lamar cecil. and so judge cecil had to handle this new case that was coming in. johns and willard and tate argued this case in the courtroom here. they brought the plaintiffs and defendants together and judge cecil presided there at his -- at his ben. they argued that the case of brown versus board of education did apply to the golf course even though it was an education, a school case, he ruled in favor of the black plaintiffs, ruled that brown versus board of education does, in fact, apply to this dpofl course, and he ordered the desegregation of tyrrell park golf course. that was one small step that was taken here in beaumont to begin the desegregation. booker facen and joe grifen and those other black gentlemen did get to enjoy the golf course and

many played here for many years. it was a good ending for the black golfers and a first step in the desegregation of facilities in beaumont. the next summer, the same three black lawyers went after a bigger prize. they -- they went after the desegregation of lamar university here in beaumont, state university, four-year college. lamar university was, by charter, for white students only. so there were some black students applied for admission there. they were refused. and so the three black lawyers joined with two black plaintiffs, versy jackson, 26-year-old woman who had graduated from high school and who had attended texas southern, and then a james anthony cormier, a black student who had just graduated from blessed

sacrament high school here in l beaumont. it was a simple case for judge cecil and the lawyers. again, brown versus board of education was about the public schools but there had been other state colleges already desegregated in texas. and so the precedence were there for judge cecil. when it was all said and done, judge cecil ruled in favor of the black students. just before registration began, 25 black students enrolled at lamar college that -- that fall and began classes. there was some trouble on the lamar campus. there were pickets, white people who protested this desegregation who were opposed to admission of black students to lamar college. there was a threat of violence against the mayor of beaumont, jim jimmy coconose but with the help

of the police department and the lamar administration the desegregation did go forward and it was accomplished without any serious violence. so as we know later in other parts of the american south there were serious -- very serious problems on some of the campuses but at lamar university it was accomplished, and it was accomplished with these black lawyers and the white federal judge, judge lamar cecil working the rule of law. a rule of law that presumes the equality of all persons. next two veterans share their war stories at annual veterans centers 14th annual conference. first we hear from general robert titus who received the distinguished flying cross. after that, we hear from francis "jeep" sanza who was dr. dwight d. eisenhower's driver during

world war ii. this is about an hour. >> good morning, ladies and gentlemen. i hope that those of you who were here yesterday enjoyed the proceedings. i thought we had a very full program of interesting panelists and speakers. i hope you agree. and should get even better today, i think. thank you for getting up at 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 conflicts that the country has been in over the past 70 years. we take pride in the fact that we have a lot of students come to the conferences. different groups all three days. we're expecting yet more to come in today. i'm also proud to say that for the first time we have representatives from all five of the service academies with us.

the united states military academy at west point, the u.s. naval academy in annapolis and the coast guard and merchant ma marine academies which are new this year. we want to build this representation up every year. we're about the youngest generation and imparting the lessons of war and even peacetime from the great veteran heros that speak. we want to impart those lessons to the young people here today and during our conferences 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 even 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 to welcome to the podium or introducer for this morning's first session. he is peter imbriale and he's with the united states coast guard. peter?

>> brigadier general robert f. titus, born in orange new jersey arc tenned second schools in new york and maryland graduating from high school in norfolk, virginia. he served with the 82nd airborne division and then he attended virginia tech, studying engineering and he was commissioned in the united states air force in september of 1949. and served as the fighter pilot flying f-51s 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 was assigned to the fighter branch of flight test operations and participated in the flight testing of all century series fighters.d inhe 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 from the north pole 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, the silver star, legion of merit, distinguished flying cross, bronze star and the air medal. francis "jeep" sanza was a driver for general eisenhower and general patton while serving with the u.s. army's 34 57th maintenance automotive company. he was selected for the allied invasion of 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. >> after you. you're on. >> i'm brigadier general robert titus, u.s. air force retired. i did 27 years in active duty in the air force. my first ride in an airplane was in an open cockpit plane. i rode in the backseat in my father's lap. that was quite an experience. and ultimately, an air force recruiter told me i could be an aviation cadet and i asked him what the deal was and they

explained that if i had passed through the pilot training program, they'd give me wings and a commission. and if i didn't, they didn't want me. so i said, that's a no-brainer. you 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. and i fully didn't expect to survive it. i met a friend of mine, i went to high school and college with on r&r in tokyo and i started to tell him what i should tell me mother. he said what are you telling me? i said, well, the probability of completing this tour is 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, that's 130,000

pound solid rocket propellant which was strapped on to the bottom of the airplane. >> f-100 super saver is being prepare for 130,000 kick in the pants. the system provides take-off capability for combat-ready fighters in much the same manner as the matador missile is launched. >> technique, you're sitting on back of the truck, elevated 45 degrees, 30 degrees, whatever it was. run the eng ngen up. check out your instruments and pull the trigger and you hit an additional 330,000 pounds of thrust and that burns out in four seconds and now you're doing 235 miles an hour. so i had the opportunity to demonstrate that at indian springs. i remember hoover was on the

ladder with me. i said, watch this, bob, i'm going to roll as soon as the rocket burns. oh, no, you don't. got a whole combat load, you can't do that. i said, get off the ladder. anyway, i said -- why did you do that? well, 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 there for some purpose and i landed him at the house for dinner and i threw my map on the floor. i have the two with the navigational equipment in them. i thought maybe i'd do a polar flight. >> there's a strange element

that creeps into the equation when guys panic. that dictates their behavior. i never understood it myself, but i have seen it a lot. shut up and die like a man. >> rolling in at about 15 seconds. >> i can't see it. >> okay. >> and we're coming down the ridge, and i said, i'm gone. followed him around and locked on to him. he's going downhill and they're saying fire, fire. in the meantime, my wing man is yelling brake.

i said, no, time to guide the i laid it up on its side. full bottom rudder. i'm passing everybody. nothing but f-4s back there. and i go after him. we're all locked up on him. but he's going down. he's got too much clutter to pick him up on the side winder. so he's launch, got an expanding series. so i fire another missile. disappeared. i fire a third, am-7, this guy going to turn down here and then i hit his -- hit his wing. oh, 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 something that we can't get for ourselves and honor that which is accorded to us by our fellow, our comrades. we can only act honorably by remembering that what we do is a measure of our character. country, country service to country is what it's all about. we raised our hand, each of us, and said we would. we will. and so we did, regardless of the outcome. [ applause ] >> how are you doing? >> all right.

>> well, those are heady days from my perspective. i was gifted and privileged to participate in a lot of things. but i had to volunteer for it for the most part. i had to fight to get those jobs. recall as 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 missed world war ii. i got the jump on the 82nd airborne division, but i even got to march in the world war i i victory parade. because the 82nd airborne did that, led by general jim gaven. a fine commander. i recall one time being on parade at ft. bragg, the whole

division. and the general officers, and the colonels were appearing in their staff cars, getting on the reviewing stand with their wives and so on. we're standing out there, waiting for the band to start up, and wondering when we're going to go, and off in the distance here comes the lone figure walking to the reviewing stan. that was general gavin. i thought that was the primary example of leadership. we were all thoroughly impressed. gavin was the selfless leader of men. a great guy. i had the privilege of knowing him later on. and i admired and respected him. he -- 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 the young faces here and say, my god, how wonderful it is for you to be embarking on the military career opportunity. so learn what you can from your teachers at this stage of the game. find your own personal guides. let them tell you how to function, and give it your all. because what else is there? to the extent you can give of yourself, you then contribute. and then life is about contributing. we're giving 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 an appropriate weapons, to provide them some succor, 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 with napalm and .50 caliber, flying f-5s at the time.

and somebody was in distress and i heard it on guard channels. so i was given a frequency and i was talking to a fellow on the ground. he was a member of the force team, these are special forces. green beret guys who had infiltrated. they recruited nungs, these were chinese prisoners or colonels, i suppose. but anyway they were released from jail in order to fight the viet cong and given the opportunto teams, consisting of the captains a couple lieutenants and several sergeants. wild people. and meanest guys i've ever known in my life. dedicated guys. anyway, they were encircled and they had dead and wounded and they needed a little bit of help. and i was privileged to be -- to

be led down through an undercast, not knowing what was beneath us. it was a little hairy, wondering if you were going to run into something. but we broke out below. we only had a thousand feet to work with. this guy that i was talking to was whispering in the microphone. he was close to the enemy and trying to find him was another task. i said we'll pop some smoke. he didn't want to do that until he knew where we were, what the timing might be. so we fooled around until he dpafb me a he gave me a heading, turn north or whatever. i finally managed to fly over his position and into the 270 he came back with the napalm. he wanted it right on his position which -- if that's what you want, we'll give it to you. that night i was in the squadron bar, back at the air base, when some guy was at the door asking for me. while my guy is reaching for the pistols, here's a guy in grease paint and a soft hat,

camouflaged up and he had a bottle of champagne for me. i said, now that's gratitude. but again, it was a real serious privilege to be able to deal with somebody like that. anyway, i was asked earlier ever had any close calls? i said i don't know. what do you call a close call? well, were you ever shot down? i said, yeah, twice. well, did you survive? actually, the first time was in korea and i was flying a mustang a p-51 mustang. i was hit by ground fire. the plane was very vulnerable to ground fire, as you might imagine, with a lot of coolant pipes running back and forth. .30 caliber bullet fuels, you run out of coolant, you run out of engine, time to get out. so you jump over the side and pull your rip cord, you hit the ground that quickly.

and i remember i was quite low when i punched out. and i ended -- i ended 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 no-man's-land at the time, in the demilitarized zone, and i pull out my .45 because i saw some guys in pajamas headed towards me from the north. i bravely defended myself by popping off a couple of rounds and they responded, not going to work out too well. so i kept my head down and i was actually pretty tense for a few moments. when an american voice -- strong american voice just south of me, not far away, said, keep your head down and crawl in this direction. the marines sent out a patrol to

give me some covering fire and i crawled back and i was grateful to the marines. i suppose that was a close call. i certainly didn't want to be a p.o.w. but that's all in a day's work. in the business of having a privilege of flying fighters now and again you get a little . that's wait it goes. over to you. >> you're on. >> my turn? all right. here we go. i'm going to give you a story of a great general.

and i'm go -- i don't know if he was shot or killed. i sent a tape here. you don't have my tape? i sent a tape here. i guess they won't show it. i made some series with the history channel and with war stories for oliver north. and i told -- i was told to give stories what i did and so forth. he put them on tape and you might have seen them on hbo. first you'd like to know, where i met general patton. i met general patten in england when eisenhower told him he was taking over the third army. i was in the 1st army then. and they were looking for a build -- looking to build up the third army. it was patton's blood bank, that was in england.

we were there for a while and everybody is getting together and then our company went up there. i went to two schools before the war. i was in the service in 1941, in april when the war started in '41 in december. and i was in school, i guess they went through my records and found out and they barely picked me. i had a chat with him for a couple of hours, this and that and the other and he gave me a pat on the shoulder, 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 won't believe happened but i'll try to tell you some of what happened. first, when he met me -- we went -- we had the invasion of france

in june 3rd. 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 eisenhower and bradley and month dpomry month dpomry from england. they had their meeting on the boat and so they cancelled it until june the 6th. and then they wondered why we picked june the 6th. eisenhower's son michael was born at 3:00 in the morning june the 6th. so they picked that date to invade france. so it was a good idea. he was -- he was a hard man. he was a hard man, but he was always who worried about the men. great, wonderful person. he did a lot of things he shouldn't do, but he did it. i'll tell you things that he did that would surprise you. so here we go. first, i'd take him somewhere.

he'd have to say -- one knee on the ground and put your foot in the truck, the jeep, and say a prayer. as soon as he get done with the prayer he started swearing like hell. son of a bitch, i'm going to get them, every time he got in the jeep. the word hell was a great word. everything he said, hell this and hell that. that was the word -- he always said hell, hell. every time i'd go, the drivers, i was driving through a town or something, where are you going, general? i'm going to berlin to kill that son of a bitch paper hanger. when the war was over, when it was over, he wanted to foe to berlin, so i had him on the jeep. bradley called on the radio.

he said, george, you're gonna stop right here. don't go no farther. we're going to cut off your gas and water and this and that and then the telephone and you can't talk to nobody, so forth and okay. so he got back, he wondered why, and he told him, russia was going to take berlin instead of him going in there. he hesitated for a while. he had tears in his eyes. this is where he wte berlin was his story to take over. he wanted to be in there and let them know who he was and so forth. he was afraid to go there in the first place. he was afraid to go there. so okay. we went in there, got back, and got his jeep all ready. he wanted a dome. he wanted a dome to put on top of the jeep in case when he gets into berlin they wouldn't take a pop shot at him. all the airplanes, they were blown down on the ground. i went out to see if i could get the big dome from the back. like i could put on top of the jeep, but they were all full of

holes. every one was full of holes i couldn't use them. so i picked up other pieces of plastic and made a door for the jeep. we made a jeep. we modified the jeep for him. i had a beautiful picture to show, but they didn't show. we modified this jeep to get him ready to go to berlin and then he didn't get to go. so he was getting ready, so he had -- he owned two helmets. he had two helmets. one he had for when he goes around in speeches. one was for the front lines. interliner. you guys know the interliner? the helmet? okay. we got that liner, and he wanted it to shine. so our captain, e.b., he went down and got a gallon of lacquer. they put eight coats on. ever see him speak, how nice that hat shines?