Ep 10 ｜ Rishi Sharma ｜ The Glenn Beck Podcast
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 8 minutes
Words per Minute
169.71422
Summary
On D-Day, June 14th, 1941, 16 million Americans answered the call. Many years later, they would be known as the greatest generation. This was the thought that was rolling around and bouncing off Rishi Sharma s head when he was just a sophomore in high school. He began riding his bike to retirement homes to talk to veterans. He started a GoFundMe account in 2016, and he raised nearly $200,000. Ever since then, Rishi has traveled to 47 different states, Canada and the United Kingdom to interview at least one World War II combat veteran every day until the last one passes away.
Transcript
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It was a day of infamy for our country unlike any other.
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Many years later, they would be known as the greatest generation.
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I don't know what you were doing when you were 21, but I wouldn't consider myself a part of any good generation, let alone greatest generation.
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The average age of World War II combat troop on D-Day was 19 to 26 years old.
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Today, the average age for those brave men and women is 92.
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500 veterans from our greatest generation die every day.
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And today, there are only about half a million World War II veterans still alive.
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That's 500,000 stories that soon will be gone for good.
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This was the thought that was rolling around and bouncing off Rishi Sharma's head when he was just a sophomore in high school.
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He started documenting every single unique story that he could one by one.
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But the scope of this mission was just too big for a high schooler's limited means.
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So, he started a GoFundMe account in 2016, and he raised nearly $200,000.
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Ever since then, Rishi has traveled to 47 different states, Canada and the United Kingdom.
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His mission is to interview at least one World War II combat veteran every day until the last one passes away.
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He has answered the call to tell the stories of the men and women that were his age when they set out to defend our nation's freedom.
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So, tell me about the interviews, the ones that really stand out to you.
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Yeah, I mean, I've interviewed just over 900 veterans so far, but there are definitely a few that really, you know, play in your mind after you've interviewed the veteran.
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And one in particular is a veteran who I interviewed out in Pennsylvania in the Pittsburgh area named Mr. Florentine.
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I was born in New Brighton, Pennsylvania, January 21st, 1926.
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And at 16 years old, he was going in first wave on Tarawa, which is called the B-8-Tow Atoll.
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And basically, it's an island that's 800 feet across wide and just a mile long.
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And 3,000 Marines were killed and wounded in a three-day battle there.
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And Mr. Florentine, as he went in on the landing craft, his sergeant, Sergeant Yoakam, kept telling everyone to keep their heads down because they were taking on enemy fire.
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And the way Mr. Florentine was saying it, you could feel like you were there.
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He gets up, picks his head up, and that's the first sign of combat by seeing him.
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He got his head shot off and landed right on my chest.
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I'm holding my tripod and I'm screaming, get him off of me, get him off of me.
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But, you know, he volunteered and he said towards the latter part of the interview that despite
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how tough it was and how horrible his experiences were, he would do it again.
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And he's glad that he went through it because he knows how bad the world would have been if
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A lot of these guys, I mean, they didn't come home and tell their stories.
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It's not like it, it is kind of now where they didn't, my uncle Leo, well, landed on the
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Nobody knew about his service in World War II until I came and he's 80 at the time.
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Uh, and I said, so Uncle Leo, tell me, well, what were you doing in World War II?
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He had, I got into the car and I said, your Uncle Leo to my wife, your Uncle Leo's amazing.
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How many of the people that you're talking to are still like that, have not shared this?
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So the vast majority of the World War II, I mean, all the interviews I do are with combat
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That's the focus, uh, World War II combat veterans.
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And the vast majority of them, I'm the first person that they've really opened up to in
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And, you know, and that's a, that's a really precarious position to be in, but it's very
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And there are three things that really helped me when I'm doing the interviews with the World
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Uh, I just turned 21, but, uh, I'm roughly the same age the veterans were when they were
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Uh, the second thing is I do a lot of research before each interview.
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So I know the difference between the second Marine division or what the 101st Airborne
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did, or the difference between a company and a platoon.
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And, you know, having that basic knowledge really makes it a lot easier for the veterans
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to open up because it's hard enough to talk about the worst days of your life, but it's
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even harder when you have to explain every little intricate detail to a civilian who doesn't
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Um, but the most important factor, sir, is that I'm not related to any of the veterans.
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And they're able to talk to me as if I'm one of the guys and they're able to really talk
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about things that they wouldn't want their family to know about, you know, because in
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It's seeing your friends getting killed and it's killing people.
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I don't like to talk about killing somebody because it hurts me because, you know, it's
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not like, you know, there's one German, I'll talk about that one.
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One kid, he lay in there dead and the guys went through the pocket and everything else.
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He looked like American because he had only thing he didn't look, he had German uniform on.
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And, and the kids went through his pocket and he threw all his stuff out.
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And the photographs was of one of his mother and his sister.
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And then, and then I said to myself, just killed their son.
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And the veterans need to know how grateful people are that they were willing to go through
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And so, um, a lot of the veterans, uh, when, when we start talking about the war, it's not
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A lot of them are really eager to share things, things that they felt that maybe they would
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have to censor when they're talking, you know, to a family member.
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That's why with all the interviews, it's just me and the veteran in the room.
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Uh, I request that the family members just let us be alone because if there was a family
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member there, uh, when I started doing interviews initially, the veterans would, uh, listen to
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my question, look at the family member and then answer my question.
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And it was so obvious that they were censoring themselves.
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And I just didn't want them to be put in that position because they shouldn't feel ashamed
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that they had to kill people, you know, because when they came home from the war, PTSD was
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not diagnosed, they were just told to man up and move on.
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And for the vast majority of them, they did, uh, they consumed themselves with work or family
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What's the, what's the interview that sticks out to you that you think, I can't believe this
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person has lived with this and has felt this way for this long and hasn't said anything.
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So I, I interviewed one veteran who really didn't open up about his personal story until
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Uh, he, he was a twin brother, um, and they both served in the war together.
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And this was out in Ohio, the veteran who I interviewed.
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And in World War II, there was a story about the Sullivan brothers.
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There was five brothers in the Navy who were all put on the same ship.
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And during, uh, the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, which is a big Island in the Pacific, uh, the
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The Juno was the name of the ship and all five brothers were killed.
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And so after that incident happened and it made the national news back home in the U.S., uh,
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the army or the military rather, uh, made a new order saying that brothers cannot be in the
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same units. Um, but the two twin brothers, they volunteered after Pearl Harbor for the army to be
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in the infantry and they were separated during basic training. And they were so miserable because
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they, I mean, they're the bestest of friends. They grew up as twins that their mother wrote a letter
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to FDR. And I mean, I doubt FDR read it, but someone in the white house got the letter of her
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requesting that they'd be put in the same unit. And it was granted. And they were put in the same
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unit, uh, and they finished training and they went overseas. They were part of the 87th Infantry
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Division, which is called the Golden Acorn. They got there right during the Battle of the Bulge,
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which was the last German offensive in the Ardennes. And basically the story goes, uh, the two twin
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brothers were amazing soldiers. Uh, I call them, uh, the dream team because, uh, they were both
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bazooka men. They were part of a bazooka team and they received the silver star, both of them for
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knocking out three German tanks, uh, three German mortar positions and two machine gun nests all in a
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day. Uh, uh, I mean, there's a lot more to that, but you know, basically that's what it was. The two of
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them worked together on their own and they knocked out all these positions. And about a week later,
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uh, they were running through a field together and they were under enemy fire, German fire from a
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machine gun nest. And he was running to my right front and I saw him go down. I don't know whether
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machine gun or got him or what. I never did find out, uh, how bad the wound was, except he was gone.
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And, uh, I was able to pray with him and talk with him for a few minutes. And from then on,
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there was a sniper who was trying to get me. And so under enemy fire, he's performing last rites to
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his brother who's dying from a stomach wound. And then before he finishes the last rites, a sniper,
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a German sniper shoots his brother in the neck. And he said to me that at that point that he lost his
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faith. And as he said, at that moment, I lost my faith. And he finished the war. He ended up being
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transferred out of the infantry, uh, into a combat engineer outfit just because of how much it had
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messed with him. You know, he, he was not able to perform like he did before his brother's death.
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Um, but the really amazing thing about that story is that he refound his faith after the war.
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Uh, and he's a very religious man. And what's interesting is he has a list of people. He showed
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me a book, uh, of names that he writes down that he prays for every day that they are, that he hopes
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that they're all doing well and that they're healthy and alive and people who have passed on,
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he just prays for them and they're, they're so on. It was just, you know, someone who has every reason
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to be upset at the world around him, right? Has no reason to even get up and be happy. His best friend
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was killed. You know, he had to kill people. And yet every day he tries to make it the best day
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ever. And he's so friendly. He, everyone in the community knows him. And, you know,
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to be honest, sir, that's not a unique story. The unique thing about the World War II generation
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is that every single day of their lives has been about other people. Uh, they've never really had a
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day to themselves. They grew up in the great depression. A lot of them quit school at 12 or 13
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to put food on their table, you know, get a job as a shoeshine or a paper boy. Um, their country is
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attacked, you know, suddenly and viciously by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor. And I've interviewed so
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many veterans who literally changed their birth certificates to make themselves older, to get into
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the service, or they lied about their age just to get in. And they joke that the only time someone
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would do that today is to get out of doing something. And they joke about it, but it's
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absolutely true. And I'm ashamed to say that my generation is really not up to par when it comes to
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the World War II generation, because they volunteered to put themselves in a position. It's not like they
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wanted to die, but they were willing to put themselves in that position. And they go on to fight in the
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worst war in the history of humanity. 70 million people killed worldwide from 1939 to 1945.
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They have to see their friends getting killed. They have to kill people. They have to live out
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of foxholes. They have to worry if their plane's getting shot out of the air and blown up. They
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have to worry if they're going to sink in the middle of the ocean, you know, and they come home
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and all they want is their jobs back. You know, it's not like they want any valor or parades. Most of the
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veterans really didn't even come home to parades. Because what had happened is the veterans who
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were over in the European theater, when that war ended, the war with Japan was still going on.
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So a lot of the replacements, the new replacements in the European theater immediately got shipped
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away from there back to the U.S. to prepare to invade Japan. And so they ended up getting to go
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home a lot earlier than the people who had been there for four or five years. But the point is they
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came home and they just raised families. And they were, you know, were pillars in their community,
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are pillars in their community. I mean, that generation put man on the moon, you know.
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Built America for what it was known for in its greatest apex.
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Literally. I mean, they literally created the pillars of our society today.
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And they came back with, I don't remember what it's called, the duck pin that they could wear
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that allowed them to wear the uniform because they didn't have clothes.
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Right? Well, what is that pin called? Do you remember?
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It's because, you know, do not think that they were just, you know, out in the town.
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But that's literally, that is the clothes that they had.
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Because they didn't have anything else. And there was no really clothes that they could
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afford or that were in the stores at that time when they came back.
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I mean, and the thing is, though, what's hard for people to comprehend, I feel, is that
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410,000 Americans were killed in the war. I mean, that's a big number. It's such a big
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number that I could say a million and it wouldn't make a difference because it's just too abstract.
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But what really, you know, plays on my mind is each one of those casualties, those men who
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were killed, the boys, I should say, you know, the average age was like 19 getting killed.
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They had a mom and a dad. They had a pet dog named Spot. They had a girlfriend. They
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cheated on some math test. They had this whole life and a personality. All these emotions.
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I can tell you one thing you want to know. A fellow, a fellow and I was real close buddies.
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He's a B.A.R. man. You know what that is, I told you. And I was an assistant, but we
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changed off. We was advancing towards the Germans. They pulled back. We didn't know. The whole
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company was advancing. And we seen a bunch of Germans out there probably pretty close
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the 500 yards. But they seen us at the same time. Well, side of the road, there was grass. So when
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they seen us, they all went in that grass. My partner, that B.A.R., he set it up and he went
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to fire and he was right in that grass. And you could hear him screaming, hollering. He was hitting
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them. But they preached to you and they preached to you. With a machine gun, don't shoot very
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many, many run, move. He got so carried away, he didn't move. And I was probably five feet
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from him. They cut him right down on the machine gun. It took me a long time to get over. It
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still does. You see what I mean? He got so carried away, he didn't move, see? They figured
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out where he's at. It brings you right back there. But I know the trouble. I know the trouble.
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He knew he was doing a lot of good. He was killing them, but they soon figured out where
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What did they have that you didn't have or your generation doesn't have? Why is there that
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difference? Have you figured that out? Why is it that you just said your generation wouldn't do
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It's a good question. I wish I had the answer. You know, I'm obviously biased. I don't have any
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friends my own age. All my friends are World War II veterans, right? The people who I look up to,
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the people who I talk to for just to call for advice, who I visit, it's all World War II veterans.
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But what I do remember from my, you know, in high school and things like that,
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the World War II generation, they had to work for what they have or what they got, you know?
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There, it wasn't, things weren't just handed to them, which sounds quite cliche to say, but it's true.
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You know, I think today with social media and the use of the smartphones, at the top of a button,
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you can order a taxi, at the top of a button, you can order food. It's this whole instant gratification
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that carries on from the phone into real life. So people become a lot more impatient with one
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another, a lot more aggravated. I don't know if you've, I don't know if you've heard this theory,
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but part of that came from the greatest generation. When they came home,
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it had been so long since they had anything and they didn't want their kids to go through any
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struggle. And so they came back home. They worked hard. Kid wants ice cream. I'm getting them ice
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cream because there was no ice cream when I was growing up. And so they, well, they saved us.
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They also put us on this track where their kids were, were doted on because of their life.
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You're absolutely right. I mean, they grew up, that generation grew up in the great depression
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and in the worst war in human history. So when they had children, the biggest issue that their
00:21:22.080
kids had, the baby boomer generation is if they had a pimple on prom night, right? It was the happy
00:21:26.640
days kind of generation. And then when they have kids, you know, they're already one generation
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removed from the bloodshed and sacrifice of the 1930s and forties. And then when they had kids,
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my generation, you know, what's world war two is, you know, what's on their mind. And
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while I would agree that in a way it is the veterans, I don't think, I don't think they did
00:21:47.160
on purpose. No, no, no, they did. It was logical. It's logical. It's human to do what they did,
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but we have become generation after generation more and more disconnected from that, which is
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odd because we've never been able to access information at a faster rate. We have literally
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all this information at our fingertips. In reality, I think from a logical standpoint, one would think
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that this youngest generation should know the most about world war two and that kind of thing
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because they have all the information there. But I really, I mean, to go back to your original
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question, what the difference is, I think a lot of it is just about upbringing. People today,
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it's a very me, me, me kind of world. And like a good example is the front facing camera on a
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smartphone. I think that's going to go down in history as one of the worst inventions because it
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gives people a false sense of that every single thought that they have deserves to be heard and
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everyone should listen to it. And let me take a million selfies, let everyone see what I'm doing.
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Whereas the world war two generation, it's not about me. What can I do for you? How can I help
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you? You know, it, it's just not really no other way to say it. It's like you came from another
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planet. Where, where did you come from? How did this happen to you? I know you were young,
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you were fascinated by world war two, you learned everything you could, but that's usually where it
00:23:16.060
ends. Yeah. I mean, to be very honest, I mean, ever since I was a little kid,
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I've always been interested in world war two. All I ever wanted to be was a Marine. But when I
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thought of a Marine, I thought of an 18 year old with nothing but the shirt on his back and a rifle
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in his hand fighting in the jungles of Guadalcanal or fighting in the sands of Iwo Jima, you know,
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this good versus evil fight. And obviously no war is just black and white, but there was something
00:23:43.220
so altruistic about that war and the men who fought in it. That one was pretty black and white.
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That was really good versus evil. Absolutely. And so, you know, that fascination, I mean,
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I would read books about the matter, as you said earlier. I mean, I watched movies, but
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I've just always had a feeling about the veterans. And as I got older, I lost interest in the joining up
00:24:05.640
with the military, but I never lost interest in the veterans. And so I just, you know, I started
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reading personal memoirs from veterans and I started to call them up after I read the memoir,
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because it's so easy to find information now online. And it was the coolest feeling in the
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world. How old were you when you made the first phone call? Oh, I think I was 16. Did you tape it?
00:24:27.400
No, no. It was just out of fascination. I mean, I just, I had read this veteran's book. His name
00:24:32.740
was Lyle Buch. And he got the Distinguished Service Cross. And during the Battle of the Bulge,
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basically his platoon was credited for stopping a major part of the Battle of the Bulge. About 19 men
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stopped 500 Germans and he was the platoon leader. I just read his book and I just looked up his number
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and I called him and I just started to talk to him. Did you say, are you the guy?
00:24:55.540
Well, the funny thing is I, uh, he was in the Midwest and I'm in California. And so it was
00:25:03.800
about, I was so excited when I read his book that when I found his number, I called around 11 o'clock.
00:25:10.320
Oh my gosh. So it's like one or two o'clock in the morning. Yeah. And it was really early over there.
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And I told myself, maybe I should wait, but I was just too excited. I had to. Did he talk to you at
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the time? He said, can you please call back in the morning? That's so funny. And then, uh, we spoke and
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it was just such a lovely thing. And that's what really made me realize that I could talk to these
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people. You know, they're out there. It's not like stupid celebrities where there's a gated, you know,
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thousand dates you have to go through. You know, in reality, it shouldn't be like that. You know,
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there should be a line of people at every retirement home banging on the door, wanting to go in and
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embrace all that knowledge and wisdom that each one of those people carry. You know,
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you can go up to any World War II veteran. You can ask them anything about the past 100 years
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and you'll get a firsthand answer as a response. But after I talked to him, I started riding my bike
00:26:00.380
to the local retirement home and I interviewed every single veteran there. And I just, I loved it.
00:26:05.980
And, uh, I then started, uh, to ditch class to go do interviews because I was learning more from
00:26:12.300
the veterans than I was in school. Um, and around that time, the local, uh, paper did a story
00:26:19.340
and people started calling me, you know, and saying, you know, my dad's a World War II veteran
00:26:23.600
or my neighbor's a World War II veteran. And so I just, it was just very natural the way it worked
00:26:28.540
out. I started making appointments because I was just so fascinated. Of course, all these were
00:26:32.780
recorded. The radius that I was traveling in just kept getting bigger and bigger. And by this time I
00:26:38.280
started to drive. And then, uh, around the same time I graduated high school, the Associated Press did
00:26:45.440
the story about my mission, which really helped get the word out. And then from that point onward,
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I mean, I got like 3000 emails in a day from people all across the country saying, you know,
00:26:55.440
I know a World War II veteran or, you know, this and that, or, you know, you should, you should come
00:26:59.680
here. You should come there. And I just, I figured out this is what, this is what I'm going to do.
00:27:04.560
And I made my mission then that I'm going to interview at least, uh, as many World War II combat
00:27:10.400
veterans every single day until the last one passes away. When we got to Holland,
00:27:15.360
we were short of men because several had been, uh, wounded or killed. And so we had some reinforcements
00:27:25.360
sent to us. And one of these was a young man called Robbie, Robbie Robinson, uh, which he,
00:27:33.280
uh, he talked to me. I think he looked upon me as a, as a father figure. Um, and, but he was very
00:27:41.840
scared. He was scared he was going to get killed. I said, well, you stick with me, Robbie. I said,
00:27:46.080
you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll be all right. I couldn't say he wouldn't get killed. But anyhow,
00:27:51.920
one day we were advancing across a field and there was a, um, a sergeant and there was, uh, Robbie was
00:28:04.800
between the sergeant and myself. And we, uh, apparently there was a, a German self-propelled gun,
00:28:11.840
uh, was hidden in some trees across the field and, and, uh, uh, it, it fired at us. One shell hit,
00:28:21.600
hit the road in front of us and Robbie said, oh, I've been hit. So I, uh, undone his tunic and he had
00:28:30.800
been hit. Uh, uh, and he died within a few, few seconds in, in, in my arms. Yeah.
00:28:37.840
What do you, what do you hope to do with this amazing archive?
00:28:46.400
So to be very honest with you, sir, my focus is just getting the veterans interviewed. What I do
00:28:51.120
with the interviews, they're all filmed interviews. I meet the veteran, I film, interview him. I put it
00:28:55.640
on a DVD and then I mail it to him for him and his family. It's really keeping one. Yeah. I keep
00:29:01.480
copies of them all. Um, at this point in time, you know, I'm just one person. My focus is just getting
00:29:07.620
the veterans documented. Ideally, you know, we, I also donate to like oral history museums and I
00:29:13.220
published some of them online with the veterans permission, but I really don't know. I, I mean,
00:29:19.220
the point of the interviewing and recording it is so that 200 years from now, the future generations
00:29:26.020
will still be able to have the honor and privilege of getting to know literally the greatest men who've
00:29:30.900
ever walked on this face of the earth. Like I've gotten to know them. And so that their stories
00:29:36.260
will not be forgotten. So he, Ozzy got a hold of that and, uh, hey, you guys back up and give us a pull. We're stuck.
00:29:45.780
And he took my hat and it had the radio in there. And that tank back, started backing up.
00:29:56.980
And that sniper and they nailed him behind the head and blew the whole top of his head off.
00:30:07.540
Oh, no, he, no, he, you can't describe it. It's just, he fell down and he just laid there and shook his nerves,
00:30:17.300
you know. And, uh, I went and rolled him over and from here on his head was gone.
00:30:25.860
And just, just, and the medics come right away and says, who's hit up there? I says, Ozzy.
00:30:35.700
And so one of the medics jumped up and got him and laid him on the, uh, grass there and looked at me
00:30:46.420
and says, he's gone. And he says, his top of his head's gone. So that was it. Then we started trying
00:30:57.220
to find a sniper. We never did find him. Hell, he could have been a half a mile off because he had
00:31:09.380
What was going on in your head? This is, you know, your first day.
00:31:20.580
I'll admit, you kind of put yourself in that position.
00:31:27.220
This could happen to me, so. But then you go on.
00:31:35.460
Oh, I'd be lying to you if I wasn't scared. Yes, I was scared.
00:31:45.700
You don't realize as young as you are and as active, you know, active as you are,
00:31:54.820
that this could happen to you until something like that shows you it could happen.
00:32:24.420
have learned besides the history? What is it that you have said?
00:32:38.100
wisdom that nobody, nobody has the opportunity to just, is there a pattern of something that they've,
00:32:46.420
that they've learned through their life? Or is there something that you have,
00:32:58.100
when I was younger, I was really self-conscious about how I looked, you know, middle school age,
00:33:02.260
right? I think everyone is, but I was really self-conscious with how I looked and, you know,
00:33:07.220
Um, as I started to interview the veterans, you know, I, like I said, all the focus,
00:33:13.380
the majority of each interview is focused on combat. And so the biggest thing that I've learned
00:33:19.540
from the veterans is perspective. Um, and how that, you know, although you're not having internet
00:33:26.180
connection may seem like a big issue or being stuck in traffic is the end of the world. It's not.
00:33:32.020
And, and I can always go back to that because I've met guys who literally saw their best friends
00:33:36.660
getting killed right next to them. Or I've met people that had to bayonet someone just in front
00:33:40.900
of them just to survive, you know? And so me, you know, uh, not having internet access is not a big
00:33:48.660
issue. I mean, I remember one example is my first out-of-state trip was to Oregon and, you know,
00:33:55.140
I'm from sunny California and I was packing for the trip and it was like 90 degrees in California.
00:34:01.540
And my mom put, uh, some winter clothes in the car cause it was in fall. And I said,
00:34:07.060
why would you put winter clothes in there? And I just put it back in my room. My first day in
00:34:10.980
Oregon, it snowed. And at that time I was living out of the car, you know, I just put the back seat,
00:34:16.740
I would just sleep in the back seat and I had no blankets or anything. And I was freezing. I mean,
00:34:21.780
it was, it was hard to sleep, but I thought to myself, you know what? The veteran who I interviewed
00:34:26.900
earlier, uh, during the day was in the battle of the bulge and his feet were literally frostbitten.
00:34:34.180
He had toes removed because of how cold it was. I can't complain about, you know, being mildly,
00:34:39.620
mildly uncomfortable on the back of my car. I mean, a lot of little things like that,
00:34:44.660
like what I, I think a lot of people really worry about blemishes or how they look to be very honest
00:34:49.460
with you. I mean, hope it, I hope it doesn't happen, but I can have a huge scar right here.
00:34:55.140
And I don't think it would bother me because I'm alive. And I think that's, I mean, what's
00:35:02.580
the veterans really try to make this point stick is that life is about the people you meet and how
00:35:09.380
they make you feel and the experiences you had. You know, no one's going to care about how many
00:35:14.420
Facebook friends you had or what witty Twitter post you made or how many Instagram followers you had.
00:35:18.900
It's about real experiences that you have with people around you and making the most of your
00:35:23.860
life and trying to help as many people and making the world a better place than it was
00:35:28.740
before you were here. I mean, that's what they really impart is
00:35:34.500
you have a purpose in life, make the most of your life and try to help other people.
00:35:49.380
Oh, absolutely. I, one of the questions I ask is that, uh, I didn't mean to cut you off.
00:35:55.540
Um, uh, so the way the interviews are structured, sir, I mean, it's really just a conversation, but
00:36:02.900
the loose outline, you know, we talk about their growing up years in the depression,
00:36:07.060
how they got into the service. Then the majority of it is on combat, what they saw, what they did,
00:36:11.780
what they went through, their living conditions, being under enemy fire. And then, uh, one part of
00:36:17.300
the interview is what I call the reflection period, which are just, you know, common questions I ask
00:36:21.780
every single veteran, you know, what life advice do you want to give to future generations? If you were
00:36:26.340
to give me some advice for my life, what would you tell me? Were you afraid of getting killed when you
00:36:30.740
were in the war? Are you afraid of death now? You know, what do you believe happens after you pass?
00:36:35.700
Um, how do you want to be remembered as what kind of person? But one of the, those reflection
00:36:40.820
questions is what would you want to say to the men who were killed in the war? And I was shocked
00:36:49.060
when I first started to hear, it's a very common answer, but basically the veterans say, you know,
00:36:53.700
I wish you were here. I miss you. They'll talk about their friends who were killed and they then say,
00:36:59.700
you died in vain, you died for nothing. It was worthless. Um, and you know, although they definitely
00:37:07.540
got rid of the immediate evil, right? During the time with Germany and Japan, a lot of the veterans
00:37:13.620
have a feeling now that what was the point of what they went through if people aren't even going to
00:37:19.300
acknowledge it and learn from those sacrifices. Um, a lot of them, it's really sad to be very honest,
00:37:27.060
because I feel that I'm a part, I am a part of that younger generation. And I'm a part of it too.
00:37:32.020
I mean, and we're 30 years apart. I mean, it's not like they're talking directly to us, but I still
00:37:37.780
take responsibility. But the world that we are living in today was not the world that the veterans fought
00:37:45.660
for. And it makes me sad as well to think. What did they fight for?
00:37:49.780
I mean, you could say like, you know, cliche words like freedom and democracy and all that kind of
00:37:56.980
stuff. Tell me what they really fought for. I think the veterans of World War II fought for
00:38:02.180
a country where anyone from anywhere can be anything without any fear of repercussion.
00:38:08.900
Um, where we can wake up in a world where our house isn't bombed out every single day, which is
00:38:15.220
true. Or we can go up to anyone, say whatever we want without any fear that there's going to be some
00:38:21.220
big brother government coming to silence us, which I know earlier today you talked about. I mean,
00:38:26.820
well, there are other organizations that do the same thing.
00:38:29.140
We're just turning into mobs on each other. I don't like what you say, so I have a right to silence you.
00:38:35.780
Which is not the way to go about it. You can't mute something you don't like. You discuss it.
00:38:40.900
And intelligent people are obviously going to choose the right side to be on. But you just,
00:38:46.980
just covering something up is not getting rid of it. I think they also fought for a world
00:38:53.620
where people can dream about what they want to be and what their life would be like 30, 40,
00:38:59.700
50 years down the road. Which, which is true. I mean, I mean, uh, you know, my people in my
00:39:05.380
generation, they think about what they want to do in their future. Whereas, you know, 18 year olds
00:39:10.260
today is a lot different than being 18 year old in World War II. You didn't know if you were going
00:39:14.980
to survive the next day and many of them didn't. Um, but people have their whole lives ahead of them.
00:39:20.820
And it seems that they're really squandering a lot of it on, on, on useless things that,
00:39:26.500
that the veterans just didn't fight for. It's, uh, it's sad.
00:39:32.260
You're obviously from Indian descent. Here's your name. Um,
00:39:41.060
it's popular to say that the, uh, greatest generation was also really racist and there
00:39:48.100
were awful people and everything else. Have you had anyone say anything, uh, uh, about you
00:39:56.100
having Indian descent? Have you seen racism in them?
00:39:59.540
I can just answer that question with one word. No, I love you because what people don't understand
00:40:07.460
is that my parents immigrated from India. I, my sister and I were born and raised in California,
00:40:13.460
the World War II generation, same exact boat. A lot of them were first generation immigrants.
00:40:19.620
Right. And I can honestly say in over 900 interviews of veterans, uh, I've never felt
00:40:28.980
discriminated against. I've never felt that they looked at me differently than anyone else.
00:40:34.020
I feel like a human being. Have you, have you talked to African-Americans that fought in the war?
00:40:41.620
So, uh, in World War II, it was segregated. Right. So like, you know, my focus is on combat,
00:40:47.220
which really just means I enter, I interview white veterans, you know, no other way to say it.
00:40:51.860
Because they were, they were not allowed, I think in the combat, right?
00:40:55.940
Yeah. There were some specific units, like there's the Buffalo division that fought in Italy. Right.
00:41:00.820
Then you have the Tuskegee Airmen. There was a tank outfit that was black, but really other than that,
00:41:06.020
they were designated to be truck drivers and that kind of thing, rear echelon. And so I, I have
00:41:12.740
interviewed a few black veterans who fought with the 92nd Buffalo division.
00:41:17.780
Which all of those divisions, if I'm not mistaken, all of them outperformed the white soldiers.
00:41:24.420
The black unit, the 92nd Infantry Division actually is known for not doing well at all.
00:41:29.940
Yeah. I think the unit that you're talking about is the 442.
00:41:34.660
It's, it's the Japanese American unit that was called the Purple Heart Battalion.
00:41:39.060
Um, and they were, you know, Japanese Americans, obviously of Japanese descent.
00:41:44.740
Uh, they couldn't fight the Japanese. And so they were set, put in a separate unit,
00:41:50.660
and they ended up fighting in North Africa, Italy, and into France. And they ended up being
00:41:56.100
one of the most highly decorated regiments. And they got more Purple Hearts per person
00:42:03.940
than any of the other units of their size. And they also got quite a few Medal of Honors.
00:42:10.820
Oh, I've interviewed veterans, yeah, of that unit. In California, there's a lot of Japanese
00:42:15.540
And they had every reason not to want to be patriotic and fight for America, because what FDR did with
00:42:27.780
the internment camps was horrific. Have you talked to them about how they made that mental jump?
00:42:36.900
Yeah, well, see, uh, the way they talk about it is, they're American, which is true.
00:42:45.140
You know, when I asked them about the racial thing, they said, you know, other people can
00:42:48.580
think what they want to think. I was born and raised in the U.S. I'm American.
00:42:52.740
But what I'm asking is, how did, they knew that, I know that, but when their family is put in a camp,
00:43:01.300
how did they, how did they, I don't know, thread that needle?
00:43:07.540
A lot of them actually volunteered from the camps to get out. Now, you know, you could say they
00:43:12.980
volunteered because they didn't want to be stuck in a camp anymore.
00:43:15.140
Uh, you know, I don't know if I would rather go into, uh, into combat, but, uh, I think a lot of
00:43:22.260
them just felt that it was the right thing to do. The veterans who I've interviewed, I've never
00:43:26.500
interviewed a veteran who was in a camp and volunteered. All the veterans who I interviewed
00:43:30.420
were original 442 veterans or when the, cause they were, the unit was originally formed before
00:43:35.860
the internment camps. Um, but then they got the replacements from the internment camps, uh, to
00:43:42.500
fill in their ranks when there were casualties. I, um, was lucky enough to have a family
00:43:51.940
send me the archive of a woman named Leo, uh, Rio Soto. Um, she was an artist. She was put into an
00:43:59.380
internment camp. She was a remarkable woman. Um, she ended up getting out and she did most of the
00:44:05.940
schematics for our bombers. So when you were, when you were training to be a pilot, it was her,
00:44:14.260
all of her artwork that was being used. And, uh, when she died, her family, she told her family
00:44:21.060
about the internment close to her deathbed, never had said anything. And the family said that they were
00:44:28.020
shocked because here's a woman that could have had all of the axes to grind. And they said she was
00:44:35.380
the most American American. It's really remarkable people. I just think that, I don't know, I can't
00:44:45.060
say enough praise about that generation. I really believe that that generation, I mean, they're real
00:44:50.020
life superheroes and it's really, I think, unfortunate the way people, I just don't understand.
00:44:57.780
It's really hard for me to understand why people don't treat them better or why people don't have
00:45:02.420
respect for the elderly. Cause oftentimes I'll go to retirement homes. And I know that this veteran
00:45:08.260
I'm talking to is a legitimate warrior. He's a war hero. And he went through hell and back just so that
00:45:13.300
someone like me could have a chance at life 75 years later. But the way people talk to him, it's like,
00:45:18.980
he's an incoherent five-year-old that can't tell his left from his right, just cause he's older.
00:45:23.140
You know, I think there's this huge misconception with the elderly that they're just old funny
00:45:28.340
duddies in wheelchairs, just, you know, waiting to kick the can. But if anyone takes the time to
00:45:33.220
actually interact with them and talk to them like normal human beings, which they are,
00:45:36.740
but with a degree of respect, instead of talking down to them, they will learn that these people are
00:45:41.860
the most intelligent and awe inspiring. I mean, storytellers really that I think have ever
00:45:47.780
walked on this planet. I interviewed a veteran like two weeks ago. He's 105 and he still rides
00:45:54.660
a bicycle, you know, like a legitimate bicycle. I mean, it's like, I talked to a, we had a listener
00:46:01.220
who was a fan of ours. He was, um, over a hundred and, uh, I sat down with him sharp as a tack. He told
00:46:10.580
me what it was like the day wall street crashed in 1929. It was what, I mean, it's hard to get your
00:46:20.740
arms around. You were there. You saw it. That's incredible. Incredible. So one part of the interview,
00:46:29.300
I have the veterans hold up a photo of them in uniform, uh, and, you know, often when they're
00:46:35.620
younger and then right next to their face, you get a before and after. And it's at that point,
00:46:40.660
I realized that the stories that this older man has been telling me, it's not stories about someone
00:46:46.100
else. It's him. He was the same guy that went through all those combat experiences that, you know,
00:46:51.780
had to shoot at people that had to see his friends getting killed, that had live and fall out of live
00:46:55.140
out of foxholes, had to worry about artillery shells coming in every day. You know, he's not telling me
00:47:00.900
a story about someone. This is firsthand knowledge. What, what are you, I'm fascinated by you and you
00:47:09.140
give me a great deal of hope. Uh, how, how, how is your generation with hearing your stories?
00:47:17.460
Like I said, to be very, I'm just being very brutally honest. I don't hang out with anyone
00:47:22.580
my age. I was at a, this is gonna be an embarrassing story. It was true. See, I mean,
00:47:28.100
I don't drink and I don't smoke, but I was, uh, I had again, you're from another planet hats off to
00:47:34.020
your parents. They are wonderful people. I got to believe they've done a great job.
00:47:39.220
I think, you know, to be very honest, um, my upbringing, the, who I am now is really from
00:47:45.060
the veterans. I think, uh, they've really filled in a father figure role for me and they've really,
00:47:52.740
you know, if you hang out for you, you know, I mean, but, um, what I was going to say though,
00:47:56.820
is I was, I had an interview in, uh, Damone, Iowa and I'd gotten there early and I was staying at a,
00:48:05.860
uh, oh, what do you call them? Hostel, you know, to save on the money. And there was another guy
00:48:13.860
staying there and, uh, I needed a ride to the grocery store to go get some food. And he, he
00:48:20.740
was going out there. And so he took me to the grocery store and then he made me go to a bar
00:48:26.100
after with him. And I was just so uncomfortable because I mean, that's just not my scene.
00:48:31.860
But the point is of the story, there was a girl at the bar who's quite pretty and, uh,
00:48:37.380
I didn't know what to do or anything, you know? And, uh, but he, he, he, he'd given me $5.
00:48:43.700
He said, you know, if you want a ride back home, you have to buy her a drink. And so,
00:48:47.860
I mean, I don't drink. So I asked her, you know, can I buy you a drink? And she says, uh,
00:48:52.020
sure. And she lists this whole long name. And I said, can I write that down? I don't even know what
00:48:55.460
that is. And so I just, I just told, I gave the bartender the money and said, you know,
00:48:59.220
just get her whatever she wants, you know? But the point is she started talking to me,
00:49:04.660
asked me what I started, what I did. I spent the next half hour, we're just showing her different
00:49:09.140
interviews of the veterans. And I started just talking about how amazing that generation is
00:49:13.140
and how awesome they are. And my, my friend from the hospital was just sitting there going like
00:49:17.380
this. And he's like, he's like, that's not how you pick up a girl. But you know, I mean, for me,
00:49:21.980
I mean, I don't care about that kind of thing. I care. I'm a lot, I'm a lot more,
00:49:25.180
my friend, people like to say I'm attracted to old men, which is in a way is true, I guess.
00:49:30.620
But you know, it's, uh, I mean, but I mean, there's all joking aside, there's just something
00:49:36.920
about that generation. I think a lot of people are born and they live their lives and they die
00:49:45.340
without really making an impact around them. And truth be told, if they did not exist, the world
00:49:51.540
probably would not be different. But you can't say that about a single World War II veteran.
00:49:57.080
I re I really believe that each one of them has done so much more for other people than people can
00:50:02.280
ever do for them. And it's not like they were doing it for that reason. They weren't doing it for the
00:50:06.620
valor or for the glory. They were doing it because it was the right thing. And I just think that at a
00:50:13.160
time when it was so crystal clear for people, you know, what's right and wrong and just, you do what you
00:50:18.740
have to do to help people. It's yeah. Yeah. You know, you, you say that, um, people live their
00:50:27.300
life and they die and maybe things don't change, but I was, um, I was waiting for my daughter one day
00:50:36.640
at lunch. It's when I was living in New York city and there's a restaurant, um, right at the side of
00:50:44.760
the ice rink and it was cold and it was winter and I'm sitting right at the glass. So I'm looking
00:50:51.280
right at the ice rink and people can sit down and they can change their shoes before they go out in
00:50:57.560
the ice. And as I was waiting, I was just watching everybody. And this woman came, she was probably
00:51:04.380
about 28, 30 years old. She was wearing a big heavy coat and a frumpy hat. And there was nothing
00:51:11.800
special about her. And I just watched her and I only noticed her cause she sat right in front
00:51:17.760
and then noticed she was carrying a bag. And so she unzips a bag and here are these really nice
00:51:25.000
ice skates. Um, and she's not wearing anything that's expensive or anything, but she had obviously
00:51:32.680
paid some money from the, for the ice skates. She laces them up. She gets out on the ice and I watch
00:51:39.400
her and she has become an artist. She, her movement was so graceful and she was, she was an artist on
00:51:48.760
the ice. She skated for about 20 minutes, sat down, took her shoes off, zipped them up, put her frumpy
00:51:56.180
coat on and her hat. And I wish I could have followed her because I wondered in Manhattan, 16 million
00:52:07.080
people, you can become invisible. So easy. I wondered how many people in her office saw her as the
00:52:16.940
accountant or the receptionist and had no idea the art that was in this woman's soul. We are missing it
00:52:27.560
because there are, what is it now? 4 trillion, a billion people on the planet. There's 4 billion
00:52:37.420
stories and we're, we're living around so many of them and we, we just don't go for them. We just
00:52:45.980
don't look for them. I mean, they're everywhere. I mean, I mean, there's literally, I mean, back to the
00:52:52.440
veterans. I mean, there's literally retirement homes in every single town across the country. I mean,
00:52:57.560
it's, and I just, it's like, sometimes I feel, I mean, you've been into retirement homes, right?
00:53:05.700
When you're walking down, like it's sometimes it's kind of like a hotel, the corridor with all the
00:53:10.620
different rooms. It's, it's a weird feeling, but it's almost like Narnia, you know, cause you could go
00:53:18.380
into each one of those rooms, just open the door and you're in a whole different world. There's just
00:53:24.320
so much wisdom and knowledge accumulated over that time that, you know, each one of those people,
00:53:29.580
I mean, they're special. And they, like you said, I mean, I mean, I didn't mean to say that no one,
00:53:34.600
you know, is special. I mean, I spoke to the veterans or a tier above. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
00:53:38.800
I understand. But everyone has their own unique story and is special.
00:53:48.380
I often think of what a hell Stephen Hawking would have lived in with ALS. If you couldn't
00:54:14.280
give him a computer to talk, how many people would have said, Oh, Mr. Hawking, how are you? And he's
00:54:21.520
doing three-dimensional modeling in his head. How many veterans we talk down to? Yeah. I mean, it's
00:54:28.020
people look at someone just at how they look on the outside and they make instant judgments about them.
00:54:38.040
And that's how they decide to carry on their conversation. And they don't realize that there's
00:54:43.620
so much you can take from a veteran knowledge-wise a lot more than you would think just by looking at
00:54:49.740
them. You know, I mean, they really have the best advice. They have the best, because they've gone
00:54:55.180
through everything, you know? I mean, it's, I don't know who would be a better role model than a World
00:55:03.160
What are you going to do when you're done with this project?
00:55:05.900
I mean, so my mission is to do it till the last World War II veteran dies.
00:55:11.960
Yeah. So that's a lot of life left for you. What do you think you're going to do? What do you think
00:55:17.180
you're going to be? What is this? Who are you when this is over?
00:55:21.700
To be very honest, sir, I really haven't thought about it. Because my focus is just on the interviews.
00:55:27.880
I mean, I haven't been home in two years. I've just been on the road. I've been to 47 states,
00:55:33.620
U.S., Canada, and I just came back from the U.K. I just, with my job of getting the veterans
00:55:40.240
interviewed, it doesn't allow me the opportunity to think about what I want to do. You know,
00:55:46.140
I'm more focused about my interview tomorrow, the interview next week. And to be very honest,
00:55:50.480
I like it that way, because I think life is for living in the present. I mean, I'm sure I have
00:55:56.640
some plans, but my most important thing, I can guarantee this, I believe that the most important
00:56:02.540
thing I'm ever going to do in my life is what I'm doing now. And that if I had all the money in the
00:56:07.020
world, I would still be doing this. Because the feeling you get talking to someone who went through
00:56:13.240
the worst war in the history of humanity and is opening up for the first time about what he had
00:56:17.800
to see and what he had to do, because he feels, and rightfully so, that he trusts you with all his
00:56:23.340
raw emotion in all his stories to be the carrier of that, to help ease that burden. It's the most
00:56:30.960
wonderful feeling in the world, because when you see guys getting blown up next to you, when you see
00:56:36.480
guys trying to stuff their guts back inside, when you have to kill someone, it's lonely when you're
00:56:41.120
the only person that knows what that's like. And it's so hard when you, when they came home,
00:56:46.420
because you can't even, it's not, it's not even that they just didn't want to talk about it.
00:56:49.740
It was hard, hard to explain. And so once they realize that there's someone that they can just
00:56:56.260
jump into the story with, without explaining the intricate details, it really just, they're like
00:57:02.960
open books. And I really believe it helps them to know that there's someone out there who doesn't
00:57:08.680
judge them, who they're not going to run into at the grocery store, who's probably going to be in a
00:57:12.700
different state, you know, who knows a little bit about their story and is able to empathize with
00:57:21.380
them and talk to them about it. Because a lot of them don't want their kids to know that they had
00:57:27.060
to kill people. You know, that's, they don't want their kids to look at them in a different light.
00:57:34.320
But there's so much more than that. I mean, they're heroes.
00:57:40.000
Did you ever see the movie? I think it's the age of Ada or...
00:57:48.980
Yeah, I think, I didn't see it, but I think that she stays the same age.
00:57:52.080
And she realized that she couldn't take the death of all of her friends over and over and over again.
00:58:11.160
Knock on wood, the veterans are going to be out for a long, long time.
00:58:16.920
It's got to be hard to lose friends all the time. And that last one that goes,
00:58:32.160
If I'm very honest, which I'm being, sometimes I hope that I die before the veterans do.
00:58:40.160
Because I've become extremely, extremely, I mean, not all of them, some particular veterans.
00:58:45.020
You welled up a few minutes ago, and that's what made me think of this.
00:58:52.940
They're more than just personal heroes. They're more than best friends.
00:58:57.100
It's hard to explain, but I truly sometimes hope that what you just talked about, the veterans passing on,
00:59:07.020
I just hope it doesn't happen. I don't know what to say.
00:59:09.380
I just, I really just hope it just doesn't happen. I don't, some people don't deserve to die,
00:59:14.940
is all I really mean. And I think that they would be good contenders not to, because for everything
00:59:19.620
that they've done for people, I just, there's just so much more for them to give.
00:59:25.760
I know you've already thought of this, but what you just said, some people don't deserve to die.
00:59:39.720
All of who they were, what they did, all of that would have been lost if it wasn't for you.
00:59:47.560
Well, yeah, I mean, I appreciate you saying that, but it's not the same as, you know, having them there.
00:59:53.000
They're, you know, it's, what I sometimes think about, you know, I'm always on the road,
00:59:59.920
and I've met a lot of couples, you know, just through the grandkids of the veterans
01:00:08.260
For some reason, a lot of the couples I've met, they're trying to raise a family,
01:00:12.580
but they aren't able to have kids for some reason.
01:00:16.240
They're, you know, one of the spouses infertile or something,
01:00:18.720
but the two people would be some of the best parents,
01:00:21.060
really loving people who really would raise a great family.
01:00:27.480
horrible parents who have a lot of kids and treat them horribly
01:00:30.540
and beat them and kill them in all these horrible different ways.
01:00:36.500
Why is it that someone who would be so good to their kids can't have them?
01:00:39.540
And then people who are horrible end up getting them.
01:00:44.460
Why is it that they would have to die when other bad people get them, you know, just live?
01:00:52.380
I just, and I don't think people understand what I'm afraid is happening to the World War II veterans
01:01:00.680
There wasn't, there was not a major initiative to get the World War I veterans documented.
01:01:08.540
And what I think is, if a Civil War veteran suddenly came up from the grave,
01:01:14.300
all the world's media would be hounding him, begging to do an interview just for five minutes of its time,
01:01:20.120
on their knees using the nicest cameras and the fanciest equipment.
01:01:23.260
And yet we have this opportunity with the World War II veterans who are arguably way cooler than any Civil War veteran.
01:01:30.820
And people are more concerned about using their phone for what the Kardashians are wearing
01:01:35.440
than actually using it as a tool, as it was meant for, to document history.
01:01:39.800
I mean, I'm not the only person who can do this.
01:01:42.620
I mean, anyone can literally take their phone, which has a video camera, or take a video camera,
01:01:47.760
go to a retirement home and document a living piece of history so that 200, 300 years from now,
01:01:53.120
their great, great, great grandkids will get to know what their great, great, great grandpa looked like,
01:01:57.440
the way he talked, the way he laughed, the way he cried, the way he spoke,
01:02:00.400
his little intricate details, not just his name.
01:02:03.800
You know, I don't even know anything about my great, great grandfather.
01:02:06.060
But we have this opportunity to give this gift to the future generations,
01:02:38.140
And I think about this often, that all of my life in the last 20 years,
01:02:47.740
my great, great, great grandkids will be able to access and see me,
01:03:00.720
They're not going to see the rest of the family.
01:03:02.540
And I wish I could have done that with my grandfather.
01:03:17.880
You know, after the Associated Press did a story about my mission,
01:03:23.480
And so I have a nonprofit foundation called Heroes of the Second World War.org.
01:03:28.400
It's all spelled out, H-E-R-O-E-S of the Second World War.org.
01:03:32.640
But I was able to get a lot of oral history grants and a lot of amazing, generous people
01:03:37.960
donated their hard-earned money to some kid so that he could go out and get these heroes documented.
01:03:44.080
So the biggest help really, I mean, and I'm not trying to sound pretentious when I say it, but it's not really about the money.
01:03:51.460
Because the nonprofit, the board of the directors on the nonprofit gives me a stipend every month for food and travel, which is all I need.
01:04:01.040
That's all I need is just to get to the veterans, the food, travel, camera equipment.
01:04:07.260
The biggest thing that I'm trying to do now is find out about other World War II combat veterans and get them interviewed.
01:04:14.520
So how do they, how does somebody has somebody?
01:04:18.400
Oh, I mean, if they reached out on the website, there's a contact form.
01:04:22.180
It's a herosofthesecondworldwar.org, or they could email herosofthesecondworldwar at gmail.com, or they could call 202-813-0992, and that would get to me.
01:04:37.980
But it's also other people who want to join the organization, because there are volunteers now who I have across the U.S.
01:04:45.300
who are doing interviews in their own local areas, which is great.
01:04:50.380
If we wanted to interview every single World War II veteran in the world, not just the U.S., but the world, it would take two weeks.
01:05:04.180
Because we have the manpower, the technology, the know-how, the transportation's never been easier.
01:05:08.880
Access to finding out about the veterans has never been easier.
01:05:14.020
But it would take less than two weeks to document an entire generation.
01:05:17.620
And so all I'm asking is that if there's anyone else out there, you know, listening to this, if you want to help make a difference and get these veterans documented, please do reach out at the website, you know, or visit heroesofthesecondworldwar.org.
01:05:32.500
But, I mean, to learn how you can join, because I can't be the only person who's doing it.
01:05:37.300
Everyone can make a difference for these veterans, and they deserve it.
01:05:40.760
And, I mean, but, I mean, obviously, if you know any World War II combat veterans, also do reach out, because I'm always looking to interview more veterans.
01:05:54.440
You know, I think that's such a, people always think that, like, their father's going to be around forever, you know, but now's the time to do it.
01:06:05.840
You know, we shouldn't have to wait for an obituary to find out about the most amazing and heroic people that lived in our community.
01:06:18.160
We should be able to learn about it while they're still alive, so we can talk to them, look them in their eyes, and thank them, and, you know, interact with them.
01:06:25.760
And I just, there's so many interesting obituaries that you find, you know, as I find, as I'm trying to find the veterans, but there's no interviews of them.
01:06:34.260
And I'm wondering to myself, here, this veteran's been able to live in his 90s and 100s, and no one took the time just to document his story.
01:06:42.120
You know, all those sacrifices and moments of his life have now just been put into three paragraphs.
01:06:53.860
I mean, they deserve a voice in our world, in our future world, because I think the best thing that we can do for those 410,000 boys who were killed in the war,
01:07:06.020
and everyone who was killed in the war across the world, is give their death some meaning.
01:07:12.080
Because if we just pretend like that was a long time ago, and it doesn't matter, and we continue to act the way we're acting now,
01:07:19.140
we're literally spitting on the graves of those men.
01:07:21.760
Because it's bad enough that they had to die at 18, 19, 20.
01:07:27.840
You know, the fact that they were born, had the middle of their life, and the end of their life, before they could even drink alcohol.
01:07:38.200
But, you know, it's bad enough that they had to be killed.
01:07:41.180
But it would be even worse if they were killed for no reason.
01:07:44.320
And I really hope that the veterans who I interview that say that they feel that their friends have died in vain,
01:07:50.320
I really hope that they end up being wrong, and that their friends died for a purpose.
01:07:55.660
Because, I mean, it was just 75 years ago, which is such a short time in the span of humanity.
01:08:03.260
And, I mean, it should still be relevant and raw.
01:08:07.160
I mean, I just don't understand why people don't talk more about it.
01:08:21.740
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01:08:26.280
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