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Hello, I'm Jennifer Granholm, governor of the state of Michigan.

During the past year, I've had the privilege to work on an important project honoring some very special Michigan residents during World War Two.

More than 16 million men and women in the United States were involved in defending democracy.

Nearly a million of them were either killed or wounded in that critical fight for freedom.

The show you're about to watch.

Honors those who returned to Michigan's homefront following the war.

It tells the story of the Greatest Generation in their own words.

These are the men and women who continue to make our country great, and they deserve our praise and our humble gratitude.

Today, more than 1000 World War Two veterans passed away each day, and in less than a decade, nearly all of these brave souls will be gone.

As their voices fall silent, so do their stories.

That's why it's important to capture their memories and pay tribute today.

The following is a program which is just one small way to say thank you.

Not many Americans had even heard of Pearl Harbor before December 7th, 1941.

More than 2300 Americans were killed when the Japanese attacked this American territory, and the U.S.

naval fleet stationed there.

The nation was forced into World War Two, and the attack rallied everyone behind the war effort.

Men and women signed up for military service in droves, and the fight was on.

One Japanese admiral remarked, we have awakened a sleeping giant.

The country was not convinced, that, we should be in the war in the early part of 1941.

But once Pearl Harbor happened, then the entire country was committed... and part of the war.

I was in church... practicing for a Christmas play.

And Pearl Harbor was attacked, and I went to the Calvin Theater, and they brought it all up to date... at the Calvin theater, and I couldn't hardly believe it.

All of a sudden, December 7th comes and they're being bombed over there, and the ships are being sunk, and American Navy's gone to the bottom.

People are being killed and taken by, war camps.

And everybody was just let go.

They can't do this to us.

It was a complete surprise.

There was no declaration of war.

The Japanese thought that we were going to be the enemy.

And they're going to take us out.

in one, one big blow.

And after that happened, there was a big difference boy everything was, a different a whole different attitude.

I don't know when I heard President Roosevelt addressed the nation.

Then I know what it was was all about because he told the nation he had to declare war.

A World War two, he called Japan, had bombed Pearl Harbor and draw us into that war.

And he told us how many ships and everything was was, bombed in Pearl Harbor.

When we got back there after the bombing of Pearl and all those ships were battered and oil slicks and sunk.

And, of course, Arizona, you couldn't see anything.

But the Oklahoma was turned over in a side, a couple of destroyers.

I can't remember the names of them.

Now.

We're all really blown to hell.

It was a cruiser.

The Helena was in there, and, and she was all banged up pretty bad and quiet.

Usually you're coming into port, and there's a lot of noise going on.

It was a damn word.

Just went in there real quiet.

I probably shouldn't say this, but I thought our chiefs of staff and the president were a little bit negligent for Pearl Harbor.

They should have been much more aware of where that Japanese fleet was.

That to the degree that happened, that should never have happened.

That I don't feel that way.

Someone wasn't doing our job up in the higher echelon, but we would have gotten into it eventually anyway.

But that certainly set us back a ways.

When they bombed Pearl Harbor, that I had made the decision that I would I would go into the Army.

I tried to go in the Navy earlier because I didn't like what I was doing in civilian life, and they wouldn't take me on, kind of.

I had rheumatic fever when I was a youngster.

So right after Pearl Harbor, I go down and they said, yeah, we'll take you.

So they took me down to the federal building in Detroit, and I passed the test and off I went.

I got a draft notice of when I had a report that they down a Saginaw bus station.

We got on the bus and we went to Detroit.

And from there, we had to go through a little, you know, questions and answers and stuff like that.

And then they put in there, they shipped us off to, I think it was camp Grant or something like that in Chicago.

It just didn't occur to people not to enlist.

You just did it because you wanted to commit to the war along with everybody else.

Well, I didn't have to tell my mother.

I just went home and I said, I got something to tell you.

She said you enlisted to they, didn't you?

I said yes.

I eventually joined the Navy, and I went down to the recruiting office one day after work, and I never went back to work.

Yes.

No, I wanted to do something.

You know, I felt that there was a place for me because so many men had been enlisted and my brother wouldn't know what was drafted.

The same day I was.

He got the Army because he was right for when I got my eye exam.

I told him I only had one good eye and they got kinda mad It took me in another room and they could see that I only had one eye, but they said, you're in.

We took our army physical and, they stripped us right down to the eye teeth, and we went through the whole thing, and and my buddy didn't pass.

He had some ear problems, so he had to go to the doctor the next day.

And it was on a weekend.

So we had to come back on Monday and he passed it on Monday.

He had just earwax in his ears.

And so when they accepted him and that was fine with me, I didn't want to go alone.

Everybody was joining up and I felt I had to go to I didn't I didn't have to go.

I could have stayed.

But I wanted to go.

You started out in basic training with, discipline.

That was the first thing you was taught.

Discipline.

I got down to Parris Island, and that was kind of back in those days.

They didn't take a bus.

They take a bus now down to recruit training.

But they that time they had to beat up train.

Looked like a Jesse James train with the kerosene lamps hanging from the ceiling.

And and that took us to Parris Island and we got I think it was a night we got there.

And boy, I'll tell you, they lit into us like they do.

And even in the movies today, you know, it was tough.

I wasn't in bad shape, but, and they'd put us on, on a gym field, and, and you did push ups and set ups and, and exercises until you were about ready to bust and, First Sergeant, like, come around.

And if you didn't do it, boy, he haul off and whack you.

Yeah.

You, you did it or else.

And it wasn't fun... You did all business.

Well, we just like that you were in the Army.

You got to have.

You had machine guns over those five and have you put your head up and gone?

And I remember when we used to drill a lot... Of course, we went according to size.

And I was so short, I was at the last one.

So I was running all the time.

You know, the front girls were took such large steps and then to keep up with them, I ran all the time.

I didn't have any shoes.

And the, they didn't have any to fit me.

And I drilled in my street, Oxford, and they told me I didn't have to go out to drill, but I didn't want to be left behind.

So I kept drilling in my street shoes and I wore them out completely.

People were falling out like flies, was so hot.

And they would, if we didn't have nothing but white sergeants... You know, they would run them guys up and down the hill.

He was a guy with us, soldier with us from New York, who about he weighed about 240 pounds.

He just couldnt do about face.

And every time he just decided would go give me that hill.

Overseas training in camp Kilmer New Jersey was terrible.

You know, put both arms out.

The kids give you a shot in each arm... and then they threw you in the water whether you could swim or not.

Get out.

And all the training that they give you were terrible, but it went through it.

I didn't think I'd live through it, but I did.

I couldn't swim, but I did learn how, and I learned how awful fast.

And about three weeks into it, I came down with scarlet fever.

And I was in sick bay for two weeks because they didn't believe I was sick.

So they told me, get back to the barracks and before a 10 mile march they thought I was goldbricking, and the next day they had to carry me first aid.

As I went out on the sidewalk.

On the way there.

I was in shock... When they took all we got to Fort Custer and he told us to, the soldiers.

You.

So you on this side go to this area... White soldiers you go to that area?

It didn't phase the most of us because we were from the south and we were treated that way down south.

So we expect you to be treated that way in the military.

They had their own PX their own theater... They had all mess hall, we had own own mess hall.

And we have been told by some of the company commanders that he didn't like niggers.

The only thing you can do for me is work.

And then the most exciting place I remember was when we went to the obstacle course.

They had this 15ft wall, and I thought I couldn't make it up there until I saw my D.I.

fixing the bayonet on the end of a rifle and run towards me and I. There was no doubt in my mind that he was going to stick out right up my rump.

And I got up over there.

I got over it.

Oh, fine.

We had a train like two men did.

We have had a drill every day and live in barracks.

You know, we had to be sure, like when we made our bed, they used to drop a dime on it to see that it would bounce around and see if it would bounce.

It was something different than you had ever experienced in your life, because I had to sleep in the hammock, and that was about five feet off from the floor, and there was cement underneath.

And the first 2 or 3 nights you lay down and when you get up in the morning you had cramps.

Sergeant Whimm told me, this is no place to be Laughing and a wiped smile off my face.

Well, I wiped it off my face, and maybe five ten minutes later I smile again and he told me, I got some of you to do tonight.

He didn't tell me what it was.

Is a reporter supply room and get you a shovel.

And I had to dig a hole six feet wide, six feet deep, and turned my back, and he threw a match matchstick in that over to cover it up and, dig it out and show it to him later that evening that I had found a matchstick.

That was kind of punishment that was imposed on you by your platoon sergeant.

We had a tank driver that, had his, periscope been upside down, he couldn't see what was going on.

He got off of.

And, the where he was supposed to drive, he got on to the main highway, the tank.

And, boy, that was scary.

Them cars on them, cars on that highway.

And we will try.

And he driving with all those cars with a tank on there.

He never drove that tank again, I tell you.

And I work for my brother.

He had a for grocery store, so I was putting in long hours before I went into military service and some of it quite physical.

So, basic training wasn't difficult for me at all.

There was a piece of cake, actually.

After the country entered World War Two, industrial production had to be quickly and dramatically changed and expanded to meet the demands of the military.

Michigan became the arsenal of democracy.

Auto factories were converted to build guns, transport vehicles and tanks.

Shipyards were expanded and new factories were built, and these facilities drew many new participants into the workforce.

Other activities to support the war effort at home included war bonds sales, scrap drives, rationing, and victory gardens to help sustain those who were serving their country.

The most amazing thing about, World War Two, in my mind, was the way the United States was able to gear up its manufacturing processes to build tens of thousands of aircraft, to build, tank war vehicles of all kinds, to build ships in very short order.

The American people were very much behind the people that were over there fighting and the people in this country that were supporting them.

I mean, a lot of people in this country, including women, were helping make the munitions and everything else that was over there.

And I think the country as its, as such, was very much behind the supporting of the troops that over there Drives to collect metal.

There were drive to collect kitchen fat, there were drives to collect, all kinds of, rubber products because they were all vital to the war effort.

And so the entire country really was, committed, had ration books and everything were rationed tires, shoes, clothes, food, everything was rationed.

Yeah.

If you couldn't get but so much, I think you was allowed one pair of shoes a year.

I'm not sure about that.

And I think he was allowed, 5 pounds of sugar, maybe for a month, you know, and I don't think it went.

It usually went by the family, not necessarily by the individual.

When you only get about five gallons of gas a week, you don't do very much traveling.

So you save it up and then, things like butter and meat and vegetables and, the shortages.

You know, I really came home and, everybody had a victory gardens or, you know, like, they had to grow their own.

Everybody bought, stamps, and you filled a book, and then you got a war bond, and the little kids did it, and adults did it.

And there were, assigned quotes for every town, every city in the country.

And for the most part, they met them and exceeded them.

As millions serve their country in the military during this long war, their unique experiences and accumulated memories produced highly individual perspectives of this war.

Whether fighting the enemy on the battlefield, comforting a wounded soldier, or battling loneliness halfway around the world, each perspective is a vital part of the tapestry that was World War Two.

I went into the Savoy Hotel in London, sat next on the table to General Eisenhower, Patton and MacArthur.

I always remember Patton saying that to me.

He said, you're going to war to learn how to work, and I laughed.

I thought it was funny.

It was funny because he was thinking of the invasion.

They were.

The invasion was already planned.

We were making the landing across the English Channel at Normandy and and that so we went to boat and we went from our big boat and we would go and not the whole company at one time.

We call what they call the landing craft.

That was a boat made out of heavy steel.

And had a ramp that goes out.

The front that dropped down once, would be unloaded us even before we landed, we had to duck underneath because dodge all these bullets because they had an awful lot of airplanes up straving us.

And I see and and and then.

The landing craft, the captain announced it ready to embark.

I remember the first step.

I stepped off and didn't know how deep the water was.

The landing craft hadn't quite.

I was just barely stopped.

See?

And that's when I took the troops to take off.

I was a leader... I went on, first we follow me.

But it was funny.

And you feel all this strafing in front of you?

Those bullets hitting the water.

Just like if you heard a bunch of people whistling because there was a whistle when you before the hit, they.

I don't know if that's the bullets.

I, I don't know if I should tell you that, but I might as well tell you that.

But when we made that landing, you may not believe it.

But that water on the beach was red from blood... Not clear.

All we saw was a wall with holes up on the top.

And they were shooting back.

Once we were on the beach, they couldn't shoot down.

We were saved.

So we bunched along the beach along that wall and come around.

We had to capture all those machine guns that they had up here.

It was, It was quite an experience.

It was say... I know it was for me, and it was for a lot of in some of them didn't even make it.

Some of them right away got shell shock.

And it's terrible to see somebody having to get shell shocked... How they shake... When a bullet, when you hear a bullet and you can't move, you can't.

And when they got shell shock, they weren't much of support to us see... we had to send them back to the first aid station or a hospital.

Like I say, when we fought in there, I just seems like some of those that were shell shocked and some that didn't believe in praying, but boy, they would be down the foxhole praying.

And you take your rifle and you poke them... I mean, you couldn't get them out until it all stopped again, we had to leave them... And then they finally come up to us again.

And it's a funny feeling.

See, on that.

after that the first 24 hours it took it 24 hours.

And after that, you're an experienced soldier.

I would say you knew what the war was all about right away.

All you thought about was staying alive when you were in the front lines, that's all.

But when I got off that landing craft... I didn't know what I was getting into.

And there was shelling all over that one shell dropped right in my landing craft and kill them all.

Being in a foxhole for, I think probably about ten days and severe cold.

No relief of any kind, no good clothing.

I froze my feet, trench foot and, the time came for I had to do something.

I was in a foxhole with my fellow sergeant, and, he realized that my time was up, and we just.

We discussed the my rifle that I had, and, I said, do I take they with me to go back or do I leave it here?

And he said, you better leave it here.

You don't need it anymore.

So I got my wits together and I walked and crawled about two miles to the aid station.

They they sent me to Infantry Division, and our aim was to bring the wounded out and take them to a, like a MASH unit to work on them.

Back wounds, bullet wounds, head wounds, just about everything.

Bullets in all kinds of places.

Well, the bullet hit me in the knee.

And what you call it must have went through a tree.

What's it called?

Because, it was it.

It was a little bit spent.

It didn't go all the way through my.

It just stuck in my knee.

And what you call.

I was operating in a field hospital.

It felt just like burning.

Just like with something hot.

Well, imagine the metal was hot because I knew my buddy was in the foxhole... Yeah, look at this metal... And you try to pick it.

It was real hot.

The next thing I know here, you have blood coming down.

I never realized it was even hit.

And what some would call for mama... Oh, they call for their girlfriend or their husbands or whatever they were talking about.

But most of them call for their mama.

And now we had kids, and they're probably 17 years old, and you get one all shot up crying for his mother.

Most mournful sound you ever heard... Two guys were yelling out there on the hill... Hit help me, help me!

Luietanent says, Joe, take four guys.

Get those guys out of there.

I said, I'll take three.

I'll be the fourth one.

I don't tell somebody to do something.

I wouldn't do it.

So we went out and picked them up, walking them in... we were running in, not walking.

We were running... And there's one guy and they started shelling us He dropped his end of the stretcher.

He said, I'm getting out of here.

We start to run back and I said, you go any further?

I said, want to shoot you right in the back.

He turned around.

So you would do that would you?

You don't test me.

Then he come back, picked it up.

We went in with them.

The one I've got, the other guy out there, he was shot in the leg, but he died because he bled to death.

You look at life so much differently.

Life is not mean what it used to mean.

You look at death differently.

When you see the Lord take these young kids.

Why?

Why they had to go, I don't know.

You often wonder.

Yes, you do come back with a different attitude.

When I look back and think, oh my God, what was the matter with me?

Why did I do such crazy things?

How did I do it?

Because I couldn't do it today.

I'm a remember one time I remember I was on guard duty and got in the middle of the night and nobody around I just sat down on the steps and began balling like I am now.

The quiets moments are the ones that disturbed you more than anything else.. Of course.

When you know you're going into a, the Army, you know, you're going to see a lot of people who are, wounded and who are burnt, and you've got to expect that.

The smell is really bad.

Corpse and the dead smell very, sickening.

To be able to... When you smell that you know... It's sickeningly sweet.

When we were on the Island of Mortatie it's in the Dutch East Indies.

We were there for 30 days, and we subjected to 72 air raids The Japs... would bomb the hell out of us at night.

They never bombed us in the daytime.

It was always at night... I was, charge nurse of the burn unit on, on the island and we had several very interesting things happen.

One we in our one ward, we had all the burn people from the Navy and the army that had been on ships, and the kamikaze, pilots who had just flown their airplanes right into the ships and burnt these poor boys terribly.

One young man, his whole right side was burnt.

I got wounded in France... Scrahpnel wound in my leg.... the leg the first time and got the purple heart.

I just went back to get patched up and at the first aid station I didnt even even go to hospital... I didnr want to go to the hospital... Because I didn't want to leave my platoon.

Otherwise I wouldn't be able to get back to my same outfit.

I went back and fought all the way into Germany.

I got wounded in second time in the Herken forest shot to the back to the abdomen, and I was paralyzed.

And.

And they come from evacuation hospital to back to Paris.

And it was back to Paris on Christmas that year.

And it was there a few weeks.

And they ship it back over to England.

And here I had to go to, I don't know how many operations, how many blood transfusions.

One day, my wife, I get a telegram that I was in a serious illness, didn't expect to live next few weeks or so.

If you get a telegram, it was doing better again, which was good news.

I was shipped back to the United States to to, Percy Jones and Battle Creek there a laid for four years laying around..they would turn you over... like a paraplegic.

And where I went in the war, there were I can't remember if I was 18 or 28.

They were all paralyzed.

Two of us survived that, and I was the only one that walked again... the good Lord was with me.

Praying helps Al was into the Battle of the Bulge On December 16th, he was captured.

I had received this, missing in action telegram from the service.

And, that went on for over, you know, 3 or 4 months before he was actually found in Germany as a prisoner of war.

When I did get the notification that he was a prisoner, I knew at least he was alive.

He was given food once a day at noon.

He also had the same clothes on all the time.

He was captured.

He was captured and was a prisoner of war for about a year.

He went in as 165 pounds and came out as 99 pounds.

That's after their long 12 hours of work in the factory.

They would come back and sit down and write menus of things that they would love to have to eat.

I have a a little one that al wrote out some menus that he thought he would like.

It was a sad time now that I'm really thinking about it again, it's until the joy of Al coming home.

We went into Buchenwald one of the concentration camps there... It was the death camp, really, they brought all the Jews into these camps, and they put them to death, either by hanging, they put them into unit, and gassed them, they put them into incinerators.

There were bodies piled all over it when we went in there.

I cried.

cried I think most of our unit did... But we weren't there long, thank goodness.

Christmas morning when we got the orders and it was to bomb a railroad yard at Innsbruck, Austria, it was our first mission as a crew.

We ended up with about 50 holes from aerial shrapnel coming from, German artillery.

But we were fortunate.

Most of our crew members, our ten guys, made it through the war.

One came in, all shot up.

Man.

He had about a half of wing left on one side.

I don't know, I don't know how he brought it in, but together we got it down.

He got out of the plane, in the runway, and the hell with it.

He wasnr even going to try to taxi it back.

We were down to Metz, France, and, Moselle River was right there, and we were on one side and they were on the other side, so they were the infantry got us some boats went across the river, and then the captain was called for a certain guy.

So while he's over on the other side of the river, he said, well, he's gotta go hom as well.

That's it.

We cant notify him.

Well, they got a message to them and these started to swim back and he got killed... halfway across the river.

He never even got home that way.

I remember one time I I was riding in one of these gliders, and I had gone up 6 or 8 times that day, up and down.

And, some soldier came up to me... well, I say soldier, I mean enlisted guy, or he was a corporal or something.

Asked if he could have a ride.

And I said, sure, you can sit my my spot.

I was in the copilot seat.

they crashed... This kid was killed.

You can't even be a good guy without killing somebody here in the service.

That's one of the problems I had, dreams of us, you know, when the.

When, Pentagon building was bombed and destroyed with the airplane on that and then the war.

And then our president says that we're in war.

And every time you turn a television on us about war, war.

What you pick up in the paper, talk about war in the night when I'm sleeping.

I don't wake up screaming.

You could ask my wife I would be screaming ... Because I would wake up.

I was in this war again.

Or in some of those battles, exactly the way I faught them.

So in other words, it's it's it sticks with you in your brain.

See your system.

You never forget about that see.

But when those shells start coming, there aimed for you, every one!

When we're under, under artillery fire... And that scared us a lot.

That's when you prayed that there was no atheists in foxholes.

Warring nations have always had to solve the problem of providing nourishment for their troops.

As Napoleon famously stated, an army travels on its stomach.

A lot of the food was precooked canned... like spam.

That's where spam came from.

We'd have eggs, different types of, like, a spaghetti or something, or a piece of cheese.

And they included four cigarettes with it and some matches, and sometimes it was a can of beer.

We were in a foxhole for two days... we couldn't even stick our head out.

They would throw us our rations from one foxhole to another... Until we got it.

We had, boxes of rations for breakfast that was scrambled eggs with ham in it everybody like that.

But a lunch we had, ration and lunch was a little pack of, biscuits...hard as a rock!

You could use it for a hammer to hammer a nail into a board.

You had to soak it.

They had, chocolate bar, solid chocolate bar.

I was the only guy in the army that could eat those chocolates.

Tropical Hershey bars.

Tropical Hershey bars didn't melt until they went out through your bowels.... I don't think... everybody gave me theirs because they couldn't eat them.

But I liked them... I ate them.

Chocolate bar would put in a cup canteen cup, and put it over a fire and melt the chocolate and pour that right on top of the biscuits.

And that would soften the biscuits up a little bit so you can eat them.

But we get on a ship, especially after the war started, open a case of apples.

That case of apples down at cargo hold.... and a bucket the long side of it.

I've seen a case of apples go, and not enough cores to cover the bottom of that bucket.

You were that hungry for fruit.

Eat a whole orange skin and all.

Celery stalk of celery that by the end would be cut off.

Eat the whole damn thing.

All we had was K rations.

And I'd say for the...oh, for about the first five days... What I remember is you didn't mind the K rations.

What we did mind was not having enough... until was able to supply us.

And then the first day after we made our landing, must have been a week, two weeks before we finally got a warm meal.

And I remember what time I was in the front line.

They brought me a steak with mushrooms in and I was surprised it was hot.

It was pretty good taste.

Pretty good.

I was surprised.

II think on a Sunday morning we had a chaplain come up and conduct services on the hillside.

And also the cooks came up.

They I don't know how they got through, but they brought this this cooking, trailer up with, I think these, these, camp stoves on, you know, and right there, they, they prepared bacon and eggs for us.

To me, that was one of their most memorable situations in the war... for bacon and eggs?

And all this time we had nothing but C rations.

But to have bacon and eggs... That was really something.

When you're on a carrier and you're getting close to the end of your trip, the flour runs low, so when the flour runs low, they get bugs in there.

So when they baked the bread, they put raisins in the and the bread them cover up the bugs.

That's why I won't eat raisins.

To this day I think about raisin.

I get goose pimples and that's the truth.

I shouldn't maybe I shouldn't even say this.

Maybe I maybe I'll get into trouble - but awayway.. My machine guns... My machine guns.

They were 50 caliber and they fired some 450 rounds a minute.

Well, I didn't think there was enough enough traces going up there to get the planes the way we should.

So I put a quarter in the back plate which is the buffer plate so that fire 700 rounds a minute.

We shot down 13 German planes in 17 minutes.

One time our our battalion, I was noted to be able to speak German.

And from that, they picked me up and sent me to, prisoner of war interrogation school.

We were in an interrogation unit that had all interrogators, and they were all equipped with a vehicle and a trailer and a tent.

We had a blackout tent where we could interrogate at night.

The sooner you could interrogate a prisoner, the more, information you could get because of his nervous condition.

And, the, information we got, while they were tense and under stress was, much better than, after they were captured, a longer period of time.

And I ended up getting the Bronze Star as a citation for information that we got out of these prisoners, which was used to knock the German army out.

Mail call was more important than mess call.

It was one of the most eagerly awaited events in the life of a soldier.

Soldier spent hours writing letters from the battlefields of Europe, from aboard ships and from the jungles of the Pacific.

A letter or package from home made the war a little more bearable, at least for a moment, and kept soldiers connected with their family and friends.

It was fairly regular.

Might take... 3 or 4 weeks to a month.

to get the mail through.

Yeah, we love mail call.

And boxes.

Sometimes we get boxes from home and we'd all share that everybody shared.

My folks were always trying to send, goodies and in New Guinea... It would got some of it got pretty raunchy before I got to, me and I remember, I kept telling dad to pack it real good.

Well, he he would take a great big, metal cam and, and pack it real good and then dip it in wax and, and then ship it to him.

And, by golly, that would get here pretty...edible If you didn't get a letter... It was really crushing.

It was really devastating.

You know, for 2 or 3 weeks, not hear from anybody.

I had went without mail forty five days in Japan.

Because you keep moving and your mail dont catch up with you... It was lonely.

There was a lonely part of the military when you didn't get mail.

I used to get the Saginaw paper, believe it or not, that my mother took out a deal to sent us a paper over there, but never got your mail too often.

Just once in a while.

When you got overseas.

We couldnt tell them anything in the letter.

That would be of any tactical value They told us not to talk, not to be too descriptive, you know.

And so we were here as much as we can, with the conditions were...the natives for food, The weather I had a code... that I sent home to my folks, let them know where I was.

They had to break it down in the letter, but I had a code that I But it was kind of hard writing sometimes, but they I got it across to them, and then they kept a map at home where I had been, because I refused to tell them where I was.

We didn't tell them everything that we could see because we didn't want didn't want them to know what actually what we were doing.

It was one of the most One of the most, eager things to look forward to was a letter from home.

59 years after the end of World War two, the national World War Two Memorial was finally dedicated on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

This was the culmination of an 11 year effort which began in 1993.

The memorial honors the 16 million U.S.

men and women who served in the armed forces in World War Two, the more than 400,000 who died, and the millions who supported the war effort from home.

A group of Michigan World War Two veterans, sponsored by the Lutheran Homes of Michigan, took advantage of an opportunity to make the pilgrimage to Washington, D.C.

to experience the World War Two Memorial in person.

Operation Enduring Thanks allowed this group of veterans to spend four days in our nation's capital as a way of saying thanks for all the sacrifices they endured in service to our country during World War Two.

The idea for operation Enduring Thanks really came from the notion that this generation of veterans, had never really been, properly thanked in the sense of other, veterans that had returned over the years.

We had 32 veterans that that went on the trip, approximately 50, 52 staff, I believe, and, and a number of family and volunteers that took the total to about 103 that actually traveled on the trip with us.

We had opportunity to go to Arlington Cemetery, with the express purpose of wanting to see the changing of the guard, of course.

And for many of our veterans, and others, it was first visit there, I think that, that is, of course, a very somber place and one of just just as you get into that area, particularly near the tomb of the unknown, it is such kind of an overwhelming feeling of respect and awe.

And I and I know that that that emotion, that feeling was, was felt by everybody in attendance.

We were able to move our veterans right up and kind of ring the area where the changing of the guard occurred.

And that was, a nice accommodation they were able to make for us.

And so we really had front row seats.

And as a result, I think most of our veterans felt, in addition to the memorial itself, it was a highlight of the, of the trip to see, that that program there, that changing of the guard where it really, I think, impacted them and reminded them of of the sacrifice certainly that they made.

But but so many others that, maybe didn't come home.

The sight of the Arlington Cemetery, all the stones and etc.

markers, I never, to my knowledge, had anyone in there of my family, but it was just awesome to see that, the number that have given their lives for the country and the markers that they've got there.

I guess I'd have to say my favorite part of the trip was our tour of the World War Two memorial.

You know, I had read about it, I had contributed to it.

And, I was very proud to see it, and I was really impressed with it.

It was an amazing morning for us as we, as we arrived, we decided that we would all, kind of, gather because the busses were dropping off and in different points, we would gather and and assemble and go down kind of in mass into the memorial itself.

And that proved to be a really great thing for us because, here was this group of, significant size and, wearing kind of matching t shirts that that, identified us as being together in a group.

And, and as we went into the memorial, just visitors and folks from wherever, began to come and greet our veterans and, and shake their hands and thank them for what they'd done.

While we're at the memorial, several did come up and shake hands.

And two young girls, I'd say about ten years old, come up to I and my buddy and, they wanted a picture taken with us, and they gave us a hug.

They were from Texas, mind you, and they showed appreciation for the fact that we were a part of what happened in World War Two.

And I was surprised when total strangers came up and shook my hand and thanked me.

And this went all the way from, people 8 or 10 years old and teenagers and adults.

Andit was more than I expected, really.

It surprised me.

And But in that moment, there was, there was the the recognition.

Maybe a little bit of reconciliation for the person who was the vet.

About, you know, all those times when people ignored them or said bad things or said nothing, it made the amount of effort that it took to hear them here seemed worth it, I think not only because of what they had done in the war, but the courage that they had to to come and do this now to travel despite frailty, was was a significant message.

I think, that that folks picked up on folks kind of went off in small groups or even one on one attendance with, with veterans.

Then I think the impact of, of what it was all about began to hit, folks.

And I know that, I think that perhaps it might have even impacted kind of the younger folks, the family members, the staff members, volunteers that were there, even a little more so than the veterans themselves to share this experience with.

My my dad was amazing.

It was, much more than I ever thought it could be, but the emotions that came in this trip, I wasn't expecting, I was expecting a four day getaway and almost like a vacation, but it turned out to be so much more than that.

This has been a life altering experience for me.

We saw, certainly veterans that were with us, meeting and greeting other veterans who happened to be in on the memorial at that time, as if they were old buddies and knew each other all those years ago, when really they didn't, but they shared a bond that was, very powerful, obviously.

We know that, many of our volunteers and again, family members that were there, were very emotional about it.

And maybe just watching, a veteran, going about their remembrance there, was emotional or maybe for, for family members to, to hear a story or to just see dad or mom, in that, in that light was was a very emotional time for everybody.

The stories that that's what got me the most, you know, those that that panel with the stars.

Because each star represents 100 deaths... and there's over 400,000 that didn't come back.

Those are the ones that should you seeing it?

[Singing “God Bless America”] I was the lucky one that got through without getting hit.

No, no, I don't feel I was a hero.

I just feel that I had a job assigned to me and I did it.

Here is something out of the ordinary.

That's what a hero is.

We don't classify ourselves as a We classify...in the army, and we're doing our duty.

The ones that died for the country.

That's the only heroes I know.

The only ones that are really heroes.

They pay the price for the country.

They died for the country.

I don't want to be called a hero, because all I did was serve my country the way I was supposed to do and, to get honors and stuff like that... That don't bother...that dont.. Don't go and go with me.

Very good.

Because it was my duty.

Because I belong to this country and I am supposed to serve it.

That's my motto.

And yeah, there are a lot of heroes, not me.