it's gone. >> my idea, it was inconsequential the way i see it. some of those guys, you can't believe what they did. what they were fighting for is our freedom. >> my heroes were always people in uniform and the stories my uncle told about his experience in the military. he was wounded in combat and he was quite a patriot. i guess he was one of my best heroes. >> i had relatives that had been in the various services, army, air force, i had one in the navy. i always enjoyed listening to their experiences, especially the whole idea of what it was like to serve. >> my grandpa was a quaker and he had quite an influence on my life. so i guess i invision envision a conscientious objector. but when pearl harbor happened i found it was not only my duty but my privilege to serve the country. >> i was liberated from the

german camp. this was something you never forget. i made the promise, lord help me, if i ever go to america, i'm going to become a g.i. joe. >> my brother talked about joining the service because they were starting up the selective service system. i said, well, i'm going to go with you. we had a pact. we knew that when we were in combat regardless of what happened, we were forgive the other for not stopping and helping because you had to keep on fighting. >> my story was really about a team. when i went to charlie company and i went there with some negative circumstances i walked in to a company that within a week or so i felt like i was a part of the greatest bunch of men that i ever met in my life. >> before you took off, you would brief, you would go over,

and you would shake hands and hug the team members and crew members. there's a bonding going on there. no talking. but what you're doing is you're saying, i'm going to take you and i'm going to put you out in the middle of hell. if you have to come home, i'll bring you home. >> something we couldn't describe. i couldn't describe the screaming and hollering. first thing you know, all my men were either hit or dead. >> we go in and the helicopters start taking fire. it was a thoroughly bad situation. with the hospital down, it wasn't any choice. we had to go in. >> my platoon leader said withdraw. i didn't want to withdraw. >> i had already been ordered to get off the hill, take your people, get out of there, leave the mountain yard. you got to be friggin' joking.

>> it looked like they wanted us to leave our soldiers there. of course we don't do that. >> we agreed amongst ourselves that we would never sur renner. we were down fighting so we had that commitment to each other. everybody knew that. >> so i packed up my remaining marines. this was without any orders. >> i told him i was going after this guy and kent said if you go, i'll go. i said, okay, but i'm not sure either one of us is coming back. you never know what's out there. >> so it happened. i felt something had to be done. i didn't even think about it. just did it. >> i felt, yes, there was a chance that i wouldn't. but to save jesse's life was worth it. >> titus felt that we had to do it and i called the command post and told them i was doing it. i didn't ask them, i just told them i was doing it. >> i wasn't going to set there and see my troopers go. if we went, we're going together. >> when i was a kid i remember

my uncles and my friends' dads talking about world war ii but they never talked about the shooting part. you know? the dying part. they never said, listen, son, war is hell and it is something you don't want to do. >> just before we got relieved off the front line, my brother was officially listed as killed on detain. i just had to turn around and leave. laid down, cried my head out. >> we call ourselves recipients and people call us winners. as you see, we're not winners because we weren't in a competition for trying to win anything. we happened to be recognized by our fellow men and so we wear this medal to honor them and to honor the guys who really paid the supreme sacrifice, because we are here today because of them. >> when i received the medal of honor, i went in to the office of the commandant of the united

states marine corps. he was also a medal honor recipient. but he said to me, for starters, that medal does not belong to you. he says it belongs to all the marines who did not get to come home. >> the medal represents what the country has always stood for -- sacrifice. >> today is particularly special. today marks the first time in nearly 40 years that the recipient of the medal of honor for an ongoing conflict has been able to come to the white house and accept this recognition in person. >> everyone that's ever served in our military has a part of this. i have the privilege of doing a great deal of speaking to our young men and women in the service today, and i'll hand it to them and they'll say, well sergeant, we can't hold that.

i said, no, you have to hold it, because if you don't feel a part of it, if you don't feel like that's part yours, then it has less value. >> this medal, the navy, marine, coast guard medal is the original medal abraham lincoln designed in 1862. this is it right here. of course, in the 1900s the army designed their own, then the air force designed their own. but this is the original medal. >> the cliche you are wearing it and a lot of guys that should have gotten it didn't. and i think that's so true. a young kid told me, he said, you know, my dad was in vietnam and he was killed and i'm pretty sure that he should have earned a medal. and i told him, well, i wear it for him then. >> after president nixon gave us the medal, i stayed in my motel room. didn't feel like celebrating. i had a real tough time remembering all that stuff again. many of the guys in this society will tell you that for years i did not participate in any events.

i wouldn't come to the inaugurals, i wouldn't come to conventions. because i didn't -- i still don't feel worthy. but it was just too difficult of a thing for me to bear. but there's a verse in the psalms that says that man is an honor and understands not. it is like a beast that perishes. i've come to understand that what this medal represents is not about me. it's about men and women who value something so strongly that they'd be willing to die for it. and they'd be willing to defend our country for it. that's what they put y they put uniform. >> i've been around the world in a lot of places. and without exception, an american soldier is somebody that's willing to make sacrifices for those on the left and the right. and you're willing to do that because you know they're doing it for you. >> what is it that motivates these soldiers to do what they have to do on the battlefield

every day? because you know, they see their buddies getting shot, getting killed, getting wounded. and yet they're there the next morning to get on the helicopters to go off on another helicopter assault. there is a special bond when you are with your fellow soldiers going through dangerous things every day. that you want to reach out an care for and protect them and i found that to be the single thing that just makes up the american soldier today. >> i try and tell the kids how many great sacrifices that people have made to give you the freedom and ability to do what you're doing today. how many great men and women have lost their lives. >> freedom didn't come cheap. somebody's got to pay for it. and the live of these people are very precious. a lot of people think that the great thing about the medal of honor is it is awarded by congress and presented by the president. but to me, the real honor of the medal of honor is that a handful of young men who were with you

at a difficult time thought you was worthy of it. >> i'm alive today because i had damn good men. i get emotional about it. we are a free country and why are we? because a lot of people, black, white, yellow, gave their lives so that you and i could live free. simple as that. >> it is the best country in the world and i'm part of it now. i don't have to worry about the gus that p gustapo's going to knock on my door tonight. shalom. peace. people die for it.

wow. that was very powerful. today we are honored to have as our panel moderator -- today we are honored to have as our panel moderator general nicholas b.kehoe. he was selected the first president of the medal of honor foundation in march 2003. the mission of the foundation is to perpetuate the medal of honor's legacy of courage, sacrifice and patriotism by supporting the objectives, activities and programs of the congressional medal of honor society. he retired from the united states air force on october 2000 after completing more than 34

years of military service and rising to the rank of lieutenant general. in his last assignment he served as inspector general of the air force. please welcome general kehoe and our medal of honor recipients. >> let me make a comment on that video. we like to start with that because it kind of sets the scene and brings forth the sense of humility that i have found that these gentlemen carry with

them throughout their lives after they've received this medal. the sense of camaraderie that they feel for their comrades and it also brings home the span of generations that have received this medal since the civil war where it was first awarded in 1863 to today where you saw the award of the first medal of honor to a living recipient since the vietnam war, sal junta. it is so gratifying to know that the young men and women who serve today do so with the same spirit of courage and sacrifice as those in the generations before them. and all of the men and women who serve. today we have two medal of honor recipients with us. let me introduce them first. we put the shortest guy in the middle. he's also a marine just to make sure he stays in line throughout

this session. but on the far right, my far right is is bob foley. bob was a young officer in vietnam when he was involved in an action for which he received the medal of honor. you saw the video reflecting on the people that serve and he, like others, were put into a situation where in their case they were ambushed and he took charge and made a difference and the people who were with him followed him through that action and they were successful because of it. the same sort of thing happened to barney barnum. i'll ask a couple of questions and bring out some of the things in their actions in just a minute. his unit was ambushed. he was a young first lieutenant with a lot of young marines and his commanding officer and radio

man was killed and he had to take charge. that characteristic is present with all of those who have received the medal of honor in terms of being able to take charge of a situation that we find incredibly hard to relate to and do something to make a difference. and to do something more in the case of saving lives than taking lives. i'm going to ask a couple of questions to set the scene here. sort of to warm up. i'd like you to be thinking about questions you'd like to ask, because as soon as i ask a couple and get it started, i'm going to turn it over to the audience. i'll come back at the end and ask one final question before we finish, then following that you will have an opportunity to meet these gentlemen upstairs and if you so desire to have them sign one of these medal of honor books. this book has the stories of more than 140 medal of honor

recipients. all of them living at the time the book was written because their stories are recounted. the photographs in there which are very profound were taken -- are all contemporary photos. so we're frequently asked how come lonnie murphy's not in the book or somebody like that. it's because had he passed away many years before this was done. oversimplified, this book has close to the last 150 medal of honor recipients who were living at the time it started back in 2003. it's continuously been updated. we just published the third addition within the last few months to include two of the living medal of honor recipients. we're about to go to a second printing and we'll put all three stories in there of the living recipients from the afghanistan war as well as all of those from world war ii, korea and vietnam that are in there already. there is a wonderful dvd, too,

that has the video you just saw, plus some individual stories. so let me get started with just a few questions. something of the magnitude of the medal of honor, faced with, it leaves something searing, burned into your memory that you probably never forget. as you look back on that time more than 40 years ago, i'll start with you, barney, what's that one thing that you remember to this day as if it happened just this morning or yesterday that you recall from that action? >> well, 45 years ago, i think the thing that i most remember is i had been in vietnam ten days. i had been with the unit five days.

and when we were ambushed, that's the first time i was ever shot at. you know, i did the most prudent thing -- i hit the deck. and when i looked up from underneath my helmet, all these young marines were looking at me and saying, okay, lieutenant, what are we going to do? of course, i started calling artillery and adjusted fire. about 20 minutes into the fight i realized that the initial rounds had killed the company commander. so i went out, picked him up, brought him back and he died in my arms and i went out and got the radio off of that operator, strapped it on myself, called the battalion and told them what had happened and that i had taken over. so that is very vivid. but the most vivid thing i think is the way that the young marine came together. we were all scared. anybody who says in combat that they don't experience fear is smoking dope or just plain

crazy. but what you have to do, because of your training, is how do you confront that fear? how do you confront that fear and then rely on your training to continue to do the right thing at the right time? so when i took over that company. i hadn't had the same training as these young marines. they didn't even know my name but i had a bar on my collar and they knew the light nen-- lieutenants were supposed to give orders. there's no fury unleashed like a marine that's seen his brother marine killed or wounded. i had to guide them. i jump-started them, then i guided them and we worked together as a team. as a team we were successful at overcoming 10-1 odds that day. we came together as a team. we relied on each other, relied on each other's training, and we

became successful. >> bob, as your action unfolded, you were a young officer out there and leading your company. what went through your mind that you still remember to this day? >> well, i refer back to the video and i had made a statement of what is it that motivates young soldiers to do these things every single day? knowing that they're going to go into difficult situations and no matter what you do in training, to replicate the conditions of combat is totally different when you start getting shot at. and when you see a soldier that's getting killed or wounded. intuitively we know that it is leadership and teamwork and discipline and training and education and all of those things are very important in terms of motivating soldiers to what they need to do. i found the most compelling motivation was this notion of caring, compassion, consideration of others and respect. of course those are values which you need to inject into the

organization and instill in the soldiers well before you meet some kind of crisis or some kind of combat situation. but when we hit that situation the soldiers were so concerned about their fellow soldiers to prevent them from being killed or wounded. they would do anything to prevent that. these are their buddies, their comrades in arms, people they've been serving with for many months and there is that special bond that's established. so my biggest role was trying to ensure that i held them back, because if their buddy got shot, they were going to go after the viet cong or the soldier that shot at them. so i think that's probably one of the biggest things that i remember especially on that day, because it was a very difficult, probably one of the most devastating and difficult situations that i had been on in

that operation in 5 november 1966. it was a five-hour operation, between the time we went in at 7:00 in the morning and the time we came out at noon. i can remember that my adrenalin was running the entire time. it's sort of like i equate it to -- you might identify with this -- being on a basketball court and whether someone hands you the basketball, you can make a lot of decisions. can you shoot, dribble, pass, do nothing, but the read changes. that's the way it is on the battlefield. if you're not making split-second decisions, that read changes and so instinctively you have to make that decision to go do things. when you think about those five hours, essentially it is a blur. after it was over and we had come out of the jungle, we're in a clearing and i was sitting on a log, several medics came up to me and said, sir, you're bleeding pretty bad. you need to get fixed up. and they were right.

my fatigue shirt was covered with blood. nyway, those are the things that i remember and being most memorable on that day. >> thanks. one point i'd make, if you go to that video we showed a few minutes ago and this camaraderie we referred to is the emotions that these men feel when they retell their stories. you saw at the end of that video, really comes to life when they go back and tell their story over again and the feelings that they had for the men that they were serving with, it really comes forth and they recall that very, very vividly. it is such an important aspect of what our military forces are all about, particularly in those kinds of situations. let me pursue this notion of fear just a little bit more. we all feel apprehension in one

or the other circumstances. we've all probably had some significant situation we've been involved in where we were afraid of something. nothing can compare to the magnitude of the situation that these men faced and their fellow honor recipients as well as the men and women that they were with. but tell me, expand a little bit upon how you -- what you felt in terms of fear, if you did, or if you didn't. and if you did, how do you cope with it? how do your people cope with it? >> i get right back to this notion of caring. because when i was a brand-new second lieutenant assigned to the 25th infantry division -- you know, brand-new second lieutenant struggles sometimes. i did. in terms of how we're supposed to learn about my profession. but i had a wonderful platoon sergea sergeant. i asked him one day what do you have to do to be a good officer. he said you have to do two things -- accomplish the mission and take care of your soldiers. and then he went in to a lengthy

discussion about what caring meant and gave me examples of that and how important that was. and how important it was to the soldiers to know that their leaders are definitely interested in them. every single aspect of what they do. not just on the job but their families and their friends. and so this notion of caring just has carried through my entire career and when you face a difficult situation, when the enemy is there, when you're trying to maneuver your troops, there's two things obviously that are important. one is you're trying to accomplish the mission. the second thing, you want to ensure that your soldiers are able to survive the rigors of combat. and in this particular case, there was a decision that you have to make that gets into the tactics and techniques that are used at the lowest level, company level on a battlefield. that it this notion of momentum. we had great momentum going into

this north vietnamese or viet cong concreteconcrete bunker cod i didn't want to lose that. in fact, i felt i might have more soldiers in harm's way if in fact i stopped and tried to pull out, even though it was kind of an overwhelming situation that we were going against. and so that kind of situation to set the stage for now the fear factor comes in because we were being fired at from viet cong, tied in trees with platforms that had sniper positions. we were being fired at from machine guns from concrete bunkers inside a jungle area with firing lanes cut waist-high cut through the foliage so you couldn't see them until you got down low to see them. so it was one of the most difficult situations that we had run into. the fear to me comes when you

know that the mortar rounds are landing, grenades are landing. you know that these bullets are coming at you. but then when you see soldiers getting hit, that's what makes me angry. when some of my soldiers get hurt or get hit. that's why i pick up the m-60 machine gun and went forward. but the fear factor for me -- and i think barney would say the same thing -- is that it's not fear about you getting hurt. it's fear for your soldiers. you're worried about 150 soldiers that are employed in the jungle where the visibility is limited to ten meters and you've got triple canopy and in my case i wasn't even able to use all of the artillery and fire support that i normally might have because of the proximity of friendly troops into that area. so you're just worried about them and what's going to happen to them, and so you basically overcome your fear by the fact that you're so concerned about them that you can go out and do your job the way you're supposed to as a leader of those

soldiers. >> good. thank you. before barney gives his answer, i'm going to open it up for questions as soon as we're through with this question. there are microphones on either side. if you'd like to ask a question, please move to the microphone for two reasons. one, so others can hear your question, and two, because this is being recorded for others to be able to experience later on. so please move to one of the two sides and we'll be happy to answer your questions from there. barney. >> yeah. i would just reiterate many of the things that bob said. we all experienced fear. the main thing is how you control that. how do you control the fear. and i had fear, whether when i was calling in my artillery that was against some machine guns well dug in that had us pinned down, and it was at the end of the gun target line and the

rounds were going over our heads. i had fear that i would experience either a short round or my troops would get some of that shrapnel. i made the decision if i didn't take out those machine guns with my artillery they had us pinned down and they might have wiped us out. so i was able to control that fear, because i wanted to make sure that mission was accomplished, that i took out those machine guns, and i would save more of my marines. and i think that throughout battles there is fear. i think the biggest fear is that when you tell a team to take out a trench line and they get shot doing it, you turn to the next fire team and say you go. your fear is how long is it going to take me to accomplish that mission so that i can save as many of my marine as i can. so for a leader i think it is

self-control. knowing your job. knowing yourself. knowing your men. and hopefully making the right decision at the right time for the right reason. >> thank you. let me open it up to the audience. can you direct your question to one or both. as you see fit. but who has the first question? >> i guess i win. >> you do. >> the video emphasizes that the recipients and. participants were very young. do you think that if people had been five or ten years older, their behavior might have been different? >> well, you know, combat, closing in and destroying enemy is a young man's war. the old guys are back in command in bunkers. okay? so i think this has a lot to do