hired the teachers, some 800 on 700 teachers, whatever number they hired. those things you can deal with, but the fact that she may have been hired without the support of the school board or the city council created a little bad feeling. and she is, i think, doing a great job, but in the city of washington, no good deed goes unpunished. and it's -- if i were king and i've said this many times, to members of the senate, as a matter of fact, if they're serious about doing something about the schools, let's stop talking about the district of columbia public schools and start talking about the nation's

capital public schools. let's get away from the idea, district of columbia, but now nation's capital, and now declare a conservatorship, take the schools out of the hands of the local politicians, put in a proven person and yes, some discipline too. and tell all interest groups, hands off. and interestingly enough, that's what happened in chicago and they have done -- come a long ways. the current secretary of education, came from where? chicago. i think there's hope for the school, but you have to make some major changes. ok? >> all right. yes, sir? >> general, i'm very happy to hear you talk about -- >> you might want to hold for a second. i presume -- i presume you are aware that we're being recorded. >> general, it's nice to hear

you talk about lower marion high school. i lived in ardmore, pennsylvania. >> you didn't go? >> to, i went to the principal academy for eight years. >> well, ok. >> we had lot of sporting events at lower marion, great school. >> as a matter of fact, lower marion, back in those days, were in the top 40 in the country, and it's still pretty high right now. are you going to ask your question now? jack kushma hman? oh, all right. yes, sir. >> hi. thank you for the very inspiring story. i can do a little better, i'm a gr mullenberg, class of

1952. >> ok. 1952. we were there saiment. -- at the same time, because i would have been -- of the considered to be class of 1949, the way that they talked, and ben sportswater was the football coach, you may remember, and we had a great time. by the way, sends you know about lower marion, my wife happened to go into a place called radner, so what else can i say? yes, sir? >> a lot of us were in the army in those days, 1948 to 1952, i was in a regiment with the black battalion and --

[indiscernible. .]] and it worked out. -- that innovation took place in combat, -- >> i think we've done a great job. i think the army is the leader in this idea about what should be -- what appropriate integration looks like in the military. point out that last summer, the congress directed the department of defense to establish a military leadership diversity commission. to take a look at diversity

throughout the military forces. there are some 26 members on this commission. the chairman is general les lyle, former vice chief of staff for the air force. i am the vice chairman, and we're charged by the congress to take a hard look at what we're doing. and we're in the process of evaluating the history, where we are now, where we should be going. and it's more than just diversity of race and gender. it's diversity in a much bigger scale. economics, education, society, all of those things are being cranked into the study. i believe that we're going to come up with some interesting findings, and i'm not about to give you my opinions, looking at c-span and seeing on tv before we it would the president and the congress. i think we're doing a great job.

we stubbed our toes sometimes and i will say this. where one of our cies verick cies versus -- service services used to be behind everyone, in terms of the racial issues, gradewise, activitywise, the navy is the head of all of us now. which may be a surprise. it was to me. ok? >[indiscernible]

>> i will tell you about korea. i just as soon not discuss the awards. >> ok. >> tell us about korea. >> why, or how were we integrated or desegregated as a start point in august of 1950? very simply, that when the adjutant told the commander, c c.c. sloan, that we've got all these people coming in, and they're not coming in by the racial breakout of the regiment, and sloan said, put them where they're needed, and with that, we started our desegregation. and interestingly enough, i was lieutenant platoon leader, and i got one of the first non-blacks. he happened to be a hispanic. excuse me, a chicano from texas

and i told my platoon sergeant, don't let anything, nothing happen to this fellow. we're not going to be the first to screw it up. nothing happened to him. we did a pretty good job, i might add, because we demonstrated 3rd battalion, mcbaines, battalion commander, was a soup he were guy, -- super guy, well led by his boss, and we did what we had to do. my first award came with a purple heart, on hill 201. breaking out of naktong heading north. back up to the 38th parallel. i will say this about korea, and some of you may -- can echo this, i suspect. i've never been as cold as i was

in november of 1950. >> amen. >> i was up -- it was cold. and probably was able to speak to you now, because what happened to me then. i got my second wound two days before the chinese overran the 9th infantry, 2nd division. river gauntlet is a good example about that. you also have clay blair, who wrote his story, the forgotten war, about what happened to us. but the 3rd battalion ended up with about five officers that not out. the rest were captured or killed. but it was cold. very cold. yes, sir?

>> i was wondering if you cared to leave the racial aside, and these days, it's -- [inaudible] since the fort hood episode. >> as you know, there's an investigation just getting started, and i suspect there will be ramifications about what they find there that will go not just throughout the army, but throughout the entire military establishments. and i don't think it will be -- it will be fool hearty of me to i think make some comments, about what they're going to fi find. let them find it and then present it to the public and then let us say where we think it should be agreed or not

agreed to. my experience, i did not have the problems of religion, did not have the problems of gender, or even in my last quite a few years of service, of race. i'm amused when i think about the fact that who stopped that fellow down there in fort hood? it was a woman. and i hear that we can't have women in combat. but they'll tell you quickly that at least in the iraq i've been reading about, there is to front line. and the ones who are being hurt, killed, had irrespective of what the gender may be, and they are doing a great job.

also the fact that we have our youngest daughter is an air force colonel retired, has nothing to do with it. there is one other thing that i -- jack didn't mention,, i want to check something i should have done earlier. is there anyone here who heard that i was thrown by a horse? oh, no. you know better. you were there. >> tell us. i don't remember that one. >> ok. i thought that subject would come up. i did. on the front page of army times, back on the week of 17 octobe

october 1975, there was a picture of me on the back of a horse. i had been in command of the first cavalry division, for about eight months. we were converting from a triple capability to an armored division. and we had trained hard. so i decided about time that we have a break. something to celebrate. so we decided to have a pa prayed, but because -- parade, but because we didn't have the money to use our tanks, a dismounted parade. we had of to have a reason that would fly, in old cavalry tradition. we found two retirees, who had joined the first time, first cavalry division, back when they had horses in the 1940's, and they were about to retire. so good, we'll bring them in, and have them ride with us, but since they had not been on the back of a horse for a long time, we had to put them in a wagon

pulled by matched mules. on this day, beautiful day in central texas, and if you saw the ceremony at fort hood, the ground that they had that on is where the break field used to be. the band had marched, sounded off, 85 -- 9500 soldiers were in formation. it was time now for the reviewing officer, me, and jim jackers, who was my adc and commanders of troops, to troop align. jim was mounted and i was to be mounted. i should point out that earlier, a week or so before this happened, my g2 thought this would be a great picture to get

from the air of a division on the parade ground. so he contacted his friends down at bergstrom airbase, to get an rf4 jet to come up and take a picture. unbeknownst to me, his boss, the chief of staff, or anyone else. and so as we were starting out and as i was getting my right leg over old bill, and that was the name of the horse, that jet came in on the deck. it spooked the mules, shook up unbelievable to the two retirees, who were sitting down in the wagon and they in turn spooked my horse, and what happened was this.

>> glad you're on top. >> as you will see, i stayed there, but beside the point. i want to point out several things. note, i am pulling that horse's head to the right. my riding instructor, took a shoe maker, bob shoe maker's wife, to help me to learn out to ride and stay in the saddle. but she never told me what to do with this happens. that picture hey period, as i said, on the front page of the austin american and on every military publication that week. what picture that did not show up anyplace was this one. i would point out that my right leg hurts even when i think

about it. but note one thing. this fellow right here, my command sergeant major, walter krueger, he's deceased now, but i kept asking him, krueger, why don't you do something 70 what the hell could i do general? also note something else. i had my hat on. ok. the next one demonstrates who they were concerned about. not me. the horse. and the last picture is the one that i am told i got thunderous applause. i do not remember any of it.

i got back on that horse, not with any sense of ride 'em, cav. but leg hurt too much to walk the ranks for 8,000 soldiers, 9,000 soldiers. i had too much pride to ride in a mule pool wagon. and the only other way is on the back of that horst. -- of that horse. there were two people who probably did not applaud. one was my mother-in-law, who was with us from 1955 until she passed in the 1980's. she was setting beside louise, she never came out for the 84th formation, but when i got back on the horse, she said "he's not going to get back on that crazy horse, is he"? and the other picture we have, bob schumacher, my boss, sitting

in the front row, his head in his hands, about near his knees, you can almost see it going through his mind, my god, i have to train another division commander. i always show that because this young lady said, she heard or saw that i was thrown by a horse. she knew better when she asked the question. but when you hear the story that he got thrown by a horse, you have the proof. i was the saddle. i threw the horse, the horse didn't throw me. [applause] >> lieutenant general julius becton, who retired from the army in 1983, after 40 years of service, was president of prairie view a & m university from 1989 to 1994. he also served as superintendent of the washington, d.c. public school system, from 1996 to 1998. for moreormation, visit usni.org.

>> abigail adams had to remind john adams to remember the ladies when creating a new government. dolly madison had to encourage her once shy husband james. this weekend on of a wards, the intimate lives of the founding fathers, thomas fleming profiles the women who played a central part in creating our country. of afterwards, part of this weekend's book tv on c-span2. >> patrick keith talks about sister ping, who ran an illegal chinese immigration ring during the unanimous 80's and 1990's. -- 1980's and 19 9. before being cause, sister ping created a massiveultillion dollar network and took the f.b.i. 10 years to piece together. r the event. >> i'm glad to see there is a good