tonight. ..

american women in the armed forces. she talks about the efforts made by women to fully serve in the u.s. military going back to world war i and discusses the challenges still faced by women serving in iraq and afghanistan today. this event was hosted by the cincinnati va medical center. it's about 45 minutes. >> thank you, kelly. and i want to thank of veterans affairs medical center in cincinnati and with the all whitman's american legion post 644 for making it possible for me to be here today. and i want to make a special thank viewed to booktv for helping us spread the word about the long buried treasure of

america's military women were. this program has given us an opportunity to tell you about a national treasure which has been all but completely absent with leave from america's historical memory. even when united states history was required as a subject in high school and colleges and many university textbooks and courses had very little to say about women were, how they had contributed to the winning of world war i, world war ii, the war in korea and vietnam. as the writing team of anderson and a psychologist co-authored dr. sullivan evelyn lenihan we have a combined 50 years experience with the department of veterans affairs. now he may be as surprised as we were at to learn that the agency and the majority of the

employees knew little if anything about the surface of america's military women any more than the average person on the street. this is undoubtedly the main cause that in 1989 the fda published a bulletin for veterans day that had only one male veterans on the cover of the bulletin. it was evidence to us that including women in military history had a long way to go. our interest in world war ii histories when evelyn and i were kids. evelyn and grew up and new jersey and more stories for world war ii on a weekly basis she went to the degette to be with her father and listened to the male veterans talk about their military experience in world war ii that they share with each other. my experience was different. i have two female cousins and

and and that served in world war ii in the army nurse corps, because and was in iraq and the other was in the marine corps. i cannot remember anyone who discussing their service a and any of our family gatherings. i knew little about what my own of relatives had done in the war back then most veterans organizations did not accept women as full members of their organizations and women who wanted to join were told they needed to join the leedy is a summary as primarily made up of veterans and what they would hold separate meetings apart from. it took me a long time and a lot of research at military women has served in every theater, suffered the wounds inflicted by enemy fire and has been held as

prisoners of war. it's an old canyon proverb that says until millions have their own historians, the tale of the hunt shall always glorified the hunter who. the house historian's and authors we have spent as much as two decades becoming the winans historians. we've spoken to tv reserves, national guard troops who've worn to the country's uniforms. we were hearing their stories and researching their units and interviewing and correspondent with women who have served in the united states military. today i am pleased to share some of the history of america's military women who were kind enough to talk with us. a few good women america's military women from world war i to the north in iraq and afghanistan the most difficult part of getting ready for

today's program was to decide which women we wanted to talk to you about. now, if you leave here today and you have a better understanding of how american women contributed to the freedom we all enjoy today i want you to go home and tell your friends and relatives and neighbors about. in 1999 at age 20, marine corporal patricia levin good enlisted in the marine corps. now that was the unit based in evans' work pennsylvania about 80 miles east of pittsburgh on august 5th, to those of for the corporal arrived as part of an advanced party in her ramadi iraq and she was assigned to work on base operations at unit movement kunkel senator. let me share patty's words with you.

i was a corporal taking over for a lieutenant and staff sergeant. i was nervous about that. i was taking on well beyond my grade the purpose of my job was to insure the convoys that were either leaving our base or coming to our base did so safely. it entails checking room safety, keeping track of the number of vehicles and personal and checking them by satellite as they travel. now the marine corps had assigned lives in good. after they evaluated the experienced work with computers and her military occupational specialty in transportation. she said it was tough, we were dealing with hundreds of lives and if you make one tiny mistake someone might get hurt or killed the record of over 300 to 400

convoys and had no losses. i was relieved. it is not unusual to watch on tv and see the things of a female soldier marines, air man, sailor and coastguardsman intermingle with the military personnel serving in iraq and afghanistan. it is not unusual to hear the media speak now about our sons and daughters stationed in baghdad, kandahar, kuwait and other places hard to pronounce a map. these women have traveled from the united states to their stations can easily be expressed in hours in flight or miles flown that historical road women travel is another story. from 1913 to 1921, daniels was

the secretary of the navy. daniels was a native of north carolina, had gone to law school and passed the bar in 1885. president woodrow wilson, employed psychiatry danielson in 1913 and his assistant was franklin roosevelt. with the war region in europe, daniels became increasingly concerned about the preparation that they needed to make to ensure the u.s. navy could operate at maximum efficiency if and when america answered the war. in early 1917, concern about having enough navy man to man the ships, daniel asked his advisers about having enough -- about the word on the navy. he said there's the absence of the word mail before the were u.s. citizens allow him to enlist women in the navy and

with a thumbs-up from those advisers, daniels ordered the u.s. navy to analyst women and flood it to recruiting stations and signed up and they were sworn into the navy. after world war ii ended, the united states congress decided to change what they saw as an error in the navy regulation. and they changed it back from a u.s. citizen input the word mail in front of that. now this is an example of what a difference in the presence or the absence of a single word means in the united states official documents. just as the words in the united states constitution are extremely important when a branch and full rights of citizenship to men and women in our country.

so u.s. citizen automatically includes women went right to the privileges are conveyed. however, both the use of a single word man by placing the word mail before those words excludes women. however, daniel had crossed the rubicon and enlisted women to serve in the united states navy and the u.s. marine corps. now there was a record of the military service of women in the united states armed forces. a record that testified to the patriotism, the courage and the contributions that helped mightily to the u.s. numbers and for the winning of the war. in fact, one could argue that military service of women in world war i was a significant

turning point and giving american women the right to vote. once again, women were barred from serving in the u.s. military and the battle to change that fact was just the beginning. as in the game of monopoly, when in were told they had to go back to the starting point as if their service in world war i had never happened. the battle for the rights of american women to serve in the u.s. military was just beginning and had a long way to go. in 1941, the battle was joined again pleading with edith robert from massachusetts one of nine women in congress at that time wrote and presented the bill on christmas eve, 1941, to include women as a permanent part of the united states army.

to say congresswoman of rogers received cooperation from a large part of the army and the united states congress is putting it mildly. members of congress rose to object to the real ideas taking women into the united states military with statements such as i think it is the reflection upon the courageous man who'd of the country that passed the law in fighting women to join in the armed forces in order to win a battle. it translates and in the vernacular, this would be damaging to the image of man by saying they need the help of women in things masculine. take the women into the armed services who then what do the cooking, washing, the humble tasks that every woman has deal with it herself. translation, who will take care of the men and the children of

the women go into the military the of the humiliation, what has become of the manhood of america. translation, there is no way the male ego can deal with losing faith by having the women in an institution that has been male-dominated since it began. we need to keep the status quo. so the u.s. army and navy nurse is worth serving in the military field hospitals in the philippines and in may, 1942, when the nurses were taken prisoners of war, congress argued in the legislation bragged. when a version of the bill passed on may 15, 42, the women's army auxiliary corps was established. women would serve with the army, not on the army. this meant the members had no

official military status, they would have a separate system of rank from men, they couldn't be placed in charge of any job or mission that involved a man, and they couldn't give orders to man and they didn't wait a salute. it would soon be apparent that the women in the waac just like the women in the army and nurse corps could serve in combat zones but were not for the military protection, privileges and rights enjoyed by males in similar situations. meanwhile, legislation to create women's see services had come to the attention of congress. this bill would establish the women's branch is in the u.s. navy, marine corps and coast guard. edith rogers along with eleanor roosevelt had put the fear of god into the navy admirals back

in december of 1941. so the navy supported the bill passed and was assigned into law in 1942. now, your guiding the creation of these new women in military branches was the women's advisory council. members of the worst civilian educators who represented the five sisters colleges which included mount holyoke college and head of the massachusetts and smith college in hampton massachusetts where women marines exited for voluntary emergency service for trained. the women of the advisory council were the brightest and most well-educated women in the country. the chairman of the council was virginia come dean of the call

which was overheard at one point in the deliberations regarding the acceptance of women in the navy. she said if the navy could possibly have used dogs or ducks or monkeys, either of the admiral scott the older had models would certainly have greater preferred them to the women. november, 1942, the waac and army chief of staff, george c. marshall, found out exactly what it meant to not have full military status. five waac in an advance party flew to england and took a shipped to north africa because they were told it was too dangerous for the women to fly by aircraft at that point, and they were to set up the clerical support of general eisenhower's headquarters in north africa. and to give support to the cost of to -- kissell blanka.

one day the ship was torpedoed at sea. along with the other passengers, the five waac were adrift in lifeboats throughout the night and it might activities were pulling survivors out of the water and onto the raft and rowing. they were rescued by ship the next morning and taken into court and general eisenhower had quarters. there they met general george marshall, the army chief of staff, who was there for the costa blanka conference. he met the wacs and said to them, we will have your year and uniforms and all of your personal belongings lost at sea replace. so when george marshall got back to washington, d.c. and checked with the army, he learned that this could not happen. the wacs were an auxiliary, they were not in the army.

marshall paid out of his pocket for the year that he promised he would replace as well as to ship it back to africa. now the wacs had no protection of the geneva convention, the military life insurance, no benefits, no g.i. bill and no dependents benefits. edith rogers crafted the women army corps bill as wac and interested to congress in general ray 1943. it passed into law in june the rate of 1943. waac had to rejoin the women's army corps through a three month window. so the women's army corps lost 25% of those women who had been in the auxiliary because the army had changed the examination

standards. there had been a knee-jerk campaign you can read that in the book a few good women, and there were families and boyfriends and husbands that did not want these women to go into the women's army corps. after world war ii ended, legislation to continue the women's branches was introduced into congress. during congressional debate about this legislation and some of the legislators were not happy to grant permanent status for the women in the military representative smith said no doubt the issue is simple. either the armed services have a permanent need for women officers and enlisted women were they do not. if they do, then the women should be given permanent status

i am convinced that it is better to have no legislation at all than to have legislation of this type. now i would like to introduce some of the outstanding women that we included in our book, "a few good women." during world war ii, jean holmes joined the waac. she was a 19-year-old from oregon, and while she was in basic training she stood out from some of the others because she knew what the close order drill was because she had belonged to the oregon women's corps before she joined the army. she trained as a truck driver and found that she thrived on the army life. world war two was over gene was discharged in 1945 and went off to college. in the meantime, this legislation did go through on the permanent course for the

women's services and the recruiting of the women who served in world war ii now was going full tilt. so 1948, jeanne got a letter from the government and it included a postcard which had of the women's new permanent corps listed on it, and the newest one on there was the air force. and she told us well, i thought that sounded really nice like it was something new and exciting so i checked off the air force in the little box and by the coast into the mail and went back to college and forgot all about it. well, when the next break in coverage can, she decided she really did want to go back into the army, so she had a friend named evelyn who also served so the two of them decided they were going to drive jean's 1940 chevy to fort lee virginia.

so they had to borrow $600 from jean's grandmother because they were broke. so at night along the way when they stopped the slot in the car all the way across the country. when they arrived at fort lee virginia, jean was recognized by the colonel smith in charge of fort lee at the time and she had known her and her previous military service survey got sworn into the army and six months leader jean's commission hadn't come through so she went to colonel smith and said what happened to my commission? colonel smith called the pentagon and then she called jean holmes into her office and said you're not going to get in the army convention. you are on the list for the air force and they are not going to let you go. on her way to their base, gene met some men who were traveling

and they were telling her that they had an assignment to go to the irving air force depo. so jean got there and they said to her where do you want to be stationed? she didn't know anything about the air force and she said well, i would like to go to the supply depot within germany. they said you want to go to germany to excellence to go to germany. they were collecting up some of the records of world war ii, so it wasn't too exciting. so they sent her and they said okay, there are three available. which one do you want? there is a maintenance officer, supply officer orval wing nut more went officer and she told us that sounds interesting, i thought anything about war plans

come so i would like to that. well, the russians had just blockaded berlin about that time and now jean having this as her major job she had to get into apply to our me war plans to the depo. she said in, and since i was able to do that, but the one thing that was difficult was trying to figure out how to do the evin occupation so she told us here i was the fis top security clearance is in the secret war plans in the russian blockade of berlin. we were expecting the russians to walk in the door at any minute and take us prisoner. we were the most forward base in europe. well, as the war plan officers she knew she had to get the evacuation plan figured out. she had an army friend that was there as well station, so she

and he went out and they went over the back roads between munich and the swiss border and they finally mapped out an exit route in case of the base of got over one that's how they could fit people out into switzerland. years later when she became the director of the women's airforce and when she was awarded her second star she became the second women in the united states military to claim to star major general. the cold war heated up when number terri hail was invaded, south korea was invaded on 25th of june 1950 and 134,000 north koreans swarmed across the parallel. the reserve units in the united states were called up and they had a tough time finding some of the women because women have

gotten married and their names have changed, they had children by now and they moved and they were hard to fight. well, they did locate a number of them and they were called up for the korean contract. so there were hospitals units supporting the war in korea and the 24th infantry division landed on the west coast of korea and with them came the fourth army field hospital and anna mae mckay was the daughter of a salvation army veterans of new york and was in the army burma campaign of world war ii. when we interviewed general

hays, mckay-hayes, she told us we went with a 30-foot height. i remember climbing down the side of the ship on the road ladder and getting into the branding people landing craft. the marines had gone in first and secured the area as far as it could be secured. in the army troops went in and then we entered. that was probably the worst war for me because it was so cold. we had little water and firewood, and the few supplies, it was so cold we were piled the jackets under our scrubs and the operating room. in 1956, anna mae mckay was the head nurse at the emergency room at walter reed army medical center when she was pulled by the chief nurse reassigned to stand special watch to the president of the united states, dwight d. eisenhower. during that long illness, eisenhower and mckay became friends, and as a result of

that, mckay was a friend of the eisenhower's really for the rest of her life. wind anna mae mckay became the first woman in the united states history of military history to reach the rank of brigadier general, mrs. eisenhower presented the storrar that had been pinned on her husband when he made general years before. she told us she was touched by mrs. eisenhower's kind this and generosity. now years later, coast guard captain james hartley laughed at the very idea that she would ever have drawn into the military. she told us on a child of the 60's. the thought of going into the coast guard or any other military branch was about as far from my mind as they could get. however, during a dinner party of their home, her husband's

boss kept insisting she should think about joining the coast guard because, he said they needed women especially ones with a master's degree in environmental biology. she said in the week, i couldn't get this guy to shut up and i needed to serve dessert so i told him i would check out the coast guard in the near future. well, she did, and that is how it came to be that lt. gene hartley happened to be at the port of wilmington north carolina, the jumping off spot for the majority of the troops and supplies and equipment that were deployed to the middle east for operation desert shield and desert storm in 1990. the united states government had planned a naval blockade to inspect vessels in the iraqi were the to meet walkers. the u.s. navy asked the coast guard to provide cutters and crews to aid the naval blockade.

lt. hartley was aware of the major decisions that were being made regarding the port safety and the coast guard mission in operation desert shield. she said the navy asked for coast guard ships and crews and wasn't happy when they looked at the crew rosters. they wanted the coast guard to replace the coast guard women who were in position of leadership. hartley explained the coast guard was a small surface compared to the navy, the army and the air force and could not afford to squander their people and their talent because they needed that in shaping the best possible coastguard that they could have an order to complete the mission. in jeans words, the underwear in the bunch because we were just had if ships going to operation desert shield and desert storm

with women as leaders in the theater, and the was a shake-up for them. they said you can't do that and we said well then you will have -- then you can't have the ships because you cannot take a commanding officers of the vessel. another military woman accustomed to standing her ground was the colonel carolyn carroll. for many years the army did not permit single women to have underage children and joined the army. at that time, carolyn was a 19-year-old divorced mother and wanted to enlist in the army. the army recruiter advice her welcome to join the national guard and then you can transfer to the army. so carolyn was planning to

enlist in the national guard and then do what he said but then she discovered that this recruiter had never submitted her application paperwork to the army as he said he would, nor her test scores, as he said he would come and he had some plans of her own. so carolyn learned she could enlist in the civilian of kwai your skills program, go to basic training two or three weeks and return to the guard unit as an e3 with two years of college or experience. further, she learned that she could use six months on the job training and then receive an automatic promotion to e4. when the first opportunity arose, carol lynn moved forward with her plans and joined the national guard. now in 1976, for the first time women could attend the state

national guard academy called -- and was called blcnoc. it was a three week summer course and there were about 200 people attending the course. caroline, who's been a tomboy while she was growing up, does very well physically, academically and in her leadership evaluation. she also won the land navigation competition. carol lynn was so outstanding that she was nominated as the distinguished critic by her peers and faculty. the sergeant major of the academy told carolyn we will not have a woman as a distinguished graduate. carolyn appealed to the state generals the only other women in this class to be the secretary to the generals she called and explained what happened and told

him what had gone on. carolyn went through with the closing ceremony as the distinguished graduate. the personnel section back at the national guard headquarters had never had a female in co despite the fact carolyn had had her straight pin on her and that blcnoc celebration rich region she told her unit that she would be a specialist, not resurgent. she told us i said no. i heard those stripes. it was like you can't be a female in charge, you are good, smart, you're still the woman. i was a feisty young kid and i was like in your face. i said you're not going to take my stripes away. carolyn got to keep her stripes.

when he transferred to the u.s. army she excelled in her army career. she was accepted as the flight training and helicopters when she graduated from fort rucker said she was rated on a cobra front seat. later she flew to the black hawk and then when carolyn was assigned to her more gains she flew the soviet helicopters ahead. in august, 1990, major carroll deployed to the operation desert shield and desert storm she was an executive officer of the units attachments to that unit 300 military soldiers form the day that the u.s. and coalition troops started moving across the direction in baghdad major carroll flew her cobra helicopters about and in front of the advancing american and

allied troops. a site she would never forget. he said i was in desert storm in the first infantry division and led the attack against the burned. one of the most exciting things i did when i actually flew the mission on the ground attack is was like a world war ii movie because you had tanks and amol carriers and big tracks and refueled and it was like the whole world was rumbling and in 2005 the colonel carolyn carroll deployed to afghanistan and worked closely with american soldiers and the special forces. she was the executive officer of the nato unit for the canadian army. she was acutely aware of the dangers that were at here and in iraq and afghanistan in the war zones. she said there's a chance that

every time you go out there is a chance you might not come back. all of the women who served in the u.s. military have traveled many miles and can point to their military service in thousands of miles on the map. however, the journey along the road of military history has far outdistanced all physical models and it leads clearly into the future. even so, the women are still fighting for in the military and as u.s. citizens. all of the military women we interviewed couldn't be included because of time constraints but they have earned our respect and admiration and the heavy police in our memories and hopefully in the national memory. it is a history that is said to

be the sole of the nation and it is a historian's job to keep healthy and bride putative finally, i would like to close within the e-mail we received last spring from then corporal patricia, the young woman marine and i introduced you to at the beginning of the talk. when a few good women was published the sent a copy to each man and woman we had interviewed and were gracious enough to share their stories with us. we were delighted to hear from patti. her e-mail touched us and made us aware how fortunate we are to be the historians to the lions, the chroniclers come to those who had given so much. patty wrote i got the book. i was so thrilled by couldn't put it down. i read a lot of it and a am so

proud to be part of such a wonderful thing. thank you for making the part of it. if i showed it to the people that my work place and the word spread like wild fire they came to speak at me and look at the book. i was so choked up by the it that my 8-year-old son who was three when i left for iraq actually understands because of your book his mom went through and achieved is a display of a major part of how far women have come and definitely what is to come. sincerely, patricia levin good, united states marine corps. i invite you to stand with patty and become a lead in their remembrance of women in the united states military. thank you. [applause]

>> thank you. that was a nice talk and it is so unfortunate the women's veterans remember our place in history if we don't chronicle our place in history nobody else is going to do that for us, and rosemary is one of the women veterans who is working so hard to come up with a place for women veterans, so we thank you for that. [applause] and we would like to present rosemary with a certificate of appreciation and recognition for her outstanding contribution to keynote speaker 2010 women's veterans appreciation luncheon. thanks again --

[applause] >> thank you. >> does anybody have any questions for rosemary? we have time for questions. yes, ma'am. >> i don't really have a question. i just want to see thank you! thank you. [applause] >> i have to say it has been an honor. a lot of [inaudible] i went to tell one story if i could. carol lynn carroll, the last woman i talked about, i was in new orleans with lynn ashley and we were at the program at the world war ii museum, and when i was at the airport after i had left the program on the came up

behind this woman with a huge pack on her back [inaudible] i came up to her by being a bottle of water and said excuse me, would you like me to set up your zipper and she was very gracious. and so i thought here is a woman i might be able to interview. then she came out of that little store. we stood and talked and i tell you she was the most interesting, wonderful person and so gracious to leave her let me interview her over the telephone. she had a son in iraq as mine was at the same time with the first calvary division while she was in afghanistan he was an iraq. so her devotion of what people go through in multiple rounds of the military families and active-duty military at the same time, but i want to see thank

you for being here today and having a chance for me to tell you some of the great stories about the wonderful women and i bet every one of you has a super story to tell as well. i encourage you to talk to the families and provide things. thank you so much. [applause] >> this event was hosted by the cincinnati va medical center. for more information, visit cincinnati.va.gov.two we are now joined by two authors. the book, segal i, the amazing true story of brothers to the

rescue in collaboration with jose basuto the charness in miami. lily prelezo, what is brothers to the rescue? >> it is an organization that je was formed by jose basuto and a friend and many pilots of the nationalities that rescue the cubin raptors escaping communist should cuba in the 1990's. have >> why did it have to be four? >> when the government doesn'tf, orieide or doesn't suffice, then thishave a community oriented mississippi you have to take action on your own and this is -- i organized a group of pilots to work in the straits of florida and fly missions in tandem to locate the rafters coming out from cuba seeking freedom in the united states and fleeing the disaster of that island. >> what was the government policy that said brothers to the

rescue in motion? >> well, the government -- there was no really government policy that set them in motion. what happened that called motion? >> well, it was all result of cuba's failed policies probably and people left by any means they could possibly come up with, and there was all of sudden a surge of rafters leaving cuba, and one day, one young rafter, 15 years old, the coast guard filmed the rescue and died in the arms of the agent, and it was seen on the news and said we have to do something about this and that's how brothers to the rescue got started. >> when government doesn't suffice with what they provide, it's the coast guard that was extremely helpful to us and without them, we couldn't do our job. to find the rafters, that was our job and community's interest, and we implemented brothers to the rescue to

provide for that need. >> how did you train the pilots, where did you find them, and what is sea gull one? >> okay. seagull one is my sign as a pilot. i was seagull one making the radio calls to the other pilots in the formations that we flew to locate the rafters. the other pilots were from 19 nationalities who joined us in their interest to help others and it was a matter of helping brothers, and some came to gain hours as pilots, but believe me after you flew one or two missions there, you were hooked with the idea of saving lives or you simply left. we have three brothers from argentina, the original brothers to rescue, and alberto and --

they were the first pilots to all organize the group and locate the other pilots like themselves where young men were part of the community and were pilots already, so we recruited pilots and recruit observers in the rear seats of the plane and carried members of the press, and there was no mission we didn't carry a member of the press with us because we wanted to document what was happening there to, you know, make everything what was happening in cuba and the reasons they were leaving the island so no better way to say that than the image of a rafter, of o person floating in the middle of nowhere in an intertube. that's what we were doing. >> lily prellezo, what about the clinton administration? did they not assist?

>> brothers to the rescue never asked the u.s. government for help monetary or otherwise. of course the u.s. coast guard was instrumental because they lifted people out of the raft and saved their lives, but the clinton administration, what happened after the exodus of 1994 was that the policy changed, and the dry foot came about, and then it was no longer viable to be rescuing or flying mission to rescue people just returned to guantanamo or returned to cuba. >> wet foot, dry foot policy? >> if a cube ban were leaving cuba and touched dry land, he could be processed for immigration. if they were intercepted at sea, they were returned to guantanamo. >> i want to say in the clinton administration was instrumental

in terminating and three of our airplanes and i was flying one flew in a search and rescue mission and make cuba came after us and shot down two planes and i survived the third plane. the clinton administration was aware that the attack from cuba was going to take place. all they did was document the attack, and what they could have done which was giving us a word of or a notice that this was impending to us. all they did was document it, and no only that they interrupted regular procedure of the defenses of the aircraft from homestead air base would take off to interpret cuba, and that was automatic standard operating procedure was interrupted and it had to have been from the white house. they were told to stand down

battle stations at the precise moments that brothers of rescue needed to prevent the shootdown, so i am pointing me castle at castle for the shootdown, the natural enemy, and the clinton administration for aiding and abetting the shootdown of the brothers to the rescue plane. > were you in cuban air space? >> international air space, and no matter where we would have been, there's no reason for a mink airplane to go out there. civilian aircraft with civilian pilots when they have been notified we had a search and rescue mission and contacted by radio. they know what we are doing there. we had been doing it for years, and they chose to kill a at that time, and the u.s. government having previous knowledge did nothing to prevent it. >> now, there was a flight over

cuba; is that correct? >> there has been -- we took flights over cuba on three or four occasions in the past. one time the previous year, i flew over havana and there was a demonstration for the cuban people, but that day, nothing, and we were forced or would have dropped leaflets there from international air space to cuba. this may be hard to come prehepped to someone who is not a pilot, but when the air is in favorable conditions, you can put leaflets on the other side of cuba from international air space. >> how did you find this story, lily prellezo? >> well, the story was always there. it's how the story found me is how it happened. a mu chiewl friend introduced me

to jose, and he wanted someone to write the story, but never felt comfortable with anyone, so i feel honored i was chosen to write the story and i interviewed a hundred people to tell what it was like to be a brother or sister to the rescue. >> how many people were lost in this rescue operation? >> you mean? >> brothers to the rescue? >> four people were murdered when the planes were shot down. four men lost their lives. >> how many rafters do you estimate that you helped? >> by 1994, we had already rescued 4200 rafters running our missions, and then after that, we rescued 30-some thousand more by assisting the coast guard when the 1994 exodus from cuba

came about. in our own efforts, 4200 saved by the efforts of brothers to the rescue. >> were they returned to cuba? >> those 4200 no, and the 30,000 we assisted later, most of them weren't, and from then on the policy changed to the wet foot dry foot policy, and the government started sending them back to cuba and renamed them migrants. they were refugees actually because the conditions in cuba made them refugees. it was handled with is a map ticks as -- sigh systematics as usually and they went back which was sad because the united states was involved in as many circumstances that made it necessary for those people to

come back to come to the united states on 1962 i think it was or 63, the president then proclaimed the lull -- i'm forgetting, but it made it possible for the cubans to stay here and the law was not repealed or anything. it was just a mandate where the clinton administration to return them which has made so far the return of the cuban refugees possible back to the island, and -- >> now, tell us your history. when were you born in cuba, how did you get to the states #, and what's been your involvement in fighting the cube ban government? >> i was born in cuba, and as a young man, i was recruited by

the cia, if you may, because we were working at the time with the internal organization in cuba called the mr, and cia promised to us that they were going to give us all the help we needed to change the government of cuba to a demographic government. those were only words. that ended up and known later as bay of pigs. >> you were involved with that? >> yeah. i was sent back into cuba as a radio operator to send back information. in other words, intelligence to the u.s. on what was going on before the invasion, and everything they promised and said was going to be done on our behalf was simply betrayed. that included the invasion. >> now, what did your family do in cuba prior to your coming over to the states? >> my father used to work for a

company, sugar sales, they were a u.s. company in cuba that, you know, was in the sugar industry. the ironny was fidel castro coming to power was something that we didn't like, like at all. >> lily prellezo, tell us your background. >> i was born in cuba and came to the united states when i was 4 years old. my father was involved in the counterrevolution, so my older brothers and sisters had already come here, but my mother wanted me and my little sister out and put us on a plane by ourselves. i was 4 and she was 2. >> is that peter pan? >> no before that. that was 1960 but it was urgent that she had to put us on a plane, of course, it's only a 90 minute flight, but you know. when's the next time you saw

your mother? >> i think a few months after that. >> she managed to get over? >> yeah, they came back and forth my father and her. >> how strong is the cuban community now in southern florida? is it still loyal to the overthrow or have enough generations succeeded that it's less? >> it's less hard line in let's go to invade them. perhaps that sentiment is that strong, but there are people who would rather go and just, you know, invade physically, but i think there are more people open to speaking, opening relations, perhaps lifting the embargo. i know there's a lot of people that feel that way because they feel the only way to change things is to change it from within, and you can't if they don't have any information from outside, and that's the most important thing is to get information from the rest of the

world inside of cuba. >> part of what bricks rescue, and that what made us a tart was to promote single disobedience to promote nonviolent approach and reclaim human and civil rights of the cuban people. we started sending literature to the island and slogans like i am the change and that meant you assumed respondent for your circumstances, and if you want to change, we have to have it ourselves and not expect the u.s. to do it for us, and other messages like establishing our relationship to one another look the one that says let congress know brothers to not break that communication in cuba that the government had a footing to them to call eachth