world war ii veterans are incredible people. i agree with you, we simply cannot thank them enough. host: boston, bob is on the independent line. caller: good morngc-span. mr. morse, there is nothing more important than what you are doing. one of my uncles, have you in the last couple of months taken any flights out of boston? my two uncles, one of them had his face blown off and was in the water for who knows how long, they are both pushing 90 and 85.

local news crews saw them off, stayed with them. i believe it was your organization. let me tell you something, i have never seen these two so happy to go down there. one of them is very close to death, michael charlie. i believe that this is one of th last things he will have. look, i agree with you on a lot of wars. thank you very much, c-span. at the memorial day to all of the troops. thank you. guest: thank you for your comments. in just one of the people that got it started rolling. across this country we have so many volunteers.

out of boston we have a volunteer named joe. it was hbo that approach does to bring in 200 world war ii veterans to the premiere of "the pacific." host: here in washington? guest: here in washington. i would imagine that those with the fights you were talking about. host: a story this morning, like walls was attempting to visit every vietnam veters memorial in the country. here's a look at one eye and its bird. further down the column, 200 for vietnam alone. and new mexico, mississippi, taking look at those places as well. what is it about war memorials

that has magnetism for people like this? guest: world war ii veterans, they come out her for two reasons. they see how this nation is going to recognize their service. equally important, if not more important, they want to see how their friends will be remembered. their friends that nevemade it out of the plane. they want to know how their friends will be remembered. so, there is an attraction there. as well as a tremendous sense of camaraderie. ma vietnam veterans participate in our flytraps to nor world war ii veterans. -- flight trips to hon our world war ii veterans.

a vietnam veteran pushing it world war ii veteran in a wheelchair, comforting them, going to the vietnam memorial. you will see the vietnam veteran shedding a tear and the world war ii veterans will comfort them. there is a brotherhood and sisterhood of conflict for armed battle that extends many generations. it all comes together here in washington, d.c.. host: another call from washington, good morning. caller: od morning. you have done much to help many of the veterans. this day is about the ones that never came back and lost their lives. i appreciate c-span and all that

they do. my question, my wife's father is 86. he is a prisoner of war battle veteran. he lives in the chicago area. he mentioned that there are 9600 hubs. i guess, mquestion is -- what is the one cosest to chicago? can i go on line to fill this out? i would hope that he would be able to do this. he is very healthy and active and has been telling his story since he retired as a schoolteacher. what could i do to get this ball rolling for him? of guest: thank you for your comments. first of all, when you talk with this gentleman, please tell him

thank you for his service. secondly, we have a phenomenal of operating out of chicago. you mentioned the the 9600 hubs. mary is doing a great job of there. i would ask that you visit their web site. chicago on our flight -- honor flight. toyota regional program page. and -- go to the regional program page. filling out an application is the first step. you can find them online. host: in the midwest this morning, jesse. good morning. caller: i wanted to talk for a minute. i am so happy. i went on that flight from iowa.

i was on the second group that went. there were two airplanes fall. -- full. there is one thing that stuck in my craw, i was in the u.s. navy during world war ii. the 99 to read tales that were in the army air force, tuskegee airmen, they never got credit for not losing an airplane to german fighters during world war ii. they blew up a lot of bombers. the aircraft pilots, you never lost any to german fighters. that has been overlooked. because we wanted to put the glory out on the great

hollywood heroes and stuff but none of them were in the war. they were good actors. we have to have good actors. i think it is important and i think that the stories of these people should be told. this was brought to me by another veteran from world war ii. he said that if the sty was not told -- i forget the name of the place in missouri. branson, i think. he said that the story had to be told. the veterans wanted to tell lead but the newspapers and news mediaere afraid to touch it. host: we appreciate your call. guest: you are absolutely right. the tuskegee airmen that fought in the south of europe did an

incredible job. two weeks ago i was at the world war ii memorial. one of the men there was a top turret gnner. i asked him how many missions and he said five and that he was shot down on his fifth. he said that they conduct the first daylight bombing over berlin and that they lost 68 poin. that is over 700 lives. you are right. to go from losing 68 and other exports, they were able to support the be-17. those farmers were escorted by the red tails. not one was lost. and i e with you, i do not believe that history hazen of courtesy to not only the

african-americans that served, but the japanese that served in europe. host: stories that need to be told, do you find as you do these flights that you are hearing stories abo units and individuals that have not made it into any kind of history so far? gut: we do stories that have never been told, which is incredible. quite often the world war ii terans, home to talk about it. but their family will tell you that they would wake up in the night, screaming. back in the 1940's they did not have posttraumatic stress disorder. they did not talk about it at all.

host: is anyone making an effort to get those stories? a couple of years ago i remember there was an oral history project under way. guest: for any family member of a veteran, i encourage them to contact the departmt of veterans affairs. there are a couple of groups out there atteting to support your it -- oral history archival. host: branson, missouri. caller: my grandfatr was in the airborne. if you read the history books it shows that they did occupy. my grandfather claimed that they landed two weeks before the fight was over. rarely did he ever talk about it. we wereatching a show of the

year before he died called "the return to the was the month -- iwo jima." the only time i ever heard my grandfather talk about that was when he said to me that he knew where the bodies were. the only thing he ever spoke about of it. a lot of veterans alike that. i am the commander of the post here in nebraska, and we have been providing comfort. so, i kind of new his point of view when we made those comments. i also wanted to let you know that there's a lot of information that can be obtained from the veterans' service organization web pages.

across america people can go out of the web site and look at the battle monuments commission. thanyou for letting me on the air to talk. thank you, sir. guest: thank you for your service. it sounds like you are extremely active in your community. people do come back and might not be aware of their privileges. host: next up, ohio, republican line. ck? go ahead. caller: ok. host: you are on the air. . .

i am wondering. are you an employee each of the va or do you have a satellite office? guest: i am an employee of the chillicothe va. it is too bad she has not seen me in the hallways. it is a phenomenal va. i love working there. we're really admire the most is that the employees are more veteran-centered and focused than i have ever seen. ever seen. gueshostcaller: she works in the fiscal office. as a vietnam-." veteran, i really appreciate what you are doing. we had close friend who took one of the flights to d.c.

he has several awards and metals as a world war ii veran. it meant a lot to him. he was at the battle of the bulge. are very grateful for what you are doing. it brings a little bit of honor and glory to the town where we live. we thank you forour services will. have a good day. guest: 80. as a vietnam vet, welcome home. my father is a vietnam veteran. he did not get a welcome home when he came back from vietnam in 1969. i want to thank you for your service. host: do you have medical staff accompany them if they have medical problems? guest: we are on thin ice promoting ourselves as providing medical coverage. that means our people would have

to get approved. in order for them to be protected by good samaritan laws, we do not need to promote ourselves as providing medical attention. there are doctors, nurses, p&-- emts on all of our flights. guesthocaller: i have many famiy members in the military. we've gone through cycles of going to the veterans administtion hospitals. in the process, i have met probably hundreds of veterans and heard their stories. i have sat with them. i want to encoage people. if you cannot get people on the honor flight, go to the nurng homes.

go to the vetans to administration. talk to them. their stories are amazing. they are treasure troves of wisdom and honor. i am having a great time talking to these mostly old guys. i know the library of congress has project going on collecting and reporting these stories. but i want to tell you a story. when i talk to these old gentlemen, we know our soldiers have honor and integrity. when i wld ask them about the iraq war, these guys would start bollinawling. not only about the willingness of people to serve, but also about the misusof that service. i want to encourage people to go to these places and talk to these incredibly wonderful people. guest: i could not agree with

you more. en the veterans come back from one of our honor flight chips, six mths or two years later if you ask them about the highlight of the entire day, and you would think it would be visiting the memorial or camaraderie with other veterans. the most memorable part of the entire day is when complete strangers came up to them, show their hand, look them in the eye and said "thank you for what you have done." you hit e nail on the head. going up to anyone 80 years old and telling them thank-you means so much to these people. host: we have ^ on the line for veterans -- karen on the line for veterans. caller: i am and 80% disabled veterans. i want to thank all of my comrade veterans for their rvice,, particularly mike cold

r era sisters whose involvement has been dramatically underrated. horrible things happen to them and also to the vietnam veterans for the way they were not embraced for their service. i am worked up about this. i have been watching the program all morning. i was in world war ii, a korean combat veteran. my brother served about eight years. i served just short of nine active duty years. it is almost easy to pick up other veterans, especially those who are elderly because they are les. the females and not as easy to pick out. our service does not seem to be important to people, what we did. that was to support the

constitution against all enemies. it was to keep them safe in their beds at night. they did not even know that we were standing watch. we serd in silence and were proud to do it. i have two honorable discharges. i wasn the army during two different times. service in vietnam was brand new for women in 1978. i wenin again in 1988. i served until 1992 during the persian excursion. guest: i could not agree with you more when we do trouble with female veterans on our trip, we make a point to point out to the crowd that this is not the spouse of a world war ii veteran. this is a world war ii veteran. i agree with you. i do not think the history books of looked in favor -- have looked in favor, th barely touched on the service of

minorities and females during all of the conflict. host: good morning to shirley from ashland, new hampshire. caller: i guess you could say that i am of the world war ii generation. i graduated high school the we'ryear t war ended imarried veteran. i sure it is obvus watching this that these veterans are very touched and grateful for this memorial. but when ty came home, that would have been the last thing that would have been the last thing they thought of. they were just doing what they thought had to be done. a few years later, they did get a bonus. they were very grateful for that. they did not do it for that. memorial, they never would have thought of it. it is just the they volunteered,

were drafted, they did their duty. host: is your husband still alive? caller: he died more than 20 years ago. he was connected with the enola gay. host: thank you for calling. we have to carry on the democrats' line. let's go to merle in gaylord, mich.. caller: i am so happy to get through. i want to congratulate the gentleman who is so diligently working for this. i also want to thank c-span. i have been trying so hard to get in. my husband was the last of the rebounds in the war. he transferred to the 10th mountain division, served in italy and austria. he was very proud of his service.

the american flag has never left our home. it has flown continuously. i continue to fight it. i am surprised at all of the american homes that do not lead the american flag. -- that do not fly the american flag. that is especially true on memorial day. i looked down my street in amazed at the american flags that are hidden and not displayed. i want to thank all of the veterans. i am one of fixed income now, but i do what i can to help our paralyzed veterans. i send them every penny that i can spare to the hospitals of our boys. i thank them very much from the bottom of my heart. i have two sons. one is in the marines and the other is in the air force. i want to thank everybody in the country that is serving our country. my husband was very proud to serve his country.

god bless all of you. host: thank you for calling. guest: thank you so much for your comments. i want to echo those as well. when you mentioned the 10th mountain division, i could not help but think of senator bob dole. he served in the 10th mountain division. he was wounded in italy. he was grievously wounded. senator dole is down there at the world war ii memorial every chance he gets to welcome the veterans. senator elizabeth dole is also down there to welcome the veterans. right now, senator dole is over in walter reed recovering. he is doing very well. i want to say a thingdole thes -- i want to say dol queue to thees -- i will thank you ought to say doles the and all of the veterans wounded. host: this is available in our

video library. there are all sorts of programs on world war ii ii. there is a video on the dedication of the memorial. in the last year as the i the last world war veteran died both here and in the u.k.. when that happened, what thoughts went through your head? guest: when i was working for the va in dayton, the french foreiin embassy when around giving medals to i world war i veterans. the call went out asking the we had in world war i patients. one of them had alzheimer's and was oblivious to what was going on. that left only one that could appreciate this. i think this country has fallen

way behind in properly recognizing these people for their efforts and sacrifices. now it is coming of around. i do not want the world war ii memorial to be something that looks more like a tomb or a mausoleum simply because there are not in world war ii veterans there. about one to 2 million world war ii veterans across this country, everyone of them deserve to come and see the memorial. in another 10 years, they are gone. host: we have a call from evansville, indiana. this is rose on the veterans line. caller: i am a navy veteran. i was in from 1943 to 1946. i worked in the code room in washington.

i served in the navy department on constitution avenue. host: can you tell us what you did? caller: i worked the code machines in the confidential coatroom. host: you cannot tell us too much. [laughter] caller: it has been too long ago anyway. it has been too long ago to remember much about it, but i worked the machines. guest: when you talk about unsung heroes, you are one of them. thank you for what you have done. host: earl morse, thank you for stopping by today. the website is honorflight.org we have a link on our website. >> tonight, the funding and

expanding broadband interborough areas with the former fcc commissioner and director of the rural utilities service on "the communicators." >> on tuesday, the bbookings institution exports current challenges to good governance and ways of strengthening. government. on tuesday night, a debate among the four candidates running for the republican race in south carolina to replace mark sanford. >> anthony kennedy on the prospect of a new justice. >> it is stressful for us. we so admire our colleagues that we wonder if it will ever be the same. the system works.

after the appointment in the confirmation process is finished, if there is a confirmation, the system will bring us a very good justice. >> with the confirmation hearings for elena kagan starting june 28, learn more about nation's highest court. it has pages of candid conversation with all of the justices, active and retired. it provides unique insight about the court. it is available in hardcover and alsoe as an-n e-book. >> bruce fleming on the future of military academies we talk to him this morning on "washington journal" for about 45 minutes. host: bruce fleming is a professor of english at the naval academy. we turned our attention to the military academies.

we asked him to be with us, particularly for a piece he wrote about the military academies, "the academies' march toward mediocrity." this appeared in the "new york times." how have they lost their way? guest: i have been teaching at the academy for 23 years. i have contact with approaching 3000 students. i have had time to test the waters. the problem with the military academies is that they burn out their students. for me, that is the most hurtful thing. that is my life's mission, the mission of the academy is to create good officers to leave the military people. we seem to have a clearly

negative effect on our students. because the lives of young men and women will be in the hands of my students who will graduate to become officers in the navy and marine corps, that is a huge thing. that is a major problem we have here. the academies were created in the 19th century when the assumption was that you had to make officers the way we still make them at the academy. the world has changed since the 19th century. specifically, rotc has happened. the academy's not produce one officer in five in any one of the give and services. we are a tiny minority of 20%. rotc produce twice as many as we do at less overall cost. the question becomes whether our officers are better. this is anecdotal. there are some ways of measuring this. there has never been a

conclusion that came to the bottom line that the academy graduates were better. some of them feel that way but it does not play well with their trained compatriots. it does not go over well with the enlisted to call them "ring knocker." in the 1960's and 1970's, the preponderance of naval academy graduates in the flag officer rank was huge. now with rotc and other commissioning sources, that is diminishing. there is some suggestion that they feel bonded together, the band of brothers, so you will hire your own. there are a lot of other sources now. it is diminishing to the point where it does not seem like that

advantage will be held in the future. host: we have opened up the telephone lines for viewers. we're talking about the service academies. bruce fleming has spent 20 years as an english professor at the naval academy. i believe we are keeping up for the military, particularly for those who have attended the service academies. let me give folks a flavor of what you wrote in the article a week or so ago. ago. you say that they produce burned out midshipmen. they come thinking that they have entered the military

tell me more about what he meant by the term " military disneyland." guest: it is not clear that what we do has any real fleet value. i in the students would argue it does not. when you go to disneyland, you go to "paris." there are rules about how they must comport themselves on campus. they cannot walk and talk on the cell phone because the terrorists will not like it and so on. a lot of what we do is frankly faking it.

it burns the students. they are great kids. host: do they come out well- rounded in terms of their military skills, science, and liberal arts education? guest: we do have a very strong core curriculum. they have to take two semesters of english. they have to take calculus, electrical engineering. i am not sure the point of that is for the marine officers, but we do it. a lot of the civilian colleges have given up on the core curriculum idea. that is good for us. there is so much mickey mouse stuff going on. host: it also raised concern about the recruiting. something you have in common with other major colleges is the recruiting of athletes. the former push for excellence seems to have been pushed aside by

how is that different from 10 or 15 years ago? guest: it has gotten worse. everyone agrees that college sports have become professionalized. i personally disapprove that and think that colleges should be colleges. be that as it may, the private college can do what it once. this federal money. that is wt you have to understand. thmilitary belongs to all the citizens of the united states of america. the tax payers are paying for it. the question becomes how it is mission effective to have a football team that can beat notre dame. how does it create better officers? it does not. it takes the time and energy of the kids that we recruit. we do have much lower standards

for recruited athles than for competitive students. host: bruce fleng is our guest talking about the service academies. there are five. one was founded in 1942. west point was founded in 18 02. the naval academy was founded in 1845. the coast guard academy was founded in 18 semi-6. the air force academy was founded in 1954. -- because guard academy was foded in 1876. caller: i caller: i am unable academy graduate from the 1960's. if it costs more but more academy graduates stay in for a career and rotc guys are essentially going through to get their education paid for, it costs less to put them through rotc but they stay in a shorter

time. if he repeatedly spend less money but spend it more often when they go through the service and get out, does that make the economistacademies cost-effecti? guest: that is an interesting argument i have heard before. they do acknowledge that those who go to the service academies have a greater tendency to stay in longer. the study was put out by the navy supply school. it says that it is not clear if this is the effect of the academy's themselves -- academies themselves with a type of people that they attract. what's postulate that we send everyone to rotc and turned the academyies into the sandhurst like britain. with those guys and gals who do have the intention of staying

longer, would they still stay in longer? this study comes to the conclusion that we have no evidence that is true. it is true that right now, they do tend to stay in longer. it is not clear if that is the effect from being in the academy. callerhost: jim on the democra'' line, go ahead. caller: do you get a decent education in conjunction with what you have on your reading list? would they ever have any books in there that question some of the more idiotic wars that we've gotten involved in in our lifetime? that is what bothers me most about the military academies. give me your impression on that. guest: the naval academy as a

little different from the other service academies. we are basically left alone to teach in the classroom what we want to teach. i do not know that i talk about them as idiotic wars, but i do call into question whether it was a choice. we talk about vietnam, the good parts and bad parts. i personally do that. i am sure the people in the history department to that as well. it is true that the administration keeps hands off with that. that said, the administration is very displeased with me for writing the kinds of things that i write. there is an attempt for censorship. i have now been censured -- disciplined twice. the first was financial. the newly arrived been announced he was not one to reward me with merit pay steps that are voted on by your own department. a published an op-ed on the 14th

of june of last summer. it was just hours before the end of the fiscal year wendy's pays steps were voted for. he moved me from the maximum possible of two down to zero. he was very open about the fact that was why he was punishing you. i filed a whistle-blower complaint. that is in the works. my allegation is that some of the things we do are illegal. host: his book is coming out this summer. it is "bridging the military- civilian divide called -- it is called "bridging the military- civilian divide." you are right in your opinion piece the "new york times" ithat you have taught low-tracking english classes. the pace is slower and the papers are shorter. minars, the students to complete them get the same credit. when i complained, some have argued that acemics are irrelevant to being an officer

these low-track classes are midshipman who are not meeting the standards of admission? guest: that is right. we have a couple of groups of students that we admit. we have the competitive students who are probably what the public at large banks the students at the military academies are. they are bright and committed and so on. then we recruit from various other pots. the naval academy specifically is on a huge affirmative action kick. that is what i am arguing is actually illegal. we have a prep school in rhode island called naval academy prep school. we send the kids that we want to come to annapolis who are not qualified there for a remedial

year before they come to annapolis. then we have remedial courses at annapolis. with a pre-college english and calculus. you might say they need a little extra help. what is wrong with that? on the taxpayer a dime, we have rejected other applicants. we have rejected many fine people who could have made it way over that bar and did not need the remedial school or courses. they could have flown much higher. that is something i think taxpayers need to be aware of. i think they should be fairly appalled by it. host: you raised concern specifically on the naval academy. are you hearing from others in your position and other service academies? guest: yes, i am. the largest ones are air force and army.

it is not 100% positive. some people say things are not as bad at their particular academy and so on. i am taking it on board. i do think maybe annapolis is having particular problems now because everybody recruits the same football players. they play against each other. that is not the issue. i do think the affirmative action thing has taken off at annapolis in a way it might not have elsewhere. host: bob for new york, go ahead. rob, go ahead. caller: a called to disagree with the gentleman about football because i think it builds morale and camaraderie. i am actually agreeing with him now about the affirmative action admissions. i agree. he is right about that. we should not lower the bar to let other people in and keep more qualified people out. while i initially called to disagree with him, i am actually

agreeing now. guest: i appreciate that. i am a professor. my job is to take the opposite of what ever you say. let me do that. on football, i am 100 percent signed pro-football 100% pro- football or any sport that you can name. what i am against is recruiting people with only that specialty. with just walk arms, we could have a pretty decent football team. the issue is how far down we go in recruiting athletes. the thing about affirmative action is that in an age of no draft in the completely volunteer force, we have about 40% non-white enlisted corps. the brass are not wrong to say we cannot have an all white officer corps. that will process problems. where they go too far is to create a problem by the way they

are addressing it. we have about 20% non-white officer corps. no one i have had any contact with in the fleet says that is a problem. obviously, we do need qualified officers of color. what i hear over and over again is that the people in the enlisted ranks want an officer that will not get them killed. i am fully behind equal opportunity for everybody. i am a registered democrat. i am going to lay you even thebend things a little bit. you create a qualified pool of applicants. then you take the african- american rather than the white guy if they are both qualified. what we do is create pool of people who do not meet the standards and then take them instead of those who are qualified. host: john, go ahead. caller: it is wonderful hearing the professor today.

i attended the naval academy on a presidential appointment from eisenhower in 1958, 52 years ago. exactly the same problems he is talking about today were occurring then. i objected to them. my father was a marine colonel. let uncle and cousin were marine colonel's. they forced me to go there like john mccain's father. i have known him since 1947. our families were station together. the academy, after i left, honor lee resigned, i attended school with steny hoyer. in '63, like norm w -- norm it was norm dix.

scoop jackson was a friend of mine. admiral rickover testified the year after left that there were the bad things as prof. issing about the academy, the naval academy was producing the worst of all of the officer programs. it was producing the worst officers. host: it would suggest that nothing has changed. guest: i have only been there 23 years. i do not go back to the eisenhower administration. i was born in 1954. i think we have had football since forever. football was not as professionalized in the 1950's. it is much worse now. all of the other colleges are going much further with their

recruiting. we feel we have to as well. the larger question of if it is appropriate to produce officers with the situation of micro- control that we do have at the academies and not at rotc, there is no evidence that the micro- control way produces better officers. it is much more expensive. why have them all? i am supposed to be the big picture uy. that is what professors do. why have them at all? host: michael from washington, go ahead. caller: i am very familiar with the affirmative action at the naval academy. is there any legal remedy on the horizon? the michigan cases from a couple of years ago for basic contract for --bade -- forbade a second track.

it is essentially a second track for minorities. the naval academy prep school was originally envisioned to take fleet sailors who had served often in combat and have them go to the naval academy. it now takes regular civilians. it has them have almost a sham and this month and then go to the naval academy to the detriment of the combat veterans in the fleet and marine corp. i will take my answer of the line. guest: i agree. every word of his mouth is completely true. k naval academyi kic enabledks academy -- the naval academy kicks when i say that.

you may not want to call it to- recognitions. -- you may not want to call it two-trapped admissions. it is now almost 50% unprepared racial minorities and 50% recruited athletes. host: you did get some low back about your op-ed piece. it is short. i thought i would be your reaction to it. s and get your reaction.

that is from vice admiral fowler. guest: i would be surprised if he wrote that himself. he has a whole staff of public affairs officers who see their job as putting out the good news of the academy. what is he supposed to say? it is nothing. i do not even have to respond to it. it is true that we graduate many fine men and women. the issue on the table is not whether he believes that we fulfill our mission. it is looking at the competition which is among other things rotc. what he said about the naval academy is equally true of rotc. he is going to say that everything is shipshape and

encores. the tenured professors are off the firing line except to the point of blood but, we are supposed to ask the big picture questions. i do not fault admiral fowler for having someone else write that for him. what else is he supposed to say? that is why in the "new york times" i said the change would not come from within. the letter exemplifies exactly what i was talking about. the superintendents state for three years. they're constantly in and out. they come in, typically makes mistakes, and leave. host: is that considered to be a plum assignment? guest: it is. in the 1990's, they added a star and made it a terminal appointment. we've heard of superintendents who got that after being passed

over as chief of naval operations. it is kind of a consolation prize for that. hostcaller: you say that the academy is practically worthless, the people that are in there are ignorant or something to that measure is what i have got out of you. if they are, and want to know why they are not used in our border security. maybe they will learn something as border patrol and keeping the sovereignty of our state. i know democrats are against sovereignty for the united states of america and. host: i do not think he said they were worthless. guest: that is what i need to respond to. i spend my life with midshipmen. many of them are extremely talented. they make fabulous officers.

we are not worthless. you have to understand that we're very expensive. we are taxpayer money. when taxpayer money went into aig, all the sudden people wanted to have a say in things because it was their money. this has always been your money in the academies. the military works for the civilians. the purpose of the military is to defend civilians. civilians need to take an active interest in how that is produced. that is the subject of my upcoming book, "bridging the military-civilian divide." it comes out in august. there are images of that arm website at brucefleming.net the civilian world has to understand how the military works for them and the reverse. host: we will have about 15 more minutes of your phone calls. we go to steve on the independence lints' line.

caller: this is the best conversations i have seen in some time. you are both scholars. how do we win the war against our enemies? gay about the region and what about the gay in the military issue? if someone wants to fight for me, go ahead. the other thing is, how do we protect our borders? after 9/11, we should have protected our borders first. host: a little off topic ing, gays on in the military, it is certainly being discussed are your midshipmen able to be

critical a broad policies like that and what you are talking about with the academy policies? is there a forum for theim to express their displeasure? guest: i have to go slow with that. i have a syllabus to follow. these are skills courses. they are analytical courses. i do not spend all my time talking about the naval academy. when possible, i do make time for that. i do have opinions gayabout gayn the military. an article in the open with the baltimore sun" -- i sometimes ask people to spend 15 or 20 minutes with my freshmen on things of interest and then they write about them. it is related to the course. a couple of years ago, about a

gentleman who teaches at the university california. he had been studying the question of what happened when the don't ask, don't tell is listed. we had a great discussion in class. the students wrote evaluations of it and asked why we do not have these discussions more often and at an academy level. the short version is that as always, i am the guy in the middle. i wrote a book about why conservatives and liberals clash. for decades, i was a registered independent and they got tired of not having a primary to vote in and changed back. i am the guy in the middle. i respect conservatives and liberals. i try to get the edges of both those extreme positions just a little bit off. it looks as if don't ask, don't tell will happen. it looks as if it will cause problems.

there is no way will not cause problems. the problems we can probably deal with. we will deal with some better by talking about them. that is exactly what is not happening. to take the naval academy, i see no effort on the part of the administration to have a forum where students can talk about it. think about a bunch of marines. who are they going to want to follow up the hill? are the g to follow a -- are the going to follow a gay guy? maybe if he has earned their respect. i have some experience with a ga. i have a gay brother who died in the 1990's. i loved him. he had a very difficult life. i am very sympathetic to gays and lesbians who want to serve in the military. i also tried to take the other side. you take straight boys' from

places where they are not comfortable with gays and lesbians. you do not talk about it. you act like it is not an issue. host: i think we have a service academy person on the line. is this j.b.? caller: yes it is. i did not go to the academy. i am in world war ii veteran. -- i am a world war ii veteran. had a camp that great lakes. it was one of the first ones to admit blacks as seamen instead of attendants. i want to ask mr. flemingf he ever read the book "the golden 13." it is a book he should read. it w the first black naval office in world war ii.

one of them happened to be my commanding officer in okinawa during the war. i would like for you and other people listening to seek this book out. it was written at the academy. colin powell prefaced it. host: go-ahead. caller: i think you are pinning the athletes to broadly. i was a qualified alternate. i spent most of my youth trying to get into the academy. coming from a state as larges new york, i have three political options. the test i took for the entrance exam back then was the hardest test i took bar none out of national merit and the sat.

had to be qualified or you were not getting in. some people may be getting a pass. a lot of people want to go there who are as qualified as anybody else and just happen to live in the wrong place at the wrong time in terms of getting a political appointment. hoguest: that s changed since the 1960's. we do not have a separate test. the number of people qualified to are rejected is much higher because we have these political or athletic agendas. we cannot take everyone who is qualified. they say that harvard to make three or four perfectly good freshman classes of the people they have to say no to. we cannot let everyone in. that is not the issue. the issue is to get the most qualifd people coming out on the other end and commissioned. some people are rejected. as a taxpayer, that is not my baby. host: here is your conclusion.

you are right that we have two choices. one is to shut down the academ es. the other is to embrace the standards. bruce fleming is with us until 10:00 eastern. go ahead with your comment on the independence line -- independents' line. caller: i did miss part of the program. have you ever been in a program

rotc or attended one of the academy's as a student? are you just an independent college professor at the academy? guest: the latter. caller: have you ever participated on the sports team during your lifetime? guest: feel there is an agea in your questions. caller: a think nothing has been touched here on the fact that you can go to school and get straight a's and have a lot of knowledge, but i do not believe that makes you a live person. guest: have been on the admissions board at the academy. i have voted on who gets in. the students that we reject or all-around great. they have to do well in athletics, leadership, and academics.

i feel that you are trying to go inhe direction of saying that am just an intellectual who does not have a sense of the needs the navy. i am sorry to say that you are wrong. that is justot true. host: sheldon from peoria is on the democrats' line. caller: i really liked the idea that you want much more qualified people in the academy. i think we should stop recruiting in under-privileged neighborhoods. let's just go to harvard and mit and see how many of those kids can make it through the academies. who will the grunts follow up the hill. host: you mentioned that the british use sandhurst as a post-academy system.

guest: i would have to loointo it. i did do some research recently. both at sandhurst and dartmouth, the students range in age from 18 to 35. using the one year to several years. they have gotten out of the business of combining an undergraduate education with the military. that would be one option for us nabl is beautiful. i lovit there. -- annapolis is beautiful. i love it there. the issue would be that it may make more senseo do it kind of eighth rotc think where they do notave this mickey mouse stuff that is not military. let them concentrate on the academics. obviouy they go out and get drunk and colleges. but let them grow up among other things. then you can send them to an equivalent of a commando school. that would be one option.

host: have you seen many veterans of iraq and afghanistan come through? do they get admitted to the academy after service? guest: yes, my hearts gout to them. i have had combat veterans in my classes. one of them was absolutely on the money. he knows the deal. we do get combat veterans. i had the great joy of watching our graduation last friday. i wated it private in listed marine who was in arabimajor. he went to damascus on an exchange program. he graduated. he is going back into the marines. he was wearing his marine uniform. that step this makes my just pop out of my academic -- that just makes myeart pop out of my

academic gown. caller: my brother went rotc at llanova. there is a negative culture of the ring knoer culture. guest: i did touch on that. caller: i missed that. guest: is one of the negative things. if you ask those who went to the academy's if they are better officers, some will say yes. they will say this because they went for a lot. but you have to a if that makes them better officer. the ring knocker thing is one strike against the academies. caller: i a getting the biased side from a rotc person.

basically what they say is that the academy grads are fantastic, but there are guys who come from states where there are political appointmts were specifically the athletes. is is going back 20 years. they are not a very high quality. host: are all the folks who go to the caacademy appointed politically? guest: that is a miscommunication. everybody has to get nominations. ever since i have known anything about the process, the nomination has been a pro forma add on. it cannot get in without one. that comes afterhe rest of the admissions process. if the academy once you rigid wants you -- if the academy does what you, they will give you a nomination.

the superintendent has 50 that he can just hand out. it is still part of the process. but compared to the 1920's and 1930's, that is not the way we work anymore. host: the last call is from rochester, n.y. good morning. caller: i am marty in the combat veteran. i got out in 2006. i had 30 years plus with 10 years broken. i got back in on 9/12. if there is a critique that you have to get into the academy which i have been too, might nephew graduated as a marine. why do we always -- it does not matter if you are black, white, yellow. what difference does it make? i do not get it.

that is my opinion. i kof agree with you. i sympathize. you are answering all sorts of yoyo questions and booya to you. it has to change but that is not ing to happen nowadays. guest: y have to remember that the military and civilian world have to get along. for the civilians, it is your military. you have to love them and understand them. for the people in the military, the reason you do it is for the civilian world. that is why being in the center is a fun place to be. i think it is very necessary. host: bruce fleming [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> tonight, expanding broadband into world barriers with the

former fcc commissioner and director of the -- expanding broadband into rural areas. >> david cameron fields questions in his first "prime minister's questions" wednesday on c-span. >> a recent conference at bugloss call with ray suarez, talking about his experiences as a latino. [applause] >> i am just glad that i was able to get yesterday and today off and be with you all. as he mentioned, i am ray

suarez, and i was born in the united states. [laughter] for the record, i am not a lawyer, a sociologist, a political scientist, but as a reporter, i am a member of a craft that is expected to be bits of all of these things and then after the fact judge to have done it badly. i am flattered to be asked to be at this conference after a career over a period of tremendous change in the united states. i have had a front-row seat with a press pass in my hand. i have been given unusual access to people at their best and their worst as they talked themselves into being, bounced off of the events that they were witnessing and living through, and talking to me to make sense of it, so it is a privilege and one that is especially handy when trying to understand how

trace operates as a variable, how race works in this country -- trying to understand how race operates. as a latino of some sort, so when people take me into their confidence in interviews, it is sometimes with the assumed comfort of someone who is a safe recipient of difficult messages po deliver regarding race, so i cannot tell you the number of times white people have felt over the years remarkably comfortable saying things about black people to me, and, similarly, black people have seen enough of a kindred spirit to feel comfortable saying stuff about white people to me, assuming at the time that these were things that they would not have said to someone they would have thought of as a white

reporter, so it is a peculiar advantage being in latino reporter in this particular age. -- being a latino reporter. working in new york, chicago, los angeles, and washington, both with histories in the distant past and the recent past, all which make a claim to how they make a geography that they carry around in their own hands. i have watched as migration has changed the makeup of populations, for instance, a small municipalities on the south side of los angeles county -- of small municipalities.

many mexicans and mexican- americans, opposing chicago's first black mayor, many porter ricans who had long lived by chicagoans siding with the mayor -- many porter ricans -- puerto ricans. and i have watched with -- as my own home town, brooklyn, has taken up again. this was after the immigration bill and its later amendments, to people from every corner of the planet in stunning numbers. so, today, on the same streets where a young person was killed when he came to look at a used car, there are allow meat

markets, drug stores -- there are hallal meat stores, and veiled women are rolling strollers down the street. so this has been a time of breathtaking change, and it has been a great time to watch as a reporter as america tries to digest it all, and unlike the way it has to regard people from azerbaijan or india or new populations coming in from poland or syria, the latino migration has been so much more broad-based and so much more numerous and complicated because it puts america in the position of having to deal with the physical reality of a mixed-race

people. so to try to tease out race and its operation from immigration is a foreign parent -- a fool's errand. when you stand in 2010 and look over your shoulder, because irish, hungarians, greeks, turks, croats today stand in our culture as white even though at the time of their rival, many did not, and manyywere even legally defined aa other than white because we have a system where new practice sort of accumulates like a mountain or a burma -- berm.

we actually have a mountain of court cases that adjudicated whether people from the saudi arabia or the former ottoman empire or others were actually in fact white, and it was not social practice but court cases that dictated how we were supposed to proceed. why? because all of these arguments and legal proceedings were in reaction to an already rationalized way of viewing newcomers. -- and already racial -- an already racialized way of viewing newcomers. eventually, in the case of immigrants, assimilation and conversion, and in the case of many immigrants, whether the post-65, post-ellis island is

something new in our history. recently, samuel huntington died, and on the occasion of his death, a person who was born in mumbai, india, and understands the immigrant experience well, called him one of the great historians of the second half of the 20th century, but his parting shot to america was to very openly and publicly questioned whether latinos would ever get the dance steps of being american citizens. he said, pointedly, "there is no americano dream. there is only an american dream, it is an anglo-saxon construction."

this is a stunning thing for a historian to say something so a- historical, but i long since learned that that kind of thing happens more than we would like to admit. i was having a long back-and- forth recently with the director of the center for immigration studies, and we were trading status and perspectives on language acquisition, assimilation, criminality. the guy is a culture warrior, and he does not come empty- handed to a conversation like this one, but he finally pulled me up short with a simple, direct question. he said, "well, ray, what is immigration for?" of course, he added, "what is immigration for?" but if you strip away the

nativist hanging and the anxieties about saving american jobs and those at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder who have to compete with new arrivals, why do we let in more legal immigrants than any country on the planet, either by tolerance or incompetence, enormous numbers of undocumented immigrants? why do we do it? in our national interests, in our interests as a society, what is immigration for? do we do it because we are nice? that has not often been the reason why we do anything as a country over the last 213 years, but if we were nice, maybe it would not have been so hard to be here. we are beefing up the border control, creating in effect new detention camps where the undocumented languish before

adjudication. is it because we need work? the numbers go up when we need them, but they certainly do not go down to zero when we do not need them. apart from sentimentality, we do not have as part of our national conversation a good, rigorous debate about why more people should come, under what circumstances, and whether as a country we can ever say no. this puts our close neighbors, the mexicans, in a very peculiar position, because one day, you will turn on television, and there are talking heads, sitting there arguing, and you find out that when mexicans come here, they take away our jobs, and then in another context over another political issue, you will find that mexicans down in mexico are busily taking away our jobs, and it is really

tough. i am not a mexican myself, but i feel kind of sympathetic. what is a mexican to do? because when they come here, they take our jobs. when they stay home, they take our jobs. it is hard to know exactly what they are supposed to do. because of that dysfunctional relationship to a human trend that really created the modern united states, even after implementing the law that was supposed to get us out of this mess, the immigration reform and control act, meant to regularize those who are here and slam the door on the rest, we instead ended up by many accounts with 12 million more. that number has been revised downward to some 10.8 million, with self-deportation and government expulsions, but you get the idea. making changes hard one for a long time korea just mumbled ahead with no plan.

-- making changes is hard when for a long time we have just mumbled ahead. accidental and not planned. at a time of rapid industrial growth, and open-door immigration policy prevailed -- an open-door immigration policy prevailed. the door slammed shut in the 1930's. emerging in the 1940's with one of the few intact industrial plants left on planet earth after the devastation of world war ii and the world market hungry for our stuff. let's hope we do not need depression and world war to figure it out again this time in the 21st century, but we have reached a peak in the number of foreign-born in our population, just over 10%, and, of course, since the population is so much

bigger, a much larger number in absolute terms, but they come this time from a much wider range of places than they did in the ellis island era. here is what i mean. in 1850, the top 10 birth countries of foreign-born americans in order of numbers. what would you guess was the no. 1 berth country for foreign-born americans in 1850? -- the number one foreign country? ireland. germany, great britain, canada, france, switzerland, mexico, norway, the netherlands, and italy, in descending order. switzerland was ahead of mexico. birth of foreign-born americans were, of course, but a

tremendous margin, mexico, china -- by a tremendous margin, mexico, china, the philippines, india, cuba, vietnam, el salvador, korea, the dominican republic, and canada. no european countries in the top 10 in 2000. germany had been in the top three of countries of foreign birth in every census until 1980. now, it is not even in the top 10. the first nine on the list of developing countries, only canada has an advanced industrialized economy and a middle-class majority, and of the 10, only 1 cents caucasian immigrants to the united states -- and only one one sends

caucasian immigrants to the united states. in many cases, they are who they were 150 years ago. poor, agrarian, and incredibly hard-working. there also younger than many americans, so there are more likely to pay into schemes like social security for more years before they start to collect. they are also more likely on average to have more children, so on the one hand, the reinvigorate areas that decline in postwar decades, -- they reinvigorate areas, but they also are more likely to use public schools, social services, and at least initially to be uninsured or underinsured and lived in a house that has a low enough assessed value -- to live -- under insured and live -- underinsured and live in a house that has a low enough of

assessed value -- low enough assessed value -- in the mid- 19th century, when they were sending immigrants to the united states, and they were places of grinding -- the united states, they were places of grinding poverty, and there was more and social dislocation. today, all three are among the richest per capita income economies in the world, and every year, all three are vying for the top spot in the u.n.'s tables of standard of living, education, and health care. as someone who is trying to be a close observer of american culture and someone who writes a lot about american history, i am amused by the idea that this country's unity i and other

items are under threat by people who speak languages other than english. in the last census, 93% of americans said they speak english. so threats of an incipient quebec seem a little overblown. but, all right, let's take that on as an idea. let's walk through the teeming get those of american cities 100 years ago. -- the team get those -- teaming and get those -- team ing ghettos. multiple newspapers, because in many of these languages, you had to have one paper for regular

organization democrats, another one for socialists, another one for union members. the grandchildren of the children who ran those streets are some of the same people worrying openly about what these new immigrants will mean to our country. from all the data, my best advice is do not worry. if you watch spanish-language television or listen to creole radio in miami or brooklyn, what do you hear? every couple of minutes, ads for night schools, for cd rom courses for the whole family. no one is buying these for kicks, for entertainment. no latino families, or virtually no latino family doubts that the acquisition of english for themselves and their families is

absolutely vital for climbing off the bottom rungs of the socioeconomic ladder to get somewhere better, and if you look at a kaiser family foundation survey recently, public opinion researchers were told that it is possible to get ahead in america only speaking spanish but only a few, but having said that, take a look at queens, n.y., which changed in one generation from archie bunker-land to the united nations general assembly waiting at the subway station. how does a largely modeling will society respond -- a largelymono-lingual society respond?

we all have to be thinking hard about this. barbara mikulski and geraldine ferraro and mario cuomo and michael dukakis and jennifer lopez and raquel welch and casey case some -- and casey cakasem l speak english. there is the private voluntary agencies language schools, the armies of wellborn, well educated women who move like an army in the lower east side and in chicago and neighborhoods in

philadelphia and baltimore and so on, because those were the only jobs that educated women could get in those days. those kinds of things are a little harder to find today. the predominance of latinos' among immigrants from everywhere provide a special challenge for our school system. social service agencies, law enforcement, and stable longitudinal status of neighborhoods in metropolitan areas. latino immigration to the united states has been high during an era of great hunger in the american market for particularly low-wage work. agricultural, service, light industry, but also a time suggested by a lot of research of narrowing horizons, a stalled escalator into the american opportunity structure, great difficulty getting ahead. there is social science data

that piles up this high that suggests it is much harder for poor people to become middle class than it was in previous generations, that the lines between socioeconomic strata in our society are hardening, which is a frightening thing for america to contemplate. education offers immigrant and immigrant-descendant youngsters a pretty reliable shot at a better life, but it is not a single variable that fixes everything. feeding into an economy with few or no jobs, not only do you start that feedback loop between education and advancement, it also sends a very strong message back into your wider family that asks, "was is worth doing?" the very practical questions of pay for an education that students -- was this worth doing? it really has to be settled. many families in a scene of a

lack of a pay off in an older child may make different decisions for the younger children in a family. we are talking about the youngest median age population group and we are talking about latinos. the median age for all latinos in the united states is 27. compared that to 44 whites and 41 for blacks. -- compare that. -- compare that to 40 for whites. more than 20% of the population qaeda 12 -- k-12. it is already outstripping the percentage of latino presence in the population as a whole. the united states has less than

a ninth grade education, one out of three. among latinos over 25, 10%. for the last decade, latino family income has been higher than black family income, but not because of greater earning power but mostly because, on average, there are more working adults in latino households. since the late clinton years when tight labor markets forced up wages among the poorest workers, the only way millions of minority workers could get a raise was, in effect, to give themselves one by working more hours at roughly the same level of pay, which leaves of these families in 2010 particularly pressed, too busy putting the fire out that threatens to destroy everything they have worked for thus far, to think

about 2012, 2016, and 2020. a family friend came to this country from peru and met her husband in washington, an immigrant from el salvador. they struggled to save money, to get legal, to start a family. at the peak of the housing boom in the d.c. area, they bought a house in the distant virginia suburbs, in part because of affordability, in part because of the reputation of the schools, but like so many minority families who feared that if they did not buy right now, the boom was just going to continue off into the future and pass them by, making it impossible for them to buy a house, and they, instead, squeezed through the front door of this house, spending every penny they saved. they had an adjustable-rate mortgage. : rates are plunging in their area, in each of them is working fewer hours today than they were

one year ago -- housing rates have plunged in their area, and each of them is working fewer hours. there is a part of her story that leaves us feeling more bewildered than anything else. she has done what the voice is large and small ii the culture -- what the voices large and small in the culture have been saying to do since she came here. where a car, get legal, keep your nose clean, invest in your kids, save -- work hard, and now, the whole house of cards looks like it is about to come down. economists use models to understand what is going on, and the trials of her family are simply part of a r ee-pricing

of realistic, selling at a lower price point, given another family the chance to buy in with probably a less exotic mortgage, so equilibrium will be reached. before closed family will rebuild, but in the near-term, my friend will not be able to support her teenage son's wish to go to college. education is going to make up the lion's share of the difference between that teenage r's earning power in years to come, and when you compare the earning power of 30-year-old man and 40-year-old man, and they use -- of 30-year-old men and 40-year-old men, and they use men because they are more likely to have on broken -- unbroken

work histories, white menearn th -- men earn most. when you correct for education, almost the entire gap between latino workers and non latina workers disappears, -- and non latino workers disappears. we still left plenty of work to do regarding discrimination economically, but the bottom line news is pretty good for latinos. they are graduating from high school at higher rates than they used to, but rates that still lag whites. a smaller subset had to college than in the population as a whole, but a very wide number.

-- by a very wide number. a smaller number manages to graduate. for thousands of families, it is the worst of both worlds. they spend the money to get one, two, or three years of higher eds to derive none of the benefits of subsequent higher education and still have to pay for it over time. to me, there is nothing more tragic than paying to a low-wage worker who is paying off alone for education without the credential. that is terrible. it is hard. schools that have come to -- have to come up with approaches. yet, because these adults work more hours per week than their black-and-white counterparts, coming up with a programmatic response has been in many cases

responsible -- than their black and white counterparts. teaching them to write and read english. it takes organizational output and resources, but the payback is a parent who is actually able to help their own children in schools and is more attached institutionally and is more employable. the social security system has to dial back benefits right about the same year the united states becomes a majority minority country. that should focus all of your attention, folks. i hope i am around. well, i hope all of us are around, but actuarially, it is unlikely that every one of us

will be around, but they are saying they will have to cut back on benefits with social security. there is a crossing of a threshold to welcome the majority minority country. the number should focus our thinking about the millions of latinos in american schools today. their ability and the ability of their brothers and sisters to pay into social security will tell the tale of how that program, the program on which millions of americans will rely on for a decent life in their later life, is willing to make the challenge of the demographic tidal wave that is about to happen -- how that program is

going to meet the challenge. one of the metrics in the data sets around education has to deal with the last great of school completed. if you finish eighth grade, your kids are more likely to leave school after the eighth grade and if you finish college. if you finish college, then your children are more likely to finish college then drop out -- than drop out. correlation is not causation. i actually have that tattooed on my arm. the challenge for everyone who cares about the country's future is how do you break that correlation? how do you push back against family effect? how do you create an environment away from the home that both supports and reinforces what comes from the home that is of value and worth retaining? like working language knowledge.

and too early departure from school. anyone who is trying to sit down with a blank stalate would never come up with what we have got today, a system very heavily based on educational funding from real estate taxes, so that the kids who were prescient enough and smart enough and wise enough to be born to parents to live and hi-value housing could count on more school funding -- who live in high-value housing. there are larger school districts that contains extremes of poverty and wealth, chicago, boston, where my kids go to school in washington, d.c. we worship of the equity and fairness -- we worship at the

god of equity and fairness. deep down, we know that the classroom and a high poverty neighborhood has a very different needs from a classroom of 25 kids who have two college educated parents, their own internet-equipped computer, a house full of books, magazine subscriptions, and so on. except for special needs children, you could arguably give that classroom in a public classroom even fewer resources, and the standardized test scores would not change very much at all. i have talked to researchers to conclude that by third grade, others are three years ahead of minority kids. ed -- i cannot tell me the number of conferences i have gone to where this data is reported somewhat seriously, and it is just reported and moved on.

instead of everybody saying, " stop for a second. third grade? how are they ahead by three grades? they have only been in school for three grades." instead of that being a sort of stop the music moment, i would call it something if it were not being recorded for c-span, but it is a stunning moment, and, instead, it is reported like another data set, and we are moving on. the more household income, the more kids get help with homework, the more the kid is read to. the more household income, the more the child is spoken to buy even millions of words, and the kinds of words used -- is spoken to by even millions of words, and the kind of words used. it tends to make people's eyes glaze over.

the future we are cooking up for ourselves now, with a permanently stuck middle class who cannot learn the latter, where some kids learn chemistry with hardly any working equipment in the room, and some learned in laboratories where you can split the atom, that is a really, a big, serious problem down the road -- and some learn in laboratories where you can split the atom. they work as hard as anybody, anywhere on the planet. there is the idea that hard work pays off. thank god they still believe that. thank god they still believe it. it is one of the things that keeps us clanking and lurching forward day after day, but when that idea fades, when larger portions of low-income people are alienated, a great attribute

of our society, a belief in the future, will really be lost, and that is not the kind of thing that is easily rebuilt. by the 2013's, -- 2030's, their earnings will make up a huge share of your social security check and will pay to keep the roads operational and the schools equipped and open. asked which term they generally use for themselves, their parents speak to them more about the pride in their families country of origin than say their parents have often talked to them of their pride in being american -- their families' country of origin.

more said they are encouraged to speak in spanish than only in english. most young hispanics do not see themselves digging into the race framework of u.s. census bureau -- fitting into the race framework. more than three and four say their race is some of their race or volunteer that their race is some other. young hispanics do not see their race in the same way those older than 25 korean only 16% of hispanic youths identified themselves of white -- older than 25. only 16% of hispanic youths identify themselves as white. you may see yourself more closely allied with the big

american situation if you're doing better, and when we have this conference next, we can talk about the holy s moment that is coming after the census report at the end of the year. i think there'll be some invigorating reading that comes up of the census report. we are at a moment now where we really can create an exciting and secure and affluent midcentury for the people yet to, -- yet to come or one that

really has some frightening downsides. this will create that next america, that majority-minority america, and we should all feel a very heavy burden of responsibility for that place. thank you very much. i am at this stage in my decrepitude where i had to choose between see my text and see you, but now that i am done, i can see you again. thanks. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] i am told there is of little while for q&a. i have said it all, i guess. [laughter] nobody has any questions? >> passing a law, saying that

the immigrants -- i am wondering if you could speak on different states' moves. educational resources, and what the reasons are you might think for that. >> the senate bill and the house bill, which are in their proposal stages for dealing with people who are out of status already in the united states, they do address this problem. they do incorporate something that failed to pass congress and would have given in state status to people who grew up in states, regardless of how you got here. if you grew up in your parents'

arms or are a bit older than that, and you know no other place, there is no home country to go back to as far as you are concerned. you are american. i understand the impulse to deny in state's status -- in state status. there are places in the country that have been pretty severe about enforcing those laws. we tend unfortunately to look at these kinds of kids for their symbolic value rather than their practical value. the taxpayers of every state in the union supports state educational systems of higher -- support state educational systems of higher ed to create a potentially higher-earning work force in their state in the years to come.

the utility rationale for telling a kid who grew up in your state that they are for the purposes of going to your colleges foreign and, therefore, consigning them to a life of low-wage work, since we know the differentials between high school completion and college completion, seems to be putting symbolism so far ahead at all utility for a state economy, i cannot even imagine. some of these same systems in these states are taking more and more out of state students because they need full freight and need them to balance the books, but if you look at colleges across the country whose original idea was they were going to create an educated population in their midst to become tomorrow's high wage workers, strictly from a utility point of view, it shows that some places are more about vengeance or making examples

then they are about making high wage workers -- than they are about making high-wage workers, but even among republicans, there is more than one way of looking at this, and they have been more adamantly against agreement in general. when i moderated one of the republican candidates' panel in the cycle, mike huckabee was very strong in insisting that it made no sense to exclude those children from access to higher education and sort of quiet in the room -- quieted the room. he said, "we are just a better country than that." it was a very interesting moment, because it was because of republican votes, the dream

act failed when blast came up in legislation. -- when it last came up in legislation. yes? >> i think it is important to distinguish -- and others to comment on it. -- who comment on it. [inaudible]

the great majority of americans are very much in favor of immigrants, immigration policy. [inaudible] it is important to remember that. one of the findings is that despite of all of the problems, the situation is not all that much worse than it was at the turn of the century. in fact, it suggests that the

second generation is doing fairly well. [inaudible] how the children are doing, it is quite surprising. .

>> i think that is exaggerated. think late eighth or ninth century. [inaudible] i'd just when to make one comment. we are going to hear a lot about this. [inaudible] what does this majority, minority stuff, what is this

going to mean? the way i interpret that that the fact that the majority of the children [inaudible] it is a difference of interpretation. how children define themselves. i am a bit skeptical about this great transition. [inaudible] >> it may be that only one

affect is television anchor people will get better looking. [laughter] seriously, i think you really grasp something that is going to give us fits in the coming decades. what this means is less and at the same time, more than meets the eye. what has to play out is what people who are not even born yet and up thinking they are. also, we do not yet know the full effects of a pattern of immigration that is different from every other pattern of immigration in our history. i had the aha moment when i was standing in front of enormous graf on a panel at ellis island. it had this set of color coded

lines were there is a run up, an enormous spite, of subsidence, the heading down to zero, for all of the major groups that came through new york from 1870- 1925. this pattern of immigration is a different from those of the italians, germans, irish, you name it. there has been no gradual run up, enormous spite, and subsidence. there are some small peaks and valleys but it is a pretty high plateau. decade after decade. that changes the way we think about becoming part of the american hold. it may have any effect on the retention of spanish. it may have any effect on facial patterns -- spatial patterns.

intermarriage means for some of those people who will report that they are latino, it is almost an empty signifier. much like a wing to a st. patrick's day parade as i once did as a reporter and asking people what made them irish and nobody had and i answer. -- had an answer. they were so distant from the immigrant period that apart from wearing green plastic hats and be at the parade and having a name like kelly or something, they really had no association. nobody named james joyce or george bernard shaw or the civil war of 1920. their sense of irishness was a construction of confetti and tissue paper. it was a largely empty signifier. granted, tens of millions -- millions of people who will be

in that big, latino mass in the 2004 census, it is largely going to be a and the signifier. if you go to signs of american germanness, you go to german -- you go to michigan where there are lederhosen and large mugs of beer, nobody is talking about goehter and the weimer republic and having germanness at their core. it is tacky and tors the stuff -- y -- stuff. i was in mexico city last week, walking by a chile's. my daughter pointed to it and said look, eight chili's.

i said they probably think that is an american restaurant. the idea of a mexican restaurant like that would drive them not. absolutely, with high rates of about marriage, with the tendency in the u.s. to lose home country language by the third generation, all of those trends, being what they are, yes. it is not going to mean as much as it is going to seen sitting here in 2010 and getting ready to climb that mountain. at the same time, it may have more significance than we think it will because of other things that are still true about that immigrant flow. in 1990, there was a well researched paper done for one of the major networks who was contemplating buying a spanish- language network. it said by 2010, not that many people would be speaking

spanish because given nine weeks -- language acquisition patterns and the way people learn english, they were buying into a business that would have fewer and fewer customers as the years went on. exactly the opposite happened. not only because of remaining high levels of immigration but because spanish-language retention is consumption -- and consumption of media in spanish is remaining high against all previous predictions. we do not know how our culture will play out. it depends on things that have not happened yet. [applause] >> supreme court justice anthony kennedy on the prospects of a new justice. >> it is stressful for us because we so admire our colleagues, we think it will never be the same. i have great admiration for the system. the system works.

after the appointment and confirmation process is finished, the system will bring us a very good justice. >> with the confirmation hearings for elena kagan starting june 28, learn more about the nation's highest court in the latest book from c- span, "the supreme court." candid conversations with all the justices, current and retired. but it is also available as an ebook. >> on tuesday, the brookings institute exports court challenges to good governance and ways of strengthening and effective government. watch live coverage on 1:00 on c-span2. tuesday night, a debate among the four candidates running for the republican gubernatorial nomination in carolina. -- in south carolina. coverage begins at 7:00 eastern on c-span.

>> the treaty before you is an evolution of agreement that go back to the 1970 cost, and particularly a series of treaties that started in the reagan administration and continued in some form in every subsequent administration. >> watched the moments that make history right now online at d.c.'s ban video library. it is washington, your way. every program since 1987, available free, and online. >> for more than 65 years, the u.s. so has presented programs to boost the morale of servicemen and women of the military. it george h. w. bush recently celebrated the efforts of the at his presidential library in texas. this is about 50 minutes.

[applause] >> thank you. let me start by thanking everybody who helped arrange this very special celebration. one of the very finest organizations in existence today, i particularly want to single out uso board members dave mcintyre, stand up, dave. [laughter] >> he brought gary sinise to us today. his company held so many of our service members in so many ways. my friend sue is here with her husband. [laughter] she and her husband, he was our ambassador in germany for many years. she is a board member of uso and

we are delighted they came. we also have jonathan and deborah flora. there they are. [laughter] -- [applause] they directed and produced lt dan ban and we will enjoy that later. an organization for more than 70 years, it has been a good friend to our troops and family. back when i was president, when i had a paid job, i used to refer to groups like the u.s. o. and the people that make it run points of light, shining examples of what caring citizens can accomplish when they do not wait for government proclaimed one of society's problems as their own and do something about it. well over 1 million u.s.

military personnel are supported by the uso in many different ways. from coordinating celebrity entertainment to having airport lounges and centers for the men and women in uniformed so they can have a touch of home, to sponsoring cross-cultural events that promote goodwill between the troops and the host nations. offering free internet access i manyn uso centers to assist in the occasion with loved ones. it may sound odd little things to the rest of the world but believe me, they truly lift morale and approved the quality of life for those who bear the hardest burdens. my dad was prescott bush, and he headed the national fund-raising drive for the uso. he took over from john rockefeller. how about that for dropping a name? he traveled the country raising money for this great organization. 50 years or so later, his son

would benefit from his work because of a young navy pilot, i did go by the uso. it was a wonderful thing to do. i enjoyed the benefits we back then. as we stand at the dawn of this new and more hopeful search -- century, the men and women of the u.s. armed services remain the last, best hope of mankind. to assist them in this dangerous work, friends of freedom everywhere take comfort from the uso that it will be there right behind them every step of a quick book that has been said that patriotism is not the friendly outburst of emotion but the quiet, steady, dedication of a lifetime. we problems uproot -- support the patrons of the u.s. so -- of the uso and most importantly, offer our heartfelt gratitude for your inspiring service. it is my distinct pleasure to

introduce our panelists who will lead our conversation about the uso. first, film and television star, gary sinise. [applause] thank you for coming. >> mayra veronica. [laughter] -- [applause] >> are you going to sing? >> major general jeffery hammond. [applause] >> and sloan gibson, the ceo of the uso. [applause]

>> you are on your own. >> thank you, mr. president. it is a treat to be here, especially the chance to see gary and mayra veronica. for many of you, that is what you think of when you hear uso. it is still a very important part of what we do. some 500 performances and events around the world every single year. troops love our celebrity entertainers and these are just two of the many hundreds that go out each year to entertain our troops and their families. the president mentioned in our centers. nearly 150. some of them are in airports but

there are centers in afghanistan and iraq, kuwait, a career at near the dmz, japan, europe. they are an important part of what we do. the uso has changed. today's uso is not my father's uso. it has changed because the needs of part changed and their families have changed. we did not have men and women serving in small forward operating bases in afghanistan and iraq, serving in harm's way. that is probably a really important call. 10 years ago, we did not have men and women serving in harm's way at small forward operating basis. we developed programs where we are able to reach all the way to the forward operating base. one program is called uso-to-go.

we have not quit innovating as the situation in afghanistan changes. and we are now working on a much smaller and very specially designed care package just for what we call the trigger pullers. those serving in the smallest, but outposts where they have virtually nothing else. we are also working on a portable internet cafe and communication station. 25 pounds to be strapped on the back which will be able to reach home and let their families know they are ok. 10 years ago, we did not have families go into that cycle of deployment that you all know about today. that is difficult on families. we try to find ways for families to stay connected. we installed a private telephone network in are center for in afghanistan. troops are now making 200,000 free phone calls every month.

we have a program called united through reading. we partnered with another nonprofit of that name. troops can go to re uso center, the video recorded reading a children's book and then we send the dvd and a brand new book home to the family. we get the e-mail in the cards from the families that what that dvd three times a day every day and how powerful it -- a connection it was to their loved ones. three years ago, we did not have 40,000 men and women coming home suffering wounds on the battlefield. many of them having survived wounds they would not have survived in earlier wars because of advances in trauma medicine and body armor. that is the good news. those men and women are coming home. the bad news is there live said

been turned upside down. with that in mind, we are working to launch a new operation in during care to meet the most urgent needs of our wounded warriors and their families from the time they leave the battlefield until they are re-entering their community, fully prepared for a happy life had, and a full life ahead. >> everything from meeting that family on their way to walter reed for the first time to join their loved one or they've just got word that their loved one had been injured on the battlefield to providing support at a hospital or at the center to helping these warriors and their families reintegrate into their families. helping them find jobs. the chamber of congress -- congress is partnering with us to do community reintegration.

we have a military ministry which is another partner of they uso helping people deal in cope with some of the behavioral health issues that some of these men and women come home with. we are working on a behavioral health program that is designed to help meet that urgent need of men and women that are suffering from the stress and strain of the battlefield and from the separation from their parents. it is all about finding that array of needs that exists from the time they leave the battlefield until the time the return to their communities and partnering with great organizations like these to make that a reality for our men and women. the uso has changed. it needed to change because the needs of our men and women have changed. we will continue to keep our finger on the pulse of our troops all over the world to

what their most urgent needs are so we can work to be there until everybody comes home. [applause] >> i will turn it over to my good friend, general jeffrey hammond. >> thank you for having all of us. i am so grateful to speak on behalf of the soldiers. as robin kraus here? please stand up. i just want you to know this is the heart and soul of the uso. she is the one that makes it work at the largest installation which is at fort hood, texas. [applause]

>> i am a soldier. i have been in 30 one years. everywhere i have gone, my left flank has been the uso and on the right flank has been the uso. many people talk about loving soldiers and their families. that is good. that is solid. we need more of that. too often, they are easy words and empty words. a lot of people talk to talk. you should know that my 31 years, there is one organization that walks the walk. . that s the uso. my first assignment, i arrived at frankfurt, lost. lieutenants are always lost. i could not speak the language. i did not know where to go.

a young lady grabbed me and said i may uso volunteer. let me help you. she did years later, it desert shield, i was deployed within hours of my child being born. he is a member of the aggie corps of cadets. [applause] he was born with some serious health problems. i knew it. my dear wife knew it. our doctors or all deploying. i found myself conducting a screen on the kuwait border. if we had a system where we were on silence. you could not talk. the enemy might hear you. silent radio bursts came through

that my son was ok. but was courtesy of uso. -- that was courtesy of the uso. i have the greatest honor of my life to command the fourth and for division in baghdad for 15 months. there are a few things interesting about that deployment. the last person that anybody spoke to were touched before they deploy it was a uso volunteer. the first person might soldiers met on the ground when they arrived was a uso volunteer with a full canteen set up to take care of each other. the first person they saw when they came home after 15 months of combat, uso. loving from the heart and doing it the right way. in the 31 years i have served, one thing i know about soldiers,

the good ones, the ones that stand strong and do with the right way, they know how to use the weapon. they know how to think with a clear head. they always know how to conduct their mission. they always know where to find uso. that is where they find the heart of the soldier. illegitimate love is always there are reaching out saying what more can i do for you? what can we do for the families? a couple young sergeant that we are honored to have your, the soldiers probably pass through san antonio at some time. all of the trips my wife made when we were deployed, nonstop visits to the wounded warriors. the first up was always to reach out and touch the hearts of soldiers and families. this soldier knows one thing and

one thing only. and it is about loving soldiers and families. in that regard, uso is always there for us. [applause] >> i want to begin by thanking you all for the amazing job you do for this nation and for the heroic spirit you possess into filling that job. i want to let you know that spirit is a talent, a power, a blessing. we are all blessed to have you. on my very first tour with the uso, i realized just how important the uso truly is. it understands the importance of reminded our men and women in uniform just how valuable they truly are and that we do not take their sacrifices for granted.

we appreciate all the risk for us and they are immensely loved and missed. the uso brings this love through entertainment, moments of joy and laughter, and most importantly, through memories of home. made this great organization continued to bring happiness to those who have made it their mission to protect us all. to the families, you have the most important of jobs. you are the backbone of these great men and women. you are the strength that keeps them be leaving. mr. and mrs. bush know about the power of family. when a single mother, my mother, wrote to mrs. bush and asked for the help and reignited my sister, after being told by the cuban consulate that the only person that could override his

decision was the president of the u.s., my mother did not give up and wrote a letter to mrs. bush who found it in her heart to keep my family together. [applause] mrs. bush's spirit is what you will fight for. the american spirit. those of you who have served or have served or will serve, do not ever let doubt weaken your convictions. faith in yourself and faith in this great nation, a nation you have all helped make the grade. a nation that is proud and lucky to have you. note that the uso is here every

step of the way for you and your families, as well as the rest of the country. god bless all of you and god bless the usa [applause] >> i guess it is my turn. i began an association with the uso back in 2002. i have military in my family which motivated me to get out and do what i could to help our service members when they were deployed to iraq and afghanistan. it began a journey that has taken me all over the world to various parts of the world many times beneath some of the -- to meet some of the most extraordinary people have ever known. we play a lot of heller -- heroes and military people in my business but it is all acting.

i get to really engage in interact and get to know some of the real heroes better out there. i see some of the people out here today so i would just like to say if there is anybody on active duty to please stand up and be recognized for your service to our country. [applause] so much of the work that i have been caged in by meeting some of the active duty people has let me meet so many great service members that have served us in the past and we cannot ignore them. if you have served your country in the past, please stand up and

be recognized. [applause] >> that is what it is all about for me. appreciating what we have what we have in this country. i think if you just study your history, you'll have a great appreciation for those who served and what they have done to preserve the freedom we enjoy. it is a dangerous world out there. if you are paying attention to what is going on, you know our offenders are the ones that are going to be standing in harm's way for what may be many years to come. what can we do to help them as a

citizen? as an entertainer, i can happen on the back and shake hands with them and entertain them by playing some music. is it them in the hospital. try to pick up their spirits. help out their children. meet their families. keep their families strong. much of what i do throughout the year when i am on television is visit bases all around the country because we have several thousand deployed overseas so their families are here. their children are here and they are in during these long it difficult deployments. we are asking a lot right now. an awful lot. some of these people have endured four, five, or six departments. that is tough on mental-health and tough on and physically. somebody like me showing up and putting them on the back and entertaining them a little bit to help those families to those difficult times. this past weekend, i did a concert at a fort.

you have a lot of people that are deployed overseas and their families are their and their children are their and their enduring long deployments. it detaining them is very important to get them through the day. the uso, there is nobody better at it. that is their mission. that is their job. everybody is strong until they come home. i am proud to have been able to be a part of that. the movie that my buddy made that you will see shows a little bit of what i do and people that i meet. after you see it, i think you will clearly see why somebody like me might be motivated to continue to do it. you are going to meet some extraordinary people in the film that i have had the privilege to meet. with that, we can take some questions from the audience.

[applause] >> let's start with this young lady. >> i love you already. you called me young. >> i am here to say thank you first off to the president put of my father, class of 1943 was on the islands in 1945 and a one to thank you for your part in keeping my father alive. [applause] for the uso, this is my mother.

this beautiful on dallas woman was part of the canteenettes. i heard about the servicemen and who could get and who could not. i am so pleased to be a part of this celebration today. thank you. [applause] >> server. >> there is a uso story that has never been told. it has to do with my wife's brother. he was privileged to have bob hope on the last four to vietnam. somewhere over the pacific, as mr. hope's usual way, he came up to the front to set with the

pilot of the aircraft. they were talking back and forth. my brother in law said mr. hoke, i understand you own most of california. what are you going to do with all that money? >> he said if i had that much money, i would buy this damn war. last week, i was privileged to read a letter from his mother and dad. he has had three tours in iraq. he is going to the war college. he wrote about the loneliness of the soldier. about coming home and being with his friends. and we talk about the little things in life. he has seen death, been there and even though he was with

friends and family, he was still lonely. my question is, i think you have made a reference after they come home. kit you tell us a bit more about that program? >> what we have started working on, the stresses that men and women experience when on deployments, as you all realize, can extend many months beyond their return. they create stresses within the family, as well. trying to find ways, we have begun training uso staff and volunteers not to be counselors but to date alert for the signs that a young service member might not be coping well with stress. they have a very nonthreatening conversation about getting help

and knowing exactly with that service member can go to get help. the idea there is to catch the issue, this stressed not being dealt with, as early in the process as we can so that it never gets to the point where it is a crisis. i would tell you that our work with military ministry is very much along those same lines. but just two weeks ago, we parted with military ministry put the 48 -- guard members come back within two or three days and they are gone. pierre scattered about the community. the worship community is helping to train counselors on the unique aspects of post-traumatic stress and other stresses that apply and a service environment so that they can get counseling resources out there. it is very important for all of

us to understand that these men and women have experienced some very horrific things. we can all play a role in helping to welcome them back into our communities. >> for give me if this might not sound like a question but i simply wanted to bring to your attention some people here in the audience today. i am a member of the rotary club. there are many people in the club present. we are here to witness all of you, seven individuals, seven young business professionals from brazil who are the tories are part of texas -- who are pouring -- touring our part of texas. i will ask all of them to raise their hands so you can see who they are. [applause]

>> i am a retired history professor and retired navy reserve. there is a letter on my desk from you requesting money. which is fine because i respond because i support uso. we watched a run last night a new share were slow. the internal affairs that was the bad guy. [laughter]

i am here to push the uso with your dollars. it is your dollars that count. they cannot do all the things they describe without your dollars going to them. thank you. [applause] >> we have a question on the side. >> it actually pertains to what the gentleman finish from. i come from a large military family. every time the deployed [inaudible] >> other than dollars a surly,

-- necessarily, what kind of programs to you have we can assist? >> the uso could not accomplish what we do for troops and families without two groups of people. the 1.7 million donors that give to theu -- uso each year and the tens of thousands of volunteers that help us. you just heard accommodate references to the uso volunteers from the general. we could never do, all over the world, there are about 500 staff people that work for the uso. 500 to run 150 centers, to hundreds of shows all over the world cannot deliver all of those programs i was talking about at forward operating bases and other places. we could not accomplish what we do without volunteers.

if you're interested, go to the web site, uso.org, and you can click on and find a center close to you can contact them and volunteer. offer to come help take care of trips.+ there might be a special event going on. it might be working at an airport center. there are certainly ways to help you make a difference to share your gratitude. >> before we move on, i hate to put you on the spot, is there anything else you would like to add? >> you can also send care packages. >> just go to the web site, there is a lot of great information about how you can help. that is the best thing. they will guide you in many different areas in how you can

help. it is not just about celebrity tours. the celebrity tours and entertainment is part of it but there is an awful lot that they do that they could use help with. >> thank you. >> this is for you. my son wants to know when you're going back to afghanistan? he had the privilege of flying you and your crew two tours again. they need to know, this he saved six seats for you or not? thank you. [applause] >> we went at thanksgiving. shows. i was there in 2006, that is what he is probably talking about.

[inaudible] [laughter] >> i can try to accommodate that. please give him my best. i do not know when i am going to get back. the overseas trips are a bit trickier during the television seasonon but i was able to get a few extra days off at thanksgiving. we worked a tore out and went over. please give him my best. >> i was wondering if you could give us a little tour of their course and tell us about -- tours and tell us about some of the service members who met. >> i was in afghanistan, iraq, korea, africa, alaska. it was absolutely amazing.

we meet these guys who are hurt and you ask them if they are eager to go home but they want to go back and help remaining soldiers. it is unbelievable the sense of here with some that you feel. it is incredible. -- hero is some -- heroism that you feel. >> i agree. once you do a tour, you see a sense of duty that we do not often see, especially in my business. [laughter] it makes you want to come back into it again. >> let me just follow up on that question. i am sure many members of the audience appreciates what you do but they would like to know how you actually got involved. what opened the door for you to get involved?

>> i was doing a lot of the magazines, maxim, fhm, a lot of bikini's stuff. i was picked as the favorite girl for the u.s. marines. [applause] [laughter] they started sending requests to the uso who got in contact and requested for me to go. i have been going ever since. we do eight countries in eight days. it is a rough tour nothing compared to what they do for us. it is an honor. >> i was posing for a magazine [applause] [laughter] >> i saw that one.

i have it backstage. what do you have that one? >> i have that one. [laughter] i saw my pinup on one of a tr oops walls and i just wanted to come back. >> i guess that is a true story. [laughter] >> this is a community that is very supportive of the military. tell us about the sacrifices that you have had to make in an industry that is not always seem quite so supportive of the military. >> i was on bill o'reilly when i

came back. a lot of people make it about politics. a lot of people may get about being pr-war or anti-war. once the war is going on, it is not about the war. is about those risking their lives in that war. [applause] it is about bringing them home safely and read them a bit of home when they are there. pat has been the toughest part. -- that has been the toughest part. it is not about the war, it is about the people. it is about human lives and the american spirit. that is the toughest part. >> i have never found it

difficult to do what i do and worked in the entertainment business. there are other people that go out and give tours and entertain. some do it more often than others. i have never found that it was hard to say i support the troops and have that affect me in any way. i think generally come up people learn some voluble lessons from what happened to our country -- happened to our country during the vietnam war. i think one of the primary motivators for me is to make sure that what happened to our service members coming back from vietnam never happens again and we always make sure we honor our troops. [applause] quist -- >> i was going to ask

gary about his operation for international children with a uso and your experience with fort hood. >> what he is talking about, i went to iraq a couple times in 2003. on the second to tour, i was able to go out and visit schools that our troops have helped refurbish. i saw there were nothing than a concrete building with a dirt floor. the troops went in there and poured the concrete floor, knocked out some windows and eight ceiling fans. they painted and to the iraqis, to our standards it was still very modest amount but this

particular school was brand new and like id was golden. i saw this great interaction between the troops and the kids. the troops that i was with on that part luckier -- on that particular tour were fond of the children. and this was very early on and this was something that i thought should be promoted and supported, this interaction. this warmth between the troops is. the kids and theiraq we found a program called iraqi children and we were sending a lot of school supply its. -- school supply kits. there would give them to the kids. the model of the program is helping soldiers help children. we have recently renamed the program operation international children because we are shipping

to afghanistan and elsewhere. on this thanksgiving trip, i had the pleasure to partner with american airlines, who took a tons of our supplies over and i was able to take some of these supplies out to the pakistan border and deliver them myself in a very remote area where our troops were serving. it is a very positive program to help the troops to help these children in these war-torn countries. we know that we are there to help. the taliban is there to break stuff and hurt people. if we can convince the people that is what we are there to do, i think we have a good chance at succeeding. a program like this is certainly very beneficial to the troops because they can pull into a village which might be hostile and they can start on loading

this stuff and handing it out to children and the villagers. that might be a very good day for the troops and the people in the village. it is a positive program. i encourage you to go to operationinternationalchildren .org. we are shipping all the time and can always use help. that is one thing that has happened over the past several years. i am not only able to start a program but i met dozens and dozens of people who did the same thing who just had a need to help the troops and do something positive in what has been a very difficult situation at times. grass roots organizations have popped up all over the country of people trying to help our wounded soldiers, trying to help the troops, there are supporting

in many ways. some are more active with a uso. there are various ways you can help. it is very easy to find a way to help. one of those is operation international children. >> we have one more question. >> i am a family readiness leader. we received a lot of training to help our troops and to support the families back home. my husband is with the texas army national guard. i was wondering if we could partner. i recently wrote a proposal very similar to what you just described how we can help in our community joint services. even in other states, if we could have some sort of group get together to do something

very similar to that. people do not really know. and i live in a small community in east texas. i have a wealth of knowledge and resources sitting in my house that i cannot get out to people because they do not know that i have it and i do not know that they need it. >> you have resources and we have resources. we can work together and do more for troops and families than either of our two organizations can by working separately. that is what we are all about. back in 1941 when franklin roosevelt created the uso, that's what those six stars stand for the in the local. organizations were brought together under an umbrella. we would love to partner. we just have to connect. we would love to help. >> thank you. [applause]

>> ladies and gentleman, that includes the question and answers portion. i would like to call upon sloan gibson. >> i am going to introduce a very short video. before i do that, i want to follow-up on one question that was asked about the tours that these guys go out on. i smile when mayra veronica was talking about the tour. general cartwright is known for putting together a very arduous tour. this is no picnic at all. the last tour that i went on was with the chairman. we did nine shows in 5 days in five countries. in one day, we left baghdad early, flew to do another show,

packed up, flew to the western part of iraq and did another show. we did not finish until of was already dark, then flew to k show that dida not start until after 1:00. when i opened up the door to my container unit, i took three steps and realized i could see my breath. i was staying in the same accommodations that all of the other people on this tour. this is no picnic. these guys absolutely give it all when they are over there. yet i cannot think of a single example when one of these guys came back and was not saying, please let me go again. this is the greatest thing