Soaring Valor Featuring Lt. COL. Richard E. Cole (Doolittle Raider)

hi sir which is gary sinise i'm gary sinise well i'm told to take a picture of you well we will absolutely get a picture you bet we're at los angeles airport for the gary sinise foundation soaring valor event down to the national world war ii museum in new orleans we've got a great group of very very excited veterans and staff members here for the gary sinise foundation let's go let's get there hey everybody come on out let's have some fun hello sir gary sinise hello sir how are you doing thank you how are you i'm gary sinise thank you for being here good to see you again when did we see each other a year ago well that's me [Music] david heath it's a pleasure to meet you we're gonna have a good time getting to know each other hey it's ramone thank you it's wonderful to have you robert frank and irving hi yeah we are thrilled to have you in 26 years of american airlines i can't think of a day that resounds more strongly than today as we celebrate the freedom that we have as a country because of the sacrifices of the men in this room today the last segment soaring valor off the ground let the boarding process begin god bless you glad to thank you this is part of our educational outreach of the gary sinise foundation to preserve these oral histories for future generations so we have the privilege today of taking about 45 world war ii veterans none of them have ever seen the national world war ii museum and we're honored to be able to share this trip with them don't fly into any geese with great partners like american airlines who offer us the transportation to take these heroes to new orleans we are able to do great things this is the way to fly huh enjoy your trip a selfie listen this is one of the nicest trips i've been on in my 94 years we can never do enough for our veterans i'm serving some heroes here hello sir can i interest you in some bread let's see we've got that's fine that's like one of those oh well it looks good that's a tasty little piece one of these yeah beautiful that's good with the pasta there one of these there you go sir [Music] just a whole weed okay clean your plate [Applause] [Music] this would be a new experience for me i'm overwhelmed just to be here with these old timers you know they're they've got a lot of stories and i like the way they tell so we embellish you know you know the flack was so thick that you could lower your landing gear and taxi on it [Applause] [Music] come on sir [Music] [Music] just watching world war ii veterans come through the concourse was incredible to watch the looks on the faces of the men and women serving today and the baseball teams that were here with us and just the general travelers in this airport to welcome them to this region it's just been phenomenal thank you very much [Music] gentlemen i look at you and i think of the words of steven spender's poem you are men who in your lives fought for life and left the vivid air signed with your honor welcome to the world war ii museum [Music] [Applause] there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest you were here to liberate not to conquer and so you and those others did not doubt your cause and you were right not to doubt you all knew that some things are worth dying for one's country is worth dying for and democracy is worth dying for because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man all of you loved liberty all of you were willing to fight tyranny and you knew the people of your countries were behind you magnificent words from ronald reagan on the 40th anniversary of thank you [Applause] we're all looking forward to the major portion of the tour which starts with beyond all boundaries the documentary that i had the privilege of doing the voice of ernie pyle in gary's been involved with this everybody knows him as the voice of ernie powell here would you like to say a quick word about what this meant to you to be involved with bianca batteries it was great it was great when tom hanks was working with me and phil hedema to develop our epic 4d experience beyond our boundaries tom hank said get gary sinise for ernie powell and it was perfect and all around below were the shadows the dark shadows of buildings and bridges that formed the base of this dreadful masterpiece one word wow i just loved every minute of that it's one of the most magnificent things i've ever seen and heard and felt i thought it was fantastic i thought pretty authentic you know the flight where they were hacked out of the place today's tours are going to be extraordinary after they come out of beyond all boundaries they'll go into the brand new exhibits that opened last december the road to berlin which carries a narrative story from the deserts of north africa where we began to attack the third reich and they'll go through north africa sicily and italy and sweep up into france and the d-day invasions and the race across france the battle of the bulge and penetrating deep into germany we'll tell that story from land sea and air and how america's military might gradually came to bear to destroy the third reich i flew radioman and b-25s for 70 missions in europe so i got acquainted with the german anti-aircraft guns i've laid on my belly on the aircraft and watched these things fire on the ground and then see them underneath it you see flash flash flash then all of a sudden you see boom boom look we call them the little flowers that bloom in the sky taxi on it so i don't like it it brings back a lot of memories and it's [Music] real then they'll go to the louisiana pavilion where visitors begin the journey through world war ii in a train station where everybody went to war or came home at some train station in america and they'll actually enjoy a simulated ride i think it's the best planned museum i've ever been in they'll go to the kushner restoration pavilion and they'll see pt 305 we're restoring a higgins pt boat that was built here in new orleans in 1943. one of the pt boats built by andrew jackson higgins right here in new orleans that served in combat in the mediterranean during world war ii it's being restored it's gonna be put in the water next summer it's about eighty percent finished i just saw that big boat in there and my guy is fantastic what they've done to keep it authentic then the last place they will come to is the u.s freedom pavilion which tells the story of american technology and military power through the planes and the tanks and the weapons of the war well the one way up top flying fortress the b-17s as well as a medal of honor exhibits and additional oral history so i crawled to the wall with all this machine gun fire going on on the sand around me but they didn't hit me lunchtime will be a uso experience with our victoryville so uh that'll be fun too [Music] the fundamentals [Music] they still say i love you here's our dancing guy yeah yeah he did very good [Music] the goal of this museum is to tell the american experience in world war ii a good friend of mine harry was a bombardier on the b-17 and uh sitting next to your uncle and he was shot down in his prisoner war in germany the national world war ii museum prides itself on the oral history collection that we've acquired they're not complaining after plane out of the sky so i said i get on the horn i say to the girl i said colonel do you want to turn short we got a long bomb run we can turn short and that go right over that point no by gosh we're going to stay on course blah blah blah with that we're just about to fillet and then we get hit it carries on the memories of what happened to us for our next generation to understand why it happened and hope it never happens again it's what makes this museum special it's a living trust it's what it is the gary's news foundation provided funds that allows us to hire another historian it's a race against time because the vast majority of these gentlemen and ladies are in their late 80s and early 90s and some of them are even older than that during world war ii there were three theaters there was the european theater the american theater and the asiatic pacific theater as you know i was in all three and that's hard to find nowadays we have to get these stories before they're lost forever i want to feel proud of their story proud of their history proud of their service and have a confidence that we're going to educate younger generations about what they did it's just fantastic i can't imagine what they're going to do next it's something you'd have to come every year to keep up with it it's great and it dwarfs anything i've ever seen unbelievable this one i had a long time it's hard to say what the highlight is when it's all great once in a lifetime for all of us you got terrific people here thank you very good group of folks god bless you joe i thank you for everything [Music] it's hard to really express the depth of the thanks i guess that's what i'm trying to say it means a lot come on i'm gonna start crying none of us can ever take for granted what you did for all of us you did what you had to do you did what you knew was right it was us or them it was win or lose it was freedom or tyranny the choice was clear and obvious and you did your job god bless you gentlemen for what you did we will never ever take it for granted and we'll do everything we can to make sure that others never take for granted as well god bless you have a great day [Applause] [Music] i'd like you to think back to when you were in the middle of world war ii and you were waiting for those letters from home it is now time for mail call flag that's no longer flying i want me to carry it around i will do that [Music] [Music] thank you thank you so much [Music] you

Channel: GarySiniseFoundation

Views: 19,062

Rating: 4.9654427 out of 5

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Id: Y-MmIlHGGto

Length: 14min 57sec (897 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 15 2015