so -- and they really loved general dwight d. eisenhowerause he had liberated the prison camp, german prison camp. so many serbs including roddi blagojevich were staunch republicans and that affected him for dwight d. eisenhower passed it on to richard nixon so in this blagojevich home where only serbian were spoken, the republicans were the party of choice except his mother was second -- first generation. she had been born in the united states and her parents were from bosn bosnia. they lived in thomas keen's ward out on the northwest side and she had a job as a ctia ticket taker which she probably got as a political job so she was a chicago republican. so there was always sort of this clash -- i mean, chicago democrat, sorry. there was this clash between the democrats and the republicans. his brother remains a staunch republican. he probably wishes he had never joined his brother's political persuasion since he also is now indicted. so there was that split. i think rod eventually figured out that his political career would be a lot better

and that affection for dwight d. eisenhower passed on to richard nixon. so in this blagojevich home where only serbian was spoken, the republicans were the party of choice. his mother had been born in the united states and her parents were from bosnia and she was a democratic. they lived in thomas keen -- do you remember alderman thomas keen ward and she had a job as a ticket taker that she probably got as a political job so she was a chicago republican. so there was always sort of this clash. >> chicago democrat. his brother remains a staunch republican. he probably wishes he had never joined his brother's political persuasion since he also is now indicted. so there was that split. i think rod eventually figured out that his political career would be a lot better off if he's running the city of chicago as a democrat so he did move over. >> one of his first jobs -- first political jobs was working with edward verdoliac who was a democratic. those of you who don't know chicago politics, he was a big time chicago democratic alderman who converted to the rep

flash forward now eight years, almost, to 1953, january, 20th, and dwight d. eisenhowers inaugurated as president. and just as he was back in that summer of 1922, harry truman is unemployed. after eisenhower's swearing-in the secret service drove harry and bess to union station in washington and they said goodbye and harry and bess rode a train back to independence. i guess they rode the train to kansas city and was there a spur that would go to independence. i think there was a depot in independence so they could go all the way back to independence. harry didn't really know what to do with himself. there were rumors at the time he would run for senate from missouri. or governor. even that he would run for president in 1956. he was the last president eligible to serve more than two terms. you know, it just occurs to me the republicans passed that why they grandfathered truman in, they could have just said he can't run again either but he was eligible to run for a third term and none of these ideas were that farfetched at the time because the fact of the matter was, harry

general dwight eisenhower, our past president, was a supreme allied commander in europe. and directed the d-day operation whose anniversary was just recently celebrated. before going on to lead our nation through some of the most trying times during the cold war, general arnold commanded the army air corps in europe and remains the only person to held the title general of the air force. last but certainly not least, general omar bradley commanded the allied forces in africa and became first to hold the position of chairman of the joint chiefs. at this point i'd like to make mention of an organization that provides invaluable support to the u.s. command general army staff college which is the college foundation. this organization is funded by private donations and its mission is to enrich the academic experience of the college and providing resources not covered by appropriations. since its inception, this foundation has established a number of awards for academic excellence for stuents of the college in recognition of their achievements in the field of tactics, logistics and military arts.