became part of the united states. a look at a recent stop in baton rouge, louisiana. to learn more, visit c-span.org/localcontent. coming up next, two veterans share their war stories at the annual veteran center's 14th annual conference. first we hear from general robert titus who served in the air force in the korean war and received the flying cross. after that from francis sanza who served as general patton and eisenhower's driver in world war ii. this is about an hour. >> good morning, ladies and gentlemen. i thought we had a very full program. interesting panelists and speakers. i hope you agree. and should get thank you for

getting up with us 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 conflicts that this country's been in over the past 70 years. we take pride in the fact we have a lot of students come from these conferences all different days. and we're expecting yet more to come in today. i'm also proud to say for the first time we have representatives from all five of the service academies with us. it is military from west point, annapolis, the air force from colorado springs, colorado. and the coast guard and marine academies which are new this year. and we want to build this representation up every year. we're all about the youngest generation and imparting the

lessons of war and conflict. from the heroes who speak. to the young people wheer today. and during the conference in general. hope they get something out of this which will be helpful to them as they pursue a career in the military. i'm pleased now to welcome to the podium our introducer for this morning's first session. he is with the united states coast guard academy. peter? [ applause ] >> general robert f. titus was born in orange, 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 was commissioned in september of 1949 and served as a fighter pilot during the vietnam war. he subsequently graduated from the u.s. air force, experimental test force at edwards air force base. and was assigned to the fighter branch of flight test operations and participated in flight testing of all century series fighters. he performed the zero launch program and flew an f-100 in the first jet crossing from 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, silver star, legion of merit, divisioned flying cross, bronze star, and the air

medal. francis sanza was a driver for eisenhower and patton while serving with the medium automotive maintenance company. he was chosen by general patton in 1944 during preparations for the 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 patton died as a result of an auto accident. mr. francis sansa received medals during his time of service. thank you. [ applause ] >> i'm robert titus.

u.s. air force retired. i did the 27 years active duty in the air force. my first ride in an airplane was in a open cockpit biplane. in my father's lap. and 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'd give me wings and a commission. if i didn't, they didn't want me. i said well that's a no brainer. okay. sign me up. >> we lost a lot of good guys in korea. i didn't fully expect to survive it. i met a friend of mine i went to college with on r & r in tokyo. he asked what to tell my mother. the probability of completing this mission is between zip and zilch. he said aren't you upset about that? no. it's what we did for a living. the zero launch. that was 130,000 pounds of solid rocket propellant strapped to the bottom of the airplane. >> being prepared for a 130,000 pound kick in the pants. the system provides takeoff cape. >> technique he was sitting on the back of this truck elevated 45 degrees, 30 degrees, whatever

it was. check out your instruments and pull the trigger and you got an additional 130,000 pounds of thrust. that burns out in four seconds. so i had the opportunity to demonstrate that at indians springs. i said watch this. you can't do that. anyway. somebody said why did you do that? you don't often get a chance to shine your ride in front of a crowd. >> for some purpose.

i invited him to dinner and threw the maps on the floor. i said i've got these two with navigational equipment in them. i thought maybe i'd do a polar flight. >> there's a strange element that creeps in whether it dictates people's behavior. shut up and die like a man. >> rolling in in about 15 seconds. >> can't see it. >> okay.

>> and we're coming down that ridge. i said i'm gone. followed him around. and locked on to him. saying fire fire. meantime my wing man a yelling brake. i'm passing everybody. we're all locked up on him but he's going down. so then i fired another missile. disappeared. i fire a third. and it hit his wing at the wing root. he punched out.

he should. he's got a martin baker seat just like everybody else. >> duty is ours. the results are god's. we talk about honor. honor is not something we can get ourselves. we can only act honorably by remembering that what we do is a measure of our character. 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. [ applause ] >> well those are heavy days from my perspective. i was gifted and privileged to participate in a lot of things. but i had to volunteer for for the most part. had to fight to get those jobs. 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 didn't go oversees. flying commander. i recall one time being on at ft. bragg, the whole division. and the general officers and the kernels were appearing getting on the reviewing stand with their wives and so on. for standing out there waiting for the band to start up. and wondering when we were going to go. and off in the distance here comes a lone figure walking to

the review stand. i thought that was the primary example of leadership. we were all thoroughly impressed. we thought gavin was a leader of men. great guy. i had the privilege of knowing him later on. and i admired and respected him. he was a guy. being from virginia, i had two personal heroes. yankees wouldn't like this.

robert e. lee and stonewall jackson. and why? because they were shelfless. i looked at these young faces here and say my god how wonderful it is for you to be embarking on a military career opportunity. learn what you can from your patriots at this stage of the game. let them show you how to function and give it your all. because what is there? that you can contribute. and life is about contributing. we're given that honor by our maker. when we serve. we get accolades. we wonder why. we're rewarding doing that which we love to do. i think my greatest experiences in combat were providing close support for my brothers on the ground. and when they were in separate need and had the opportunity with the appropriate weapons to

provide them some cover and let them survive to the extent that you had a capacity to provide that support. i had that experience one time in vietnam. i was airborne and i was napalm. 50 caliber. somebody was in distress. i heard it on guard channel. so i was given a frequency. i was talking to a fellow on the ground. he was a member of the special

forces guys who had infiltrated. and they had -- they recruited. these were chinese prisoners, criminals i suppose. but they were released from jail citizen in order to fight the viet. dedicated guys. they had dead and wounded. they needed a bit of help. i was -- we led down not know what was beneath us. wondering if you're going to run into something. but we broke out below. but we only have a few to work with. this guy was whispering in the microphone trying to find him was another task. what the timing might be. so we fooled around until he

gave a heading and turned north. i finally managed to fly over his position and came back with the napalm. he wanted it right on his position. if that's what you want, we'll give it to you. that night i was in the squadron bar back at base. when some guy was at the door asking for me. my guy's reaching for the pistols because here's this guy in grease paint and camouflage stuff. he had a bottle of champagne for me. again, it was a serious privilege to deal with somebody like that. i was asked earlier what do you call a close call? were you shot down?

yeah, twice. well, did you survive? actually, the first time was in korea. i was flying a p-51 mustang. the airplane was very vulnerable to groundfire as you might manage. you run out of things and time to get out. you pull the rip cord and hit the ground that quickly. i remember i was quite low when i punched out. and i ended on the ground. didn't know where i was but knew i was in korea. but i didn't in relation to the enemy. i soon found out i was in the middle of what they call no man's land at the time in the demilitarized zone. i pull out my .45 because i found some guys heading toward me from the north. they responded. and i thought oh no this isn't going to work out too well.

so i kept my head down. i was actually pretty tense for 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 me. i was i crawled on my belly back it a bunker. i was very grateful to the marine. i suppose that was a close call. 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.he, 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 eisenhower said he was going to take over the second army. i was in the first army then. and they were looking to build up the third army. 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 the hsh had -- had the invasion of france in june the 3rd. and the weather was so bad, they didn't know what to do so they canceled it. so they had a meeting with 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. that was the word that he always 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 brussels. 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 modified 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. and he wanted his pistol, he wanted a pearl handle. i guess 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 lacquer in 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 he was going 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 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. so okay we went to austria. he said we're going to 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 ride. she said, you see that one over there.

yeah. hitler bought that but it never got there. that was his happy day. he road that one horse. bradley came, bradley came and got me and brought me back. i went back to germany and he stayed there and i had to get all his stuff ready. out of his van and get his papers, maps, and everything. rolled up and put away. because he was going to leave. so the war was over in may. i stayed there until november to get him squared away. and okay, so i got all his things squared away and he said i should take a rest because other things had to be done. so i went back to a little german camp i stayed there for about three weeks. and in november, i got him squared away and he had two guard. he had two bodyguard. every place we went. always two bodyguard. either ahead of me or behind me. and he was in this wreck. and france.