mitt romney is poised positive clinch the republican nomination after today's texas gop primary. mr. romney is largely uncontempted in texas with 152 delegates. he 58 more to reach the 1,144 needed to be the nominee. c-span.org will follow this. the next round of primaries is next month in california, montana, new jersey, new mexico and south dakota. mitt romney is out west today, but not in any of those states. he's visiting voters and donors in colorado and nevada during a two-state swing punctuateed by a las vegas fund-raiser we are kiv tev businessman dond trump. snoot. during this holiday week we're fetchering some of the american history tvs programs in primetime here on c-span3. tonight a look back at world war ii. it begins at 8:00 eastern with reporting and krn censorship

during the war. the band of brothers from the 101st airborne division and two actors. normally seen weekends, primetime all this week here on c-span3. spend the weekend in wichita, kansas, with book-tv and american history-tv. saturday on c-span2, robert wings on americans presidents and black entrepreneurs from "business in blackened white" and dennis fahrni on ar the barn stormer and the lady." and rare books. and sunday at fi5:00 p.m. experience early plains life at the old countdown's museum. flipt at the aviation museum and two participants from the kansas civil rights move innocent in 1958. they sat down for service at this drug store. watch them on c-span's lobel

consent vehicles explore the history at the old keown town museum. and also two participants from the kansas civil rights movement in 1958 they sat down for service at a drug store. once a month, c-span's local content vehicles explore the history and literary life of stiff ace cross america. this weekend frp wichita, kansas, on c-span2 and c-span3. joe biden spoking to survivors of fallen military members the friday memorial day and recounted the death of his wife daughter in the early '70s and how he could understand how someone could think about committing suicide. joining the vice president at this 45-minute event. it was hosted by the organization tragedy assistance program for survivors, also known at s t.a.p.s.

>> -- by the doubling of our joy -- >> i'm glad this is happening with me now. i bet we have some technical folks that can fix that. all right. how's that? not yet? i'm glad this is happening with me now. a philosopher once wrote that friendship abaits mtes mis -- i wanted to share a favorite quote. a philosopher once wrote that friendship improves happiness and abates misery by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief.

you are loved. america remembers, and through t.a.p.s., we are now here for each other. the president and founder of t.a.p.s. and this is our family. a family we never warranted to be a part of, but i can't imagine a more patriotic, a more passionate, or a prouder group of americans than with this weekend. thank you all for being here. while we've come together this weekend with a lot of support and a lot of hard work, and i'd like to recognize our amazing partners at the new york life foundation, prudential, and operation endure, please, stand up.

[ applause ] >> this is our time and we are so fortunate to the have very special guests with us today to honor our loved ones and offer words of comfort. t.a.p.s. is very proud to be a proud of white house joins forces campaign and work closely on a regular basis with the first lady and dr. jill biden. we are blessed to count the chairman of the joint chiefs and his wife as friends and tireless advocates for the families of the fallen. ladies and gentlemen, t.a.p.s. families, it is with pride that i introduce our good friends, vice president joe biden, dr. jill biden, accompanied by the chairman of the joint chiefs and dini dempsey.

♪ >> thank you, bonnie, for that kind introduction, and good morning, everyone. i want to welcome all of you to washington, d.c., and i hope you feel right at home while you're here. i'm so honored to be with all of you. memorial day is just a few days away, and if i can say one to all of you and your families it is thank you. you are our heroes. i have been truly overwhelmed by the bravery and courage of our men and women in uniform. and inspired by the dignity and the sense of patriotism that military families like yours

exhibit every day. each of you, like our servicemen and women, veterans and their families, have dedicated so much to your country, and we are truly honored by your sacrifice. it is our sacred duty to honor the service of those who have sacrificed for our country, and america thanks you. our thoughts and prayers are with all of you. this weekend, on memorial day, and every day. and now it is my pleasure and my honor to introduce general dempsey, someone along with this wife dini has done so much to support our military families. general dempsey? >> thank you. this weekend, as we deal with tragedy every day of the year, i want to thank the vice president and dr. biden for being here. we get to share this stage with

them on many occasions, many events like this for families of the aggrieved wounded warriors and i can tell you that their heart is exactly where you'd want it to be on these issues. so it's an honor to slayer thar stage with you two again. i'd like to tell about this day in history because it helps us connect to our part. in this to day in history in 1986 you might refer the phrase, hands across america, because 6.5 million people linked hands from battery park in new york city to long beach, california, and they were doinging it in the name of homelessness and hunger, but i think about that in terms of what t.a.p.s. does. because what t.a.p.s. is doing for us is linking hearts across america. and i would like -- i know you have a special place in your heart for t.a.p.s. we have a special place in our heart for the founder of

t.a.p.s. who 18 years ago decided to link hearts across america, and how about we give a round of applause to bonnie and her group. >> you know, most americans have not had the life-altering experience of being handed a folded flag, but those of you in this room have, and it -- in many ways, you are the face of our two wars over the past decade but even prior to that. so what we want to tell you today is that your example truly does inspire us, that we understand and honor your sacrifice and what you've done for your nation and promise we will never forget it. i just had a chance to spend time with your children. an unbelievable bunch, a great group of kids and now i know why

they're so good looking, i guess, and they're in there -- there are mernters in the room and each happen a soldier, airmen, marine, coast guard, me. i told bonnie i won't miss another one of these for as long as she continues to invite me. so -- [ applause ] so we're with you. i promise you that. and ladies and gentlemen, i now have the privilege and the honor to introduce a man who epitomizes service, sacrifice and support for our military families. the vice president of the united states, joe biden. [ applause ] >> thank you very much. thank you. thank you. [ applause ]

thank you. please, be seated. i'm jill biden's husband, joe. as i'm known here in washington, and in my household. general dempsey, i've been around washington for a long while, and i was one of those folks they call a chairman in the foreign relations committee for a long time, and i have gotten to meet an awful lot of incredible military personnel, and some remarkable women and men who have worn the uniform. and they all had different quality, but i want to tell you just for a second about why i -- i like dempsey so much and why i like dini even more. and i really mean this. these guys get it.

these guys get it. you're not a number. you're not a soldier or a soldier's family. these guys wear it in their heart. i've been with them when we visited bases where many of y-- some of your here others have fallen. i watch. i watch how dini wee spondrespo. i watch the general. he's a duff gtough guy. but i watch him. you can almost hear his heart breaking. and there's something special about both of them. and i guess you know it, too, but when he says he'll be here as long as he's invited, he really means it. this is not -- he's not here because it's his job as the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.

dini's not here because of that. if you saw his family, by the way -- his children serve. they are -- they are in harm's way now. [ applause ] >> i watch them talk. we don't have the history but our son has served in iraq. when he came home, it's going to sound strange to you. maybe to anybody but to -- he felt almost a little guilty as he came home whole. because there was so many, so many fun ram funerals i've atte.

so many bases i've visited. and, you know, not all losses are equal. not all losses are equal. and what used to drive me crazy, i could be wearing one of those red shirts, not for the military. but when i was a 29-year-old kid i gauss eleot elected to the un states senate out of nowhere on november 7th and i got a phone call like you guys got. someone walking up to me. on december 18th i was down in washington -- i'm the first united states senator i ever knew, i was down in washington hiring my staff and i got a phone call. saying that my family had been in an accident. and just like you guys know, by the tone of the phone call, you just knew, didn't you? you knew when they walked up the

path. you knew when the call came, you knew. you just felt it in your bones. something bad happened. and i knew. i don't know how i knew, but the call said, my wife is dead, my daughter was dead, and wasn't sure how my sons were going to make it. christmas shopping and a tractor trailer broadsided them in one instant killed two of them a and -- well -- when i -- i have to tell you, i used to resent. i knew people meant well. they'd come up to me say, joe, i know how you feel. right? [ applause ]

you knew they meant well. you knew they were genuine but you knew they didn't have any damn idea. right? isn't that true? i mean -- that -- that black hole you feel in your chest like you're being sucked back into it. looking at your kids, and most of you have kids here, and knowing, it was the first time inial my career, in my life, i realized someone could go out and -- i probably shouldn't say this with the press here, no. but it's more important, you're more important. for the first time in my life i understood how someone could considerationly krp committing suicide. not because they were deranged or nuts, but because they'd been to the top of mountain and knew in it was never going to get there again. never going to than way again.

that's how an awful lot of you feel. by the way, the moms and dads, no parent should be pre-deceased by their son or daughter. i unfortunately had that experience, too. but you know what? i was -- i don't know about you guys, but i was angry. man, i was angry. you all probably handle it better than i did. and i really mean it. i was angry. i -- not that it's relevant what religion, but i'm a practicing catholic and i was a practicing catholic at the time. but i was mad at god. oh, man. i remember being in the rotunda walking through to get to the plane to get home, to get to

identify the -- anyway -- i remember looking up and saying, god -- as if i was talking to god myself. you can't be good. how can you be good? you probably handled it better than i did. but i was angry. and i have a great family, and this woman literally saved my life five years later, but i have a great family. my mother, my brothers, my sister, my best friend in the world, and they're all there for me. there's still something gigantic missing, and some of you the loss occurred two years ago. some of you maybe two months o

ago. and just when you think maybe i'm going to make it i'm going to make it, you ride down the road and you pass a field and you see a flower and it remind you. or you hear a tune on the radio. or you just look up in the night. and you know, you think maybe, maybe i'm not going to make it because you feel at that moment the way you felt the day you got the news. and out of the blue, i got a phone call one day from a guy who was a much older guy than me and he was i didn't even know it he was a former governor. that's all right. i'm used to babies. you don't have to take him out. don't worry about it. for real.

so what happened was i got this call out of the blue from a guy who was a former governor of new jersey. i never knew him, i never met him. he said, call to express my sympathies senator, i know what it's like. i felt like saying you know -- he said i know what it's like when i was attorney general i was a young guy i lived across the green in trenton from -- in the state capital from my office i was attorney general i used to go home for lunch every day and one day i'm walking back across the green for lunch it was only a block away and a woman who came in to help once or twice a week came running across the green and said attorney general, your wife just dropped dead. he said i remember what it was like. i started listening. and he said you know what helped me? he said, and for what it's worth i recommend of you, start to keep a calendar. keep a calendar. and every day when you go to

bed. every night when you go to bed, mark in that calendar whether the day was a one, which was as bad as the day you heard the news or a ten. you won't have tens for a long time. but measure. after two months take out that calendar and put it on a graph. they get further and further apart. that's when you know you're going to make it when you realize the measure of your progress, your mothers, you fathers, you husbands, you wives, you brothers, you sisters, that's when you know i

might make it. i don't know all of you. you know as well as i do that they need you. but you know what most people don't understand didn't go through, you need that more than they need you. you need them more than they need you. you're going to find something remarkable happen. my mother a wonderful sweet, old wonderful irish lady said something at the time the accident happened that i thought was the coolest thing as i came out identifying -- came out. she said, joey, she adored my wife and my daughter. she said, joey, of everything terrible something good will happen if you look for it hard enough. i thought what a cruel thing to say. really, i did.

you're going to find everybody's friends are their brothers and sisters. you're going to find there is a degree of difference in depth of relationship you never, ever thought could happen. i'm going to say something outrageous. i was a good and caring father before the accident. in a bizarre way it's almost harder for the parents of our fallen heroes. because parents never expect to have a child predecease them. never. the irony is when jill, the most

incredible woman in the world, when jill makes up the wreaths for us on december 18th, we have a special mass and for the grave site. when jill on mother's day walked me out to the cemetery and brought flowers, i brought for my mom and she brought a favorite flower for my deceased wife and daughter. what happens is that there really is hope. the ache never goes away, but it gets controllable. when i asked jill to marry me, i know this is personal, but i hope this is important to you. and i had to ask her by the way

five times. [ applause ] i said this is the last time i'm going to ask. she's at the door. i didn't walk in. don't say anything. i'm going to ask you will you marry me? you don't have to tell me when. you just have to tell me if. if you say no, that's it. she looked at me and she said, yes. then she later tells my sister when asked why she finally said yes. she said i fell in love with the

boys. it is too soon. it is not reasonable. it is beyond your expectations. matter of fact you're going to go through periods when after a while you'll see somebody you may have an interest in and you're going to feel guilty as hell. you're going to feel this awful feeling of guilty. but just remember two things. keep thinking what your husband or wife would want you to do. keep thinking what it is and keep remembering that those kids of yours are him or her the rest of their life. blood of my blood. bone of my bone.

because folks, it can and will get better. there will come a day i promise you and you parents as well, when the thought of your son or daughter or your husband or wife brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye. it will happen. my prayer for you is that day will come sooner or later, but the only thing i have more experience than you in is this, i'm telling you it will come. you are not alone. you have the incredible thing called the military. just sitting around the table people you didn't know before. being able to share what is it like, how do you put them

tonight. how do you say your prayers. what do you do when they ask about. that's why what you've done bonnie is so, so critical. most of us go through what you're going through totally alone. after a while it doesn't make the loss any easier or harder. after a while you get tired of you feel like you're relying on your family too much. you feel like i can't say to my mom, i can't say to my sister who moved in to help my kids, i can't say to to my brother. it's about time. i've got to get -- if you have somebody to talk to. so for what it's worth and i'm no psychologist or psychiatrist, but i sought help from how to deal with