>> learn more about how a president can be impeached this sunday at 9:00 p.m. eastern here on american history tv only on c-span3. ,> trained at tuskegee, alabama the tuskegee airmen became the first african-american fighter group sent into combat during world war ii. airmen appearegee on stage at the national archives to mark the 75th anniversary of their first deployment in 1943. the veterans talked about their combat experience during world war ii and the korean war. they recall some of their most dangerous missions and what it was like to serve in a segregated military. this is about 65 minutes. >> it is with great pleasure i now introduce our panel of american icons, the tuskegee airmen. is moderator of our panel

mr. ron jackson, a third-generation military men, formerly a proud paratrooper in the 82nd airborne division. from north carolina, so we are exceptionally proud of the 82nd and their actions over at fort bragg. areike to tell people we the most military friendly state in the nation and we work hard to live up to that. or do, mr. further jackson, you are on. thank you very much. [applause] mr. jackson: thank you and good morning. salute american icons, the tuskegee airmen. please allow me to briefly introduce the panel, and then we

will come back and hear from our and ask the field to give questions. i may recite the question a time or two just for clarity. let's begin with the person closest to me and the blue cap, lieutenant colonel robert friend. next to him, lieutenant colonel harold brown. lieutenant colonel george hardy. lieutenant colonel allen jefferson. hardynant colonel james h iii. and our closer, lieutenant general harry stewart. with lieutenant colonel robert friend who was born in south carolina. what we will do is yield the floor to you, and then we will ask the audience to give you questions. let's have a round of applause for our first panelist.

[applause] colonel, just give us a brief history about you. colonel friend: i was always interested in flying, and then the chances were offered me. had a pilot'si license in the late 1930's because i was part of a program in united states was doing potential defense of itself, and that was to train people to fly airplanes as they were doing in europe. the time came for us to go to .uskegee

i enjoyed it very much. the one thing that i would like to clarify was everybody says tuskegee, the place where they african-americans. that's the wrong way, i think, to look at it. the right way to look at it was that was the place where they trained people who were not white. i went through the program and .ent through three wars am very fortunate to be able to be here to let you know how we felt.

[applause] >> would anyone like to ask a question of colonel friend? i would like to make note given the bio you see on the screen, if i may, veteran of combat missions with the tuskegee to the firstngman african-american general in the air force, yesterday was the anniversary of benjamin davis one star,eiving his october 25, 19 40. there's very few of us in this audience that remember 1940, yet our panel does. introduce lieutenant colonel harold brown from minneapolis minnesota -- minneapolis, minnesota, whose father also fought in world war i.

would you give us a brief summary? mr. brown: i was born and raised in minneapolis, minnesota. when i was about 11 years old, i woke up one morning and guess what? i was going to become a military fighter pilot. at the mention of that, my mother looked at me -- isn't it strange how your mother can look at you and say he has all this wonderful talent when i had no talent whatsoever? they can see things no one else can see. i sat on that piano stool for the first 10 years of my life the sixthd then in grade at 11 years old, i decided i was going to become a military pilot. don't ask me why.

don't ask me how. i don't remember seeing a movie about it, but one morning i woke up and was set. from that point on, it was model airplanes and every book i could find. i remember one in particular that i read so many times i almost had it memorized. was 16 years old, i $35.ed to save up base operator and said i wanted to take flying lessons. see j three fighters very often, but nevertheless,

that's the way it was. no more money and no more flying lessons, and of course, in 1941, we know the war started, but keep in mind back in those days after president roosevelt backed to train those guys in 1941, they wanted people to have some piloting experience. it did not take long before they had just about wiped out all the guys with college experience, and they said they would open it .p to high school kids at 17 years of age, i graduated from high school. i go be bopping down to the local recruitment station and say i want to sign up.

scoredline for the exam, reasonably high, and i say i'm on my way, but no, no, not yet. there's about 100 other guys. they were all sworn into the , and they were obviously protected from the draft, but my paperwork had to go through d.c. i sweated as much paperwork went through, thinking the draft was going to get me before i got my chance to fly. what i was selected and i finally wound up in the military, graduating class of 1944, 19 years old. do you know why they send young guys off to fight wars?

you guys are invincible, aren't you? you guys will live forever. nothing that will ever happen to you. but guess what? one day, you, too, will all go sweat it out. up too much to take time. does anyone have any questions? guys have 10,000 questions. give me one. one question. >> the gentleman to the left. >> what is a? it? at is >> what talent did you wish you had when you were shot down over any territory? >> well, i wish i had a pair of wings to fly.

[laughter] [applause] unfortunately, that was not the case. hazards ofbiggest flying missions were if you were ever hit, you were always preached to get out of the target area, and rightly so, but there were a bunch of people down there. shrapnel stuff flying all over the place. suddenly you get hit. you are in your shoot. guysou imagine what those are thinking about after you have just about wiped out some brother, and here you are talking about floating down in a parachute? those are some very angry people, and rightly so. to follow that up, two more shot down on my

30th mission. >> [inaudible] >> alexander is giving me a rough time down here. , i of the unfortunate things did not get out of the target area. i was picked up almost immediately, brought back to a little village, and i was met by 35 of the most angriest people in your life.seen there was no doubt they had murder on their minds, and they made certain that i knew what they were going to do. here i was 20 years old, looking like this, no business being up i've got a mob of 35 or so people looking at me, and they wanted a piece of me.

the constable came up and prevented them from taking my whilebut for a very short , those first 35 minutes or so, i was frightened to death. there wasn't a doubt in my mind i was going to die. i could not run. i could not hide. i could not do anything. a matter of fact, i think i was talking to myself for a wild. "what are you going to do? i don't know what i'm going to do. think of something, harold." most frightening thing that ever happened to me. i was looking death straight in the eye, and it 20 years old, i had a whole lot of living to do, but from that point on, the pow

havenas actually a safe really. i will cut it off there. i could go into 10,000 stories. >> thanks. [applause] for those that did not hear the exchange with colonel brown said he was shot down on his 30th mission, colonel jefferson said "welcome to the club." i feel like i would like to hear colonel brown lecture a time or two. our next panelist is lieutenant colonel george hardy. i don't know if you are a fan of the philadelphia eagles. >> i was born and raised in philadelphia and graduated from high school in 1942. i turned 17 that same month, so i went to join the service. i took the exam to go to

tuskegee and passed it. went to flying school in 1943 and graduated in september 1944. after additional training, i added up going overseas, 99 fighter squad. i came back after the war and forout in 1946, went to nyu one year, recalled in 1948. 1948 was when racial integration started. the air force said they were going to integrate racially, and truman signed the executive order in july. went back, became a maintenance officer in electronics. , i was, when i graduated

assigned -- racial integration had taken place in the air force and i was assigned to guam. airplane.to fly the flow in the combat crew as a pilot. when the grand war started, we flew over korea. were two racial problems in those days. new commanderot a who would not speak to me except in the line of duty because he did not believe in racial integration. at the last minute, he pulled me off the airplane and replaced me . he did not want me flying in his outfit.

anyway, i survived that period. got a new squad and commander, me backw commander put on flying status, so i ended up flying missions, came back to the states and sat, had a good time. service.rew up in the i went to the institute of .echnology from there, i went to japan, had a good tour. i went to plattsburgh, new york. my wing commander was the same officer who pulled me here in

okinawa. he was now my wing commander. i was with him for three years, and that's the best three years of my career. i love working for him the second time. i would have stayed with him forever, but the institute of technology let me know there was a new program they were going to put into effect. they wanted to do it right away, and they did not have time to advertise for it, so they went back to prior graduates. masters inwith a systems engineering. field that was a new came out. i grew up in the service. i made lieutenant colonel, and

for three and a half years, i andchief of engineering program manager. three and a half years, i was chief of engineering. i had been up for enhancement for five and a half years, and they prepared a new gunship. the plane carried 42 paratroopers, let them out kid up at a time, but they made a gunship out of it in vietnam. i was recalled to active duty as a pilot, ended up going to vietnam in 1970.

all the airplanes were at operating locations. the commander. i ended up flying 70 combat , vietnam, andorea a gunship. i came back down and retired in 1971. anyway, i was educated in the service. someone was looking out over me. i never had to bail out of an airplane. someone'si was in good graces, and thank god for that. total ofhat is the sum my career. the thing is when i retired because of my degrees, they made me a job offer, and it worked saythem for 18 years, so i

i have the best of everything as far as the service, and i'm grateful for that. >> if we have questions for colonel hardy, would someone stand and we will bring a microphone to you? you ll the way up just a second, colonel hardy. ma'am. >> good day. i do have a question for you all. your age now, how do you stay so sharp and so witty? >> what was that question again? [laughter] [applause] touche, indeed, colonel hearted. -- colonel hardy. that's for the entire panel.

93.'m i know how hard it is to get around. >> slowly but surely. >> any other questions? if we could be reflective for a moment from world war ii to experiences leading up to vietnam, how did that help you? adapt toable to everything, but when i look at , andotality of my career world war ii, they would never have anyone of african ancestry over a caucasian, but at the end a my career in vietnam, i was commander, and all my pilots were white, so it shows that inlution, how things went

the service, and i still have reunions with some of them, but i was 45 then and they were all 20 years younger than me. i get along with them very well. >> thank you. [applause] >> our fourth panelist is lieutenant colonel alexander jefferson, whose grandfather was one of the founding fathers of morehouse university. his favorite place to vacation is within hawaii. yieldl jefferson, let's the floor to you. tell us a little bit about yourself and your history in the armed forces. >> somebody asked made, why the --l would you go to the army

somebody asked me. i graduated from clark college in june 1942. did went downg i from detroit, went down to the federal building and joined. i thought they were going to send me to tuskegee. they said hell no. go home and we will call you. put me on a list. till almost nine months before they called me. remember, now, i'm a clark college graduate. i'm in the last class going to navy,ee because the army, marines were grabbing black men with college degrees. the classes after me went through three months of college

training detachment. january 1944 from tuskegee as a second lieutenant. januarywe were sent to suffragr aire base -- selfridge force base. were the squadrons 301st, the 302nd, and the 99th. were three squadrons black, flying p-39's up-and-down the shores outside of italy. my class, we were supposed to be replacements for them. we were training at selfridge air force base until something like march of 1944, 1945.

to 18 of-star general come selfridge. i'm out over lake huron. all officers report to the post-theater on the double, which means drop everything you are doing and get your behind into post-theater. we were there, blacks and white officers mixing, trying to find out what the hell is going on. nobody knows what the hell is going on. all of a sudden, somebody said "attention!" a two-starsle comes general. we look at each other like what the hell is going on. i don't know. he rambled on and on for 4, 5, 10 minutes, and these are the words i remember -- .gentlemen, this is my airfield as long as i'm in command, there will be no socialization between white and colored officers."

p.ly jumping crac we have been trying to get into the officers club. they said hell no. that was thursday. saturday morning, they put us on a train. atee days later, we ended up walterboro, south carolina. we were the first class to be shipped over to join the three 32nd fighter group. -- 332nd fighter group. i was put in the 301st fighter squadron. i flew 18 and one half missions. [laughter] my 18th missions were escorting p-51's.

i'm cutting it short. escorting b-17's and between four's from italy to germany -- italy to france. was the firston time we came in straight, and i'm in the 301st. , red, the 16 airplanes white, yellow, blue -- i think. i cannot remember it. anyway, i'm blue. i'm over here. we are scraping. southern france, radar stations. we did not know that the invasion of southern france came

off on august 15. our job was to knock off the radar stations, which controlled the guns firing out to sea. we went in first flight, second flight, third flight, fourth flight. the fourth flight, who is the last guy to go across the target? me, god dammit. you look up ahead and you see all this stuff coming back at you. i went up across the top of the target. came up out of the floor, so i had to bail out. we're doing about 400 miles an hour. we post everything to the wall. nowid to myself -- remember

, out of 10 months, nine months of training, not one minute on how to bail out. [laughter] so you rise to the occasion. [laughter] pull back on the stick, get some god damn altitude, and as you go up, you reach down on the left and there is a little wheel that you rotate for nose down. the future turn the stick lose, your nose goes down. pull that sucker up anyway. i don't know how the hell i got out. all i know is it got pretty warm. i had to get out. damneach up, the god canopy goes on. but i gotow how high,

kind of warm and new it was time to go. turn the stick lose. what happens to the nose? as the tale drops, you have straps here for the big buckle and you hit that vocal, the god damn strap comes loose. said when you bail out, b, c, but, hell, i damn trees, the god were so close. all of a sudden, i'm trying to .et out, and i hear this voice i said, "oh, shit."

[laughter] realistically? up,an guard, and he looked and i'm in the trees. he's helping me get out, and he looks up and sees a gold bar, and he salutes me. all i can do? returned the salute. [laughter] to the german.d i became a pow. by the time when harold came in, during the war, there were 32 men out of the 332nd fighter pow's.r pow's -- were i will not go through the rest

of the war, -- i will not go into the middle died, but we went through the rest of the war detroit,to the city of lo and behold, i quit. that's it, thank you. >> thank you, colonel jefferson. [applause] before our audience asks the , 30tion, i'm just curious years you're taught -- was it in english? what subject did you teach? .> elementary science >> would you be so kind to stand and wait on the microphone?

>> my question for the whole entire panel is how did you overcome racism and discrimination and what lessons would you mind sharing about that? >> what the hell did he say? by the way, you are talking to guys up here -- every one of us has bad hearing. was how did you overcome racial discrimination while you were serving? >> how did we do what? with the attitude "everybody's stupid except you and me." [applause] >> i would like to make a comment on that.

and sometimes i'm not so sure about you. >> i would like to make a comment about that. after racial integration took place in 1949, all of us worshiped up to other outfits, and individually, a lot of people rented to problems that you never thought you would run into, discrimination problems, and it hurt some of the fellows career-wise, but it was a fact of life. there was many whites that did not agree with racial integration, and if you're served with someone like that, you may have paid a price, but, gradually, the services worked and i think we came out on top. >> still going on today. >> let's bring our fifth panelist in. iii fromames h harvey montclair, new jersey. and i like your boots. let's hear your story.

into theght you military, sir? >> ok, in january 1943, i tried to enlist in the army air corps. they told me they were not taking in list meant at that time. that was the height of the war, and i got the picture -- they did not want me. they drafted me in the army in april of 1943. pennsylvania in heading to fort meade, maryland. got to washington, d.c. had an hour-layover. went to a restaurant, got something to eat. said you are in the car back there. welcome to the south. that was my introduction to segregation. let me back up now.

i was born and montclair, new jersey, in july of 1923. 1936.o pennsylvania born in my dad was working at the hazard where roadworks. to a small town near mountaintop, pennsylvania, near wilkes-barre and hazelton -- between wilkes-barre and hazelton, pennsylvania. i went to a two-a room schoolhouse in the seventh and eighth grades. when i went to high school, we .ad to take a bus mountaintop, pennsylvania. when we moved out there, we were the only family of color out did not run into any

segregation whatsoever. i was treated just like any other person. segregation never entered my mind. no problem. went to high school in mountaintop, pennsylvania. the only sports we had was basketball and a tumbling team. anchorman of the tumbling team and captain of the basketball team. my senior year, we had another young lady of color, so now -- of us ando us the school my senior year. my senior year, i was class president and valedictorian. i did not know anything about segregation, like i say, until i got into the military. school, we were out in the country. we lived in the country. house,ouse away from the

if you know what i mean. i stood in my yard and saw this squad of the 40's fly over and 40's flyover in formation. i got my uniform, my shots, checked in, and they sent me to missouri for 30 days of basic training. basic training, and based on my scores and my written test but i had taken, they put me in the army air corps, engineers, driving bulldozers, carriers. the mission was to go into the pacific, build and airfield for aircraft. we used to go out and practice , "thisay, and i said i applied for so

cadet training. 10 of us that applied when to take the exam. nine whites and myself. two of us past. from there, i went to biloxi, mississippi, for 30 more days i finished that and off to tuskegee i went. now, i was a perfectionist when i was growing up. everything had to be perfect. when i got married, that had to change. [laughter] >> right. [laughter] >> so washing out or failing never entered my mind because i knew i could do anything they wanted me to do. that took me all the way through flying school. like i said, i had no problems at all with flying school. i remember one day, i was practicing a lazy eight. ht onis a maneuver, an eig

a 45-degree angle. ours was between 2000 and 1000 feet. . was out practicing when i came to the top, i was approaching 2000 feet mighty fast so i found myself upside down. the altimeter said 2000 feet. i still had to practice because the instructor did not want any of that kind of stuff. anything we did it tuskegee had to be perfect, so we learned to fly the aircraft. the white pilot, i think all they had to do was demonstrate they could get the aircraft off the ground and back on safely. our program, find training program, was designed for our failure. they knew there would not be anyone graduating to man the fighter squadron. but we proved them otherwise.

i graduated from flying school 1944, and from walterboro, south carolina, for combat training. i finished my combat training in april of 1945. was with oneacked, hour of catching a train to go to norfolk to catch a ship to go over and join the group over in europe. saying to holde us. an hour before i was ready to go, we got this message saying to hold us so i did not go. that was in april 1945. hitler gave up the following month in may of 1945.

in may of 1949, we had the first and we won theet meet. the following month of june, they started full integration of the military. they declared they were going to integrate the military in 1940, but nothing happened until they broke our grew up in 1948 and they scattered us all over the world. eddy drummond and i had an assignment to japan. records hadft, our been forwarded to japan so the group commander knew who was coming. i should say the wing commander. so the wing commander called all of the pilots into the base theater before we got there and

said we have these two negro pilots coming in and they will be assigned to one of the squadrons. the pilots said no way are we going to fly with them, no way. anyway, eddie drummond and i reported to the wing commander and sat in his office talking and he said, what do you want us to call you? this is a military organization. what do you want us to call you? >> i said i am a first lieutenant. eddie drummond is a second lieutenant. how about lieutenant carver and lieutenant drummond? he said ok. he said we have two p-51 squadrons and the jets. which one do you want to go to? that is a no-brainer. i said the f-80. he put us both in the f 80

squadron. they did not have a jet trainer but they did have a couple of ap-6's. we flew them in instrument f-80.ng for the you cannot see out, all you have are your instruments. eddie drummond and i both had two flights in the backseat of an ap-6. i would get in the back seat, the pilot upfront would get instructions for take off. in the meantime, i have the hood up before we taxi out. i have the hood up and all i can see are my instruments. the pilot in frontlines up on the runway. he says you've got it. i throttle forward, take up, pull up the gear, all that good stuff. and i fly around doing the maneuvers he wants me to do. then it is time to land.

i call ground control approach and the vector me in for the landing. i touchdown and the pilot in front took over. i had two flights like that. what does that have to do with flying the f 80? nothing. i finally figured out why they had us do that. they wanted to see if we could fly. we proved that we could. i knew that. they had doubts. but we showed them that yes, we could fly just like anybody else. i was in japan and i came back to the states and went to korea. korea started while i was in japan. we immediately started flying missions the next day after the invasion. and i flew 126 missions in the f-80 and then rotated back to japan. i started flying the day after the invasion started.

and i had 126 missions by christmas day, december 25. in the meantime, the wing commander had been asking air force command for a cut off on the number of missions the pilots flew. nothing had come down. finally it came down, 100 missions, so i did not have to fly anymore. rotated back to japan in december of 1950 and came back to the states in april of 1951. i went to george air force base in victorville, california. there i was an assistant operations officer, instrument instructor pilot, and test pilot. i have to say i did not have any problems during my whole career in the military as far as being a minority. none whatsoever. even the guys in the squadron in

japan, the ones that said they were not going to fly with us, they found out we were good. we were very good. we were better than they were. the reason we were so good as a group is because of our training. everything they did, the instructor did, was trying to wash us out. you just made us better pilots. like i said, everything had to be perfect. we were good. we were the best. we proved it overseas. we were the best. we came back to the states and had the weapons meet in 1949. we won that approved we were the best there. i like to use the word "best." >> what year did you retire? in madison, wisconsin, in may of 1949. familyi retired, i had a

to support. before retirement, i started looking for a job. i interviewed with united airlines. they did not want me because of my color. they did not want any passengers getting on the airplane and seeing a dark face in the cockpit. wisconsin, was the home office for oscar meyer. so i interviewed with oscar meyer, got a job as a salesman. however, i was supposed to be at the plant for three months learning the operation from slaughter to finished product, all the products. i was there a month. they needed a salesman in northerner jersey so i went there as a salesman. i was there for three years. i went to detroit as an assistant sales manager, district manager, rather and i was there for 18 months. and then to philadelphia as an assistant sales manager.

i was there for three years. then i got a promotion to denver as a center manager. i was the center manager there from 1973 until february of 1980 when i retired from oscar meyer in february of 1980. >> i would like to yield to the floor. do we have any questions for the colonel? yes, ma'am. give me a second for the microphone. >> have to relay like jefferson. ofdon't you love the detail 1944 and 1945? >> good morning, gentlemen. i am from texas a&m university. what was it like to coming -- coming back to areas of the country where there was still segregation? >> what was it like in the areas where there was segregation? what was it like to live there?

live int was it like to an area with segregation? was like toat it live in an area with segregation when you came back home from where you were stationed. >> it did not bother me at all. they had their problem. i ignored their problem. i did not let it bother me. maybe that is wrong. nothing in life bothers me. i just go with the flow. >> let's get to our final panelist. it is lieutenant harry stewart from newport news, virginia. it makes you think he was either going to build a ship or fly a plane. colonel stewart, let's hear your story, sir. >> i want to find out how much time i have. >> we will yield whatever you like. >> thank you. i will not take more than a half-hour. all right?

[laughter] >> anyway, i'm going to preempt some of the questions that might .e asked of me that question would have to do with the greatest things that happened to me while i was in the service. i would say the second greatest thing was 75 years ago plus or minus a few months was meeting the guys here. it was quite an event for me. it has been a lasting love affair for the past 75 years. of the combat pilots, there are 13 of us left. we still try to keep in contact with one another. right on the stage, you see the remainder of the portion of that 13. getting back to the question of the greatest things that happened to me in the service, that was one of them. that was the second greatest thing.

i would like to say these gentlemen, colonel friend on the end who was the first panelist, he was born in columbia, south carolina, but he was raised in the borough of manhattan, new york. you introduced me as being born in newport news, virginia, and i was raised in the borough of , so we were ayork distance apart over the east river. i did not know how before i went into the service. he was operations officer in the 301st fighter squadron. when i went over there, he had already gotten about 100 missions under his belt. he was serving his second tour. may of the war ended in 1945. all of us got on the boat together and we came back from italy, landed in staten island.

, wentiend, colonel friend home with his family in manhattan and i took the subway and went home to my family in queens. i guess i was home for about two days, and i got a call from colonel friend. he said, i would like you to come on over and meet my family in manhattan here. so i went over and met his family. little did i know that this would end up in a 68-year marriage to his sister. [laughter] [applause] >> i call him cupid because he did the same thing with another one of his sisters. [laughter] >> brought one of the tuskegee airmen home, introduced them, and they were married.

when i told the story before, they said how many times did cupid do this again? cupid said none, i ran out of sisters. [laughter] >> that was the greatest things that happened to me while i was in the service. thing.e is one other >> you shot down three airplanes in one mission. you did not mention that. three airplanes in one mission. [laughter] >> i wanted to make sure they heard that. for that, he received the distinguished flying cross. let's start with the gentleman in black in that direction, and then i will come back to the middle. just one or two questions. there is a microphone coming towards you, sir. >> hi, colonel. my name is ray simon. i am an artist. .

have you ever looked at yourself as the civil rights movement yet to come? in all reality, you guys were the trailblazers. i was talking to colonel fred and colonel jefferson yesterday. you almost laid the path for rosa parks and dr. martin luther king, jr.. the i find interesting is march 1945 mission to the tank factory was 20 years to the day from march 20 5, 1965, when dr. king walked across the bridge to vote and have you ever looked at yourself as the civil rights movement yet to come? you did not protest. you did not march. what you guys did is you became some of the best pilots in the country. asked thateen question a number of times. while we were going through

, and i think the other panelists will attest to this, i don't think we dreamed at that time we were making an impact on the future of what was happening as far as racial integration and that type of thing. we thought we were doing our job as citizens of the united states and performing as soldiers in the military. the late 1970's and even more recent when two films came out. one was called "the tuskegee airmen," which had worldwide distribution. that was put out by hbo. the second one was "the red tails," a lucasfilm put out by george lucas. distribution.wide

around that time, all sorts of inquiries started coming in wanting to hear from us on what we did and that type of thing. answer the question again, no, i don't think we realized how much impact we were going to make on integration while we were in the service. this became readily apparent after we came out of the service and got more notoriety. >> someone had to do it, right? >> i was satisfying something inside of me. i wanted to fly. i flew. caught all kinds of hell. but let's face it, that is what was going on as a black person in this country. and i cannot after the war -- and i came out after the war, put all my stuff together, retail captured, red tails free. i wrote this book.

it was something on the inside of me that made me learn to fly. school, i felt that men neededoung black to learn how to fight the system. the system is vicious. and unless you know how to cope with the vicious system, you've got nothing. , we hadaught school things called safety patrols, remember? where a little kid had a white belt and have the responsibility of covering that corner. in order to be a safety, you had to be a nerd. [laughter]

>> that is number one. to a black teenager were a black kid, telling him at that time to be a nerd was a no-no. left oscar's the ostracization. you had to be on time. colonel davis demanded we be on time. when colonel davis said be in my office at 9:00, you don't show up at 9:00. what time do you show up? >> 45. >> damn right. as a safety patrol, you had to be on that corner at least 10 minutes ahead of time. all of a sudden, your teaching a 12-year-old to be on time. when you come in the school building, you take off your hat.

teaching young men how to cope with the system. when a teacher comes to the door and a 12-year-old were 13-year-old comes to the door, what do you teach him? slowly but surely. these are the things in the back of my mind. -- thatning how to fly is a joke i cannot tell. [laughter] >> for the audience to ask questions, you will address the panel after the presentation. we have something special coming. thank you for your time. reminding us to be on time is to be early. to be on time is to be late. >> i think it is very important

for the cadets to appreciate the fact that you don't have to be a pilot in order to be in the air force. has a wide range of activities people get involved in. you can be readying yourself as a pilot, but at the same time selecting for your career something else. for instance, i was in tech intelligence. in tech intelligence, i was responsible for those kinds of can anticipate. i went through lots of schooling. lots of schooling. at least 10 years of schooling.

you would be happy with that. life.s real if you can get into flying, it is like -- if you like flying, that is fine. i liked flying. i got into flying and had a good time. that theo recognized air force needs people other than pilots. these are the people who are responsible for pilots like those crew chiefs we had. had the same appreciation for dedication to a subject. when i came down and got in that airplane, he used to walk over to me and say, where are we going today? he said,i came back,

what did you do in the airplane? and i recognized a lot of things. the youngnstance, man, i watched him do it. i was right behind him. >> please remain seated. we have mr. roberts. >> thank you for one of the highlights not only of our day but i suspect the highlights of our lives. in meeting, listening to not just american heroes, they are world heroes. they have stood up, taken responsibility for themselves and others. so on behalf of a former air force guy who was not a pilot, i

want to express my appreciation for your leadership, for your bravery, and for your dedication. thank you very much. [applause] >> with that, ladies and gentlemen, please be seated. i would like to now introduce again mr. jim roberts, president and founder of the american veterans center, for a special presentation. >> thank you, craig. doing a great job. thank you, gentlemen. it is a real honor to have the tuskegee airmen with us. i knew you would be inspirational and you were, but i did not know you would be so entertaining. it has been a great session. thank you so much for being with us. i urge you to take the opportunity to visit the rotunda and see our founding documents on display.

see you soon after lunch. have a good lunch. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

>> this weekend on american history tv, the 1967 special , "the warren report" anchored by walter cronkite on president kennedy's assassination. >> the mob scene continues as oz walt is brought in for transport to the jail. and then in full sight of millions of television viewers, a man named jack ruby shoots lee oswald dead. >> watch reel america tonight at 10:00 eastern on american history tv on c-span3. weekend on "lectures in he teaches a class about how the pilgrims became part of the united states' founding story in 19th century

textbooks. here is a preview. >> you get gradually more and more settlement on the east coast. the pilgrims land at plymouth. and then, notice here, between the maps. we've already looked at how they erased jamestown from this history. we talked about them but only in the sense in which they are not a founding. that also means they will not appear on any map. 1658, they cannot be on that map. 1620, they are already there. what does she say? the ship arrived in 1619, so close enough. she paints on the match a debt oesp with knee grows -- negr from africa purchased by james don't -- jamestown. as it appears on the map, it is associated with slavery which is why she does not want it to be a turning point in american history because it is the turning point in american history. it can't not talk about slavery.

but if you say the pilgrims came here for freedom, then you could ignore the fact that the pilgrims in new england had slaves, which they did. and second, you can say that slavery business is not part of the essential identity of america. that happened down south. this happened appear with this morally elevated group of people who came. these histories are creating the kind of national story doing important cultural work in creating that sense of a national identity. lecture the entire saturday night at 8:00 and midnight eastern on "lectures in history." you are watching american history tv, where we bring the classroom to you. next on the civil war, joanne freeman talked about her book, "the field of blood: violence in congress and the road to civil war."

she describes the process of researching the topic and says she found that while fights were not always included in the official congressional record, clerk notes and private letters show more than 70 altercations in the antebellum period. this is about one hour. >> i am very pleased to introduce joanne freeman. she is a professor of history and american studies at yale university as well as a leading authority on early national politics and political culture. she is the author of "affairs of ," essential research for manual and miranda. while the political theme may seem like polarized now, i think notan all agree we are glad to live in the time when congressmen used to shoot each other as well as poor waitress at the willard --