D-Day Heroes: Normandy Road Trip to Roosevelt & Niland Brothers

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:00:06</time>
We were flying high above the French countryside on July

<cite>Scott:</cite>
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14th, 1918, a day that would forever be etched in my memory.

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The sun was just beginning to rise, casting a golden hue

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<time>00:00:18</time>
across the landscape below.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:00:20</time>
I glanced over at Quentin Roosevelt, the youngest son of the former

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:00:22</time>
president, who was flying his Newport 28, the fighter beside me.

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His face was set with determination, a look I had come to recognize

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:00:31</time>
during our many sorties together.

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Quentin and I had become fast friends since he joined the 95th Air squadron.

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Despite his famous lineage, he was just another pilot to us.

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<time>00:00:42</time>
Eager to do his part in the war effort.

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We had flown numerous missions together, each one more perilous than the last,

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but today, something felt different.

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<time>00:00:50</time>
There was an air of tension that I just couldn't shake.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
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We had been tasked with a patrol over the Marne River in an area

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:00:58</time>
teeming with German activity.

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Our orders were simple.

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Engage and disrupt their operations.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
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As we neared our patrol zone, I spotted a formation of German

<cite>Scott:</cite>
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Fokker deep in the forest.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
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There were, they were outnumbering us, but we had faced worse odds before.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:01:15</time>
The air became thick with the sound of machine gun fire as we engaged the enemy.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:01:20</time>
Quentin and I maneuvered our planes with precision, weaving

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through the sky in deadly dance.

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I saw Quentin take down one of the German fighters, a plume of smoke trailing from

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its engine as it spiraled to the ground.

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He gave me a quick thumbs up, a brief moment of triumph amidst the chaos.

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But then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a German fighter

<cite>Scott:</cite>
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bearing down on Quentin's six.

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I shouted a warning.

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It was morning, but the roar of our engines drowned out my voice.

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The enemy pilot opened fire and I watched in horror as Quinten's

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plane shuddered under the impact.

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Smoke and flames erupted from his engine and his fighter

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began to lose altitude rapidly.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
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Bail out, I yelled, hoping against hope that he could

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hear me, but it was too late.

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His plane was in a steep dive and I saw him struggle to regain control.

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The ground rushed up to meet him and with a sickening thud, his

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plane crashed into the field below.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
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I wanted to go after him.

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And to see if there was any chance he had survived that the battle raged on

<cite>Scott:</cite>
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around me, I had to keep fighting, knowing that my own life hung in the balance.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
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It was only after me and the others had driven off the remaining German

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fighters that I was able to break away and make my way to the crash site.

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When I arrived, my worst fears were confirmed.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
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Quentin's plane was a twisted wreck and there was no sign of movement.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
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I knew that his death would be devastating blow to his family, especially to his

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:02:31</time>
father who had already endured so much.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:02:35</time>
Quentin Roosevelt died that day, but his bravery and spirit lived on in

<cite>Scott:</cite>
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the hearts of those who knew him.

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He had given his life for his country, a sacrifice that would be

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remembered long after the war was over.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
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The news of Quentin's death spread quickly, and the rumor was that

<cite>Scott:</cite>
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even the German pilots who engaged us that day paid their respects.

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His loss was felt deeply by all who knew him, a poignant

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reminder of the true cost of war.

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And as I took to the skies once more, I carried with me the

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:03:01</time>
memory of Quentin Roosevelt, a brave pilot and a true friend.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
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Welcome to Talk With History.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:03:25</time>
I'm your host, Scott, here with my wife and historian,

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:03:27</time>
Hello.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:03:28</time>
On this podcast, we give you insights to our history inspired

<cite>Scott:</cite>
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world travels, YouTube channel journey, and examine history

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:03:34</time>
through deeper conversations with the curious, the explorers, and

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:03:37</time>
the history lovers out there.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
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Now, Jen, this will be, I think, our second Normandy podcast, but

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:03:45</time>
before we get into that, I do have something for our listeners, some news.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:03:51</time>
You guys may have heard that I'm trying some stuff out.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:03:54</time>
I've got stuff coming down the pipe different Potential premium podcasts

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:03:57</time>
and newsletter stuff I say all of that because we actually have one single place

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:04:02</time>
now where if you want to Talk to us if you want to chat with us if you want to

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:04:06</time>
comment on these podcasts you can go to the history road trip comm and there's

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:04:12</time>
a place for us to chat there So that's gonna that'll be my centralized place for

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:04:17</time>
anybody who wants to ask questions about the podcast or Who wants to say hey, I

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:04:22</time>
love this part of it or whatever it is You can find us over at the history road trip.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:04:27</time>
com And there's a chat function over there And we'll have just a running

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:04:31</time>
chat and you can see other people talking about the episode as well.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:04:34</time>
So it's a really neat thing that we're starting up that's part of

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:04:38</time>
this new kind of newsletter and extra podcasts that's coming in the future.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:04:43</time>
So if you want to chat with us about these episodes.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:04:46</time>
What I'm going to do is after each one airs, I'll start a running

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:04:49</time>
chat about what people thought about the most recent episode.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:04:53</time>
You can drop us a line over there.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:04:55</time>
You can say hello.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:04:56</time>
You can follow along with other things that I'll be publishing over there more.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:05:00</time>
in depth travel type stuff.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:05:02</time>
But also a place for us to chat with our podcast listeners.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:05:04</time>
So because there's no universal comments, you can't comment on a podcast in

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:05:08</time>
Apple podcast or anything like that.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:05:10</time>
That will be the place for, for folks to come in and chat with us.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:05:13</time>
sounds great.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:05:14</time>
Yeah.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:05:14</time>
So that's the history road trip.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:05:16</time>
com.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:05:17</time>
That's the history road trip.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:05:20</time>
com.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:05:21</time>
The History Road, trip

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:05:22</time>
The, the, the history road trip dot com.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:05:28</time>
So we, last week we talked about gold beach, right?

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:05:32</time>
That was your first day at Normandy and on your second day during, like on actual

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:05:38</time>
D day, the actual 80th anniversary, but I think it was, I believe it was before you

<cite>Scott:</cite>
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went to the kind of ceremonies and stuff.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
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You went over to the Normandy.

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American Cemetery, and you got to visit some, some gravesites

<cite>Scott:</cite>
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of some pretty well known

<cite>Scott:</cite>
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historical

<cite>Scott:</cite>
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figures over there.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
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So that actually was the day of the 80th ceremony.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
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It was.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
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Because there were so many heads of state and government officials

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
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that were going to be at this 80th anniversary ceremony at the Normandy

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
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American Cemetery, we had to be there about Five six hours before it started.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
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We had to go through security, go through tents, have everything

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
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checked, have our credentials with us.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
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And so I had a lot of time at that cemetery and and made a video from there,

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:06:28</time>
which I wanted to do anyway, but because this was such a busy, crowded weekend,

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:06:34</time>
the first day we were in Normandy, we were supposed to go to the Normandy

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
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American cemetery, but it was, they closed it because so many people were there.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:06:42</time>
Okay.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:06:43</time>
So I was able to do it that day.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:06:45</time>
So it's, I'm there the day of the 80th anniversary,

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:06:48</time>
Yeah, you were there on June 6,

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
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more significant when I got to put sand from Omaha Beach into a specific

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
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grave that we'll talk about my connection to It made it that much more significant

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:07:05</time>
to be able to do that that day.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:07:07</time>
So yes, I'm there on the actual anniversary of D Day

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:07:13</time>
it was, it was really neat.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:07:15</time>
And we're going to talk about these not in exactly the order you got to visit them.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:07:19</time>
And then we'll, we'll talk about the one tie you have to one of the graves

<cite>Scott:</cite>
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there that you actually got to, and, and, and rub sand in and, and some

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:07:27</time>
of the local news coverage, I'll call it that, that came out of that.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:07:30</time>
But first we're going to talk there's a fair amount and

<cite>Scott:</cite>
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you bring it up in the video.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
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There's a fair amount of siblings essentially that are, that are buried

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:07:38</time>
well first let's talk about what it is.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:07:40</time>
So this is a American cemetery in in France.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:07:45</time>
And it is run by America.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
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And even though it's not American soil, they have plants and things

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
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that are indigenous to America.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
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And it is all paid for by Americans.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
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So there's only Americans buried in the cemetery.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:08:01</time>
realize that

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
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And it was established pretty shortly after D Day, so June 8th, 1944.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:08:09</time>
So as you can, Probably imagine a lot of men were dying and

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
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they needed to bury these men.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:08:15</time>
And so the Normandy American cemetery actually overlooks Omaha beach.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:08:21</time>
It's the bluff above Omaha beach.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
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It covers 172 acres.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:08:25</time>
It contains 9, 388 burials.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:08:29</time>
All Americans, all but one is from World War II.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:08:35</time>
And we'll talk about that one.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:08:36</time>
That's from World War

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:08:37</time>
I.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
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the only

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:08:38</time>
He's the only

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
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one.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:08:39</time>
Everybody else is from World War II.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:08:42</time>
Now, there's been a recent burial as recent, I'd say 2018, who was the twin

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:08:48</time>
brother of one of the men who were buried there from the D Day timeframe.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:08:53</time>
But he also served in World War II, and he wanted to be with his brother.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:08:57</time>
So there's some specifics, even if you want to be buried

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:09:00</time>
Yeah, so I actually went to the website and I looked it up.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:09:04</time>
The most, the most recent burial, this is when I checked the website like a week

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:09:08</time>
ago, was actually in October of 2022.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:09:11</time>
And it was he would, I mean, they said Air Force, but it was Army Air Corps

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:09:14</time>
back then, but they found him and they buried him almost 80 years, almost,

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:09:19</time>
78 years, after, after he passed.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:09:22</time>
where they asked all next of kin, everybody who's buried there,

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:09:25</time>
they've asked, they asked all next of kin, would you rather have Your

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:09:28</time>
family member Repatriated back home or buried with his comrades here on

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:09:34</time>
French soil in an American cemetery

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:09:36</time>
Yes, so families everybody who's buried there besides the unknowns are were

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:09:42</time>
agreed to have them buried there So again, it's established two days after D Day.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:09:47</time>
It is a pretty Amazing place what's interesting about the

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:09:53</time>
Normandy American Cemetery?

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:09:56</time>
Is there only really two types of, I would say, markers?

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:02</time>
It's really just crosses and stars of David, because the army at the

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:08</time>
time only recognized Latin crosses for Protestants and Catholics.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:13</time>
And then there's stars of David for the, for Jewish religion.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:17</time>
And so these are the only three religions recognized at the

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:20</time>
time by the United States army.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:21</time>
So no other types of markers are present.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:23</time>
Okay.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:24</time>
So that's all you see

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:10:25</time>
So I actually noticed that, but I didn't understand the reasoning why.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:10:28</time>
So that's neat.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:29</time>
It's very neat.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:30</time>
Now, you will see some markers have the gold Lettering those

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:34</time>
will be Medal of Honor recipients and then everything is in white.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:38</time>
It's white marble with white etching of the actual marker connotation names

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:45</time>
and specific dates and regiments.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:48</time>
But what people do is they take sand and we'll rub it in to that marker.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:54</time>
So that's what you see sometimes when you're able to read it a lot more clearly

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:10:57</time>
. Scott: Cause it's, it's very difficult and you can see it in the video.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:11:00</time>
You, it's, it's difficult to read without something there.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:11:03</time>
Cause it's just white engraving and it's not like it's a, there's dark

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:11:06</time>
underneath, when they engrave it.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:11:08</time>
So when you rub the sand in there, it's almost like a, like you're taking

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:11:12</time>
like a, like a tracing paper, right?

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:11:14</time>
And you're just rubbing a coal on it and you're doing the same thing.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:11:17</time>
You're filling those, those gaps in and all of a sudden you can read the

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:11:20</time>
name, you can read the rank, you can read the regiment, whatever that is.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:11:23</time>
Yeah.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:11:24</time>
And it makes it a lot more clear to read if you're walking by and

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:11:27</time>
you can see that in our videos that some have the sand in it.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:11:30</time>
It's sand from Omaha beach.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:11:32</time>
Now, not all of these men fell on Omaha beach, but it's pretty

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:11:36</time>
significant timeframe from.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:11:39</time>
D day to the end of August.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:11:41</time>
Anyone who basically was killed in theater in that area was buried there at Normandy.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:11:47</time>
And you, you have some even later, but it was really in that general vicinity.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:11:54</time>
And all together, there's 307 unknown, and then the 9, 388 total.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:12:03</time>
But there is a statue there that's pretty famous.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:12:08</time>
We weren't able to get close to it because that's where the ceremony

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:12:11</time>
took place around and they brought out over a hundred World War II

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:12:15</time>
vets and they were all right by the statue, but the statue is beautiful.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:12:19</time>
It's called the spirit of American youth rising from the waves.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:12:23</time>
And it is beautiful.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:12:24</time>
It looks like a young man in the prime of his life, rising from the waves.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:12:31</time>
And so it really is a reminder of the sacrifice of these

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:12:35</time>
men and this for women there.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:12:36</time>
But if these men and women in the prime of their life who gave everything for, for

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:12:43</time>
freedom, for America, for a way of life, and they're buried there at France and so

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:12:50</time>
in France and the French people are just so appreciative and respectful of that.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:12:56</time>
It's a beautiful ceremony, a beautiful cemetery.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:12:58</time>
Things are very much in rows.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:00</time>
It makes it very easy to navigate.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:04</time>
And there is a kind of a center lake that you don't see because they put

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:10</time>
all of our chairs over this lake.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:12</time>
It's like a reflecting pool.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:14</time>
And then it's like a little rotunda in the middle that has some.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:18</time>
words around it.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:19</time>
But basically it's very, it's a very serene, basic layout.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:23</time>
And it just was such an honor to be there.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:26</time>
We had beautiful weather and they had the allied planes flying over

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:32</time>
with the with the invasion markings.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:35</time>
So it just felt very, very good.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:39</time>
reminiscent of that day and a great way to honor these men.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:44</time>
The ceremony was beautiful.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:45</time>
Biden, president Biden spoke, president of France spoke French legions of

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:50</time>
merit were handed out, which is the equivalent of the hour medal of honor.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:13:55</time>
Oh, wow.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:56</time>
And they, he handed out 10, two men who were there on D day.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:13:59</time>
So that was pretty amazing.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:14:02</time>
And then at the very end, they played taps and the F 35 flew over and

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:14:07</time>
they did the missing man formation, which is my favorite formation.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:14:09</time>
, it's basically five planes, and they.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:14:13</time>
Flying out and one, not, not the lead, but the second will shoot straight up.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:14:19</time>
And it's just a beautiful formation if you've ever seen it.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:14:22</time>
But with the F 35 doing it, it was, it was like watching like the bat.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:14:28</time>
mobile.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:14:28</time>
I was like, it's just, it was just so impressive.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:14:31</time>
It was amazing.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:14:32</time>
It was a couple of times it brought tears to my eyes and that was one of them.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:14:36</time>
So in making the video, there were a couple of graves I wanted

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:14:39</time>
to highlight there because there are brothers buried there.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:14:44</time>
There's uncles and nephews.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:14:46</time>
There's a father and son there.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:14:49</time>
And

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:14:50</time>
Now you mentioned that kind of the memorial kind of highlights, men

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:14:54</time>
in the primes, primes of their lives.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:14:56</time>
However, one of the brothers that we're gonna talk about here when he

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:15:02</time>
landed at D-Day was not necessarily in, in the prime of his life.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:15:06</time>
He was out there giving it his all and willing to sacrifice everything.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:15:11</time>
But he specifically was, I think, like the oldest person to actually land

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:15:16</time>
physically and be on the beach at D Day.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:15:19</time>
yeah, so Theodore Roosevelt, the third, who you will hear called

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:15:23</time>
Theodore, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:15:25</time>
He's technically not a junior.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:15:27</time>
He's a third was 56 years old

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:15:30</time>
Yeah, so he was a one star.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:15:31</time>
and he was a one star.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:15:32</time>
He's the highest ranking officer to hit the beach on D Day.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:15:37</time>
And he leads from the front.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:15:39</time>
He is, he really was part of the planning of the evasion.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:15:43</time>
And so he wanted to be out there leading logistics.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:15:46</time>
He dies at 56, a little bit later, July 12th, 1944.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:15:49</time>
So about a month and six days after D Day.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:15:52</time>
And he dies from a heart attack, which It was not uncommon at the time.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:15:56</time>
You're going to see, we've talked about Egan from Masters of the Air.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:15:59</time>
He will die of a heart attack.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:00</time>
These men who are under a lot of stress, you can imagine, plus we don't

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:05</time>
understand the importance of high blood pressure at the time and keeping that

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:09</time>
under control and a low salt diet and those things have not been identified

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:15</time>
yet as what could cause heart disease.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:17</time>
And yes, Theodore Roosevelt will die of a heart attack at 56 years

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:20</time>
old, and he's buried there at the Normandy American Cemetery.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:25</time>
And when I talked about the one soldier from World War One who's buried there

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:30</time>
is his brother, Quentin Roosevelt, who fought in World War One and was killed in

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:35</time>
World War One, was also buried in France.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:38</time>
But Theodore is buried at that cemetery, they move Quentin to be beside him.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:43</time>
So you'll see in the video, Theodore has the Medal of Honor

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:47</time>
marker with the gold lettering.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:49</time>
Quentin's beside him.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:51</time>
Both of them are crosses.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:52</time>
It says, says Roosevelt's and they're one of the sets of brothers

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:56</time>
that are buried side by side.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:16:57</time>
There's 45 sets of brothers in the cemetery.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:17:00</time>
33 are buried side by side and they're one of them.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:17:03</time>
Yeah.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:17:04</time>
So it was interesting because for our listeners, they actually

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:17:06</time>
are open, my opening vignette that they've already heard is a

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:17:10</time>
depiction of when Quentin goes down.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:17:13</time>
And so I, we, I wrote it from the perspective of someone who was flying

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:17:16</time>
with him Quentin had this reputation, and again, this is during world war one.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:17:20</time>
So not long after his father had finished being president.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:17:23</time>
And.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:17:25</time>
He had to fight that reputation of being the president's kid.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:17:27</time>
And then eventually, I guess he did overcome that and was actually

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:17:30</time>
a pretty decent pilot was well respected amongst his peers.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:17:34</time>
And I believe even when he died in aerial combat, I think it was the

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:17:40</time>
Germans who had, who had shot him down, but even those in Germany

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:17:45</time>
actually took notice and expressed their almost condolences, respect.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:17:52</time>
Yeah, respect is probably the best way to say it because of his father and

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:17:56</time>
because of what they knew that the family had endured right at the turn of the

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:18:00</time>
century and coming into into World War

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:18:02</time>
So he was the youngest son.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:18:04</time>
He's the youngest son of the 26th president.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:18:06</time>
He's the first lieutenant at the time.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:18:08</time>
So you can imagine he's young, it's been in less than four years and he's with

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:18:13</time>
the 95th airplane squadron shot down.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:18:17</time>
During World War one with and this is when you get like Bloody Red Baron.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:18:21</time>
This is when aerial Combat is really coming into its own.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:18:25</time>
So he is well respected Because here is basically the leader of America and his

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:18:32</time>
son is in the fight And you're gonna see that often You know Kennedy His

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:18:39</time>
brother is also killed in World War Two.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:18:41</time>
So it is significant that these leaders of America are, their sons

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:18:47</time>
are also out there in the fight.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:18:49</time>
And Theodore Roosevelt's a perfect example of it.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:18:51</time>
He's a general, but leading from the front,

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:18:55</time>
Yeah, and during world and he had actually been in I believe during

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:18:59</time>
World War one as well But he had I think he was he was an army guy, right?

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:19:03</time>
So he wasn't a pilot.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:19:04</time>
So he was he was somewhere

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:19:05</time>
4th Infantry

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:19:06</time>
Yeah, so he was somewhere else fighting during World War one.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:19:08</time>
He ended up getting out He was a politician did some stuff for a while

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:19:12</time>
like Secretary of the Navy and this that and the other and during World War Or

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:19:15</time>
right around the turn of World War Two to came back in and then, he was a one

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:19:19</time>
star and he was out there with Patton and all this crazy stuff and Here he

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:19:24</time>
is and they'll hear it in the second vignette that I have because I write it

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:19:28</time>
from the perspective Of his aid, right?

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:19:33</time>
And he's actually like hiding the fact from the army that he's got

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:19:36</time>
arthritis and he needs a cane, so Here he is Leave it to Teddy Roosevelt's,

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:19:43</time>
I think he was his oldest son.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:19:45</time>
Is Theodore Roosevelt, was Theodore Roosevelt Jr.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:19:48</time>
He was the oldest son.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:19:50</time>
Leave it to him to be just like his father out there, charging

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:19:53</time>
the beaches of Normandy with a cane, and hiding heart problems.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:19:58</time>
I mean, they're, they're those Roosevelt's man.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:20:00</time>
They, they knew how to just say bully and keep going.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:20:04</time>
very much like his

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:20:05</time>
So it's almost, it's such an honor to visit their graves.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:20:10</time>
was really cool.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:20:11</time>
Because of the, we love Teddy Roosevelt.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:20:13</time>
We've covered him on the channel.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:20:14</time>
We've been to his inauguration site in Buffalo.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:20:18</time>
He's the youngest person to ever become president of the United States.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:20:22</time>
And again, leading from the front adventurer and his two sons, his

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:20:28</time>
oldest and his youngest are a Both gave their lives in the war and

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:20:34</time>
they're buried beside each other there at that Normandy American Cemetery.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:20:37</time>
It was an honor to visit both of them.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:20:41</time>
Each telegram I received in early 1944 held the weight of

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:20:44</time>
a family's heartbreak, a mother's tears, and a father's silent grief.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:20:49</time>
But nothing prepared me for the day I received the telegrams about the brothers.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:20:55</time>
It was a warm afternoon when the first telegram arrived.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:20:57</time>
It was brought to me with the usual sense of dread, bracing myself

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:00</time>
for the all too normal verbiage.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:02</time>
We regret to inform you that Sergeant Robert Nyland has been killed in action.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:07</time>
The words seem to hang in the air, heavy and oppressive.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:10</time>
This being his hometown telegraph office for the war effort,

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:13</time>
I had actually known Robert.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:15</time>
He was a good man, brave and kind.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:17</time>
My heart ached for his family, but there was no time to dwell on personal feelings.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:22</time>
Not an hour had passed when another telegram came.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:24</time>
My jaw dropped as I read it.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:27</time>
We regret to inform you that Lieutenant Preston Nyland has been killed in action.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:31</time>
Brothers, both lost to the ravages of war.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:35</time>
I felt a wave of nausea wash over me.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:37</time>
How could I possibly convey this to their family?

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:39</time>
How could any parent bear such news?

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:43</time>
The room seemed to close in around me as I sat at my desk, the two telegrams

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:47</time>
lying before me like silent specters.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:50</time>
I thought of their mother and father, both of whom I knew personally,

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:54</time>
of the unbearable pain that would endure upon receiving these messages.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:21:59</time>
The weight of my duty pressed down upon me, and I felt the crushing

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:22:02</time>
responsibility of being the bearer of such devastating news.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:22:06</time>
I took a deep breath, steeling myself for the task ahead.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:22:09</time>
The Nyland family deserved to know the truth, as painful as it was.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:22:13</time>
As I prepared to deliver the telegrams, I thought of all the

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:22:15</time>
families who had received similar messages, of the countless lives

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:22:19</time>
forever altered by the cruelty of war.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:22:22</time>
It was a sobering reminder of the sacrifices made by so many, and the

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:22:26</time>
incredible strength of the human spirit in the face of unimaginable loss.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:22:31</time>
The Nyland Brothers story would later inspire books and movies on

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:22:34</time>
this dark period of world history, a testament to their bravery and the

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:22:38</time>
profound impact of their sacrifice.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:22:40</time>
But on that day, in the quiet of my office, they were simply two

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:22:44</time>
young men who had given their lives for their country, and my heart

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:22:47</time>
broke for them and their family.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:22:59</time>
Yeah, it was pretty cool.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:23:00</time>
And now one of the next set, another set of brothers that you actually went

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:23:04</time>
to go visit were the Nyland brothers.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:23:07</time>
Now these are the brothers that kind of were part of the

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:23:10</time>
inspiration for Saving Private Ryan.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:23:12</time>
Saving Private Ryan is loosely based on these brothers stories

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:23:15</time>
because it was four brothers and one of them had already was in the Pacific

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:23:22</time>
theater and had been lost at sea.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:23:25</time>
They thought he was killed in action.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:23:28</time>
He was actually captured.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:23:29</time>
And then these two brothers who were buried at the Normandy American

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:23:33</time>
cemetery one was killed on June 7th.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:23:36</time>
The other one was killed on June 6th.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:23:38</time>
So one actually died on D Day.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:23:40</time>
Robert will die on D Day and then Preston dies the next day.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:23:44</time>
And when the mother is getting these telegrams thinking that her son

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:23:48</time>
is missing in action and the two other sons are killed in action,

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:23:52</time>
the army takes notice and doesn't want to present her with a fourth.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:23:57</time>
She has four boys out there.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:23:58</time>
So that's what saving private Ryan is about to get the fourth boy home, right?

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:24:02</time>
They don't want her to have lost all four of her boys in the war.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:24:06</time>
And.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:24:07</time>
That's basically what happens.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:24:09</time>
The fourth son is found.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:24:11</time>
And, he fought through the first couple of days of the Normandy campaign.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:24:15</time>
And then nine days following D Day, he had gone to the 82nd Airborne

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:24:20</time>
Division to see his brother, Bob.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:24:21</time>
And once he arrived there, he was told that Bob had been killed.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:24:25</time>
And then he was shipped back to England and then back to the U.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:24:28</time>
S.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:24:29</time>
So it wasn't like somebody had found him.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:24:30</time>
It wasn't like they searched him.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:24:31</time>
wasn't quite like the movie where they were looking, they sent a unit to go

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:24:35</time>
Yes.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:24:35</time>
He went to find his brother, found out his brother was killed, and that's when

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:24:39</time>
they're like, we need to send you home.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:24:41</time>
And so he ends up getting the bronze star for his service.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:24:45</time>
And then Stephen Ambrose writes about it in Band of Brothers,

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:24:49</time>
and that's where it goes.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:24:50</time>
Saving Private Ryan is loosely based on him.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:24:53</time>
And then the second brother he's imprisoned in the Japanese POW camp.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:24:57</time>
He was captured May 16th, 1944.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:24:59</time>
So less than a month before D

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:25:01</time>
Oh, yeah.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:25:02</time>
So he was already reported.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:25:03</time>
They already thought he was

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:25:04</time>
Yes, they already thought he was gone.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:25:06</time>
And so they did not know that he was a POW at the time.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:25:11</time>
So she ended up getting both of her boys back because he's

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:25:14</time>
liberated May 4th, 1945, right?

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:25:18</time>
About the time the war

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:25:19</time>
is

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:25:20</time>
think he lives till the 80s or something like

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:25:22</time>
Yeah, he lives them to 1984.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:25:23</time>
He dies at 71.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:25:24</time>
So she gets two of her boys back thinking that they're She

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:25:28</time>
wasn't going to get him back.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:25:30</time>
And so the Niland brothers Preston and Bob are buried beside each other.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:25:35</time>
And like I said Bob was killed.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:25:38</time>
He's part of the 82nd Airborne Division.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:25:39</time>
He's killed in action on June 6th.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:25:42</time>
And then Preston, he's part of the 22nd Infantry Regiment and he's killed in

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:25:46</time>
action on June 7th, both at Normandy.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:25:50</time>
And they're right beside each other.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:25:52</time>
It was a very, I won't, I hate to use the term, it was a very popular location.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:25:56</time>
People seemed to know about the Niland brothers.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:25:57</time>
And so there was a lot of people taking pictures

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:26:00</time>
Yeah.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:26:00</time>
I mean, it was the same thing with the Roosevelts.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:26:02</time>
Like even when you were out there filming, there's, like you said, there

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:26:05</time>
was a lot more people there than normal.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:26:07</time>
So you could see where the popular spots were.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:26:10</time>
The Roosevelt's were popular.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:26:11</time>
The Nyland brothers were popular.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:26:13</time>
Some ones, some gents we're going to talk about a little bit later.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:26:16</time>
I think some folks were hovering around there, but this next one that

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:26:19</time>
you have a personal tie to, this one you had actually throughout the

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:26:24</time>
day, I think you would actually hit this one first before the ceremony.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:26:28</time>
And if I remember correctly, Earlier in the day, they were limiting

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:26:33</time>
who all could visit the graves.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:26:34</time>
And so they said, they was like, Hey, this is if you have a family tie of sorts.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:26:39</time>
And so tell us about this, the grave site that you had a personal tie to.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:26:45</time>
Yeah, it was interesting.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:26:46</time>
The beginning of the day, and I want to remind people, there were thousands

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:26:50</time>
of people who came to this ceremony.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:26:52</time>
Thousands.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:26:54</time>
So at the beginning of the day, they were trying to keep people off.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:26:57</time>
off of the graves area and looking for graves and, and commemorating

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:27:03</time>
graves and being able to, being able to pay the respect at people's graves.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:27:07</time>
I didn't want them walking.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:27:08</time>
And I had a conversation with one of the women who were in charge of the cemetery.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:27:12</time>
And I asked her, why, why are you not letting people visit the graves?

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:27:16</time>
They want to pay their respects.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:27:17</time>
And she goes, well, we don't want all the damage that all

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:27:20</time>
these people are going to cause.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:27:20</time>
And I'm like, bring it on.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:27:23</time>
bring, let them be visited.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:27:25</time>
That's what these graves are for.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:27:26</time>
And I'm like, they never limit people visiting graves at Arlington.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:27:31</time>
You can tell which ones are more traveled than others, but that is never a deterrent

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:27:37</time>
to stop people from from paying their respects to their fellow Americans.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:27:42</time>
And I think after having a talk with her, plus she just couldn't stop it.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:27:45</time>
There was so many

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:27:46</time>
people

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:27:46</time>
too many.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:27:47</time>
And I think even your tour guide, because you were with like a tour

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:27:50</time>
group, they're like, we've, we've never seen this many people here

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:27:52</time>
they, yeah, this was the most people they've ever had for a ceremony.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:27:55</time>
So the beginning of the day, I had a talk with the cemetery keepers

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:28:00</time>
and I told them that I'm connected to a Harry Wagner, Lieutenant Harry

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:28:06</time>
Wagner from Penn State University.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:28:08</time>
And Because I was an ROTC student at Penn State University and all of ROTC

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:28:14</time>
students are in one building at Penn State called the Wagner building.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:28:18</time>
And you, you just always knew all of your Penn State classes were there.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:28:22</time>
All your labs were there.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:28:23</time>
Anything you did military related, checking in, when you're a ROTC

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:28:28</time>
student, you get your books there.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:28:29</time>
You, you're basically in the military, but not in the military.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:28:33</time>
So all of your.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:28:34</time>
administration, logistics are all there.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:28:38</time>
So basically I would say I was at the Wagner building pretty much every day.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:28:41</time>
it's been, that building has been named after him for, 50, 60 years now.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:28:47</time>
It's, I don't, I don't know when it was officially dedicated to him.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:28:51</time>
I don't know if it was in the forties or the fifties, but.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:28:54</time>
You think about how many people have done Penn State ROTC over the

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:28:59</time>
years, that's how many people have gone through and learned and started

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:29:04</time>
their military careers in the Wagner

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:29:07</time>
Yes.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:29:08</time>
So it's dedicated in 1960.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:29:10</time>
So it's built in 1958, dedicated 1960.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:29:14</time>
I think they needed a dedicated ROTC building.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:29:18</time>
And they named it for a Penn State graduate who was there at

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:29:22</time>
D Day and gave his life at D Day.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:29:24</time>
. And so to know Harry Edward Wagner was a 1941 Penn State graduate and

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:29:29</time>
he served in the 82nd Airborne and he fought to liberated France on D Day.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:29:34</time>
He was there on June 6th.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:29:36</time>
He was part of the men who jumped early, early morning of June 6th, 1944.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:29:43</time>
Now, He doesn't get killed on D Day.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:29:47</time>
He's actually killed about a month later on June 27th, 1944, but like I said, this

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:29:55</time>
Normandy Cemetery was used pretty much for anybody who was killed in the area

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:29:58</time>
from D Day to about the end of August, September and even people still today.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:30:04</time>
And so it was three weeks after the landing behind enemy lines

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:30:10</time>
that he was actually killed in action on June 28th, 1944.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:30:15</time>
And so his grave is there.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:30:18</time>
And I was able to find it.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:30:20</time>
I was able to walk out to it.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:30:22</time>
with a cemetery representative who brought sand from Omaha

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:30:25</time>
beach,

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:30:26</time>
she had a little bucket.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:30:27</time>
a bucket of sand.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:30:28</time>
And this is when I say, you can't really read the markers

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:30:32</time>
unless something is in it.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:30:33</time>
And then when you put the sand in it and you'll see in the video,

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:30:35</time>
how much of a difference it makes.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:30:37</time>
And so we were able to do that and then we were able to leave a Penn State flag.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:30:40</time>
Each grave was already adorned with an American flag and a French flag, but

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:30:47</time>
I was able to leave a Penn State flag for where I, it meant a lot to me.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:30:50</time>
If you're a Penn Stater, you understand how much this means.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:30:52</time>
It meant a lot to me to be able to do

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:30:54</time>
And the listener, you guys have to understand that Jen was dressed up

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:30:58</time>
in this little kind of pinup style.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:30:59</time>
So she had her hair done up and she had her clothes were very that

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:31:02</time>
yellow was a yellow polka dot.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:31:04</time>
I wore red polka dots

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:31:05</time>
like Rosie the

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:31:06</time>
Red polka dot that day And so she was kind of kind of done up and then

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:31:09</time>
there was like a French TV Station that was there that saw you guys going over

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:31:13</time>
and so they actually followed you guys and they can't be basically interviewed

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:31:16</time>
You briefly afterwards and so we found we actually found the clip or you did,

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:31:21</time>
and I say we, you went and found it.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:31:23</time>
Yeah, it was like local French news.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:31:26</time>
And what was interesting about it is they translate what I'm saying in to French.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:31:32</time>
But they they film Tom Hanks, because Tom Hanks was there with Steven Spielberg, of

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:31:37</time>
course, their connection to World War Two, Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:31:41</time>
But they filmed Tom Hanks and what Tom Hanks felt about the day.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:31:44</time>
And then they cut to me and putting the sand in the grave and then

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:31:49</time>
how I felt about that experience.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:31:51</time>
So I was like, wow, France sees me equivalent to Tom Hanks.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:31:57</time>
It was just just a neat moment because it was so unexpected,

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:32:00</time>
but it meant a lot to you

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:32:01</time>
so

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:32:01</time>
it was just, it was one of, probably the biggest honor I got that day.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:32:07</time>
Probably my whole time there.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:32:09</time>
It was such an honor to do that and to be able to do that for him.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:32:14</time>
Now these, these next couple of folks we're going to talk about,

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:32:17</time>
they're not brothers in the traditional sense, but they are brothers in

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:32:22</time>
the, the, non traditional sense.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:32:24</time>
And that's because they are both, part of, were part of Easy Company

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:32:27</time>
as part of the band of brothers,

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:32:29</time>
Yes, there's four Band of brothers that are buried at this American

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:32:34</time>
Normandy Cemetery and I saw two.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:32:39</time>
Again, we didn't have a lot of time to visit all of them.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:32:42</time>
I would have, but one is depicted in the show.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:32:46</time>
We saw Terrence Salty Harris, and he's depicted in the show when they do

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:32:52</time>
theirthe mutiny in Alderborn and They don't want to be under anymore, and

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:32:59</time>
Harris is transferred out of the unit.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:33:01</time>
Yeah.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:33:01</time>
So if you, if you've, lots of folks have seen Band of Brothers, if you

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:33:04</time>
remember that scene where the NCOs are getting together and they're saying,

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:33:08</time>
we're not going to follow Sobel.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:33:09</time>
So we're all going to sign these memos or the sign this letter

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:33:12</time>
essentially stating and we're going to route it up to chain of command.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:33:15</time>
And then it cuts to the scene with the colonel, I forget the colonel's name.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:33:18</time>
Band of Brothers: I ought to have you all shot.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:33:21</time>
This is nothing less than an act of mutiny while we prepare for

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:33:24</time>
the goddamn invasion of Europe.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:33:26</time>
Sergeant Harris.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:33:28</time>
Sir.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:33:29</time>
Turn in your stripes, collect your gear.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:33:31</time>
You are hereby transferred out of my regiment.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:33:34</time>
Sir.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:33:34</time>
Get out.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:33:35</time>
But he's like, he's I have to have all you guys shot.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:33:37</time>
We're, we're preparing for the goddamn invasion to Normandy.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:33:40</time>
He's yelling at these guys, letting them have it.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:33:42</time>
And then the first person he cuts to that the camera cuts to, he goes,

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:33:46</time>
Sergeant Harris, turn your stripes.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:33:48</time>
You are transferred out of my division.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:33:49</time>
And that's him.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:33:50</time>
that's him.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:33:51</time>
Terrence Harris is 23 years old.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:33:55</time>
He was a part of Easy Company.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:33:56</time>
He wasn't after that, but he does make the jump on D Day, and he is

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:34:00</time>
still part of the 101st Airborne but he ends up losing his life.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:34:03</time>
He is given the

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:34:07</time>
It was an honor to visit him there.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:34:09</time>
So yes, he is depicted in Band of Brothers and he is, he is buried there

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:34:15</time>
at , the Normandy American cemetery.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:34:17</time>
And the other person we saw was

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:34:20</time>
Everett Gray.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:34:22</time>
Gray and he was 22 from California.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:34:26</time>
It's just, he, he's killed June 8th.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:34:28</time>
It's just so amazing to me the ages of these men.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:34:31</time>
That's why it was such a, when that statue talks about the, the sweet,

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:34:36</time>
Youth, like giving the, giving your youth, like the spirit of American

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:34:41</time>
youth it's just such a sacrifice.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:34:43</time>
You're giving your youth away.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:34:45</time>
And like I said, Terrence was 23, Gray's 22.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:34:50</time>
I just, these men never,

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:34:54</time>
did they experience marriage?

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:34:55</time>
They experienced children, like they get so much they never got to do.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:34:58</time>
And for me to be there and to pay my respects to them, I just,

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:35:02</time>
I'm just so honored to have done

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:35:05</time>
Yeah, when you think about it, it really does put things in

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:35:08</time>
perspective because there's thousands upon thousands of men that lost

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:35:11</time>
their lives during World War II.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:35:12</time>
And the vast majority of them are probably going to be in their 20s, and

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:35:16</time>
so when you, when you visit them over there in the location, where they lost

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:35:20</time>
their life in a place like Normandy.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:35:22</time>
It's just that more impactful.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:35:25</time>
Now, the last couple of folks, they are not brothers, but I

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:35:28</time>
would say, I would say that they were probably sisters in a sense.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:35:33</time>
So you're going to have four women in the cemetery, which I love

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:35:39</time>
because it's just so important.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:35:41</time>
Women represent they fought in their respective areas.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:35:45</time>
You have nurses and these women were part of the six triple eight.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:35:48</time>
So the four women at this the American, the Normandy American Cemetery, three

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:35:54</time>
or six, triple eight, one as a nurse.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:35:56</time>
And so I visit two women from the six, triple eight

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:35:58</time>
know, 6888 was, we've talked about them before.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:36:01</time>
We actually probably multiple times.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:36:03</time>
We have, I think we have a full another podcast episode that if I can find

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:36:06</time>
it, I'll put it in the show notes, but they were, the 6888 was the first,

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:36:11</time>
African American women army corps, and it was a central

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:36:16</time>
postal directory battalion.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:36:18</time>
So they were brought in to help with this postal backlog that whatever

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:36:23</time>
mail unit couldn't figure it out.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:36:25</time>
years.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:36:26</time>
It was, I think it was like a year, two years of backlog of mail to

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:36:30</time>
service members out there in Europe.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:36:34</time>
Yeah so not only was this the first all black female unit, right?

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:36:39</time>
So first black female officer, this, this first of its kind, right?

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:36:45</time>
And think about the era in which they are operating, right?

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:36:48</time>
So they get there, they send them over to what?

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:36:51</time>
We may not think right that the outsider who's not involved in the

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:36:55</time>
military and we talked about this When we talked about the six triple

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:36:58</time>
a before Outside the military you're like, well, what's the big deal with

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:37:01</time>
the postal battalion like some backlog mail when you're deployed overseas?

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:37:05</time>
And especially for these men's who were there for years on end, right?

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:37:08</time>
Some of the bandit brothers were there for a couple

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:37:10</time>
Yeah.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:37:10</time>
Not knowing when you're going to come

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:37:11</time>
not knowing when you're going to come home.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:37:12</time>
They're writing letters home.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:37:14</time>
They're hoping to receive letters wherever they are That, you and I have been on,

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:37:18</time>
nine month deployments before and getting a care package or a letter, right?

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:37:22</time>
And nowadays you can get emails.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:37:24</time>
But when we first came in and when you, I first came in, email was not as

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:37:28</time>
common in getting a letter from home with a picture or whatever it is, was

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:37:34</time>
it just lifted your spirits so much and think about, this is world war two.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:37:39</time>
So letters were the only option.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:37:43</time>
That's the only way they could hear from their loved ones, from

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:37:45</time>
their friends, from whatever.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:37:47</time>
And this unit comes in and does some amazing things to turn things

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:37:52</time>
Within months.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:37:53</time>
So they come go to England first within months, they clear out all

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:37:57</time>
the mail in England within a couple

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:37:59</time>
months,

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:37:59</time>
takes three, they were expecting to, for it to take six to

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:38:02</time>
nine months and they did in three.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:38:03</time>
three.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:38:04</time>
And so they were so effective.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:38:05</time>
They sent them to France to the backlog of mail in France.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:38:08</time>
And again, so effective.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:38:10</time>
And they just, really excelled in what they were called to do.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:38:16</time>
And just really, I think just made women in the military, African American in

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:38:22</time>
the women's military made them look so professional and so good at their job.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:38:26</time>
I found a video online and it was, I think it was like Hollywood recognizing

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:38:31</time>
women of the 6888 or something like that.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:38:33</time>
And so it's I don't know if it's Walter Cronkite and Terry Crews,

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:38:36</time>
these kind of well known actors and folks narrating this video, and it

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:38:40</time>
talks about an interaction that the unit had with the visiting general.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:38:44</time>
And this visiting general comes in, and so Major Adams Charity Adams, she was the

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:38:50</time>
first black female commissioned officer.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:38:52</time>
She was in charge of this, this unit.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:38:54</time>
The general visited, She was supposed to have her unit out there for kind of

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:38:58</time>
inspection, so he could see, look and see it in their typical inspection uniforms

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:39:01</time>
or whatever it was, and he gave her a hard time because her entire unit wasn't there.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:39:07</time>
Well, and she was explaining, well, they had their group.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:39:10</time>
How we've been clearing this backlog is because we've been working in shifts and

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:39:14</time>
basically working 24 hours a day But in three shifts throughout the day, right

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:39:18</time>
and then for some reason they just whoever was doing it before I wasn't doing that

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:39:23</time>
and so she pushed back and he threatened he's oh, and Again, this is the 40s.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:39:29</time>
He threatened to have a white officer come in come and take over the unit.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:39:33</time>
And she, she told him right then and there, she said, over my dead body.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:39:38</time>
And what I heard again, this was in the video about this general coming back

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:39:42</time>
later, I think a year later or something like that, after they had already turned

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:39:45</time>
everything around, they were sent off to the next spot to clear more mail somewhere

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:39:49</time>
else, was he actually came back and saw how well she had done, and actually.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:39:56</time>
recognized her for that, recognized her excellence and said that

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:40:00</time>
he was wrong the first time.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:40:01</time>
And I just like, of the time of that era, that's to me, that's so indicative of

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:40:07</time>
what can be accomplished in the military.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:40:10</time>
Even then that's, that's in the crux of that's before really the civil

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:40:14</time>
rights movements and all that stuff.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:40:16</time>
But in the military, you and I have talked about It things just matter

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:40:20</time>
a little bit less when you're in the same uniform you're doing the same

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:40:22</time>
thing You hold yourself to the same standards If you accomplish the mission

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:40:26</time>
and yet other person doesn't or if if you're holding yourself to that

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:40:29</time>
standard you're meeting the mission Leadership is going to be like, yeah,

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:40:32</time>
I don't care what you look like.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:40:33</time>
I

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:40:34</time>
Mm hmm.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:40:34</time>
I don't care what your skin color is We talked about it with tuskegee

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:40:38</time>
airmen that was a big thing for the tuskegee airmen and the military.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:40:43</time>
It's one of the things that I love You is a place for that to thrive and

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:40:47</time>
for that to really demonstrate itself.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:40:50</time>
And so we've talked a lot about them, but let's say that the first first

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:40:54</time>
with Sergeant Dolores Brown, I believe.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:40:56</time>
So what had happened was there was a Jeep accident.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:40:59</time>
There were three of these women from the 6888 that were in a jeep

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:41:03</time>
together and they had a jeep accident.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:41:06</time>
Two of them will die on July 8th, 1945.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:41:09</time>
And Dolores Brown, she'll die July 13th, 1945.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:41:12</time>
She holds on for five days, but then will succumb to her injuries.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:41:16</time>
So again, this is almost a year and a month after D Day.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:41:20</time>
So they're still utilizing this Cemetery 'cause people are still

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:41:24</time>
over in the areas and doing work.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:41:27</time>
And again, they asked the next of kin, would you like them to

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:41:29</time>
be repatriated back to America?

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:41:31</time>
Or would you like them to be buried here with their brothers

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:41:33</time>
and sisters in arms in France?

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:41:35</time>
And that's what they decided.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:41:36</time>
So Dolores Brown will die on July 13th, 1945.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:41:41</time>
You have Mary Barlow who would die.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:41:43</time>
died July 8th, 1945, and Mary Bankston, who died July 8th, 1945, as well.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:41:50</time>
And they're all, I have 23, 22 and 24 years old.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:41:57</time>
It was, it was really just neat to be able to show what these women did and

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:42:01</time>
show that they're buried next to the men who were right there in, in the theater

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:42:06</time>
or the, the theater of war with them.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:42:09</time>
And there's 147 African Americans in the Normandy American Cemetery.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:42:14</time>
There's 20 Native Americans there.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:42:17</time>
So it is, again, I like the representation it has of World War II.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:42:22</time>
It is a World War II cemetery, but the representation of America

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:42:27</time>
and the people who were serving the country at the time is there.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:42:31</time>
Yeah.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:42:32</time>
So it was, The video is great.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:42:34</time>
I was so glad you got to get out there and see the people that you did.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:42:38</time>
You really, you made the most of it because there's a lot of people

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:42:41</time>
there and you were a little bit beholden to your tour group sometimes.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:42:44</time>
So you did, I think you did a great job.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:42:46</time>
And for folks who are curious when this, by the time this airs, that

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:42:49</time>
video will have already posted.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:42:50</time>
So I encourage you guys to go check it out.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:42:52</time>
I will say it is an honor to go there.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:42:55</time>
If you're an American, And you want to be in a place where America is so

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:43:01</time>
honored and so respected by a country.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:43:06</time>
The people of Normandy respect and love Americans and the way

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:43:11</time>
that cemetery is cared for and the way I felt in that cemetery being

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:43:16</time>
able to honor my fellow Americans.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:43:18</time>
It was just a feeling that I am, I was proud to do.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:43:22</time>
It can't be replicated.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:43:23</time>
It's there waiting for you if you'd like to go visit.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:43:26</time>
But it is only Americans in that grave, in that cemetery, and it is an honor

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:43:32</time>
to, as an American, to visit them there in their final resting place.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:43:41</time>
As a general's aide, I had seen many officers come and go, but

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:43:44</time>
Major Charity Adams was different.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:43:46</time>
Not only was she the first Black woman to become an officer in the Women's Army

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:43:50</time>
Auxiliary Corps, but she also commanded the 6888th Central Postal Directory

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:43:56</time>
Battalion, an all Black, all female unit tasked with the monumental job of sorting

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:44:00</time>
through a massive backlog of mail for U.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:44:03</time>
S.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:44:03</time>
troops in Europe during World War II.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:44:06</time>
The job was crucial for morale, and the General was keen to see

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:44:09</time>
how this unique battalion was faring with such a monumental task.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:44:14</time>
We arrived at the Postal Facility in France.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:44:19</time>
The General's expression was stern, his eyes scanning the

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:44:21</time>
rows of women working diligently.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:44:23</time>
Major Adams was at the forefront, her presence commanding yet approachable.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:44:26</time>
She greeted us with a salute and a confident smile.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:44:29</time>
Welcome, General, she said.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:44:31</time>
We are honored to have you here today.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:44:33</time>
The General nodded curtly, clearly reserving judgment.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:44:36</time>
Show me what you've accomplished, he said.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:44:39</time>
As we walked through the facility, I couldn't help but notice the efficiency

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:44:42</time>
and precision with which the women worked.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:44:45</time>
The rows of mailbags had, had Once overwhelmed, the space

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:44:48</time>
were now neatly organized.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:44:49</time>
The women moved with purpose, their faces focused and determined.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:44:54</time>
Major Adams explained their process, detailing how they had streamlined

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:44:57</time>
the sorting and delivery operations working in phases 24 hours a day.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:45:02</time>
We started with nearly 4 million pieces of undelivered mail, she said.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:45:05</time>
Now we're down to just a fraction of that, with new mail going out

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:45:08</time>
almost as soon as it comes in.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:45:10</time>
The general listened intently, his expression softening as

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:45:13</time>
he observed the progress.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:45:13</time>
It was clear that Major Adams and her battalion were far exceedingly busy.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:45:19</time>
After the tour, the General pulled me aside.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:45:22</time>
This is impressive work, he admitted.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:45:25</time>
I had my doubts about an all black, all female unit handling

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:45:28</time>
such a task, but they've proven themselves more than capable.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:45:32</time>
Later that day, as we prepared to leave, the General approached

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:45:35</time>
Major Adams once more.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:45:36</time>
Major Adams, he said.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:45:39</time>
His tone now warm and respectful, I want to commend you and your battalion for

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:45:42</time>
the outstanding job you've done here.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:45:44</time>
You've not only met but surpassed my expectations.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:45:47</time>
The work you've done is critical to the morale of our troops, and you should

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:45:50</time>
be proud of what you've accomplished.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:45:53</time>
Major Adams stood a little bit taller, her eyes shining with pride.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:45:56</time>
Thank you, General, she replied.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:45:59</time>
As we departed, I couldn't help but feel a deep sense of admiration

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:46:02</time>
for Major Adams and the women of the 6888, as it became known.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:46:07</time>
They had faced immense challenges and skepticism, but had risen above it all

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:46:10</time>
to perform their duty with excellence.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:46:12</time>
And who knows, maybe they'll inspire future soldiers to join and serve

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:46:17</time>
when they hear of the amazing work.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:46:19</time>
They did in these dungy warehouses of World War II France.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:46:25</time>
Thank you for listening to talk with issue podcasts.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:46:28</time>
And please reach out to us.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:46:29</time>
And if you want to chat with us, you can go to the history road trip.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:46:33</time>
com.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:46:34</time>
That's the history road trip.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:46:36</time>
com.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:46:36</time>
And, and that will be a place that we can actually converse a little

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:46:39</time>
bit about particular episodes.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:46:41</time>
So I'm going to, and not just with us, you can chat with other people who

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:46:45</time>
are listening to the podcast as well.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:46:46</time>
So go to the history road trip.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:46:49</time>
com.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:46:49</time>
Now, if you know someone else that might enjoy this podcast,

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:46:51</time>
please share it with them.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:46:52</time>
them, especially if you think today's topic would interest them, shoot them

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:46:55</time>
a text and tell them to look us up.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:46:57</time>
We rely on you, our community to grow, and we appreciate you all every day.

<cite>Scott:</cite>
<time>00:47:01</time>
We'll talk to you next time.

<cite>Jenn:</cite>
<time>00:47:02</time>
Thank you.

The Story