D-Day Vet George Ciampa

I broke down once about two or three weeks in still in Normandy our lieutenant pulled out his 45 at the point of that that means he said get your ass out there and suck it up you know things are moving fast and there's a war going on there's no baby you know there's a little kid when didn't 12 pounds but you know I was a tough little kid one welcome to veterans chronicles I'm great Caramba I'm honored to be joined today by World War two US Army veteran George choppa he served in the 600 seventh graves registration company he's also a veteran of d-day and the Battle of the Bulge and sir it's an honor to have you with us thank you where were you born and raised sir I was born in Boston Massachusetts and we left there when I was 9 years old and whole family moved to California in the 1932 Chevrolet and when did you join the service I went in the service November 23rd of 1943 did you in Leicester were you drafted I tried to enlist in the Air Corps I tried two times and my eyes were 2022 and I couldn't make it the first time the doctor says eat a lot of carrots and come back I tried that I was working for Douglas Aircraft the El Segundo working on Navy SBD dive bombers and I felt that I wanted to get in the Air Corps my brother and Roberto were in the Air Corps and I thought that was a thing to do especially after being around those airplanes and ferry gaint not ferrying a toy them out on the tarmac and doing all finishing touches and sit in the cockpit imagine you're flying one of these things and so anyway I flunked twice the doctor said the second time he said just think maybe I'd get killed if he went in the Air Corps the way it turned out I had a close call with death a number of times so once you joined were you originally signed to the graves registration company yeah him was I that was originally assigned to the six hundred and tenth grade registration company and when I heard that I just about flipped because it's a little kid I had a big fear of death because of a few things that happened in the family that were very emotional little cousin first of all a cemetery burial very emotional so I got a big fear of death as a little kid so when I heard that word graves I said oh my you know what are we gonna be doing so we had a regular infantry training and Cheyenne Wyoming and then then we had to attend the autopsy it at a hospital in Denver and I stood high way in the back of the room but anyway I got I got in a 600 in chant and then I kept trying to figure out how to get out of it I in another fellow and it was a bunch of free young guys on the 6th fighter in 10th so what happened one day the base next to it next to us which was a Army Air Corps Base they came over to to a recruit pilots because in March of 44 as few months before d-day they were really hurting for pilots and so they lowered the I requirements nobody knows us except me the 20 30 no glasses and I knew I could pass that and so I didn't even check with my company commander I just signed up and then went through the whole thing get letters from your teachers you know in reference letters all that and so they accepted me they notified the company commander and he blew his top and he transferred me out of the 6th 10th 600 10th to the sixth or seventh that was going overseas immediately and they were short one guy so I was a replacement and the guys were all older than I was so I didn't know any of them and on the way overseas they're all kidding me don't worry chop I like a turn a ship around take you home Roosevelt said no 18 year old will set for the foreign soil and that's the factor of a speech but anyway of course I kept going with them and we landed it in England it all started from there overseas what is the training consists of a regular infantry training you go through the what they call them the courses right did they train you on how to handle the bodies no no no the only the only training we got there is a watch autopsy to see anything that's what that's it other than that it was all infantry training and freezing cold weather this is in in the end of November this is December January Wyoming is very very cold you're going you're trying to shoot on the firing range with gloves on and and you're you're you're freezing call it windy goal yeah so then Normandy was the first time well I mean lead you into that what happen what happened then is we got to Oxford England and then they split up our company we had 124 listed men and officers they split the company up in the platoons for a second third fourth platoon and headquarters and we went to our platoon went to Bristol England and then from Bristol we went to st. Austell which is a Lands End in in England down by the ports and and but before we even got there we learned what happened to our 1st platoon they were on an exercise called exercise Tiger you can read about it a couple of books and the exercise tiger was a practice landing on the beach that was gonna come up and so we had four first Platoon we lost 18 guys with lots of first lieutenant and Master Sergeant sergeant corporals and five privates ironically survived and a couple of them got discharges section 8 discharges and one of them jumped off of a porch and anyway they couldn't talk about they got put in the barbed wire area and said keep your mouth shut about this Eisenhower is gave the word for the officers to be found because they had papers on them showing maps where we were gonna land and so they were almost 800 people with the guys killed what happened is we had four LS cheese out there practicing this they were working with actually live ammunition like they landing you know but what happened was Germany boat some three of the four chefs torpedoed them almost 800 guys were killed just like that yeah before the invasion even sorry now we lost some of our friends we thought this is no drag run you know this is for real we're in a war and so it scared the hell out of us and so then when it's time for us to go to the invasion we were on a ship and we we're out there and I meet a guy in a ship that was a navy gunner my age took me into his quarters filled me around that night while we're sleeping there's a huge explosion and the ship is rocking like crazy and we're all running up on deck from down in the hold where we were sleeping and come to find out a German torpedo plane dropped a torpedo sit to our ship but it didn't get to our ship the gunner shot the plane down in any way it could cause a huge explosions of the ship really was rocking and so that was our first encounter with death and then we get to the area where there's four or five thousand ships as different reports on how many were out there and we were anchored there bright side to shore and we could hear the German artillery called eighty-eights they screamed we called Screaming Mimi's and as they going over that over you you can hear them screaming and they're hitting ships and we can see ships getting hit and we can see bodies in the water and debris and then I saw a tanker blow up so they had all these targets out there and they were hitting it a lot of them and so all of us got on the opposite side from the shore on a ship against the bulkhead you know the bulkhead is to get some protection in case our ship got hit from the shore side and waited to go down a rope ladders seemed like our I have no idea how long it was I wasn't timing anything I had no idea it was very frightening we didn't know when are we gonna get a hit so then we get into Robo ladders and go down and we get into it LCI landing craft that's the smaller one you know LSTs the larger ones and we got in that and we started to head in the shore and we got partway in and we could hear the 88 screaming over us they turn to turn the landing craft around and went back out of ways and then we started in again you could hear that art of artillery - screaming over us and I thought for years it is because they thought we were going to get hit so we kept turning around but I found out the reason they were turning around because we went in a third time is that the Germans had obstacles in the water and to keep you from you know these obstacles a lot of them had mines attached to them barbed wire and all and so when they were trying to keep you from getting into the shore we finally got in and then you know by that time I'm pretty damn scared and I don't even remember getting off the LC I I can't remember that and my wife has told me don't even think about it because it might bring back bad memories but I've thought about it and I all I know is pretty soon we're picking up bodies and though and we have a service company attached to us we were segregated segregated the end from from black fellows and so they were in organization cause service company I don't remember the number of the service company but their job was to dig graves so anyway that first one of our first things we did is pick up paratroopers who landed in the channel in error and you know there's a lot there were other errors there's a lot of errors in war is you got a you lose a lot of battles we got win the war and that's what it's all about it's like a football game you know halftime they cease at what they be doing it wrong and hopefully win or maybe lose so anyway we these Parekh furs they're very loaded down and when a parachute come down over them they drown and that's what happens so many of these guys around you know a lot of paratroopers got shot while they're still in the air you know but these guys we wrapped them in their parachutes and buried them after a couple of days we had German prisoners quickly and so we had the prisoners digging the grave so these guys didn't have anything to do anymore that was the end of their work but they're still over there so the rest of the war for 11 months everyday we we established 17 temporary cemeteries throughout France Belgium and Germany and we we handle about 75,000 bodies in in that time and five campaigns France Belgium in Germany and we picked up best Germans as well as Americans because the Germans didn't pick up their dead we did we buried them in separate cemeteries the same way as we buried the Americans and mattress covers six feet down in the dirt mr. Chaplin let's take a quick break right there we'll be right back on Veterans Chronicles [Music] we're back on Veterans Chronicles I'm Greg Caramba honored to be joined today by US Army World War two veteran George Champa he was a member of the six hundred seventh graders registration company in Surrey our just talking about paratroopers and and collecting bodies of both allies and Germans on d-day and wrapping them in mattress covers and temporary cemeteries what was the the protocol for keeping things organized identifying soldiers keeping track of their effects and so forth okay well that's all pretty complicated but first of all I was 18 years old I was a skinny kid I weighed about 112 pounds I've never been away from home couldn't swim not that that would help you but anyway we we were attached to the combat engineers going at our company two platoons at Omaha two platoons in Utah headquarters came later so we had to get provisions from somewhere so we got them from from the combat engineers landed there and and then the protocol and picking these bodies up for 11 months what we did was you try to determine how they were killed for the paperwork headquarters do the paperwork where they were killed how they were killed when they were killed and then we had to take the personal effects from them and throw anything that was bloodied away because these personal effects that going back to the families first of all they're they're in a olive-drab bag tie with a label on it those the Kansas where is all processed and then they send that stuff home the next of kin so he didn't want them getting any bloody stuff so so so that's the protocol at Hunt house somebody certainly their pay grade that I was determined were the cemeteries where it would be so they'd pick out a spot plot of ground and and and that's usually we'd have a cemetery on one side of the road that Germans Cemetery on the other side and so we had a code of ethics you know nobody took anything that didn't belong to them and you know if you saw a private ryan' you saw a shot where these guys are all first of all they were eating a sandwich weren't even holding a rifle supposed to be on d-day and the other thing it was a group of guys going through dog tags and they're reading off the name this did you see that movie that's all I think you have an Italian name as I do I'm great but you're Greek yes okay well what they were doing say another when they come to Italian name yeah that shocked me I was gonna write to Spielberg or they'd like to say another Jew or another or something like that that was not good but that's what they did in that movie other than that it was a pretty good movie probably more realistic than any other except his shield one landing craft coming in and what happened you know looking for Private Ryan but you know there's thousands of landing craft going going in he's just seeing one part which which I understand yeah because I do films I've been doing documentaries for 13 years I just did the documentary in June about the 75th anniversary of d-day I took seven other d-day veterans along with American Airlines flying us over there and I had raised money for all the other expenses a lot of them but anyway getting back to what I was saying you know we we weren't eating sandwiches we had K rations and and and you didn't have an officer with the markings on his helmet no way right as they did in Private Ryan so you know it's Hollywood right and but anyway we did this through the the stench of it all in Normandy getting in your clothing your mouth is dry from spitting you sleep in that clothing what that stench goes up to my clothes and my boots you know you know in a foxhole he could if you if you had one but anyway we did this every day with a stench until we got too the Battle of the Bulge then he had frozen bodies frozen ground and he had to go through the ice we had prisoners with jackhammers going through the ice before they could get to the dirt to dig a grave that land was taken from farmers and it wasn't until two years after the war those farmers got that land back and all those bodies were put in a permanent Cemetery those were built in 47 two years after the war but the temporary cemetery the last one we had in Belgium just before we went to Germany was we had seventeen thousand three hundred buried there at Americans and and from that seventeen thousand three hundred when they were disinterred they had local people doing that work and of course paying I'm going to do that work and they put these bodies in lying two caskets a lot of them were stored because of the weather park Serrano room until they could find out from the families if they wanted the remains at home or remain over there so 60% of the guys that were killed over there on the average were sent home to any cemetery the family is designated free cost the other 40% remain there so when you see a cemetery over there like Normandy that's almost 10,000 graves we buried a lot of those guys in temporary graves in Normandy we had temporary graves in the several locations in Normandy in fact st. Mary gliese Cemetery one and two who had two cemeteries there was enough room in that one plot a graph and and there was a lady that was a the wife of the mayor she put flowers on those graves all her life and she tried to get our government to keep those cemeteries as permanent ones but the government said no they were all disinterred but in the Omaha cemetery we caught the Omaha cemetery in Normandy and and so we we established those those cemeteries and when I was there in June they rededicated that land they put a new mining up there they had veiled he had me unwrapped it and it's all in my film and they did a very good program with singers and soldiers it was it was it was very well done in st. Mary glace mr. Chawla let's take one more break and we'll be right back with the rest of your story on Veterans Chronicles [Music] we're back on Veterans Chronicles I'm Greg Caramba joined today by US Army veteran George Champa served in World War two with the six hundred seven graves registration company and mr. choppa what was your unit doing during the battles were you working even as the battles went on yeah we we were in harm's way oh wow we got the karate gear from France through what we did getting there early and doing what we're doing early years later like seven years ago I got this medal here which is highest no France gives out with cretak Legion of Honor right and I'm more proud of the Croix de Guerre medal and also a meritorious service award Mel that we got in the Battle of the Bulge because when that battle started all our units were withdrawing combat medics and we had a stay and so that's why we got that medal and none of these are honorary metals that are all metals for something and so yeah we we were in harm's way a lot and there are a lot of buzz bombs the Germans were shooting from launch pads and just hitting anywhere and the one just about got me and and my friends we were gonna bivouac eariy in the woods and a piece of shrapnel I have at home like this all jagged so right next to my leg here after they hit me you know would have ripped up my leg but we had we were picking up guys that were hit by buzz bombs leave behind Alliance on when they're you know on on a I got pissed calls right and yeah but anyway yeah yeah we did we we had had a work a lot in harm's away and we worked a lot with combat medics you'll be tended to the wounded and we tended to the dead and collection points whether the guys dying you know we were there for that it was very grotesque work to do nobody wanted to do it I didn't want to do it I broke down once about two or three weeks in still in Normandy and our lieutenant pulled out his 45 at the point that that means he said get your ass out there and suck it up and that's the way you know things are moving fast and is a war going on Oh baby you know and uh that's a little kid went in 12 pounds yeah but you know I was a tough little kid and Germans were digging graves I'd stand there and say Nick's are bitin excessive which means don't work you don't eat a lot of them thought they were digging their own grave and well you know not see me pull skeet me something else you know anyway and a lot of them were because the Germans had a lot of soldiers in the army from these countries that they occupied you had to either be in the army or you're dead so anyway yet we had the last cemetery we had was in Germany about 100 miles from Berlin and when the war ended in May May 7th then they had ceremony Memorial Day ceremonies at the cemetery there in eisenach and all those graves had a B disinterred we had German soldiers digging the graves dysentery we had re identify the remains and by that time it's pre grotesque and because he's got a dog tag on the body and went on a marker and at that time we just had markers or what crosses other degrees restoration companies came in put up instead of our markers they put in crosses and nail the dog tag to the cross so these bodies are all transported from from there to Belgium or Holland to put another temporary grave a lot of these bodies are putting several temporary graves before they got it amazing up put in the casket and by that time two years after the war you know the remains are bones and you know and they and that's when they get it in the caskets and sent home that way not like the words now or they put a dress him in the uniform and bombed them and sent them home no way so it's but if you go over there just think when you look at those cemeteries and if you see five thousand seven thousand eight thousand graves that's the only forty percent of what was there in Holland there's eighty three hundred buried there and in Belgium there's two cemeteries in Luxembourg there's one Cemetery and Italy there are two in France they're about eight or nine I've been to all of the temper I mean all of the permanent cemeteries I've gone over there every five years from the fiftieth anniversary every five years I've been over there and now to shoot this film that I did I'm the only one I think they did a documentary and I took seven other d-day veterans I just told you a while ago American Airlines flew us over I even flew a Major General who was a ranger on d-day captain he lives in Florida and they flew him from Florida or with his physician because he's had a couple of heart failures he's about 97 speaks very well is written a book called intact about the invasion and he we we met him over there because he flew over there with his position the day after us and he only stayed for days because he wanted to be over there for a Ranger reenactment the Ranger ceremony which we covered and interviewed him so we had a variation of veterans paratrooper combat medics combat engineers nice to be paratrooper so we try to get a variation of services and anyway I like I said I've done in 2006 I started a 501 C 3 hundred percent nonprofit I haven't realized a dime from any of this as gonna do one film I turned in at six and I took young high school history teachers four of them on the first film and I took two other teachers on the second film that veterans and I did a film about the 8th Air Force where he had eight living members of an 8th Air Force and and most of them are dead now because I did that few years ago and some great stories and in that film I did a film about the call they will never forget about people who put flowers on graves they adopt graves of soldiers they never knew except other liberators and and then the next film I did the film I did was about the kids German kids because after the war I had to be in the Army of Occupation for seven months and I saw these little kids that looked like our kids are hungry for Lauren a lot of them orphans and so I thought I got to go back there and do a film about the kids so we got about 18 citizens between ages of 76 and 86 who are kids during a war who brought pictures of when they were young and he talked about the interaction they had with us American soldiers and that's very heartwarming film to hear how they spoke about us and so you know the kids got in our vehicles and that film is a picture of me holding a little two-year-old German girl on the cover of the DVD and and my my Jeep with little kids of my Jeep and that was the fifth you know and then I told you about the six in Normandy so I've been doing il for a hundred percent non profit and I've talked to thousands of kids in California high schools primarily high schools in France and Belgium from special needs kids and grammar school kids high school to college so I spoken to a lot of people and and and here's my thing my thing is a high price of freedom and I saw the high price of freedoms just like other guys doing the job I did it and just like combat medics we saw what it was like I mean when you see thousands of guys your age and a little bit older in every condition you can imagine you don't forget it and so when when you hear the whereas a high price of freedom you think about the high price of freedom because we saw it so anybody that saw it is never gonna forget what they saw there were I've heard about a lot of veterans who didn't want to talk about the war for quite a while afterwards you mentioned 50 years was the first time you were back and from what I've read you didn't talk about it much you told me beforehand that your kids hadn't heard you talk about it until the hue you took them over there was it because there were memories of the work that you did that you just didn't want to think about it for a lot of reasons actually it's free first of all you know a lot of guys ever went back because they want to relive that I had a chance to go to the 40th I didn't want to relive it I didn't want to go I would my wife was still living then but then you know I went with my late wife eight years where we got married never talked to her about it thirteen years married never talked about the kids never talked to him about it that's one reason you don't want to relive what you saw and then the other reason is you're just one of the thousands of other guys did the same thing that you did there may be worse and and so it's no big deal you know it's it's something that so many thousands of other guys in and we lost for over 400,000 guys in World War two which is a whole lot of guys but when you think about what the Russians and the Germans loss a lot a lot more so you know there's the the price of freedom is very high it's not a high for us but high for our allies and our enemy and these little kids that I went back to talk to these people after they're grown I mean they're just like us you know they went through the same thing and even worse because they they had to they had ducked the bombs you know a lot of their family members were killed you know we didn't have that situation here nobody here was killed from the enemy so they had some tough times and they were just regular people and you know I never thought that I would do what I did after the war but I had a German girlfriend and and I talked about it and all these young people the other day and I says she was done a flying trapeze with her sister and another girl and we had a platonic relationship and everybody broken the laughter you know anybody I remember I used to tell you guys I've got a gal she was in the circus Oh brickbeard lady you know no I'm not the bearded lady had those beautiful girls on the flying trapeze she was four months older than I was and I still have pictures of her out in the garage I got a dump one of these days but no nude pictures you know there's just a lot of picture she was an acrobat you know I was acrobatic poses and all but anyway and then I had this Jeep but I got to tell you about the chief of 99 he got it out early but yeah but what happened was after the worst I had to maintain a warehouse were all these units are going home at a turn and all our gear everything even medical morphine you name it nobody was in the drugs and the morphine nobody got take took the morphine but across the road was a vehicle collection yard the guy came over one day so George is gonna give me a pair of paratrooper boots everybody wanted a paratrooper so I said sure he'd give me a Jeep kidding yeah they said sure so he gave me a Jeep for seven months I had a cheap had her name stenciled on a bumper I used to work one day on one day off and she was a cement in Mannheim Germany but the final buried file broad Karlsruhe Stuttgart I followed her around and finally took her home to Frankfurt but but and I finally met her father who was a POWs had been released but that was until after I left man I they get shipped out and but getting back to the G one day I forgot to lock it up with a chain and these guys I kept one of they took it out they got drunk in an accident told the vehicle in the yard company commander they have to tell it company commander where they got me so they come to me you know we had to tell him where we got it so ok so then he choose me out you know where'd you get this Jeep once you got stolen military equipment and very serious I said well sir I just borrowed it I didn't steal it didn't go over well but anyways I gotta think about this overnight next day he calls us in he looks at me because of your age and because of what you did for 11 months in a war I'm gonna look the other way sterling carpenter lieutenant stir and never forget his name anyone else I could have been in Leavenworth or stolen so I used to put it you know we go to the guest dumps and put my own gasoline and make out all my pad I didn't have a driver's license you're supposed to have a military driver's eyes so anyway after that shift I'm Bremerhaven and yes in December we all wanted to get home from Christmas no way we're gonna get home for Christmas let's get on the Queen Mary everybody want any wall and I got on a train you had to carry your rifle with you and that's sling down you know barrel down and and my overcoat over it that is not that's pretty cold you know or December and so I get on a train I go 350 miles to Frankfurt for Christmas so I spent Christmas with her and his sister mother and father and I took her with him to American movie had their fathers over it going on and my rifle hanging down and had English captions you know sometimes and so we saw that movie but anyway it was a tearful parting because she wants the train station with me and it was raining and gotten one of these telephone booths looking at each other you know and tears and so here comes a train now it was a movie there I am walking back backwards to the train and waving to her in Dubai it was that's powerful yeah it was very powerful because it was it you know it was really good for me because I got a chance to chill out for seven months and with this girlfriend and and there's something if I had gone home right away I probably would have been a mess you know and my sister's told me I used to have nightmares I don't remember a nightmare when people say Sammy how come you never have PTSD doing this is I don't know but I came home all I wanted to do is raise hell go out have a beer because I was when I got home I was 20 and a half and I couldn't buy a drink in California so we have to get people buy beer for us so I run around chasing girls and I did that for two years and decide to go to college and I went to junior college first cuz I hated high school I was a little you know was in the sports or anything and so I I you know I could say it wasn't a sports to high school so I did not like high school but then I went to junior college because they didn't know if I liked college and I loved it and and then I then I went to University of Southern Cal they're on TV last night I watched him and they pulled out I mean an exciting game they were behind the whole game they pull out in the end and 135 to 31 Wow Boulder Colorado Colorado that's where my kids live but anyway that's that's you know I could go on and on I talk to you all day but but I wanted to do documentaries to to teach people about the high price of freedom and I and I K say I talk to kids all the time about the high price of freedom I I can't with these kids in high school you know you gotta keep it kind of light at times and joke with them you know so it's not all serious you know you keep their attention once in a while you see it kids sleeping hit on the desk and Igor touch them on a head say didn't you have enough sleep last night the teacher loves that you know what's the moment like for you when they get it when they understand the price of freedom to know that you know them understand oh yeah you know that's happened a lot or you really get to these kids some of them learn ROTC you know where I live in Palm Springs of I've talked to kids at ROTC there are a couple of times when I go home from now on I'll be no more documentaries too hard to raise the money I had to work real hard and doing those documentaries and so I'm gonna be talking to kids and because in my area of the Coachella Valley is about high school it's down there always kisses ROTC and and those kids in particular you really get to them and once in a while you'll see a kid with tears and I'll ask you hey you know you'll say some time what can we do I said well you know when you see a serviceman her wound out there go up and shake their hand and thank them I said how many of you would volunteer to ask them once in a while you get a kid to put the hand that once I got a girl with put her hand up my giant I said you might get a bonus sign up with us but would you do that and risk your life you know so I impressed them as much as I can with the guys and gals that are out there now because without them but what we do and looking at all these kids I spoke to yesterday there were hundreds of them there in that auditorium boy they quiet listening and and it's just as is good for them to hear this and I wish you were more guys doing it I belong to an organization called freedom committee of Orange County there's got about a hundred veterans of all wars that speak to kids in high school and actually this high one particular high school chrome-dome are right near the coast they a great program for about 27 years now where the kids the sophomore class gets involved with interviewing veterans and they do a project on it and and it's really interesting what they do and then after that about a month or two later you go the auditorium where there's a hundred of these veterans and and the kids that interview them you shouldn't have three or four kids come out and interview you and uh and the kids are there and they introduce you and you don't talk they just because too many and they do a great program they start off with the star-spangled banner and everything you know it's somebody singing it's a great program or schools you'll do that it really gets the kids in where they have to do some work on a part of the war you were in what you did and then he give you a copy and they also tape it they give you a CD and it's it's a really worthwhile you know there's too many kids that don't know anything I was in a in a little hamburger place with a friend of mine one day I don't know I don't remember who think it was that we got talking about Normandy the little kid with his father sitting over here in the next booth and he said hey do we organize an operation overlord and I said what what do you know what that's the codename yeah I forgot I said what do you know about that I study in the school I said kidding we're a Lutheran School and Taurus is where they saw its Torrance's they read on a beach there the coach couldn't see the private schools they do a little more of that the public schools they did my kids were what they call gate students they had college courses and all they knew nothing about the wars I mean talking about World War two or a Korea of that now they didn't know anything and so when we got over there for the 50th my son like said me dad you didn't tell us anything about this because on the bus we got to talk about our experience landing here in Normandy now so my kids were hearing this for the first time I've had a very emotional time with talking about it to to the kids or to not not so much with the kids but with other people other I've even broken down talking other GIS you know and in a group setting I spoke to three thousand peoples that have people in American Airlines went one time and they have a big program they do there every year raise funds for wounded warriors American Airlines is really great with veterans and they've been very good for me the four of my films and Gary Sinise is a good friend he's donated money twice to me and I've gone with him in American Airlines for the semi fifth anniversary of Pearl Harbor and he was on that plane helping the flight attendant serve food we all had first-class food but he's a great guy he's for real and you don't want to donate there's so many good causes like some Jews that I like what they do for kids and their families and Shriners is very good but you know there's a lot of 501 C 3 s where they pay out big money to their executive officers and I don't like that and what Shriners ninety-nine percent of it goes to the kids and the same as st. Jude's I mean they put up family members that are there the kids are in the hospital it's there's some really good ones out there and so I have one of the rare 100% nonprofits and check out my website you'll see the five films I've done the website it's called let freedom ring for all org fo r I'll give you a card fo r-the freedom ring for all and and the reason why is they let freedom ring for all because we Elyse I thinking this way that we wanted fighting this war just for ourselves we were we're referring a lot of people absolutely and and so that's what I mean freedom for all you I had a German mayor tell me he's adopted three Gray's Irish Chapelle Cemetery he got these citizens German citizens together for me there were kids during the war and in the film he talks about how people should adopt these Gray's regardless of for you or the enemy you know what he says what he told me he says you know you guys didn't just defeat Germany you got our freedom back right you know I've heard that I've heard the Dutch take care sponsor graves do the Dutch are fantastic as 8,300 grazer in Holland and they get about 300 people a day Dutch people that visit those grave and every grave has been adopted because what a few of these cemeteries do they have a they have an organization where you adopt a grave you get a certificate I adopted a grave myself you know with another guy because I'm not there but flowers there with a Dutch person he's Cohen doctor with me but he's Dutch but he's adopted graves in Belgium and in France some of the guys young guys they do this they have a website and what they do is they they get they find a family member or through a newspaper they get a picture of the veteran how old was he you know where do you go to school and marry they're getting kids so they do history it's the only way anybody knows anything about these people and then no and then in Holland they have pictures right there at the grave sites of the soldier that's fantastic mr. Champa sadly our time is up thank you sir very much for your time with us today and especially for your service to our country you're welcome thank you George Chapa is a US Army veteran of World War two served with the 600 seventh graves registration company served at Normandy served in the Bulge as well and other places in the Western theater of Europe I'm Gregor rhombus reporting for veterans Chronicles you

Channel: American Veterans Center

Views: 85,188

Keywords: AVC, American Veterans Center, veteran, veterans, history, army, navy, air force, marines, coast guard, military, navy seal

Id: kozU2ayv9yg

Length: 46min 52sec (2812 seconds)

Published: Fri May 29 2020