a report from our pentagon correspondent, jim miklaszewski. >> reporter: at 87, george mitchell and oscar culp still put in a six-day week at their furniture store in oceanside, california. culp says it's a work ethic developed as montford port marines. >> the marine corps made a man out of me. >> reporter: but it was a painful journey. at the height of world war ii, culp and mitchell were among the first blacks in the marine corps and immediately segregated from white marines. 20,000 recruits went through boot camp at montford point, built specifically for blacks, little more than a mosquito, snake infested swamp. >> what was that like? >> it was hell, really. the water was terrible. smelled. >> it's where they trained, ate and slept, without ever seeing a white marine. once out of boot camp, mitchell became a target for racial taunts. when he refused to step to the back of the line, he took a beating. >> but in the heat of battle in the pacific, that racial divide disappeared. >> when you're being shot at over there, the bullets, they don't have no color on them really. you become very

jim miklaszewski, nbc news, the pentagon. >>> word from texas tonight, joe haggar has died. he will be long remembered in dallas for being a civic leader, city council member, but it was during his time running the family business, haggar slacks that joe was immortalized on audio tape. he was at home one night in 1964, when president lyndon johnson called him to order six pairs of khakis. lbj loved haggar's slacks and gave meticulous instructions during the call which features his usual burping and barnyard language. the recording became a cult favorite on radio and the web when the lbj library released the tape. a few years back. here's the president calling joe haggar. >> these are almost -- these are the best i've had anywhere in the united states. >> fine. >> but when i gain a little weight, they cut me under there. so leave me -- you never do have much margin there but see if you can't leave me about an inch from where the zipper -- ends around under my -- back to my [ bleep ]. >> lyndon johnson, joe haggar, 1964. up next here, after a break, when you are the queen, you

a report from our pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski. >> reporter: at 87 george michelle and oscar culp put in a six-day week at their furniture store in oceanside, california. atmarines. s it'sk ethic >> made a man out of me. >> reporter: but it was a painful journey. at the height of world war ii, culp and were the first in the marine corps and immediately segreged. 20,000 went through, built specifically for blacks, little more than a mosquito, nak in st infestedswamp. >> what was that like? >> terrible. smells. >> ate and slept without seeing a white marine. once out of boot camp mitchell be a target for racial taunts. when he refused to step to the back of the line, teehe took a beating. but in the pacific, that racial divide disappeared. >> being shot at over there, the bullets, they don't have no colo on them, really. you become closer. >> reporter: the marines joined a marine corps that really didn't want them. to fight for their country that had denied them their civil rights. when the war had ended, their battle was farrom over. they came home to a still segregated americ

our report from our pentagon correspondent, jim miklaszewski.t was the spring of 1969 during some of the bloodiest fighting in vietnam. today, 43 years later, the horrors of the war are dramatically captured in the long lost letters from army sergeant steve flaherty. in a letter written but never delivered to his mother he wrote of dangers no parent would ever want to hear. if dad calls, tell him i got too close to being dead. but i am okay. i was real lucky. even to his mother, flaherty held nothing back. we couldn't retrieve the bodies of our own men or ruck sacks. his mother didn't live to lead his letters but to his sister his words hit home. >> when i read them i immediately was in tears. because you really can't grasp the seriousness of it until you read it from the handwriting of your own family member. >> reporter: he shared the worst of his fears in a letter to a young woman named betty. we dragged more body of dead and wounded than i can ever want to forget. i felt bullets going past me. i have never been more scared in my life. flaher

jim miklaszewski is the pentagon correspondent. this is al libi, the number two and that they've got him? >> absolutely. u.s. officials do confirm that abu yahya al libi was killed in a cia drone strike in the waziristan province of pakistan a few days ago. it took several days to confirm the fact that abu yahya was killed. and in fact according to pakistani officials, there were as many as, count them, 7 to 15 other militants killed in what may have been a series of attempts to kill abu yahya. in fact, pakistani officials say that abu yahya was, in fact, targeted a few days earlier, some time last week, was injured in that strike, and then was ultimately killed in the strike a few days ago. and in fact, u.s. officials are characterizing abu yahya as pretty much irreplaceable in terms of his expertise and influence to al qaeda. >> jim miklaszewski, thank you very much on that latest update. >> you bet. >>> with the u.s. economy showing alarming signs of weakness there's increased worry from another shock of what is happening in eur

>> all right, jim miklaszewski at the pentagon. thank you, jim. >>> senate republicans have knocked down a bill that would have mandated equal pay for women in the workplace. president obama and democratic leaders say people need to know how much they're paid compared to their coworkers. republicans say the bill would put too much of a burden on employers. >>> grammy award winning singer sheryl crow has revealed that she has a brain tumor but the 50-year-old breast cancer survivor says it is benign. doctors say it's relatively common and many people have them and never know it. crow told a las vegas reporter this week that she'd been worrying about her memory and got an mri, finding the tumor. back in february crow made headlines for flubbing the lyrics to her hit song "soak up the sun." she blamed the mistake on her brain at the time. her representative says there's no cause for alarm and that crow is healthy and happy. >>> and an amazing show last night was the last of its kind for the next 100 years. as the planet venus made a n

nbc's jim miklaszewski is at the pentagon. what have you learned? >> reporter: officials tell nbc news a russian ship carrying russian military forces is making its way out of the black sea and headed to the russian port city there in syria, the only deep water port for russia outside its own borders. now, to be clear, these officials are not indicating that these are any kind of large numbers of combat forces that intend to get directly involved in the fighting in syria, but instead, they describe it as a small contingent of armed military that are headed to syria to provide security for russian assets, ships and their base there at that port city in syria. there's no sign here, to be clear, that the russians intend to get directly involved in any of the fighting there. nevertheless, some already see the move of sending even a handful of russian forces there as somewhat provocative. there's a little bit of confusion about secretary of state hillary clinton's claim earlier this week that the russians were sending additional attack helicopters to syr

nbc's chief pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski has the latest. mik, good morning. >> good morning. natalie, it's certainly the most significant hit against al qaeda's central there in pakistan since bin laden's death. the target was al qaeda's number two in command, abu yahya al libi. he was killed this week in a cia drone attack on his hideout there in pakistan. u.s. officials call al libi one of al qaeda's most experienced leaders, and, in fact, the top propagandist, issuing a number of issuing a number of videos recently in which he called for attacks on o the u.s. some u.s. officials are predicting this could be the death blow for al qaeda. there's nobody prepared to step in and take al libbi's place. counterterrorism officials warm that larger al qaeda is far from dead. that the most serious terrorist threat against the u.s. comes from al qaeda in yemen. and their master bomb maker, ieb rah ham al that sir i who tried three times to blow up airlines over america, natalie. >> thank you, jim. >>> senate republicans have knocked down a bill tha