tarawa was different. here we had an island that was part of a chain of islands and the enemy was building an air strip taun would which would easily edict -- interdict the naval activity in that general area. and so they decided that they didn't want that flight spot going down there while their ships were out here. so we were to take it. well it was garrisoned by about -- pretty close to 4,000 rigicenti, which were japanese marines. so here we're going to have probably the first time in the world a marine battle. marines against marines. and they are a fairly large group of korean workers there. and we were so new to the oriental world, we couldn't tell the difference between a korean and a japanese. and so we thought they were all fighters. but in any event, when we made the landing on that first day, we had about ten people who were shooting motion pictures and we had probably another ten shooting still photography. but as luck would have it, as the general explained a little earlier, things never happ

if you have seen a picture of combat on tarawa, you've seen a picture of combat in iwo jima and moving pictures throughout. norm had a piece in that. that's what we're going to be talking about this morning. i've asked both of these gentlemen to start off today's panel by talking a little bit of how it all started for them, where they were at the beginning of world war ii and how they got enlisted into their various services and also caught up in the units they are with. so ed, i'm going to begin with you if you could tell wrus it all began. >> all right, sir. thank you. incidentally, i'm a member of the band of brothers. if you read it, you know that we won the war almost single handed. and i'm a big hero. if you don't believe it, read the book. and i thank you and in fact, i'm delighted to be here this morning with you people. at my age, i'm delighted to be anywhere and know where i am. so i'll tell you about how it all started. to go back about just before pearl harbor, i was in the engineering school, navy engineering school. if you pardon the expression navy. in virginia. and a fe

marine corps veteran and the primary combat cinematographer for the battles of tarawa and iwo jima. this is about an hour. >>> all right, ladies and gentlemen. we are ready to proceed with two very, very interesting accounts from two members of the greatest generation, one in the pacific and one in the european theater. unfortunately, our third panelist, took sick a couple of days ago and is in the hospital. so we wish him the best and our thoughts and prayers are with clancy lyall's family. i would like to bring back colonel bob patrick, doing double duty for us. he moderated a session yesterday. bob is an old friend of the american veterans center. he is the man most directly responsible for raising the funds that constructed the world war ii memorial for which we thank him. he is a career military officer. before that. and now has the job of coordinating all the oral histories from veterans, in the veterans history project, at the library of congress. so in that connection we go back and forth a lot with the oral histories that we are recording all during this conference, in fact