colonies and significant to louisiana history because it took british west florida into spanish control. so baton rouge and the area -- east of us, which one had been british had become spanish. we were under the spanish authorities even after the louisiana purchase. till president took over west florida and we became finally part of the louisiana territory. and eventually in april of 1812 became part of the united states.

a look at a recent stop in baton rouge, louisiana, one of eight southeastern cities we toured last year. to learn more about our tour, visit c-span.org/localcontent. coming up next, two veterans share their war stories at annual veteran centers 14th annual conference. first we hear from general robert titus who served in air force in korean war. after that we hear from francis sanza, served as general george patton and general eisenhower's? driver during world war ii. this is about an hour.? sflu good morning ladies and gentlemen. those here yesterday, i hope you enjoyed the proceedings. we had a full program of

interesting panelists and speakers. and should get even better today, i think. so thank you for getting up with us this early morning hour on saturday to be with us for a full day of adventure as we listen to some great stories from some great heroes from a number of conflict this is country's been in in the past 70 years. lots of students, different groups all three days and we're expecting yet more to come in today. i'm also proud to say that for the first time we have representatives of all five of the service actiondademy with u u.s. naval academy in annapolis, air force academy and the coast guard and measure chant marine academies, which are new this year. we want to build this representation up every year. we're all about the youngest generation and imparting the

lessons of war and conflict and even peace time from the great veteran heroes that speak. we want to impart those lessons to the young people here today. during our conference in general and hopefully they'll get something out of this which will be helpful to them as they pursue a career in the military or maybe not if they're going to civilian life. a lot of these lessons are applicable to everybody when it comes to leadership. i'm pleased now to welcome to the podium our introducer for this morning's first session. he is peter embriali with the united states coast guard. general titus was borned in new jersey, graduating from high school in norfolk, virginia. he served with the 82nd airborne division and was discharged in

1946. he then attended virginia tech studying engineering and commissioned in the united states air force in september of 1949. served as a fighter pilot serving f-51s and f-86s during the vietnam war. he subsequently graduated from the u.s. air force experimental test pilot school at edwards air force base in 1954 and assigned to the fighter branch of flight test operations and participating in flight testing of all century series fighters. he also participated in the nato lightweight fighter trials at french flight test center. he performed the f-100 zero launch program and flew an f-100 in the first jet fighter crossing of the north pole frl england to alaska. he retired in 1977 with 32 years of service and flew over 550 combat missions in korea and vietnam. his decorations include the air

force cross, the silver star, legion of myrrh ret, bronze star and the air medal. francis jeep sanza was a driver for general dwight eisenhower and general patton. he was chosen by general patton in 1944 during preparings for allied invasion of german occupied france and drove for him from d-day until the end of the war in europe in may 1945. later that year general patton died on december 21, 1945 as a result of an auto accident. mr. francis sanza received five medals and five bronze stars during his time of service. thank you.

my first ride in an airplane was in a waca open cockpit type plane, rode in the backseated on my father's lap. that was quite an experience. ultimately an air force recruiter told me i could be an aviation cadet. i asked what the deal was and they explained if i had passed through the pilot training program they would give me wings and commission. if they didn't want me, they didn't want me. i said, that's a no-brainer. they can teach me to fly and i can leave if i want to? okay. sign me up.

♪ >> we lost a lot of guys in korea. i fully didn't expect to survive. i met a friend of mine that i went to high school and college with on r&r in tokyo and i started telling him what he should tell my mother. i said, what are you telling me? the probability of completing this tour is somewhere between zip and zilch. aren't you upset about that? i said, no, that's what we do for a living. if we lose, we lose. yeah, the f-100 zero launch, 130,000 pound solid rocket propellant strapped on the bottom of the airplane. >> being prepared for 130,000 pound kick in the pants. the zero system provides takeoff capability for our combat fighters like a matador missile

is launched. >> technique is you're sitting on the back of this track elevated 45 degrees, 30 degrees, whatever it was. you rev up the engine, check your systems, bang the afterburner and you get an additional 130,000 thrust. that burn out in four seconds and now you're doing 270 miles an hour. so, i had the opportunity to demonstrate that at indian strings outside of nellis. i remember hoover was with me. i said, i'm going to roll as soon as the rocket burns. oh, no, you can't do that. you have a full koth combat load. you can't do that. anyway, i said -- somebody said, why did you do that? i said, you don't often get a chance to shine your ride in front of a crowd.

>> i had designed that flight plan and charlie blair was out at edwards for some purpose. i invited him to the house for some reason and i threw my maps on the floor and i said, i have these two f-100s with navigational on them and i thought maybe i would do a polar flight. >> there's a strange element that creeps into the equation when guys allow panic to dictate their behavior. i never understood it myself but i've seen it a lot. shut up and die like a man.

>> about 15 seconds. >> i can't see it. >> okay. >> we're coming down the ridge when i see a mig. i said, i'm gone. followed him around. and locked onto him. he's going downhill. and zimmer, my backseater is saying, fire, fire. in the meantime, my wing man is yelling, brake. i said, no, we got time to guide that missile. laid it up on my side, let it go. passing everybody. nothing but f-4s back there. i see another mig. i go after him. we're all locked up on him but he's going down. too much cluter to pick him up

with the side winder so we launch an am-7, got an expanding steering circle. everything is okay. missile doesn't even appear. and so then i fire another missile. disappeared. i fire a third, aim seven, and this guy is going to turn down there and it hit his wing right at the wing root. he punched out. holy shut, he has a martin baker seat just like everybody else. >> duty's ours. the results, our guides. we talk about honor. honor is something we can't get for ourselves. honor is that which is accorded to us by our fellows, our comrades. we can only act honorably by

remembering that what we do is a measure of our character. country, service to country is what it's all about. we raised our hands, each of us, and said we would, we will, and so we did, regardless of the outcome. >> how are you doing? >> all right. >> well, those are heedy days, from my perspective. i was gifted and privileged to participate in a lot of things that i had to volunteer for, for

the most part. had to fight to get those jobs. i recall after the korean war kicked off, i spent a lot of time knocking on the personnel officer's door about once a week saying, i want to go get in this war. i had missed world war ii. i got to jump with the 82nd airborne division, didn't go overseas and i even got to march in the world war ii victory parade because the 82nd airborne did that, led by general jim gavin. flying commander. i recall one time being on parade at ft. bragg, the whole division, and the general officers and colonels were appearing in their staff cars, getting on the reviewing stand with their wooifdz and so on. we're standing out there, waiting for the band to start up. wondering when we were going to go.

off in a distance here comes a long figure walking to the reviewing stand. that was general gavin. i thought that was primary example of leadership. we were all thoroughly impressed. gavin was a selfless leader of men. great guy. i had the privilege of knowing him later on. and i admired and respected him. he was -- he was a guide. being from virginia, i had two personal heroes. yankees wouldn't like this. robert e. lee and stonewall jackson. and why? because they were selfless. they gave of themselves beyond anything which was ordinarily required. i look out at these young faces here and say, my god. how wonderful it is for you to

be embarking on a military career opportunity. so, learn what you can from your teachers at this stage of the game. find your own personal guides. let them show how to you function and give it your all. because what else is there? to the extent you can give of yourself, you then contribute. and life is about contributing. we're given that honor by our maker, whom we serve. because we're really nothing. we get accolades. we wonder why. we're rewarded for doing that which we love to do. i think my greatest experiences in combat were providing close

air support for my brothers on the ground. and when they were in desperate need, if you were there and had the opportunity with appropriate weapons to provide them some, let them survive. to the extent you had the capacity to provide that support. i had that experience one time in vietnam. i was airborne and it was napom and 50 caliber laying up fives at the time. somebody was in distress. and i heard it on guard channel. so, i was given a frequency and i was talking to a fellow on the ground. he was a member of a mike force team. these were special forces, green beret guys, who had infiltrated. they had -- they were -- they

recruited nungs, chinese prisoners or criminals, i suppose, but anyway they were released from jail in order to fight the viet cong and given the opportunity to be led by these force teams, consisting of a captain, couple of lieutenants. wildest people and meanest guys i've ever known in my life. dedicated guys. anyway, they were -- they were -- they were encircled and they had dead and wounded and they needed a little bit of help. and i was privileged to be -- we led down through an undercast, not knowing what was beneath us, a little hairy, wondering if you're going to run into something. but we broke out below. we only had 1,000 feet to work with. this guy i was walking to was whispering in the microphone. he was close to the enemy. and trying to find him was another task.

i said, well, pop some smoke. he didn't want to do that until he knew where we were and what the timing might be. so, we fooled around until he gave me a heading to turn north or whatever. i finally managed to fly over his position and then did a 270 and came back with the napom. he wanted it right on his position. which if that's what you want, we'll give it to up. that night i was in the squadron bar back at the air base when some guy was at the door asking for me. my guy's are reaching for the pistols because this guy in grease paint and a soft hat, camouflaged up. he had a bottle of champagne for me. i said, now, that's gratitude. again, it was a serious privilege to be able to deal with somebody like that. anyway, i was asked earlier, ever have any close calls? i said, i don't know.

you know, what do you call a close call? well, were you ever shot down? yeah, i said twice. well, did you survive? actually the first time was in korea i was flying a mustang and hit by ground fire. the airplane was very vulnerable to ground fire, as you might imagine with in-line engine and coolant pipes running back and forth, 7 millimeter hole, you rupp out of coolant, you run out of engine, you run out of air speed, time to get out. so you jump over the side and you pull your rip cord and you hit the ground that quickly. and i remember i was quite low when i punched out. and i landed on the ground. i didn't know where i was. i knew i was in korea. but i didn't know where i was in relation to the enemy. but i soon found out. i was in the middle of what they

call no man's land at the time. in the demilitarized zone. terrorized zone and i pulled out my 45 because i saw guys in pajamas heading toward me in the north and i bravely defended myself by popping off a couple of round. they responded brrrrr, and i thought oh, no, this isn't going to work too well. i put my head down. i was pretty sentense a few moments. someone not far from me, said keep your head down and crawl in this direction. the marines sent out a parole to get me covering fire. i crawled on my belly back it a bunker. i was very grateful to the marine. i suppose that was a close call. i certainly didn't want to be a pow. but you know, that's all in a day's work and in the business of having the privilege of

flying fighters, now and again, you get a little tickle in the heart. and that's the way it goes. over to you. [ applause ] you're on. >> my turn? here we go. i will give it a story of a great general. and i'm going to tell you we weren't shot or killed or so forth. i sent the tape here, but they don't have it. you don't have my tape? where is wes?

i sent a tape here but i guess they won't show it. i made a series on the history channel and war stories for oliver north. and i told stories of what i did and so forth and so forth and they put them on a tape. you might see them on hbo or some series. first you like to know is where i met general patton. i met general patton in england when eyes entower told him he would take over the third army. i was in the first army then and they were looking to build up the third army and they called them patton's blood bank. that was in england. we were there for a while and everybody was getting together and our company went up there. i went to two schools before the war. i was in the service in 1941 in april, the war started in '41 in

december. and i guess, you could look into my records and find out, so he did pick me. i chatted with him for a couple hours and this, that and the other. then he gave me a pat on the shoulder, and he said, all right, you made it. so i was his driver for the invasion of france until the end of the war. and we were up and down, and i did things and he did things that you wouldn't believe would happen, but i will tell you something that would happen. first, he met me, and we went to -- had the invasion of france in june 3rd, and the weather was so bad and they didn't know what to do so they cancelled it. so they had a meeting with ey

eisenhower and they had a meeting on the boat and then cancelled it until june 6th. they wanted to know why we picked june 6th well eisenhower's son, michael was born at 3:00 in the morning on june the 6th, so it was a good idea. he was a hard man. he was a hard man but he was always worried about his men. great, wonderful person. but he did a lot of things that he shouldn't do, but he did it, and i'm going to tell the things that he did that would surprise you. so here we go. first, every time i would take him somewhere, would he have to say, he would get up and say, one knee on the ground and one foot in the jeep and say a prayer. as soon as he would get done with that prayer, he would start swearing like hell. people out there that son of a

bitch, from hell and the word hell was a great word. everything he said was hell this and hell that. he ails said hell, hell, hell. and the drivers that i would drive them through a town or something and they would say, where you going general? >> i'm going to berlin to kill that son of a bitch at paper hiemer, you know. and when the war was over, he wanted to go to berlin. so i had him on the jeep, and bradley called on the radio and told him, george, he said, you're going to stop right here and go no further. we're going to cut off your guys, water, this and that be a telephone and gas and you can't talk to nobody. okay. so he wondered why. and they told him russia was going to take berlin instead of

him going in there. he hesitated for while. he had tears in his eyes. this is where he wanted to go. berlin was his story to take over. he wanted to be in there and let them know who he was and so forth. and he was afraid to go there in the first place. he was afraid to go there. so okay, got in there, got his jeep all ready, and he wanted a dome to put on top of the jeep. so when he gets into berlin that they would take a pot shot at him. so they sent me to brussells. all of the airplanes blown down to the ground, i went to see if i could get the big dome from the back, to put on top of the jeep but they were all full of holes. and you couldn't use it. so i picked up other pieces of plastic and we made a door for the jeep. we mdfide a jeep for him. i had a beautiful picture to show, but they just didn't show. we modified the jeep to get ready to go to berlin and they

didn't get to go. so before you went, he was getting ready. so much he owns two helmets. one he had for when he goes around and speaks and one for the front lines. and one inner liner. you go to inner liner in a helmet, okay, we got that liner. he wanted the shine. so captain abbey, went down to get a gallon of lacquer, put eight coat of lacquer on that. you ever see him speak and how nice that hat shines. there was eight coats of lacquer on that baby. and then he had his pistol. i guhe wanted his pistol, he s you heard about that story. but the pearl handle he wanted. so we said, we could fix it. so i brought pieces of plastic from the airplanes and a guy

named mcdonald said yeah, we can fix that. he took the handle off the pistol and he got this plastic and carved it and did a wonderful job. so he painted it inside all nice and white and lackener it. so it looked pearl. he was happy, he the pearl handles. then another time, when the war ended and he couldn't go to berlin, he felt bad. so i took him back, he went back and we stayed for a while. two days later he called me and said, you want to take me to austria. i said, where in austria. he said, i will ride the white horses. so the calgarymen in louisiana, they close down, the jeeps took over his sources. so he got permission to sell horses and get ready and the equipment and we didn't have no

mo caliber. so they sold the horses to hollywood. and they gathered up and sold them to the people there in louisiana and the ones they couldn't get rid of, he opened the gate and let them go. he said, get rid of all the junk and we had no more calvary. he said he wanted to go to austria and ride the white horses. and two women owned the stables. you people know about white horses of austria? some of you don't know. they have the white horses. so we got there and i remember seeing two ladies that came out. they knew who he was, you know. and he said, i want to ride a white horse. and she said, all we have is white ones. i remember her saying that. and she said, i have one that you might like it