barely 23 years after the wright brothers flew 120 feet, charles lindbergh would attempt to fly acrossantic alone. >> the adventure, which was to make the name of charles a. lindbergh one for the ages. >> the young pilot, who had only learned to fly less than five years earlier, launched his audacious attempt from roosevelt airfield in long island, new york, may 20th, 1927. >> the first solo flight across the atlantic. >> his spirit of st. louis took off at 7:52 a.m. eastern time into the unknown, a journey fraught with obstacles. >> he had everything planned out except for the sleep. >> ken cassens is a pilot at the old rhine beck aerodrome. a lifelong flying enthusiast who first piloted an aircraft at the age of 10, ken has carefully studied lindbergh's famous flight. >> the weather was another factor. they kept postponing the flight because of bad weather. they were going to go to a play in new york city in the evening, and they checked the weather bureau, and they said it's clearing over the atlantic. so thhe then went back to the hotel and tried to get some sleep. >> embarked on a

mary: charles lindbergh, there was no hero in the world like charles lindbergh at the time. lindbergh himself had gone to germany and had seen the german war machine and came back believing that we could not beat germany. that england was toast and we should stay out of it and try to negotiate a separate peace which roosevelt himself found to be an unconscionable and completely -- he used to refer to lindbergh as the "little nazi." he did not like him very much. he's face often with an organization called america first and he ends up into one, iowa giving a speech in which he says, there are three groups that want us to go to war the jews, roosevelt administration and great britain. that speech destroys lindbergh's credibility because of the spread widely as both wrong and anti-semitic and then of course shortly after that, pearl harbor happens, and at lindbergh at that point volunteers to serve in the american military and roosevelt would have nothing to do with it. he ends up volunteering and going to serve in the pacific, but he is never charles lindbergh again after the s

in the same room are two great physical icons, charles lindbergh's spirit of st. louis and john glenn's mercury space capsule. most fame is fleeting. only a few men grow larger with heroes are always exceptions. there was only one john glenn. >> pauley: ahead -- there's a chamber that is coming up from the hot spot feeding the molten magma. >> pauley: on the trail in impressive linda. it seems age isn't slowing you down. but your immune system weakens as you get older increasing the risk for me, the shingles virus. i've been lurking inside you since you had chickenpox. i could surface anytime as a painful, blistering rash. one in three people get me in their lifetime, linda. will it be you? and that's why linda got me zostavax, a single shot vaccine. i'm working to boost linda's immune system to help protect her against you, shingles. zostavax is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults fifty years of age and older. zostavax does not protect everyone and cannot be used to treat shingles or the nerve pain that may follow it. you should not get zostavax if you a

he had the most celebrated ticker-tape parade in new york ever since charles lindbergh or the end of world war ii. he didn't want to be viewed as a guy cashing in on his nasa celebrity. he waited a while asking for further flight assignments. he asked the boss at johnson for his next ride and never got an answer. he couldn't get a flight assignment. i think after some disappointment and hesitation he decided to put his chips into the political world and pursue a chip there. he had a bathroom accident that knocked him out of his first campaign with a hospitalization. it wasn't until '7 that he became a senator. it was great to have a guy in the senate who new space policy backwards and forwards. he was a great advocate for human space exploration. i think that's where his value was most appreciated by all the astronauts. >> rusty, let me ask you about the training for that mission when he was a much older man. did he say it was particularly difficult for him to go through that rigorous training before he went up in space? >> uma, i can't speak to that directly but tom can. perhaps, to

on another occasion, john, only a lieutenant at this time, talked charles lindbergh into letting him, which lindbergh was touring around the country. this audacity led to another pointed conversation with his squadron commander. even then, the country with having to hustle to keep up with the john glenn. we admired the determination he brought to the work, but he was not in it for himself. service to the nation was personal for him. he lost his wingman on his very first combat mission. he understood the risks. he knew firsthand the heavy task of gathering a friend's personal effects and writing a letter to the next of kin. john went on to fly 149 combat missions in two wars. he never shocked from danger. he drew enemy fire like a magnet, giving rise to one of his more infamous nicknames, which i cannot repeat here. [laughter] three,iley: he shot down and he landed with more than 250 bullet holes in his airplane, but the man himself was bulletproof. john's exemplary service in two wars earned him a slot as a test pilot. wasmost memorable mission to fly supersonic across the country an

what role did charles bloomberg have -- charles lindbergh have? stanley: very little. he was the guiding spirit of the isolationist committee that tried to keep us out of the way. pearl harbor destroyed the existence of the america first committee. roosevelt was not allowing him to have his commission back. was a gross this mistake to do. who was alsoy ford an isolationist before world war ii began and had been an isolationist in world war i wanted to put [to work. he quietly put lindbergh to work engineer with his plants. lindbergh actually flew out to the pacific and was a test pilot on some of our new warplanes in the pacific. not as an officer but quietly as a civilian. he got back to me were somehow. roosevelt did not want him in publicly. >> somewhere in my recollection, the american intelligence agencies had an idea that pearl harbor was going to be attacked. there were stories after pearl harbor that we knew pro-was going to happen and we were unprepared for that we wanted it to happen so we could get into the war. donovan is really true. -- none of it is reall

second only to charles lindbergh. he deserves it. he was insanely courageous. not just a fighter pilot in the second world war and the korean war. a test pilot in the '50s in the supersonic and space age where life expectancy was quite short for those pilots. but here he is the first man to go into orbit. imagine this. when you are ready to go -- it was postponed i think 11 times. your colleagues, co-workers strap you in, shut the door, they go down and they drive three miles, not one mile, not two, because of the fireball that's about -- >> you are at the top of the firecracker all by yourself. >> all by yourself. your best pals, your colleagues are in a bunker three miles away. that tells you how insanely courageous they were. you do remember, in the early '60s, we were having launch explosions with unmanned flights. that's why it was such a chance. it seems safe now. it wasn't. >> i do remember it got scrubbed. that was the word they used scrubbed over and over again because of bad weather on the cape. finally it took off. john glenn, godspeed. thank you, ch

the first one in 1927 was charles lindbergh. few hours over the atlantic but he did dominate the news. 1936, i give you 20 guesses. you won't guess who it was. wa wa wallace simpson. it's a good choice by them. "time" on some years has thrown up its hands. it wasn't dominated by someone. in 1982, it was the computer. in 1966, it was americans under 26. in 2006, they put a mirror on the cover. the person of the year was you. it was a tribute to our nar is a s six, i guess. >> one has to imagine hillary clinton agrees. she might decide the people who were most decisive in the election was james comey and putin and assange. in 1972, nixon won, they put a paper ma chez of his head. it wasn't the most flattering image. what do you make of this headline, president of the divided states of america? >> well, donald trump loves being named person of the year. it's a big deal to him. he felt it was snarky. >> was he right? >> is it in the copy in the story is about basically -- it's not flattering, per se. there's a lot of criticism woven

on another occasion, john, only a lieutenant at this time, talked charles lindbergh into letting himonstration fighter, which lindbergh was touring around the country. this audacity led to another pointed conversation with his squadron commander. even then, the country with having to hustle to keep up with the john glenn. we admired the determination he brought to the work, but he was not in it for himself. service to the nation was personal for him. he lost his wingman on his very first combat mission. he understood the risks. he knew firsthand the heavy task of gathering a friend's personal effects and writing a letter to the next of kin. john went on to fly 149 combat missions in two wars. he never shocked from danger. he drew enemy fire like a magnet, giving rise to one of his more infamous nicknames, which i cannot repeat here. [laughter] gen. dailey: he shot down three, and he landed with more than 250 bullet holes in his airplane, but the man himself was bulletproof. john's exemplary service in two wars earned him a slot as a test pilot. his most memorable mission was to fly s

. >> charles lindbergh the first to fly across the atlantic 1927, i remember it well, the spirit of st. louis and in honor of his supporters in it that city where >> reese develop field. >> long island to -- >> i don't know. >>> welcome back to "gma" on a sad sunday morning covering that devastating oakland concert fire, the damage clear from these visuals above the scene. bodies are still inside that warehouse which doubled as a home. artists, studio and raven knew. the recovery effort is going to unstable structure. >> so let's go back to neal karlinsky right there on the scene. he has an update for us. neal, can you describe a little bit what's happening behind you? >> reporter: yeah, dan and paula, still a very active scene out here right now. you can see the blue sentences back there. they are still deep in the process of looking to recover more victims, even at this hour they still don't know exactly how many people they're dealing with. this old warehouse was a converted artists colony party friday night when the fire broke out. officials believe most of the victims were on the

second only to charles lindbergh. he deserves it. he was insanely courageous. not just a fighter pilot in the second world war and the korean war. a test pilot in the '50s in the supersonic and space age where life expectancy was quite short for those pilots. but here he is the first man to go into orbit. imagine this. when you are ready to go -- it was postponed i think 11 times. your colleagues, co-workers strap you in, shut the door, they go down and they drive three miles, not one mile, not two, because of the fireball that's about -- >> you are at the top of the firecracker all by yourself. >> all by yourself. your best pals, your colleagues are in a bunker three miles away. that tells you how insanely courageous they were. you do remember, in the early '60s, we were having launch explosions with unmanned flights. that's why it was such a chance. it seems safe now. it wasn't. >> i do remember it got scrubbed. that was the word they used scrubbed over and over again because of bad weather on the cape. finally it took off. john glenn, godspeed. thank you, ch

second only to charles lindbergh. he deserves it. he was insanely courageous. not just a fighter pilot in the second world war and the korean war. a test pilot in the '50s in the supersonic and space age where life expectancy was quite short for those pilots. but here he is the first man to go into orbit. imagine this. when you are ready to go -- it was postponed i think 11 times. your colleagues, co-workers strap you in, shut the door, they go down and they drive three miles, not one mile, not two, because of the fireball that's about -- >> you are at the top of the firecracker all by yourself. >> all by yourself. your best pals, your colleagues are in a bunker three miles away. that tells you how insanely courageous they were. you do remember, in the early '60s, we were having launch explosions with unmanned flights. that's why it was such a chance. it seems safe now. it wasn't. >> i do remember it got scrubbed. that was the word they used scrubbed over and over again because of bad weather on the cape. finally it took off. john glenn, godspeed. thank you, ch

rockefeller and charles lindbergh and he very quickly declined how capone's very lucrative offer. i'll even try to hire a writer to ghost write his autobiography the same time savior of everybody in chicago. but this terrified fellow with it off the hook once the government set its sights on al capone and had other things to worry about. again, i hesitate to make comparisons to the political climate of the current election year, but i can't resist doing it. reporters described the clothing he wore, the yellow pea green suit with diamond pinky ring that was anything from four to 11 carats depending who is writing about it. but the lots of silver dollars that he allegedly threw from his specially at fleet of bullet proof cars. when he set up a soup kitchen, a genuine act of kindness in the depression, reporters were quick to say yeah, sure, that he extorted all the food he served from small businesses. even after he went to prison, when there is nothing to report or read about, they invented stories. one headline read how capone lost 11 pounds. another one was how capone read a biog

. >> throw in charles lindbergh with that. i'll say at the end of our 7:00 show, he was a square, a regular guy, stayed married to the same woman for 73 years. went home at night, watched tv with her, no doubt, stayed with his kids. wasn't a hippie, but history's not written by the hippies, it's written by the squares. >> can i say one last thing? we squared a barber. the guy paid just like me, 18 bucks to get a haircut. there wasn't much hair on his head, but she took a photograph of him and it hung there in her barbershop and he was always there and always as nice as to be. >> great reporting and great patriotism by you, sir. tom costello. >>> now to the presidential transition. donald trump continues his thank you tour tonight in des moines. and that's where nbc's katy tur joins us now. katie, how long's this going to go on, do you think, this -- it's sort of like the end zone when you spike the ball, and the dance goes on longer than the play. what do you make of this? >> reporter: i think it's going to go on for a little

you'll remember that was the group that charles lindbergh got in trouble with anti-semitic comments,that was that group. and then it was expanded on by husband kimmel's lawyer during one of the congressional investigations. it was then followed up by a guy who wanted to take all the blame away from the navy and pin it on the civilian government. .. so there was no reason that germany should go to war against the night states for japan. so i think from a logistical point of view. >> i would offer two very practical reasons why i think that on the 75th anniversary, this is a very weird finally out to bury forever. the first practical piece of evidence as we already knew the japanese fermented essential military forces towards the southwest pacific including one of our possession, the philippines. all roosevelt had to do was sit back and wait and he would know whether japan is going to attack the philippines at which point we probably would have declared war. we didn't need to sacrifice the pacific fleet. the second reason i would offer is no independent means of intelligence. they had

you'll remember that was the group that charles lindbergh got in trouble with anti-semitic comments,and that was that group. and then it was expanded on by husband kimmel's lawyer during one of the congressional investigations. it was then followed up by a guy who wanted to take all the blame away from the navy and pin it on the civilian government. .. so there was no reason that germany should go to war against the night states for japan. so i think from a logistical point of view. >> i would offer two very practical reasons why i think that on the 75th anniversary, this is a very weird finally out to bury forever. the first practical piece of evidence as we already knew the japanese fermented essential military forces towards the southwest pacific including one of our possession, the philippines. all roosevelt had to do was sit back and wait and he would know whether japan is going to attack the philippines at which point we probably would have declared war. we didn't need to sacrifice the pacific fleet. the second reason i would offer is no independent means of intelligence. they

on another occasion, john, only a lieutenant at this time, talked charles lindbergh into letting him demonstration fighter, which lindbergh was touring around the country. this audacity led to another pointed conversation with his squadron commander. even then, the country was having to hustle to keep up with john glenn. we admired the determination he brought to the work, but he was not in it for himself. service to the nation was personal for him. he lost his wingman on his very first combat mission. he understood the risk. he knew firsthand the heavy task of gathering a friend's personal effects and writing a letter to the next of kin. john went on to fly 149 combat missions in two wars. he never shirked from danger. he drew enemy fire like a magnet, giving rise to one of his more infamous nicknames, which i cannot repeat here. [laughter] gen. dailey: he shot down three, and he landed with more than 250 bullet holes in his airplane, but the man himself was bulletproof. john's exemplary service in two wars earned him a slot as a test pilot. his most memorable mission was to fly sup

paid the price to position themselves for an assignment , london other location he talked to charles lamb lindberghouring around the country this audacity lead to a pointed conversation with the squadron commander even then the country had to keep up with john glenn. we admired his determination but he was not in it for himself and. service to the nation was personal for him. he lost his wing man on his very first combat mission and understood the risk firsthand the heavy task together a friend's personal effects than writing a letter to the next of kin. he would fly 149 combat missions and never shirked from danger and true enemy fire like a magnet giving more rise to his nicknames which i cannot repeat of laugh he shot down three and done to locations when did with more than to under 50 bullets in his aircraft per copy was bulletproof. his exemplary service gave him this lot as a test pilot his most memorable mission was to fly supersonic across the country were speed. the test ductor ability was one negative jury gabelli it is important to note bill that was five minutes he across the country th

. >> guest: one of the founders of the america first committee, that was the group that charles lindbergh got involved with and got in trouble with anti-semitic comment, and this was that sort of group. and it was expanded on by husband kimmel's lawyer during one of the congressional investigations. it was then fold up by a guy who wanted to take all the blame away from the navy and pin it on the civilian government. so you just have these three people who have gotten together and decided to push this. and what you have to do is imagine that for the very thinnest of reasons, you know, as of the fall of france in 1940, most americans realized we had to do something. if we lost england, we were going to be in terrible trouble. we were going to be the only people not under the nazis on one side or the japanese on the other. to this idea that roosevelt had to push america into it, there was no pushing. we were already having our shipping taken apart in the atlantic by nazi submarines. the difference is that without pearl harbor, we would not have had to fight two wars on two oceans, three con