you get out. i spent three years at city manager in california. i liked combat better and i went to public works in mess ka, arizona. i spent 15 years there getting the pachy built there and other things that were important to me and to the -- to my community. so you'll be an asset to your unit by getting all the education and doing the thing that can make you a better officer, better leader. and in some cases, you will be proally be ncos, because today's army they are more important than ever. we had e7 was the top of the rank when i was starting. now they have wi8s and 9s and ty are the finest leaders we've got. they have skill level and a second lieutenant next to an e8 or 9 had better understand his intelligence next to him.

and use your life that way. but prepare for the future. get as much education as you can because that makes you a better leader. and i wish you all the luck in the world and i wish i was your age. i'd rather be even younger than you are. but that's not fwoing going to . congratulations to all of you. if you ever get into the position of a helicopter pilot, i'd be happy to copilot. unless we leave the ground, i'll be the pilot. [ applause ] >> now, i want to say one thing before we close up. and you see it everywhere now in the military. you are all brothers and sisters. so leave no man behind. or no woman behind.

you got to remember that. you got to remember that. you take care of each other. we don't leave our wounded. we bring them home. allow our families to say closure. so do whatever it takes, but don't leave your brother on the battlefield. never. that's it. [ applause ] >> thank you, again. and thank you, again for your decision to serve your country. we wish you the best of luck in god speed in your careers and gentlemen, thank you for spending your valuable time with us today. and i know all of you are very busy and thank for the example that you are for all of us and for continuing to perpetuate the

legacy and for the service following your military careers as well. thank you, and thanks for being with us. [ applause ] c-span's washington journal, live everyday, with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up tuesday morning, usa today investigative reporter laura unger will discuss usa today's investigation into drinking water systems of small communities across the nation. which found people in many of these systems drinking untested or lead-tainted tap water. author mark levinson talks about his book "an extraordinary time the end of the post war boom and return of the ordinary economy." his book argues that the growth and experience after world war

ii were an be a rigs and we are now coming back to reality. watch washington journal, live 7:00 a.m. tuesday morning. join the discussion. this week on c-span, tuesday night at 8:00 jerry greenfield co-founder of ben and jerry's ice cream talks about creative business practices. >> actually the idea that we couldn't sell enough ice cream in the summer in vermont to stay in business, that forced us to look for other markets. >> wednesday night former vice president cheney and former defense secretary panetta on the defense department under president-elect donald trump. >> i think the challenges are very great and i think we have unfortunately over the course of the last many years done serious damage to our capabilities. to be able to meet those threats. >> living in that period, there are a lot of flash point. and a new administration is going to have to look at that

kind of world. and obviously define policy that we need in order to deal with that but then develop the defense policy to confront that kind of work. >> thursday at 8 will okay p.m. eastern, a look at career of vice president-elect mike pence. >> we have stood without apology for the sanctity of life, importance of marriage and freedom of religion. >> on friday night beginning at 8:00, farewell speech answers tributes to several outgoing senators including harry reid, barbara boxer, kelly ayotte and dan koets. this week in prime time on c-span. >> next on american history tv we hear from two silver star resip yepts from the vietnam war and korean washington. silver star is the third highest military combat decoration that can be awarded it a member of the u.s. armed forces.

this 45-minute talk is part after three-day conference. host of american veterans center. >> our next panel's titled the american valor legend and trailblazers. we're very fortunate to have as our moderator jonathan elias, journalist at abc 7, wjla tv in washington, d.c. and host of abc 7 absolutes a weekly segment spotlighting our military heros. he's also, although a civilian, instructor at u.s. army war college where he teaches colonels for the most part who are heading up the line to flag rank. that's pretty amazing distinction for a civilian, let me tell you. i also found out in talking to john before the program that he and his wife had been very active in helping wounded

warriors. they have founded a charity that helps them in a wide variety of wayes. welcoming them home. providing travel. helping with housing. all sorts of different services. and he told me that at one particular event they had in arizona for 55, over 7,000 people showed up to help. thank you jonathan for all you're doing for our military. and i welcome you now to the panel. [ applause ] >> good morning, thank you very much. quickly, so as an instructor of the u.s. army war college, i get to be senior command. in my class i only have lieutenant colonels and above for navy and marinees. so when i look out and see a sea of fuyoung faces, it inspires m. i have interviewed veteranes from all different wars. i know in classes you have to lead a ton of stuff a literally fall asleep reading

it. some of it doesn't translate. you don't see it, hear it, explosion, none of that is a long storesry. been there, trust me. when you hear people in front of you and you talk to people, it's living history. you sit there and say, you say you're the greatest generation. what if i say, you're the greatest generation. these were exactly your age. 18-year-olds, 19-year-olds jumping on boats, told to go overseas and fight in the war. maybe they didn't understand the historic value and what was at stake. they were just told to fight and they were going over there. i have yet to meet anyone engaged in any, beating their chests and saying, bring it on. they were terrified. when the battle started, they were still terrified. but instead of running from the battle, they ran toward the battle. they were gallant and heroic in the battle.

now we can sit here and sing their praises. now not just to hear the warriors of the past but listen to their stories. when they pause for a second, that should tell you something. that means it is hard to talk about. folks in world war ii you have to pry out of them what happens. you don't necessarily want to share what happened. when they do share it, it is a valuable tool for you. this is all stuff you can put in your shed as sharp tools to help you along wait. i hope you find these -- i'm sitting back there thinking, i wish i knew about this, i would be here all day. it is an amazing tool for all of us. with that said, let me interviews to you, james mccutchen, i will let them talk as long as they want. but we can ask questions and feel out what it was like as a young man going into battle. but their background are interesting in themselves. james mccutchen, silver star, multiple wound purple heart

veter veteran korean war with a distinguished background. he has done so many things after the war. author, actor, character to be sure, and great person we just met outside. he is a lot of fun to talk to. he had award-winning novels. the guy has done it all in his lifetime. mr. mccutchen, round of applause. [ applause ] and vincent okamoto, born in 1943 to an american family of japanese origin and interned in world war ii. we rounded up japanese in this country because we didn't know what else to do. we were attacked by the japanese in pearl habor and knee jerk reaction we thought anyone japanese, put them in camps. stripped them of their lively hoods. aching them out of the tam. s would be the united states

became a second lieutenant in the u.s. army and after that he went to ranger training and was ordered to vietnam serving as a platoon leader with an infantry unit and fire support base under heavy attack for which he would be awarded the distinguished service cross. and oak leave clusters. obviously he is a hero. both of you gentlemen have microphones on. if you give us a background of what inspired you to join the military but tell us the kind of things that you think are forever with you. >> i'm the tenth child and 7th son born to japanese immigrants.

my six older brothers served in the military. the two eldest served in the combat team. another brother volunteered for the marines and fought in the korean war. as a kid my older brother and was old enough to follow in their footsteps. the vietnam war started heating up in the mid 60s and i kind of felt that was my opportunity to prove myself and go off to war and come back and be able to stand with my brothers and drink beer with them as an equal. i think most people tell you it's not what you imagined it would be like. vietnam was a different world. it was a special universe with it's own rules and had it's own vocabulary after serving a year

in vietnam. they called the jet liner. they referred to it as the freedom burn because they felt they had been locked up for a year. they referred to america, their home as the world. and such a strange place not of this planet. they also said that gravity didn't exist in vietnam. stayed on the ground because the whole country sucked. but because of my older brothers. because my mom and dad who came from the family in japan were born in america. and one of the things i'm most proud of having lost everything and being having been locked up for over three years they were

not bitter and because we came from the warriors, if there is a war, you go to war and my six older brothers, again, all went up to the military and i felt i had to do it. >> what was an experience that you had both good and bad. i think it's important especially for young sailors and servicemen and army. i have to be careful. i'm used to army so i apologize. all branches. we have a lot of young shining faces out here. it's heroic for the fact that you're going to serve our country but it's good and amazing experience and also a horrible experience that made you question what you were doing and why we were doing it. >> i was 23 years old when i

went to vietnam as the young platoon leader and at the time the rhetoric of john f. kennedy really was a value to me. i felt we were doing the right thing and i felt that america was at war and we had to defend the country against the communists. so i volunteered for vietnam. when i got to the field being a second lieutenant in the infantry in vietnam was almost like being a child monthless to. the men in your platoon, they have been in the country longer than me. they had more experience. that was not only the case for any young second lieutenant.

and new guys. >> if you need to clean that up it's friendly new guys. >> that was what i was. this life and fear and the warriors of the jungle and could walk you into an ambush. and kill him and everybody else around him. he walked past a bunker and again it really was a threat. and until that proved himself under fire, he was treated and only wanted to really get it and also most, if they were going to get killed it was in the first two, 2.5 months. the bad thing about the war was

just about the time they knew what they were doing, they became jungle wise. they would rotate it so in vietnam there was a revolving door with no great reservoir of experience. there was a gentleman and didn't fight a ten year war in vietnam. won ten times and i think there's merit to that statement. i was not treated with open arms when i reached my platoon. no one really talked to me. the only one who icon versed with, he had talked to me because after my first fire

fight, after i first, things started to get better and there's an old saying that, all the other military institutions could see. you're going to have to do things that would probably get you killed. that's good advice. it's very hard to follow. as a second lieutenant, young, 22, 23 years old, you do become friends with your men. they start showing you pictures of their girlfriends. they share cookies that they got from their mom. they tell you about their future hopes and dreams and you have --

you go with their biological brothers and for you young people here today you understand that you're embarking upon a path that will be difficult in a time full of danger and the difficulty will be not just for you but for your family. i think all the veterans here will extend their gratitude and respect because you're going to be defending a country. and that's what you are. and defenders of our country and even as i speak now there's young men and women like you staying in remote corners of the world. >> especially i know you love going down the street and

getting double capachino swiss latte, sugar free. you have the opportunity to do that because of those that defend our nation and folks ahead of you that have been doing this and that says something right there. >> losing fighting successfully and it was the forgotten war. tell us about your experience. tell us about why you signed up and what your experience was. >> three or four things.

the first thing is when i enlisted in the army it was because my brother-in-law came home one day in 1946 i think it was and he had on this uniform which to me looked almost like it was something from another world. and my god and had the opportunity to do so and i would do so until eventually i reached my 17th birthday. and someone that could tell me how to join the army and i ended up in new york and went through all the examines, et cetera and before you know it i found myself in fort dix new jersey ready to take up the position in

the world as a soldier. there's something magical about being and i find it today being called a soldier. he thought i needed to come over there to get a little r and r and when we first, the plane touched down or something like that, something strange envelopeded me and i didn't realize i was so sensitive to war. let me backtrack and say i have written a couple of books. two of them having to do with the military. fairwell to the mockingbird and to tell you about how it was at

the time and you really can't do until the day that you became and the army decided that you call integration. i was happy with the outfit that i was in so i didn't think it was necessarily the right thing to do was to be with them, with their company like that so i wrote a book about her. now i jump forward again when going back to corey. hi -- i didn't realize that i would be so frightened. all of these memories would come back from the valley and they did. i remember going up to the 38th parallel. and all of those things were

occurring about the korean war and later that night when we got back to the hotel i almost started going to pieces. and those things and it was just -- it was a little bit too much for me to take. if i may stop you. >> you have to pull away and turn the page on. >> well, you know one of these guys, you can do anything and you want to be et cetera and i didn't know there was something pulling you back yanking you back to yester year. those are the feelings i had in corey. you wake up in the middle of the night earlier and carrying on and your wife would be afraid that you want to do something a

little dangerous and so eventually you deal with it and it's all over. what happened, i was seriously wounded and i was saved by a young blonde haired boy who was just miraculous in the way he saved me. i was wounded in two different places and the bullet wound which i still have here the shrapnel here in my chest and between the ribs and you can see that explosion. oh, wow. you could see him saving you over and over again and as i

have written in this screen play that i have written about the incident that it still hog ties you to that one night where you were just, you know, you were almost a goner and it effects a lot of other things that you do such as you import religion. you appeal to god and anything else is something to reach out. and to hang on to. >> what were the most powerful message that you could pass along to the young people today? about serving and also about war. >> i think what i would say is that you have to be

extraordinarily proud of what you have done. you have to be proud and you should be proud of having served with all of it's faults this great thing called the united states of america. we're going through some awfully troubled times at this moment. but what you have and i was talking to a couple of young guys tonight to see how ready they are and prepared they are to surrender to give all to defend this country with all of it's faults it's a magnificent thing. be proud of what you do and nobody is going to have a welcoming mat out for you when you come back. some of your friends won't even know that you have gone and to a larger sense they don't care. but there's something that's inside of you that said my god did i do that? did that such and such a thing happen? and it's wonderful to be able to say i defended the united states

of america. a thing that brings this up too is that in corey, you know, again we're talking about the period where the army, where that wasn't even integrated at the time. they would look at a black soldier and in japan they would do the same thing. you really didn't exist or who are you -- not exactly what planet you were from -- but who are you? you know and you say i'm an american soldier. so i would just say be proud of who you are and it's no bed of roses but you'll look back and you'll say my god it was a wonderful thing that i did to join the service. i am 86 years old. i couldn't possibly think of even coming close to thanking god for the life that i have lived if i wasn't able to inject this thing called serving in the

united states army. >> let me ask you the same question. what is it that makes you the most proud today given all that you have experienced and your family has experienced. what is it about your service that made you so proud or something that continues to make you feel proud. >> the men i served with. vietnam as you know was very unpopular. so for the young men sent to fight in vietnam it was tough. some had girlfriends that said if you go to vietnam, forget about it because i think it's a bad war. you can see guys carrying signs say draft beer, not students and you would see women with signs that say, girls say yes to men that say no.

it was a bad war. i think the fighting and dying in every conflict is pretty much the same. you're away from your home, your loved ones, your family, you're scared, you're always tired but in vietnam the hard thing was sitting down and talking about it. should we be here? is this a necessary war? is it an immorale war? and those questions that are still relevant today but i am so terribly proud of the men i serve with. 19, 20-year-olds, some high school drop outs that were willing to fight for this country. most of these guys in the infantry were not -- they couldn't type. they couldn't drive a truck or bake a cake. they were put into the infantry. it was kind of the bottom of the barrel as far as intelligence and qualifications as long as

you could pull a trigger you were welcome in the infantry. they lead the most retched existence that you can imagine. 7 days a week. no holidays off. monsoon season where it rains on you for four months. it's difficult to have a cigarette because it just turns to mush. >> would have gone a long way. >> even if you didn't smoke. if you had been in the jungle for about a month or so you see friends being killed. and smoking and was something that everybody actually did. but again i cannot explain to

you just that bond i form with the men in my platoon and my company. they were magnificent. they knew what they did was not just thankless but in some circles raw but they continued to fight. they did it not for some cause and not richard nixon or mom's apple pie. they did it and fought and risked their lives and they bled because they didn't want to let their buddies down. that's something i have never been able to see replicated in civilian life so those of you that are wearing uniforms, understand that your goal is not going to be the big house or the fancy car. you're going to go into an institution where you will become supervisors of controlled

violence. and hopefully you won't but you can see the obscenity of war. you don't know that yet. but again, i want to thank you and tell you how proud that i am of you, because, you know, our society, great wealth and political power of your social position. some are renowned for their athletic ability. others are courted celebrity status and film stars and the promises because it refers to an individual that is willing to give up everything. thank you. >> one of the things i have to

say -- and we just touched on, you will not always be appreciated for what you do. even here in the military over any others and we have a thing called memorial day that occurs every memorial day here for some reason. but i have given speeches before members of congress and even the uss michael murphy which i was a soldier wearing my uniform korean war uniform. the people in the navy weren't

necessarily enthralled to see me. and it's out to be a part of the ceremony. but i saw the memorial day concert. i have tried and my assistant has tried for years to participate in that and yet whoever the powers that be are they simply won't do it. simply wouldn't allow me to go on to say what i wanted to say. earlier i said something about you asked me about what were some of the things that i was thinking about and it calls you to be in the position that you are. i open my screen play.

and it's in the my first time writing, he never shot it. but just shows you the wide acceptance that you have as a writer. and going through the tossing and turning in bed and the opening line says james, james, why are you going through this, why do you put yourself through this. don't forget when you go to war, i as your conscious, i go to war with you and i must stop that. we go on explaining what the guy's problem is. what his problems are. it occurred to me that my lieutenant who lead us on -- lead us in the patrol, that the -- on this patrol, that he

made a mistake. i know i shouldn't go there. and let's say the confusion that you have in your mind when you get back to the war zone it didn't let up or continue to be there. >> i have some questions now. >> is everybody okay. you want to throw the microphone down in the front here. >> tossed. >> both of you multiple purple hearts and with a nation now

that actually says the flag is just a flag, what do your purple hearts mean to both of you individu individually. >> the person that decembsecrat the flag. whatever this person does to the flag, you should do to him. and if you step on my flag, even jesus knows that you should be stepped on. if you burn my flag, then i am entitled to burn you. what goes around comes around. that's what i feel. >> vincent, do you want to answer it? >> i don't think i can improve on that.

>> just an interesting observation ever since kaepernick decided to take a knee when they started playing the national anthem. you can take issue with our nation and other things but ever since that happened the nfl that has been when you make millions and billions of dollars everybody smiles and walks to the bank. ratings have dropped for the nfl by 30%. everybody is scrambling saying what is happening here. so they never thought this would ever happen. that that would be the past time on sunday and we would all watch. clearly they struck a nerve and why this is happening and these two gentlemen told you why it might be happening. up there is a question. yes, sir. >> my question, what was it specifically about your experiences that really drove you to share those through film

and books. what made you feel that that had to be in that format that gave you such a strong influence. i couldn't take care of myself and came out of nowhere today and after having gone back to korea, was it jesus, i don't know. the only thing that i know is that i was saved and fortunately, or unfortunately, you know, you still have this shell in you that reminds you every now and then that there's a higher power that rescues you in your darkest hour. and that's why i saw some of the young guys last night and you could look that way. he could have -- i never found out his name and