the marine corps reservist and new york city firefighter is facing a board of inquiry, the equivalent of an administrative hearing for warning marines of an insider threat in august 2012 an afghan police chief who brezler knew to be linked to the taliban and was a child predator. he's accused of passing classified information through unclassified channels -- an e-mail account. his warning was ignored and three marines were killed by one of the afghan police chief's child victims. reporters say he's singled out to shield the marine who ignored the warning and expose it is under belly of the conflict. >> it really does seem to be a witch hunt in retaliation against jay sob for blowing the whistle to congress in an evident to prevent a marine whose family connections are more elevated in terps of the marine corps than jason's are. it is part of unlawful command influence plaguing the marine justice system at this time. >> we have asked for an updated response. a spokesman at the marine corps reserve headquarters in new orleans where the hearing is taking place told fox news he couldn't c

building, the man who told the marines no, who insisted that the headquarters still be built for the marines, even though the marines didn't want it and said they wouldn't use it. the army general who said, none of that matters, keep build it, carry on, that general has now been promoted from being a two-star general to being a three-star general. and his now job as a three-star general is that he is the top inspector general for the whole u.s. army in charge of identifying waste, fraud, and abuse. seems insane, right? it just -- this, too, seems insane. these are photos from the newest report of the independent inspector general in afghanistan, who looks into waste, fraud, and abuse. these pictures show these big sort of dinosaur-looki ining infrastructure things, right? they are huge, state of the art incinerators, that are designed to have just enormous capacity. each one of these two machines is supposed to be able to incinerate 40 tons of trash per day. 40 tons per day, and there's two of them side by side. you want to know what they're actually doing with their trash at the bas

it's not a good precedent for the marines and not good outcome for the united states of america. we need every good man we can have. we say a few good men. we are losing a great marine. >> we fired him as the result of this. brezler was fired for using a personal e-mail account and supposedly having documents on the home computer which he never accessed. they weren't making a big deal. it was a technical any tall call ti. now can he appeal this, do anything to stop it? usually once this is done it's hard to appeal. >> it is very difficult. i don't think an appeal would go anywhere. his service to our country will end here. he'll have to continue with rescue 2, one of the best squads in the fdny. >> firefighter. >> he's a hero and will continue to be a hero. we are lucky to have him. this is unfortunate, not just for the corps and the predent but we are losing a great marine. at the end of the day we should ask questions about why the marines are dead. they were murdered. >> good to see you. merry christmas. >> merry christmas. >> a shocking charge from a federal judge who says thi

this is not the marine corps i know and love. t the history going back to 1775 when the corps started. this is not what america stands for. this man is a hero. we need to support him. if he did something wrong he will be the first one to stand on the carpet like marines do and say, i did it on an unsecured network. but kicking him out of the corps while he cooperates with the investigation into the murders is suspicious and is not good for the marine corps or the united states of america. support our heroes. >> we'll stay on it tomorrow as we get to day three. thank you very much for your service. >> appreciate it. >> a key new addition to the white house team is taking heat for comparing republicans to a murderous cult responsible for nearly a thousand deaths. one of the president's former advisers is here live. >>> and breaking news on "duck dynasty." what happens now that phil robert son has been suspended for the show from his comments. >> no shoes, no socks, no problem. everybody happy, happy, happy. the's a saying around her

the -- how marin would do it is through a separate jpa agreement and so mr. freed's option 3 is not where we want to go they would want the liability and a lot of those issues to remain separate for this current program so they would want to have a separate and that's why they put it in a special consideration category it would have a separate

and so, it's a real good place to be in the marine corps. >> during his fifth year in the marines, burdenk a medical discharge when he was diagnosed with schizoprenoform, a mental disorder defined by mental confused speech and delusions. >> i hallucinate and i disappear from work, a whole bunch of things i thought was going on inside my head. i decided to go out and go back to my family and just take things easy. >> six months after leaving the military, burden was arrested after he crashed his car into security gates at tampa international airport. >> i thought people were chasing me. i thought people were trying to kill me, so that explains it all running to the gate. i was trying to get away. >> burden admits taking four ecstasy tablets that night and prosecutors say he had almost 300 tablets in his glove box. >> decided to take those pills and that's when it went all downhill from there. >> burden is charged with drug trafficking, driving under the influence, and now, attempted murder of a law enforcement officer. he's pled not guilty and is awaiting a hearing to determine if he is me

the -- how marin would do it is through a separate jpa agreement and so mr. freed's option 3 is not where we want to go they would want the liability and a lot of those issues to remain separate for this current program so they would want to have a separate and that's why they put it in a special consideration category it would have a separate agreement and assets and liabilities would be separate because we dwarf them. >> i appreciate all the work you have all done to try to get us to this point and i know it's been a challenge and frustrating from our standpoint because this is something we all care about and we all want to see move forward and our efforts are being hindered at this time by appointed members of the puc so i think we have to think differently to dispel some of the myths about this program and what i wanted to propose and i appreciate the opportunity to discuss it, but one of the things i think that's important is that although we have various layers to this plan and various goals that we're trying to obtain, i want us to develop more of a com

but interestingly enough, the u.s. marines are doing something like that in afghanistan, they're flying supplies to the marines right now. they have had success with the drones flying supplies to pilots without equipment. they have had crashes, though, and the data they have come up with on how it works and in the marine corps, it is something they may want to have a look at. >> my copy of "50 shades of gray" just got taken out by a 747, but we'll keep following it, amon. >> could be a problem, you bet. >>> two big name companies going worldwide, first, hilton, bought by black stone nearly ten years ago, now plans to sell in two weeks, they are expected to raise nearly $2 and a half billion, valuing the company at more than $20 billion. >>> and another company selling stocks, arrow mark, the big company that serves lots of stadiums and amusement parks, plans to raise money by the partial sale. the partial sale means that rare row mark would have a partial stock of $3.4 billion. >>> and plans to cut costs by the year 2016, buyi

. >>> ahead, you'll hear from the parents of a marine who died overseas. the military sent his body home, supposedly intact. but they would later find out, his heart was not included. now the family is trying to get answers about how this happened. and that marine's mother is speaking out. lea will be with the mom right after this. my customers can shop around-- see who does good work and compare costs. it doesn't usually work that way with health care. but with unitedhealthcare, i get information on quality rated doctors, treatment options and estimates for how much i'll pay. that helps me, and my guys, make better decisions. i don't like guesses with my business, and definitely not with our health. innovations that work for you. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. >>> we're hearing from the parents of a marine who killed himself overseasment the parentses say somebody took their son's heart, and they claim the u.s. government it knew it and tried to cover it up. this is that marine. sergeant brian lalou. he was on security detail in the u.s. embas

in the marine corps, you could do a lot. i never did that. [laughter] it took a couple of years to dial down the pressure, and the pressure on myself to shoot, because there is this -- on myself too. it is all about brute force through the night, digging a trench, laying that cable, doing whatever you have to do. the projectsl with and everything, i was waiting for somebody, tell me what to do, and that is not the point of doing scientific research. the point is to find out what science has to tell you. that was hard. it was hard at first to make friends. bit, illy, bit by started making friends in my program. i actually only happened after i came forward a little bit with my story and started confiding in my classmates of the things that had happened on deployment and the experiences i have had. what it was like to be on that base and finding people i could really trust. one of my best friends in the grant program was an army officer who was getting a masters in physics to go back and teach at west point. active duty.in we became friends. fro

right now i am on civic center drive basically between the civic center and the marin county fairgrounds. behind me you can see the yellow crime scene tape is up. directly behind the tape you see the blue tint and the tarp. that's where the victim remains at this hour. i talked it a witness here on season who was at marin farmers market to the right of where the victim is and he said this happened an hour ago. he said the victim from his perspective was a pale and -- male and that man was carrying a couple white bags in his hand with the assumption he was leaving the farmer's market, according again to that one witness. thethe right front wheel is on the curve there. it is assumed that this van was involved in the accident. we don't know if it is the actual vehicle that struck the pedestrian at this time. we'll get more information from the san rafael police department. again, the civic center drive right now is completely shut down in both directions. it is somewhat of a blind curve down there. as you can see, there is a crosswalk. no stop sign along civic center drive. again, a very bu

in the marine corps, you could do a lot. i never did that. [laughter] it took a couple of years to dial down the pressure, and the pressure on myself to shoot, because there is this -- on myself too. it is all about brute force through the night, digging a trench, laying that cable, doing whatever you have to do. the projectsl with and everything, i was waiting for somebody, tell me what to do, and that is not the point of doing scientific research. the point is to find out what science has to tell you. that was hard. it was hard at first to make friends. bit, illy, bit by started making friends in my program. i actually only happened after i came forward a little bit with my story and started confiding in my classmates of the things that had happened on deployment and the experiences i have had. what it was like to be on that base and finding people i could really trust. one of my best friends in the grant program was an army officer who was getting a masters in physics to go back and teach at west point. active duty.in we became friends. fro

plus new, in the case of the marine penalized for the political correctness.ed officials of an insider attack. and is now facing some tough charges that could end his career. we get on the snowball express and show how this group is bringing joy of christmas to the fallen heroes. america's news headquarters starts right now. ♪ ♪ >> but first, to a developing story with new details emerging at this hour. about the motive in yesterday's tragic high school shooting not far from denver colorado. that attack ending with one student critically injure and the lone student gunman dead. place are saying that teen shooter was likely out for revenge. the latest now from will carr, who is keeping close tabs on the story. will? >> hi, uma. we know 15-year-old girl shot is in critical condition and the authorities say the alleged gunman is 18-year-old karl pierson. this is what they say happen. pierson burst in arapahoe high school holding a shotgun and say he may have been targeting a specific librarian who is also the speech and debate coach. apparently pierson was on the

and when i did that, that's when the round impacted. >> reporter: and that marine whose life hall may have saved, this is him. he came in on another flight. hall didn't even know he was here. this is the first time they've seen even other since afghanistan. >> i don't even remember him tackling me, but i'm sure that something, you know. >> you were just standing there. you didn't know what to do. >> i didn't know what was going on. >> reporter: they are on the mend. but every day new flights arrive with new injured. richard engle, nbc news, germany. >>> and we're back in just a moment with a big real-life promotion for a woman who was once the inspiration behind a hollywood movie. >>> news week magazine, a great brand name in the news business is coming back in print after disappearing last year. it had 3.3 million readers at its height. this new print version will be sent out on a subscription only basis starting after the first of the year. >>> mike tomlin, head coach of the pittsburgh steelers made a very expensive misstep a few months back. the baltimore ravens kick returner jacob

but the mariners may be willing to pay him over eight years. >> the mariners attendance has dropped down they used to draw in crowds around 3 million. now they're in the low one's. they need to get people in the seats. they need to draw interest. they have plenty of money. i don't know how much it would take to get robinson cano to go all the way to seattle. he would be half a day flight from his home. >> it's one thing to go to the west coast if you're going to l.a. but the northwest corner that's not a huge media corner. but speaking of seattle again we tall carlos beltrÁn seemed a lock. but the mariners offered him $48 million over three years? >> the mariners or kansas city royals have offered him three years at $48 million. same thing, get people in the seats. they're close to contending. they gave detroit tigers fits last year in the american league central. seat is trying to get people as well. they snead offense. seattle has become a real thorn for the yankees, and they were offering beltrÁn a two-year deal. >> reporter: a how much process, bob, went into the move to get rid o fi

we would get the entire company, 200 marines, to help us out. they took out all of the old iraqi telephone wires and replaced it with 30 kilometers of cable all total through the base. then we would get a mortar and the cable would you cut and then the repair marines would have to go repair it. it's being in charge of the whole cycle but i work with a lot of fantastic people. that was really great. >> my story, i guess, is a story of misdirection. believe it or not. it, i wanted to be a journalist. the recruiter told me that i did not make the cut. i did not get the proper score to get that slot. i was like what you have to offer? you mentioned a few other ones. then you mentioned supply. i have office experience. supply and garrison versus supply during a deployment is really two different atmospheres, different tribes of stressors, whereas when i was and garrison in germany, it was a lot more fun. i felt like -- i felt very interconnected because i was doing supplies and i was in an ordinance company. i was in an ordinance unit, rather, and my

the only thing oswald learned how do well in the marine corps. was how to shoot a rifle. he was trained to shoot it without a scope. he got the middle grade markmanship. he cheated his way out of the marine corps. that his mother needed him. dependency danger. then all a sudden one day he showed up in moscow and said he wanted to renounce his citizenship. the russians thought he was nuts. he claimed to have secrets. he didn't have anything they didn't know. they cube lost interest in him. they recognized him for what he was. a fool. so they shipped him off and made him work in a radio factory. he married a russian woman and had a baby. he hated life in the soviet union. when he experienced it as it was he couldn't wait to get out. he moved the family back to america in 1962. >> he ended up in dallas. he bought a rifle mail order. but his first target was not john kennedy. >> no. it was edmund walker. he missed. >> this was one of the things that i find that few people remember or know about. seven months before oswald assassinated president kennedy, in april 1963, he tried

military was very open about it when they announced the marines on the way.this was one of the lessons learned of benghazi. that when you have americans at risk in areas of the world where they may not be u.s. military for forces at the ready, you have to put the military force there. as everyone will recall in benghazi, there were no nearby u.s. military forces, nobody to come help at that compound. this time, the pentagon taking no chances. putting the 150 marines into the region, even before there are orders to go. they don't want this to happen again. >> and barbara, what is the latest you hear about the u.s. personnel wounded over the weekend? >> yeah, this is both sad and happy news, john, three of the four navy seals are expected shortly as in the coming hours, as a matter of fact, to land at the u.s. military hospital in germany. the very hospital that has treated thousands of wounded from iraq and afghanistan over the years. one navy seal remains behind in hospital in nairobi. he was very seriously hurt. he is expected to make it but his injuries wer

we expect it to sweep in the marine air which should lead to slightly warmer temperatures as we head toward tomorrow morning and set us up for a warmer weekend ahead. so high around the bay area upper 50s around san jose and san francisco. to the north bay chilly inland, fairfield in the 50s. a check of some of the seven-day forecasts, notice around san jose, numbers climbing up flew the weekend. mid-60s saturday and sunday. no signs of rain there. and also san francisco and out to the coast look at that, by tuesday and wednesday, upper 60s possible. we head toward the beginning of next week. you can see the temperatures climbing up. no signs of rain between now and likely through christmas day too. so the dry pattern is locked in. >> we do need the rain. thanks so much. new detail this is morning about the man accused of using fake sign interpretation at nelson mandela's memorial. the interpreter is defending himself. he told a newspaper that he heard voices in his head and hallucinated during the memorial and that's why his signs did not make sense. he apologized but told the newspa

leslie is from the marin food bank and also michelle [ indiscernible ] , am i close? >> yes. >> i had to work on that. thanks for joining us today. leslie, tell us, what is it like? is the economy getting better? what do you see for need? >> unfortunately for the people we serve, we are not seeing the need decreasing. in fact, we're seeing our pantry lines getting longer. you may have seen in the news that recently snap benefits or food stamps were cut and also holidays are a hard time for low income people as we try to provide special things for our families and everybody is looking for a special holiday meal. really appreciate the support this time of year. >> at this time of year we all seem to get so busy and running around. sometimes we just need to take a moment to think about helping some of those people. >> absolutely. we really appreciate opportunities like with whole foods and kpix 5 and most of the support we get comes from individuals and corporations. it comes right here from the community. so sure appreciate it. >> and whole foods steps forward to really

the marines organize the drive every year. >> all the people who still want to donate, it's easy just bring it down. we are still looking for donations for the family and individual organizations. >> still got a week to go. toys for tots will distribute the toys to local charities, churches, homeless shelters and individual families. if you two like to participate, this drop-off location is on commodore drive between el camino real and cherry avenue in san bruno. >>> volunteers handed out 5,000 grocery bags full of food to low-income families and people in san francisco's glide memorial today. the bags filled with all the fixings for a nice christmas meal, plus some additional food to get them through the next couple of weeks. tomorrow, volunteers plan to distribute 700 more grocery bags to those in need. >>> ever sign up to receive your receipts over email instead of getting a paper copy? why you might get a bit more than you bargained for if you don't read the fine print. >> it is something that might make any 49ers fan cringe. so you have to put aside the pride. the painful thing y

. >> military investigators say the marine behind that double murder suicide at the marine corps base in quantico should have received bert psychological care. sergeant subio lopez fatally shot his exgirlfriend and a colleague before taking his own life. lopez was receiving treatment in north carolina after his vehicle was struck by an ied in aq. the medical care stopped abruptly when he was transferred to quantico. investigators found lopez's new doctors didn't know about his previous treatment and he didn't bother to tell them. >>> fire chief of staff or senator lamar alexander has been ordered to live with his parents while he awaits prosecution on child pornography charges. a federal judge allowed ryan to be released from custody today. his lawyers successfully argued that 35-year-old had no prior convictions or arrests. prosecutors opposed his release. he will be electronically monitored and confined to his parents maryland residence. he also is not allowed to access any device that can be connected to the internet. >> underway in the closest election in virginia history. it has

. >>> plus big new developments in the story of a marine punished after trying to warn of a security threat that wound up costing the lives of three fellow troops. tonight we'll hear from the father of one of those killed. >>> plus, they brought their daughter in for a routine tonsillectomy and now she is on life support. >> it's a mother's worst nightmare. >> see how the story gets worse from there, tonight. >>> and breaking tonight, just hours ago a last-ditch effort to protect the retirement benefits of our nation's vets and our wounded warriors. went down to defeat in the u.s. senate. every single democrat except one voted against it and that's where we begin "the kelly file" tonight. welcome again, i'm megyn kelly. the biudget bill cleared a majo hurdle today. if it comes law, men and women who serve this country, including our most severely injured wounded warriors will be forced to sacrifice yet again. new hampshire republican senator kelly auyotte blasted this today. >> think about it, one has been injured in afghanistan. we've all been to walter reed. they received a disabili

the rain helped them return from the sea to the spawning grounds but the marin independent journal reportshat the month has seen under 1.2" of rain so the average is under 10" and officials say aside from the population crash four years ago the number of coho and the in facts are -- and the egg nest are the fallest in 17 years. >> feast or famine. >> now can we find anything different with the storms in the east coast over the midwest and strengthening headed to the east coast. at home, we set or tied records in oakland at the airport and museum and mountain view is 68 and sfo is 68 and 72 in oakland. 73 downtown and not so warm today but the record is possible but only this oakland. visibility today is fairly good and we will keep an eye open novato for thing if to form. the likelihood of that happening is slim. as far as temperatures, 29 in santa rosa and 30 in novato which is the cool spot and 33 in concord and san ramon at 35 and 37 in los gatos and san jose and san carlos at 39 and 40 around mountain view and oakland and hayward at 41. 37 right now in livermore. return from the mornin

when i was in the marines, i didn't get to grow up with my baby sister as much. >> there was a real story. this 6-year-old was one of the children in kabul. when she says, i'll be your bodyguard, what inspired you was an incident in december of 2012, which was a teenager suicide bomber who set off the bomb and killed four children including marza's two sister. yes. i believe the numbers might have been a little higher. but yes, her sisters, i knew them as well. when this happened, it was devastating not only to me but to a lot of the friends i was deployed with as well and others i did not know. when i started making the film, i started getting messages saying they wanted to see when it came out. they knew it wasn't just me marza came up to, they would act that way for anyone in the area, whether a troop or contractor. it wasn't just me that really appreciated everything they had done for us leading up to their ultimate sacrifice. it was many others as well. >> as we get to the stage where there's going to be a withdrawal with or without an agreement of the karzai

net pay over the contract life for the mariners worked out to $128 million for 10 years whereas for again, the best offer they made, $86 million for seven years. $42 million more. you can buy a lot with that. >> which other team -- clearly, working in seattle isn't so bad after all. >> no. >> which other teams offer a good tax deal? >> robert raiola was telling us that in fact the teams you want to play for, those based in seattle or texas because texas also doesn't have a state tax treatment. and based on the 2013 schedule, he created a jock tax index. and miami marlins, houston astros, seattle mariners, texas rangers, and the tampa bay rays are the best teams to play for. in terms of the -- >> that makes sense, florida is why king james went to miami. >> texas, florida, and washington. take a look at where you don't want to play if you don't like paying taxes and you're a baseball player. >> surprise, surprise, california, the top of the list >> san francisco, san diego, oakland, l.a. dodgers, and the anaheim angels. the l.a. angels. this is provided to us by a.p. consulting. this

the then the cable would be cut. and my repair marines would repair it. it was like being in charge of the whole cycle of operations there, which was stressful but i worked with a lot of fantastic people, so that was really great. >> that's great. and nicole? >> my story i guess is a story of a misdirection, believe it or not. after i took the asap i wanted to be journalist. the recruiter told me i didn't make the cut, to get a proper score to enlist as, get journalism slot. so, i was like, what do you guys have to offer? he was like, you know, he mentioned a few other moss and then he mentioned supply. well, i have retail experience. i have sales experience. i have office experience. and it's a strange story because supply in garrison versus supply in during the deployment it is very, two different atmospheres, two different types of stressors. whereas when i was in garrison in germany it was a lot more fun. i felt like, i felt very interconnected because i did unit supply and i was in the ordnance. i was in the ordnance company. so i was in an ordnance u

army to adapt to the marine corps had a better time and it echoes the old adage every rifleman matters. in the counterinsurgency department you have 300 degrees so your cook and your truck driver everyone has to know how to fight and -- defend themselves. the u.s. finally did that somewhat with the surge by getting smaller and moving among the community. it is tough. i would say almost impossible and i characterize it in afghanistan. fighting with their hands tied as much as they are we have allowed lawyers to be political officers. the point that you can't drop a bomb for u.s. courses in combat under a lot of fire without getting a lawyer's position makes it tough for guys who want to extend themselves and get after it knowing that that little backup is very limited. dakota meyer is a marine who went back into that hot zone to go rescue his buddies. there was quite a bit of -- because the army offers as they were calling for didn't have the artillery support and there were a lot of americans killed that day. this is an example of the medal of honor winner that with great valor rescued

from to 80 the marin ride still under 24 minutes from a bottle down to the golden gate bridge.ansit back on a normal schedule which means a's trains are running slate however not many passengers. the connecticut state police will release its report on the sandy hook elementary school shooting today at three p-m it's expected to be thousands of pages long. last month, prosecutors issued a summary of the investigation into the december 2012 shooting that killed 20 students and six staff members. the summary did not reveal gunman adam lanza's motive. lanza, who had significant mental health issues according to the report, committed suicide as police arrived. starting tomorrow, federal jobless benefits expire for more than one million americans. the checks will stop coming after a program signed into law back in 2008 expires saturday. an additional 850-thousand workers will also lose state unemployment benefits over the next three months. congress extended or expanded federal aid to the long-term jobless eleven times, but an extra lifeline wasn't included in the latest budget deal.

them or reinforce the embassy, this time they'll have the marines nearby to carry that out. ey believe they've evacuated most of the americans that want to get out of the most troubled area, but there still are americans there, and they want to be able to deal with whatever arises in the coming days. >> it's a crazy political situation there. riek machar the opposition leader says he didn't carry out a coup. but the sectarian nature of this, the tribal nature of this is what's really worrying people looking in. something like 80,000 people have fled their homes. a lot of them hanging out at u.n. bases. what's the u.n. working on? >> well, this is the big concern, as you say. these u.n. areas now are trying to shelter upwards of 40,000 south sudanese trying to escape the violence and get any safe shelter that they can. yesterday, in fact, the u.n. was reinforcing its camps to avoid attacks. they were digging, putting up security barriers, doing whatever they could, trying to ensure their camps were safe from the fighting. they have been attacked in the past. we saw two indian

in the first one, the marines went in for a few days and then pulled back to try to let the iraqis do their own thing. there about atten month before and it was really crucial that we made sure that everybody had conductivity and could talk to each other. sometimes, we would call each other electron warriors, kind of jokingly, because we would be talking on the radio or trying to connect a satellite, and i do remember when a succession of different medication systems broke and we had to find different ways to talk to the base about 50 miles away. we were trying to translate , how we woulding dial on the satellite phone and then get to talk to a different base so that our higher commanders could be able to talk to each other and know what was going on. so, between that and forcing cable undergrounds of the people could have electronics flowing instead of having -- and actually be able to communicate and with images. sending images for drones was a big thing because we need a lot of and with for that. we need to be able to shoot, move, communicate. some would be shooting, some would be

i never did that -- in the marine corps, you can do a lot. i never did that, though. t took me a few years to dial down the pressure, and the pressure on me, to. in the military, you are all about doing the mission, dig through the night lay the cable, , whatever you have to do. in grad school, i would look for people to tell me what to do, and that is not the point of doing scientific research. the point is to learn what the science has to tell you. it was hard to make friends initially. bit by bit, i started making friends and my graduate program. but that only happened after i came forward a little bit with my story and started confiding in my class mates about what had happened in my deployment, the experiences i had had, what it was like to be on a base. finding people i could really trust. one of my best friends in my program was an army officer getting a masters in physics to go back and teach at west point. he was still on active duty and we became friends. from there, i developed a good cadre of people to hang out with, and from there, that helped a lot. but,

just 17 years old when he joined the marines and fought in the battle of okinawa. more than a quarter million u.s. troops were engaged and the allied forces lost 12,000 men in a battle that lasted more than two months. dr. bruce hielman became chancellor of the university of richmond. thank you for your service. thank you so much for being here. what does it mean the to you, sir, to see as we now are at t a point where we have only 1 million remaining in the greatest generation in terms of vets who served? >> it represents to me that the world has changed dramatically. as i reflect back upon those 15 million you mentioned that came out of the military en masse and went off to be educated and came back into the political scene, the business scene, the community activities in force for the next 40 years they ran this country. six of the t presidents of the united states had been in this great greatest generation. the states, governors, almost all of them were of the greatest generation and for 40 years, their culture prevailed. they worked together irrespective of di