>> welcome everyone. on behalf of the activities committee of the norwood residents association, it is a pleasure to well, lt. gen. julius becton. and that ..

to vietnam to join its first brigade already there, which we did that december. in march, 1968 in vietnam, lieutenant colonel becton and his second 17th calabresi squadron joined the brigade task force which i commanded. his airborne, freight squadron airborne now equipped with armored personnel carriers and later attached tanks had welcome power to the task force fighting alongside vietnamese army and

profit units. sergeant robert patterson of the 17th calvary was awarded one of the three medals of honor, earned by members of the second brigade taskforce during the month of heavy fighting in which with our vietnamese friends we drove up the north vietnamese army and this set on january january 30th had alarmed the tet offensive and that security to the countryside. on june 22nd, 1968 the president of the republic of vietnam radicalized that task force performance by placing a bedle stream bearing the vietnamese cross of gallantry on the colors of the second brigade and figuratively on the colors of each task force units.

recognizing that the credit for that award goes to our soldiers who he truly earned it, we were both aware the unit decoration with pride. so those few months in 1968 or part of the remarkable life in and out of uniform of julius becton for his lifetime achievements the association of the united states army presented to him two years ago the george marshall metal its highest award. so here to describe that life story and is my friend lieutenant general julius becton. [applause] >> thank you very much. as you may remember we always -- we sometimes had difference of opinion. [laughter]

>> [inaudible] >> you're the boss, that's right. and it worked out okay. it is always good seeing you and thank you for letting me come to your facility. frankly as i look around i didn't realize 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 janitor, my mother was a domestic worker. they had third and tenth grade education respectively. my wife's parents were similarly, had similar backgrounds. but the two of us started working together with a lot of help from a lot of friends and reached a height in our world of academics, politics, military and society. this autobiography was initially

designed for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren with a simple message that you can do what ever you want to do and for the records, we have 11 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. and just point of pride i always throw in our oldest great-grandson, 19, 6-foot 8 inches tall. [laughter] he does play basketball. i started to work on this book back in 1992. in collaboration with bill and i sure most of you have heard of him who don't know him personally making a movie that he had to drop out of working as we had planned and he just became an adviser and was very

helpful helping me to negotiate some of the pitfalls that come from writers. i should point out early on that i am a slow learner. i just finished this book about two years ago which meant from 1992 to 2007 of course along the way i had several unique challenges, some more of 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 plessala wan jobs post army. i entered a segregated army in 1943, december when i joined the army air corps list of reserves still a senior at mary high school suburban philadelphia.

by joining was the result of a former graduate coming back talking to an assembly of students of joining army air corps and winning gold bars. the spiegel was general arnold who graduated from marion in 1903. quite a few of the seniors particularly the football players took the battery of test and six of us were sworn into the army air corps left of reserves on the 20th day of september, 1943 we enter on active duty the following july, following high school graduation but none of this eckert risch we did from flight school. before leaving the subject of marion let me do a little name dropping the.

bye mentioning some any other graduates and to general arnold. jim billington, librarian of congress, al haig, former secretary of state and a few other things. larry summers, economic and pfizer, vice admiral symbol, former president of the uniformed services, university of health sciences, jim vance, the anchor on channel four in b.c. and for the most recent graduate to the pride of some people kobe bryant place for the los angeles leaders a graduate, and i could name five or six others president's of where we live at least once a month or so

someone comes up i went to marian, too and i found out the catholic priest who had been working there longer than we had been there graduated in 1950. so just a few name droppings' helps to set the stage. okay. all six of us went off to preflight school after graduation, five went to florida and i was sent to kissell birchfield mississippi. a great place for a young 18 year old platform and philadelphia to go in 1944. after failing the eye examination some four months later i was admitted to the school at fort benning georgia. i was 18-years-old when i started the course, did well and was commissioned in 45, august 452nd 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 new guinea after the end of world war ii. now some of the old-timers, and i use that term very politely, can appreciate the anomaly but the 93rd division and 31st division nicknamed were assigned to the same 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. at college in february of 47 muhlenberg pennsylvania i

entered as a second nebraskas of more premed major and his first black student. i lost my football scholarship by which i got into muhlenberg a couple months later due to an injury. in july of 1948 so 18 months after i arrived to muhlenberg was at aberdeen proving ground as the army reserve for active duty for training. earning some money between semesters because money was not the plentiful and i was there when president truman issued his executive order 9981 on the 26 that july. officially declaring equality of treatment and opportunity for all personnel. theoretically ending segregation and military forces. by the way there is a copy of that executive order in this book.

the alberta and commander proving ground commander held a post white officer call who read the order to the entire assemblage and then said this as long as he or the commander there will be no change. officer plug number one, officer culp number two. in co club number one and number two. swimming pool number one, swimming pool number two. i'm assuming you do know the difference. as i sit at the time the summer of 48i was a premed student and when i was doing okay 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 is nothing higher for a black person was than to become

a medical doctor. i had enjoined the army as an officer during world war ii albeit all black units, so after the executive order i volunteered to be recalled active duty. now the decision for that volunteering was prompted in part but in fact 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. [laughter] december, january. okay. luis had to stop working as a registered nurse in the early fall and a g.i. bill stipend certainly wouldn't cover our expenses. plus no football scholarship there for $35 a month which i

was paying went away. i was called active duty in november 48 and even with executive order i was initially assigned to an all black unit at fort bliss texas following our daughter's birth. after a refresher course at fort benning and the infantry basics the summer of 49i join all black battalion to include the commander in the second division in fort lewis washington where i was there to participate and army wide program called contador. to become a regular army officer and i suspect many of you recall what the progress all about. i should point out for the youngsters for a 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.

some of you senior soldiers may remember it was designed to take them on regular officers and give them a chance to become regular officers. reservists, guardsman, officer types like myself. normally they would bring on 1,000 officers annually and after a year within minimum of four assignments about one-third of the group was 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. and july 50. we deployed to korea still on the same old black battalion accept 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 he would be in command when we got to korea but the was not the case. lieutenant colonel mcminn and the former commander was brought back and he took command and replaced with white cheese. some 30 days later my battalion, third battalion ninth infantry was desegregated august of 1950. why? because of a battlefield decision the difficulty or inability of the department army to provide replacements based on race. i'm still talking about some of those unique challenges that we had. another interesting coincidence a search and charlie rangel was a member of the other black

battalion and you have heard about charlie wheatley in good things and not so good things. from march 51 when i assumed command of company l ninth infantry my first company and a leader had to other companies until i retired in 1983 some 32 years later i was fortunate to have commanded every level of the army through core. my first job following the army came in january 1984 some five months after retiring at fort monroe where i was the deputy commander for training at trading command and was also task to be army inspector training as set up by a separate program. and by the way i had four jobs after leaving the army and in each of those jobs i followed

someone who had been fired. that also makes for a challenging opportunity. the circumstance about why i took that first job which was subject to a dual compensation, that is no army retired falls and again that you need category. as some of you know the dual compensation simply said preclude a retiree from collecting to paychecks from the federal government. and in fact i did not draw retired pay for six years. so why would i do that? the answer is very simple. when i retired laws gave me 30 days to get a job if i didn't she would i wouldn't she did. and she became a hospital nurse in virginia. and while she was working i decided to help out in the kitchen.

i decided i would help the cabinet look like mine cabinets. all of the cans alphabetical order facing out all the models seems is facing out all little boxes same size in alphabetical order so you can find when you're looking for. okay. 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 and officer of disaster assistance, agency for international development. without retired pay but i was not in her kitchen. the agency is responsible for providing aid mostly humanitarian aid to the foreign countries when they have a disaster and the ask for help in

our ambassador says yes and we went to work. i had the job for 21 months. that was followed by becoming the third director of fema. my predecessor was forced to retire. he got fired by the white house and i was offered a job. i had two principal supporters, a senator from tennessee, al gore and vice president of the united states army, united states army, vice president of the united states. george herbert walker bush. my four years at fema were positive but organizationally challenging and i will quickly point out fema which i had were different than the fema you read about in katrina. when president bush took over in '89, his selected chief of staff

john sununu who had previously made it clear he would not permit or tolerate me being the director of fema because we had several differences of opinion about a nuclear power plant being brought on line when he was the governor of new hampshire and he wanted me to cut corners and i refused to do that. because i was no longer a director of fema, president bush offered me another job the position of secretary of various affairs, the first one. and i was delighted with that opportunity. louise was not. as matter of fact she was unhappy about that. she was saying at the 11th hour president bush gave the job to a defeated member of congress from illinois who turned all 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 doing an outstanding job plus he is a personal friend. just what the va needed. about the same time about job talking and taking place was taking place the president of prairie view a&m university got fired by the border region at texas a&m university system and the system had eight schools, texas a&m being one of them, prairie view being a mother and the head six other schools. some 30 years earlier i had been assistant professor of military science at prairie view where i pursued my bs degree as a nontraditional student which meant i was sent to be an instructor and also work on my degree. at the same time louise was a registered nurse, received her degree and nursing education.

surprisingly after being urged to put my name in as consideration and a short list in the fall of '89 and was subsequently selected as the president of a&m university over a president from tennessee. i later found out the border region all graduates hands of army officers were looking for a butt kicker, their term, not mine, rather than academic. after arriving on campus i discovered the texas legislature previously threatened to put the university under conservatorship of the management of funds did not improve. among whites unique challenges in preview with the fact i suspended football for a year this was in texas.

if you can appreciate that the next thing will make sense. have you ever been burned and energy? [laughter] 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 the next eight and a half years we set a record for the ncaa one, two, three and four of losing. and this respect it wasn't until 2007. you begin to have a winning season the first one since 1964. last year in 2008, we had a mine-1 season. this year so far we are ranked

in the top 25 of to the ncaa number two and i enjoyed by the president and football coach we are going to win this time the championship. our graduates, engineers, nurses, scientists, educators, premed capri dental, three small, students have been in much demand. and by way another interesting almost phenomena, prairie view has produced more black three-star admiral and generals been any other school at 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 and other positive things were on track.

and we return to springfield november of 1994. of course as i said the book has started two years earlier. finally, my fourth and last job. superintendent ceo published schools turned out to be my most difficult job of any job i've had, and that includes three wars. in 1996 the financial responsibility and management assistance authority, mccaul control board had been appointed by the congress and white house to run the city. on the 15th of november, 1996 to control boyda pointed me as the superintendent slash ceo. and also for any emergency transition education board or trustees, nine members all pro

bono that apply bruce the former ceo of the brookings institution the federal takeover removed the mayor marion barry, the city council and the elected school board for any control over the schools to read 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 i had the potential 535 experts who do my job better than i did and the delighted in telling me that on occasion. by the way not one member had a kid in our schools. how bad were the school's? here is a short narrative by kpmg. the deplorable record of the district public schools by every

important educational management measure has left one of the city's most important public responsibilities in a state of crisis and creating an emergency which can no longer be ignored or excused to be the district of columbia public schools is in its mission to educate the children of district and virtually every area and for every grade level the system has failed to provide our children with 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 john jeffers to visit their system because they had undergone a takeover as well. we met with paul collis and other folks that were appointed to the schools.

again, i asked how bad were the school's? well, the city council member who was the chairman of the education committee used private schools for his kids. as i point out in a book i also had a superior court judge who presided over an ongoing lawsuit initiated by one of the many interest groups paris united. as such, this judge was closing our schools with great regularity over what some felt were trivial matters. it got so bad the "the washington times" published an editorial that said this: how ridiculous good things become? this ridiculous if workers need to hammer rahall to install wiring and cables for internet access the work creates a fire

code violations. every janitor moves furniture into the hallway to clean and buff the floors and a classroom. the work to create a fire code violations etc.. and as far as the judge was concerned any fire code violation required the school to be closed. on a positive side, however, we recruited partners from all the 160 plus schools, partners being mom-and-pop shops, interests, business, individuals to come and help the principal to be available to him or her. i had six schools, the last schools to have a partner, they are all east in tough areas. so i went to see doc cooke and

some of you may remember him from the pentagon. i need some help, he was the mayor there. [phone ringing] i don't believe this. the last time that happened -- the last time that happened a fellow named colin powell was sitting in front of me. he said give me that phone. [laughter] anyhow, doc cooke said i will help you and within a week i had all schools with partners. he went to the army, navy, the coast guard and air force and they brought in people to help the principal partners. they had soldiers shot in some schools and a great boon to the student body, to the teachers. first lady hillary clinton had

six trips to our schools. she brought her husband on two of them. senator kennedy and his staff or readers in our schools. industry chipped in, dynamics permitted their people to come over and become leaders in several of our schools and janet reno attorney general conducted monthly conflict resolution classes to help out. those positives notwithstanding in the spring of 9818 months after starting with pressure from my wife and several family members i resigned without monition from laws if you take another job like that we may not be together for our next anniversary. [laughter] that was 1998. as i sit on a slow learner but

i'm not stupid. we celebrated our 61st anniversary last january. to last comments before closing. the district of columbia public schools have had ten superintendents', ceos, chancellors, what everyone to call them, in 20 years. i've said many times i think that would make an excellent study to find out what the problem is and make excellent auctorial evaluation. during the post army period i served on five corporate boards, received five donner doctorates, one of which a good friend of which was at carlisle not too long ago. i've been a member of a federal district judge oversight board

committee and a desegregation case in alabama might versus alabama. but a commissioner on american battle mine cemeteries and the building of the world war ii memorial. and i've been a friend of the court in to supreme court and of course on quite a few pro bono boards. throughout my career i've worked with some of the best people you can find. people who have been dedicated and in curvatures. my parents never discouraged me from trying a matter what the challenge. plus louise has always been my severe critic and my biggest supporter. as i said the work on this book started back in '92 and finished some 18 months ago. and my wife wrote the foreword.

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. it's just too long. i said i can fix that. i'm going to go through review and in that with 910 pages. [laughter] negative turned to my good friend, joe galloway and said i need help. he gave me a reviewer and we got it down to this. i am happy to say i will be talking with a publisher about doing stuff he promised he would consider depending how book this nixon and how well this book went to publishing this on a restricted number that i could give to friends, libraries and

folks like that. we have not discussed that yet the we are working on it. the other problem i had, the title was too long. as you may have read the title of this one "autobiography of by the grace of god, only in america the autobiography of lieutenant general julius becton, jr., obviously that is a mouthful. to make a long story short, in a mashaal that is my story. thank you for being here, thank you for inviting me and i am prepared to respond to questions. but already been told where the first question is coming from. do you have a microphone? [applause]

>> [inaudible] before i ask my question i want to congratulate on your inspiring career. i hope many people will follow your example. my question has to do with your most challenging jobs in the school system and washington, d.c.. i remember you said [inaudible] remember reading people thought you were trillion to put discipline and the school system which i thought was severely needed and a lot of people

disagreed saying they didn't want discipline in the system. anyway, my question is what's going on today? is their light at the end of the tunnel that the school system is going to rise up to some reason why? >> thank you very much for the question. first i should point out i've talked with michelle several times. we exchange e-mails on occasion. for those who may not be aware, she is the ceo superintendent cult now chancellor. i believe and i told her this early on that she would need someone besides the mayor as her protector, her fire wall because she's picked up and demonstrated the slings and arrows aimed at

him and she's getting some of the slack. she also fell into the trap negative to 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 this budget back in july when they hired the

teachers, some 800 or 700 teachers they hired. those things you can deal with but the fact she may have been hired without the support of the school board or the city council created a little that feeling and she is i think doing a great job but in the city of washington no good deed goes unpunished. and if i were a king and i've said this many times to members of the senate as a matter of fact if they are serious about doing something about the schools would stop talking about the district of columbia schools and start talking about the nation's capital published schools. let's get away from the idea the district of columbia but not the nation's capital, and now declare a conservatorship. take the schools out of the

hands of local politicians. put in a proven person and yes, some discipline, too and tell all interest groups hands off. interestingly enough that is what happened in chicago. and they have come a long way. the current secretary of education came from where? chicago. i think there is hope for the school but have to make some major changes. okay? yes, sir. >> happy to hear you talk about -- >> you might want to wait a second -- i presume you are aware that we are being recorded. >> to hear you look delete could talk about a high school -- [inaudible] many friends there and certainly one of the greatest schools in

the united states. >> you didn't go? >> i was the academy for eight years. >> okay. great school. >> back in those days they were the top 40 in the country and they are still pretty hard right now. you going to ask your question now? jack cushman. yes, sir. >> thank you for the inspiring story. i am a graduate in the class of 52. [laughter] >> okay. 52. we were there at the same time because i would have been -- i was considered to be the class

of 49 the way they talk about it and then mac was the football coach we remember and we had a great time. by the way since you know about marion my wife happen to go to a place called rabun so what else can i say. yes, sir. >> and loveless were in there in those early days [inaudible] and the other battalions to send their soldiers to that battalion

and it worked out. have you got anything further to say about how that integration took place and of the things you ran into in the army? have we done a great job? >> i think we've done a great job. the army is the leader in this idea of flow should be -- with appropriate integration looks like in the military. i should point out that last summer but 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 lyell's,

former chief of staff for the air force. i am the vice chairman. and we are charged by the congress to take a hard look at what we are doing. and we are in the process of evaluating the history where we are now, where we should be going. and it is more than just diversity of race and gender. it is diversity in a much bigger scale. economics, education, society, all of those things are being cranked into this study. i believe that we are going to come up with interesting findings and i am not about to give you my opinion is looking at c-span and seeing it on tv before we tell the president and congress. i think we are doing a great job. we have stubbed our toe sometimes and i will say this one of our services used to be behind everyone in terms of with the racial issues, wise,

activity wise, the navy is the head of all of us now which may be a surprise. it was to me. okay? >> i've read your book, julias, and i find it fascinating. [inaudible] tell us about korea and the sellers are dee dee to -- silver star. >> i will tell you about korea. i assume not to discuss the

awards. >> [inaudible] >> why or how were we integrated or desegregated as a starting point in august of 1950. very simply, when it will give regimental commander, cc sloan, that we've got all these people coming in and they are not coming in by the racial breakup of the regimen and sloan said put them where they are needed. and with that we started our desegregation. and interestingly enough, as a template to leader i got one of the first non-blacks. yet it to pieces hispanic, excuse me, chicano from texas to revitalize our don't let nothing happened to this fellow. we are not going to be the first screw it up. nothing happened to him.

we did a pretty good job i might add because we demonstrated third battalion, the battalion commander was a super guy well led by his boss and we did what we had to do. my first award came with a purple heart breaking out and hitting number. back up to the 38 parallel. i will say this about korea and some of you can echoes a suspect. i've never been as cold as i was november of 1950. i was up and was cold and was

able to speak to you now because what happened to me then. i got my second loan to days before the chinese over and the ninth infantry second division. there's a good example of that. you also have clay blair who wrote his story, the forgotten war, about what happened. but the third battalion in the up with about five officers that got out. the rest were captured or killed but it was cold, very cold. yes, sir. >> i was wondering if you >> i was wondering if you'd care to leave the racial side and

these days it's religious since the fort hood episode. >> as you know, there is an investigation just getting started, and i suspect there will be ramifications about what they find their that will go not just throw the army but throughout the entire military establishment. and i don't think it will be foolhardy of me or anyone else here to make some comments about what they are going to find. let them find it and then present it to the public and let us say we think it should be agreed or not agree to. my experience i did not have the problems of religion, did not have the problems of gender or

even in my last years of service of race. i am amused when i think about the fact that who stopped that fellow donner in fort hood. it was a woman and we can't have women in combat but they will tell you quickly at least in iraq that i've been reading about there is no frontline and the ones that are being hurt, killed, a respected what the gender may be, they are doing a great job. also the fact that we have a dentist daughter is an air force colonel retired has nothing to do with it. [laughter]

there is one other thing that jack didn't mention. something i should have done earlier. is their anyone here that her i was thrown by a horse? no? you know better, you were there. >> i don't remember that one. >> okay. i thought the subject would come up. i did. on the front page of the army times, back on the week of 17 of october, 1975 there is a picture of me on the back of it worse. i had been in command of the first calv. division for about eight months.

we were converting it from a triple capability to an armored division. and we train hard so i decided it's about time we get a break, something to celebrate so we decided to have a parade but because we didn't have the money to use our tanks we had a dismount parade. we had to have a reason that would fly in the old tradition. we found to retirees who joined the first division back when they had horses in the 40's about to retire to read good, bring them in and have them ride with us but since they haven't been on the back of a horse a long time we put them in a wagon pulled by matched mules. on this day, beautiful day in central texas as you saw the

ceremony on fort hood, the ground they had that on is where it used to be. the band had sounded off 9500 soldiers were information. it is time now for the refuting officer and jim jabbers commander of troops to troup the. jim was mounted and i was to be mounted. i should point out that earlier a week or so before this happened, my g. two velte this would be a great photographs. so he contacted the base to get a jet to come up and take a picture.

unbeknownst to me his boss, the chief of staff or anyone else,. so as we were starting out, and as i was getting my right leg over bill, the name of our horse, digit -- the jet came in. it spooked the horses and the generals of wagon and they turned and spooked my horse, and what happened is that. [laughter] as you will see i stayed there but beside the point i want to point out several things. note that i am pulling that

horse. my riding instructor took a shoemaker, bob schoomaker's wife to help me learn how to write and stay in the saddle but she never told me what to do if this happens. [laughter] that picture of here as i said on the front page of the austin american and every military publication that we can. what picture that did not show up in the place was this one. i will point out that my right leg hurts even when i think about. but note to one thing. this fellow right here my commanding sergeant major

comegys deceased now but ask him why didn't you do something? what the hell can i do, general? also note something else, i had my hat on. okay. the next one demonstrates who they were concerned about. not me. the horse. in the last picture, one i'm told i got a thunderous applause i do not remember any of it. [laughter] i got back on that horse not with any sense of "ride 'em."

my leg hurt too much to drink for the 9,000 soldiers. i had too much pride to ride in a mule pulled wagon and the only other way is on the back of that horse. there are two people who didn't applaud. one is my mother-in-law until she passed in 1980 speed she never came out before the formation. but when i started to get back on the horse, she said, quote, he's not going to get back on that crazy horse, is he? [laughter] and the other picture we have, of shoemaker, my boss now sitting in the front row, his head in his hands about near his knees, you can almost see going through his mind my god i've got another commander. [laughter] life 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 tear the story that julius becton got thrown by the course, you've seen the proof. i threw the horse, the horse didn't throw me. [laughter] [applause] >> lt. 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. political system from 1996 to 1998. for more information, visit usni.org. ..