>> My name is Adina Langer,
and I'm the Curator of the Museum of History and
Holocaust Education at Kennesaw State University.
Today is October 30th, 2018,
and I'm here at Sturgis Library with
Bill Wallace for a Legacy Series Interview,
during which we will remember
his father, William Hall Wallace.
Do you agree to this interview?
>> I do.
>> Wonderful. Could you please state your full name?
>> Yes. William Hall Wallace Junior.
>> And can you please tell
me when and where you were born?
>> I was born on June 26,
1954 in Macon, Georgia.
>> So before we talk more about your life,
I'd like to go back a bit
further and talk about your father.
Can you please state his full name?
>> Yes. William Hall Wallace Senior.
>> And could you please tell me
where and when your father was born?
>> He was born April 1st,
1922 in Milan, Georgia.
>> And what was his family like?
What did his parents do?
>> Well, in sharing with me,
his mother and father passed
away by the time he was 11 years old.
So he was raised basically by his grandfather.
He had two brothers.
He was the oldest of the three.
Grew up during the great depression
down in the rural South
and basically they were
farmers, agriculture, focused individuals.
And my father joined the military when he was age 17.
And then became a prisoner of
war in the Philippines and in
Japan when Philippines were led by General MacArthur.
>> So we're going to go into a little more detail.
>> Sure.
>> On each of these areas.
So you mentioned that he was raised by his grandparents?
>> Correct.
>> What was their home line?
Did they own land or did they rent or share crop?
>> I don't know. To the best of my knowledge,
I believe they probably owned property,
but it would have been a minimal amount.
And my father often talked about the heat of being
raised in South Georgia and the lack
of amenities that one would have.
If you think back in the 20s 30s,
no air conditioning, no running water basically
other than a well from which
one would have to draw water, things like that.
But not having a mother and
father when one is age 11 and being raised by
a grandfather is also
something that helped mold him as well.
The one thing I am confident of
was his faith and that that helped to
develop his focus in
later life in which he was a minister
in small rural churches
throughout rural Georgia for over 50 years.
>> So can you tell me more about that faith?
What were they members of the particular church?
>> I'm sure it was Millen Baptist Church.
My father became a Baptist Minister.
And most of the churches he pastored at
probably had less than 50 members.
But he pastored all
throughout Trutlan County, Lawrence County.
And it was I guess rewarding to my mother
and me and my sister to see
how he was recognized upon his retirement.
He actually conducted his last sermon in 1991,
and he passed away in 1995.
>> So growing up in this rural area,
was there a sense that the depression was affecting
everyone or was there
a sense that they had always been hard?
Did he talk about that at all?
>> What he basically shared was
how difficult it was growing up at
that time and lack of
amenities and it was across the board.
And a lot of
folks may not know what the depression really was,
but it truly was a great depression back
then in which there were no jobs.
There was limited access to travel.
Basically, people were land based
and to be able to have a farm and grow
your own food was
very meaningful and very important back then.
You couldn't run to your local
grocery store and buy items.
You'd literally had to grow your own food back then.
>> Did he work on the farm in
addition to any education that he had?
>> He did graduated from high school,
and I think they probably graduated around
age 16 back then rather than
going to age 18, which we see today.
But the one thing he talked about was
the difficulty in terms of work.
It really made him
muscular and what he shared with me later,
he thinks that that's what prepared
him for the Bataan Death March.
He told me quite often,
had he not experienced the heat,
the hard physical labor that he
endured to build muscle
and endurance and things like that,
he would never have survived the Bataan Death March.
>> So being a student
with his family with not very many resources,
did he ever tell you much
about how they learned about the world,
how they got their news?
>> He did not. Basically what he shared
with me and this is related more to
his experience in terms of military and
joining the used to be called the Army Air Corps,
not just the Air Corps or Air Force or not just the Army.
It was a joint unit back then.
But what he talked about was how that prepared
him and he was looking for
escape to be quite honest with you.
So he did not tell
the truth about his age when he joined the military.
But he did so to get off of
the form and he ended up in Savannah, Georgia.
And Savannah is probably about an hour,
15 minutes from Milan,
which is where he was born.
And that's where he entered the military was at that era.
>> And this was what year?
>> 1939.
>> So he entered just as things were
escalating in Europe before the United States?
>> That's correct.
>> So at that moment, at that time,
did he talk at all about
his family's opinion of the President Franklin Roosevelt,
did that enter into the conversation about?
>> He did not share that with me.
My belief is from knowing my father,
he's always been very
respectful of the Office of the President.
And in reading the materials and talking with him.
And one thing I'll say, my father did
not talk significantly or a great
amount with individuals other
than those who had experienced the Bataan Death March.
I witnessed that a lot in terms of prisoners of
war that they would
not discuss their personal experience,
other than with individuals who
had also experienced that.
So my wife and I went quite often,
they would have an annual reunion
in Fontana, North Carolina.
And that's where I got to meet a lot of the veterans.
And I heard more about
my father's experiences there than I ever heard at home.
But I never heard him to get back to your question and
say an unkind word about President Roosevelt.
I don't think that he had
any concern that the president
had any choice other than the one he had.
I know that he honored and respected the president.
And that's what he instilled in us growing
up was the importance of freedom
and the importance of respecting
the presidency and so that's what we did growing up.
>> So when your father enlisted in the Army Air Corps,
he went to Savannah,
is that where he did his training?
>> That's true. Well,
where he did his actual training was
Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.
That's where he did his basic training.
And I have a book that was
written about the Survivors of the Bataan Death March.
And one of the comments
my father made that was fascinating to me.
He was interviewed by
a colleague of ours at Georgia Southern,
Sue Hansen many years ago.
And he talked about his experience at Barksdale.
And what he said was that they had actual training
in terms of gas because if you think back to World War I,
mustard gas, those things.
So part of their training was to
go into areas where they would be
exposed to mustard gas or other types of gases with mask
and things like this so that they could be
cognizant and aware that if
they experience this in battle,
this is what you've experienced
and this is how you deal with it,
which was fascinating to me.
Something I had not thought about.
>> There was a lot done after World War I.
>> Correct.
>> That changed how training was done,
the hire infantry school
that was built here in Georgia came right out of that.
>> I think he said his training,
basic training was 12 weeks,
if I'm not mistaken, and that was in 1939.
>> So when was he shipped overseas,
did he talk at all about
Pearl Harbor and his memory at that moment?
>> He did not talk with me,
but he did with Miss Hanson.
If you don't mind, I did jot a couple of notes down.
>> Sure.
>> And I did so
because I thought you might ask me some dates.
So that's what I had jotted down.
Let's see, he enlisted on October the 14th,
1939, 17 years old.
Basic training was at Barksdale.
As I said, he was part of the 16th Bomb Squadron,
the 27th Bomader Group.
He was stationed at Fort McKinley in
the Philippines when Pearl Harbor was attacked.
And one of the things that he had
been asked that was an interesting question to me,
what were your thoughts about Pearl Harbor?
And what he said was that they were
surprised and that they were
apprehensive after learning about Pearl Harbor
while they were over in the Philippines.
He said they were frightful and that most people
were until you experienced a bombing yourself.
Once you were on an Air Force base that had been
strafed or bombed or and later,
he was talking about he had to fight
in the jungles against the Japanese.
When one is placed in the term
used not to be sexist but no man's land,
which is a place where no one generally survives.
Then he was able to understand and was not as fearful
and frightful but because once
you've experienced that personally,
the surprise and apprehension is over
because your own personal survival
then depends upon that.
It's not something that happened to someone else,
it happened to you personally.
>> Absolutely.
>> So what did your father
tell you about serving in the Philippines?
Did he ever talk about that later with his?
>> He did. Particularly his friendships that he made
with fellow soldiers or
fellow air corpsmen that were there.
And he talked about the difficulty,
I guess, of that experience.
I think the things that really resonated with him,
and it's not to be gruesome,
but the first time one experiences someone else being
killed is something that one will never forget.
And on the death march itself,
the term that they use,
there were approximately 10,000 American
soldiers at that time, 10,000-12,000.
And after they were, I guess,
survived or after they were
freed from prison camp in Japan,
there were only about 3,500-4,000
individuals that had survived.
But he talked about walking through the jungle.
And when a Japanese infantry would come through,
they would have to get off
the one road that was basically there into the jungles.
If anyone complained or anyone did
anything that the Japanese soldiers did not like,
they literally would bayonet
those individuals and kill them.
And then to remove the bayonet from the individual,
they would literally shoot
the gun and just leave them where they were.
So that was something that he never, ever forgot.
And one thing that a lot of folks
don't think about or may not know,
there were actually women at that time.
We don't think about Nurses of Bataan.
So in our meetings with survivors of that era,
we literally met nurses who had served with these men.
And I could not
imagine the challenges or what they faced.
But the men and the women and
the mutual respect that was demonstrated,
the bravery is something
that should be honored and remembered.
>> Absolutely. Now, you mentioned that
your father was a man of faith?
>> Yes.
>> Did you talk about what role that may have
played during his experiences in [inaudible]?
>> I think more so it came into play
prior to his liberation from prison camp in Japan.
It's not that he did not have faith,
but a lot of folks who feel a calling to the ministry,
or that there is someone urging
them to go in one direction or another in their life.
He stated that while in prison camp,
and he was a prisoner for 3 and 1/2 years.
Toward the end of that, he felt
this inner calling that said,
if you would make a commitment to go into the ministry,
things will work out, and he said,
once he made that commitment himself,
soon thereafter the war ended,
and he came back home.
And what he did upon his return in 1942, he had the,
I guess it was called the GI bill
or whatever the term was at that time,
so he went to Mercer University
in Macon to their School of Theology,
went through in 12 consecutive quarters.
He did four years work in three years
and became a minister and then pastored
in small rural churches from that point
forward for over 50 years as a matter of fact.
>> So going back a little bit just to his experiences
of the death march and the very beginning,
did he talk to you at all about
his memories of the moment when
General Edward King surrendered and
they were left in this situation?
>> I think his comments from what I've read.
Like I said, he did not talk with me or the family,
but these are things that I've read from
his first-hand verbal account with others.
He was concerned that the officers,
a majority of the officers went with
MacArthur and they went to Australia, I believe,
is where they eventually ended up,
that there were very few officers
and any that remained with
the enlisted men when they became captured.
And that was of concern to him
because having not experienced
what the enlisted individuals did,
it was hard for them to fathom and understand
the difficulty of what had gone on.
One of the fascinating things that I discovered
about my father is upon his release,
he was given back pay
for while he was a prisoner of war,
and that came in a lump sum check,
and that was from 1941 through 1945.
So for those four years,
I think it was less than
$4,000 that he received in terms of back pay.
His comment was that so often,
there were no reparations paid to any of
the men and women who survived Japanese prison camp,
but a lot of the individuals who did
not go to war or whatever,
Japanese individuals,
some of them were given reparations of up to $20,000.
So that was something,
that inconsistency that lingered with
him later in life with respect to the US government,
of how did we treat those who had actually
been in battle versus those
who had been a part of
the Japanese encampment or whatever.
And then in terms of reparation,
that was fascinating to me to have been a prisoner and
get a lump sum check for less than $4,000.
>> Did your father describe in any of his accounts
the removal of all the captives possessions?
>> He did.
>> That is something that.
>> He did. He said upon their capture
and prior to their beginning of the death march,
the first thing that happened was
they had to give all of their jewelry away.
So any rings or any things like
that were literally taken,
and I'm sure that they were used in the war effort by
the Japanese to assist
their government and to assist their military?
But that's one of the statements that
literally was made, you're exactly right?
>> And did he have,
because one of the major concerns were if people had
Japanese artifacts or souvenirs,
that that would never get them into big trouble.
Did he ever talk about it? Did he have
anything he had to hide?
>> He did not. Basically,
what he talked about was
his experience after being transported to Japan.
He literally had to work in the coal mine,
and I think it was Rinko coal mine,
I think is what it was.
But literally, they would have to shovel coal,
put it in box cars,
push it up a hill to a ship,
and unload either to the ship or to the train.
My father basically unloaded his coal
onto a train and they would put them in groups of four.
And so my father talked about going from prison camp.
If this is of interest to you, his personal experience.
They would leave around four o'clock
in the morning is when they would be
awakened and they would
literally have to walk to the coal mine,
which was in Japan itself.
They would have coal shoveled,
push the carts up to the train cars, groups of four.
And what they would say is the Japanese expected them to
fill two railroad cars daily.
And what he said, most people didn't realize,
there might be small cars and there might be large cars.
And what he meant by that, 10-ton, 25-ton.
But each group of four was
expected to fill two coal cars.
So if you got a 25 and a 10 rather than two 10s,
you might not finish up until eight o'clock at night.
So then you had to go back to camp,
and if you failed to fill a car,
you knew you were subject to a beating.
And so that's the one recollection that he never forgot,
was the physical beating and the physical torture.
And he talked quite often about his term,
and I'm sure I heard this from a lot of other survivors,
it became literally survival of the fittest,
it became dog eat dog.
You'd literally have to look out for yourself.
When my father was liberated,
he was 6'2'',
which is my height,
he weighed 87 pounds.
When he came back, he was liberated to California.
And I think one story I'd
like to make sure I share with you.
My father passed away and was buried on
February 27th, 1995.
The day of his funeral he had done many funerals in
Dublin Georgia with Townson Brothers funeral home.
And Mr. Forrest Townsend was the main owner of that.
And the reason I bring this up,
Mr. Townsend came up to
me prior to my father's funeral and he said, Bill,
he said, "Did your father ever tell you how
he and I first met?"
And I said, Mr. Townsend, he didn't.
He said, "Well, you know your father
and I've conducted funerals
throughout this area together for over 50 plus years".
He said, "I was in the US Marine Corps in World War II".
He said, "I was one of the people that
went to Niigata Japan.
That's where my father was a prisoner
of war, Niigata Japan.
He said, The first time I met your father is when I
liberated him from prison camp.
So if you sit here and think 50 years later,
here are two men that met for the first time and
so I also believe in a higher being.
I believe that the Lord puts us where
we're supposed to be when we're supposed to be there.
And these are the stories one could not make up.
How could two people
meet for the first time ever and then end up in
a small town of maybe 10,000
citizens and work together for 50-plus years?
That gave me a sense of comfort at
my father's passing and
literally to fulfill the entire circle.
My mother passed away this year at age 96.
She passed away on February 23rd, 2018.
We laid her at her final rest on February 27th, 2018,
the very day that my father passed away in 1995,
my mother and father were reunited in 2018.
So it's just something that says
Someone is in charge and
leading us to be where we need to be.
I never heard my father say
anything unkind about his experience.
The only thing he would not do.
And this was true of most of the people in this book,
they would not buy an automobile that was made in Japan.
They bought exclusively USA and American-made,
and that was their protest against what they had endured.
They just would not buy
a product that had been made there.
>> So your father was
liberated and able to come back home to Georgia.
Went through University,
Theological Seminary at Mercer?
>> Correct.
>> And in 1945,
he would have been done with that.
Did he tell you about his feelings upon
the end of the war
when the atomic bombs were dropped in Japan?
>> He did not, but we were with
my father and as I had shared with you earlier today,
one of the guest speakers at one of
the reunions in Fontana,
North Carolina, was the bomber during Enola Gay.
And his name was Colonel Thomas Farabe.
And so, we literally heard
this story about how the atomic bomb was made,
the direct contact between
the Enola Gay and the president of the United States.
The president literally wanted to
know what the target site looked like.
Was there any clouds?
Was there a clear observation because he wanted
a direct report of what was the outcome of that.
The thing I had not known and
perhaps many citizens don't know,
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were
not the only two target sites.
There were multiple target sites because had one not
been available to drop the bomb,
then they would have to move to another site.
And the interesting thing that
caught my father's attention
and Colonel Ferebee identified various sites.
One was Niigata Japan.
Which is the prison camp where my father was at.
And from what I've been told Niigata is in
very close proximity to Tokyo.
But he did talk about the shapes of the bomb,
how they had gone from
a small barrel size to an elongated bomb.
So that was fascinating to watch
my father react to that was interesting to me.
And I think one of the other experiences
I think was interesting for me.
In 1983, my wife
and I were married and one of the gifts that she gave
me was a life magazine collection from March, April 1945.
These were discarded by
the library at Georgia Southern University.
So I have it in a bound volume.
And so my father came and took
Lana and I out to dinner one night and I said,
I have a surprise for you, Dad.
I want you to look at life magazine from when you
were over a prisoner
of war or immediately after your release.
And he sat there on the sofa for
about an hour to watch him read
through or flip through and see
not only the stories but
the advertisements and those things.
It's like this was the first time he had ever seen
these materials and I watch the reaction on his face.
He said, during his time of imprisonment.
He received one package from the American Red Cross.
And what it had was it had 13 letters
and I think some candy bars or things like that.
So that was the only mail that they ever got,
and to keep up with what was going on in the world
prior to their surrender to the Japanese,
they would listen to the American radio voice of America.
And so he talked about that,
that literally is how they found out about Pearl Harbor.
So he knew from
that point on that it was going to be challenging,
but didn't get many,
if any, other than
that one package from the American Red Cross.
And the one thing that I will never forget.
The last question asking my father is was it worth it?
I apologize.
He said that to
have the freedom that we have in this country,
it was worth it and asked if he would do it again,
he said if it would protect the freedom that
we as citizens experience today,
he would do it again.
And I don't know that we appreciate the freedoms that we
have or the sacrifice that
has been made to ensure that each of
us can do what we're doing today.
Say what we wish to say,
read what we wish to read.
That's why individuals wish to come to this country.
I truly believe it's the greatest country in the world,
and we have traveled extensively.
There are lovely people throughout
this world and I feel honored and
blessed along with my wife to have met
these individuals, kind people everywhere.
But when I read and know what he went through
to say for freedom and risking one's life,
it's worth it, that resonates with me.
And that's something I shall never, ever forget.
Growing up, my father as a minister,
never saw one activity that I was in.
The reason I bring that up,
it was his dedication to his parish,
his church, those types of things.
He would preach every Sunday, every Wednesday.
He would go visit people in hospitals,
on Saturday, he visited all day.
So never saw any sporting events or anything that I did,
but I know that he loved my sister and me,
and his commitment to others,
and I know that he loved my wife.
Some things you don't have to say.
You just know that it's there.
To me, he was a man of honor,
and I thank you for allowing me to share his story today.
And I did bring a book
called Death March that was written by Donald Knox.
And Donald Knox interviewed
200 survivors and put 65 of their stories in this book.
My father's story is one that was
in here and there literally
are pictures of him from when he was a prisoner of war.
I think the other thing was the lack of food,
water, and the cold,
they were given one blanket,
and that was it and they were put in an open air arena.
They were told, this is a story my father shared with me,
that if any of you try to escape,
we will put you in a group of 10.
We will make you dig literally a hole or
a trench and then we will shoot all
10 of you and have 10 other people cover your bodies.
And my father talked about that while on
the Bataan Death March individuals who died quite often,
there were trenches, or once they
were under Japanese, authority.
If individuals died,
literally they would die from travel in ships,
travel on trains, those types of things.
They literally would dig trenches,
put the individuals in there and cover them with dirt.
So years later,
they remembered where these were and they put
crosses there to honor the family members
and the members of the ones who had not survived.
And I think that's probably something Mr.
Knox said that resonated with me as well.
They tell their story
to remember those who did not come back.
It's not to identify
themselves or request to be identified as a hero,
as much as it is to remember an individual who fought
by them side by side
and to honor them and their families.
So when I said he was a man of honor and integrity,
he was and he instilled that in us
that treat others as you'd wish to be treated.
So that's been my focus.
>> Yeah, absolutely. Did he meet your mother when
he was in secondary?
>> No, they went to school together.
My mother was from Milan, Georgia,
and my mother was his high school sweetheart.
So when he returned from prison camp,
what he did was he reconnected with my mother and
they married almost immediately upon return.
And so they were married.
Good Lord, 45 or 50 years.
I don't know the exact number.
But my mother, like I said,
lived to be aged 96 and my father passed away in 95,
so she passed away this past year or this year.
>> And what was her name?
>> Her name was Mary Dickey Wallace.
But I can remember the love that they had for each other.
And my dad was awarded
the bronze star at one Robins Air Force Base,
and we attended that ceremony and to see the pride in
my father's face and just the smile on
his face with his family there and my mother there.
That was really important to us as a family.
And the other thing that a lot of
folks may not recognize,
my father also was awarded a prisoner of war medal,
and that was approved by
President Ronald Reagan when he was president,
that anyone who was or had been a prisoner of
war would be awarded a prisoner of war medal.
And Congressman Roy Roland from Dublin awarded
that to my father in
January before he passed away in February.
So my father had his prisoner of war medal
for one month before he passed away.
>> Did he talk about how that made him
feel to get that medal?
>> He did. He was always grateful to the president,
particularly President Reagan for having
recognized the importance of that
to those who had served and to their families.
He had to apply to receive the medal as did everyone.
They had to be able to document
that they had served or had been a prisoner of war.
And he did that and according to
his interview earlier in December,
it was approved almost immediately.
It was awarded in January and then he passed away,
but he was always grateful to
President Reagan and my father,
I know, was not a long term Republican.
He had grown up in an era,
which Democrats basically were
in the presidency during that time.
But party affiliation had nothing to do with that.
And for that, I'm grateful to
President Reagan for having recognized that as well.
>> Now, I know that you brought his bronze with you.
>> I did.
>> Would you be willing to show that for the camera?
>> I would if that would be agreeable with you.
I did not bring the medal itself,
but I did bring the plaque and award.
>> Where should he put that
up so that the camera can see it?
>> In front of his face.
>> This was awarded by the Department of the Air Force.
>> Can you hold that
up in front of your face so that [inaudible]
>> Yes, I will. So this is the outside cover,
and this is the inside cover of the award itself.
And what the citation says,
if I may read that for you,
it says, citation to accompany
the award of the bronze star medal to William H. Wallace.
Staff Sergeant William H. Wallace distinguished
himself by meritorious achievement during
combat while serving in the Southwest Pacific theater of
operations between 7th December 1941 to 10 May 1942.
The actions of Sergeant Wallace were
in keeping with the highest traditions
of the military service and
reflect distinctive credit upon himself,
his unit, and the United States Air Force.
And then the other thing I brought,
so you probably can't read this,
but this literally is the autograph of the
bombardier of the Enola Gay, Colonel Thomas Farabe.
And this also is the program that every year
would be held is called
Bataan Corregidor Veterans Reunion,
and this was at Fontana, North Carolina.
So I got to meet a lot of
the folks and I have even photographs of
my dad with other
I guess fellow servicemen that
he had experiences this with.
I guess the thing just really
touched my heart in each of
these photographs, they're holding hands.
It's not that they got arms wrapped
around each other or they're standing straight up,
but they're literally holding hands
and it might only be two or three of them together.
But the sense of brotherhood,
the sense of sharing.
Like I said, they would talk with each other,
whereas they would not talk with you or me.
My father would never tell you what he experienced.
It just was not appropriate in his opinion
to discuss that in
company other than those
who knew what he had experienced.
So when you asked me about the officers earlier,
his feelings about that,
I don't think he would ever state this,
but there was some disappointment that some of them had
fled to safety while
leaving some under their command at risk.
And that's not true of everybody,
but some of those he felt that way.
The other interesting person that
we met at one of these reunions,
and I have his autograph as a matter of fact,
is a pilot named Pappy Boington.
If you ever saw
Black Sheep Squadron that was on television,
that was about these individuals who
flew in the Marine Corps and fought the Japanese.
They were called Black Sheep Squadron.
We literally got to meet
Pappy Boington and I have his autograph as well.
So every year, they're trying to have some type of
keynote speaker come in that could
relate to the men and the women
who had incurred or experienced this.
>> What were your earliest memories of your father
before you knew about all of this experience?
>> To be honest with you probably at Christmas.
I can remember Christmas presents and
I probably was five or six years old,
something like that, my sister
and see him sitting in his recliner.
My mother would fix breakfast.
And just the four of us sharing Christmas together
is something that I'll always remember.
And the other thing is
when we got married for him to participate in
our wedding was very meaningful to me
and to watch his friendship with
Lana's parents and that bond.
The four of them were very close,
and it's just meaningful.
And then, like I said,
growing up probably when I remember
most is once I had gone to college.
Because my dad was the first to receive
an undergraduate degree in our family,
I was the first to receive a master's degree.
So him attending graduation,
Lana was the first to get an
undergraduate master's in a doctorate.
So higher education was a pathway for each of us
to move from our place in life
and to accomplish and achieve what we wanted to.
But I guess the most other tender moment
for me is when I was looking
back at the pictures of when he was awarded
the Bronze Star to see the smile on his face.
And I guess the last memory was not a pleasant memory,
but it's the one I can see my father basically had
rheumatoid arthritis so severe
that he became completely immobile.
So he basically was restricted either to
the bed or to a recliner and to
see representative Roland awarding
him the prisoner of war medal,
and my dad had oxygen on at that time.
But the meaning of being there and witnessing
that it was meaningful to me,
and I'm very proud of him.
>> What lessons do you think your father would want
to impart to students of history?
>> That there are always
consequences for actions or inactions.
I think his message truly would be when I said earlier,
treat others as you would wish to be treated.
Higher education is important.
Any type of education,
whether it be technical college,
whatever the case might be,
take advantage of opportunities that you have.
And it doesn't matter if people know your name or not.
A kind deed is something
that will be observed by someone else
whom you may not recognize and maybe they
integrate that into their life and pass that on.
So how we treat people either
kindly or if we treat them unkind,
someone's always watching and paying attention.
But I truly believe he was
a man of God and his faith was important to
him and how we treat others I think he valued freedom.
Don't ever take freedom for
granted if I had to say another message of his.
So that's what I would believe he would share.
>> And you as the son of a veteran and
a survivor of the POW camps
in Japan and the Bataan Death March,
what do you think are the most important lessons that
students should take from
studying World War II two and the Holocaust?
>> I think the same thing I just shared here,
but the thing that concerns
me is too often we don't learn lessons.
We had the Vietnam War after that,
and that was my era and my generation,
and we have war continuing today.
We need to sit down and have dialogue,
but we need to have more than dialogue.
I became associate vice chancellor for
human resources for
the Board of Regents the University System of Georgia.
I've served for every governor in
some capacity from Zell Miller
through the present governor.
So I've served on many task forces,
and my thing is that we should do more than just talk.
We should have action.
We should look at results.
We should look at impact.
Anyone can talk.
But at the end of the day,
did we change anything?
Did we improve anything?
And so that's what I'm looking at at
this current generation and the future generation,
and they're different from when I came through.
The texting, the technology,
those types of things are things
with which I'm unfamiliar.
And I've not adopted those and
I've not adopted them intentionally.
I much prefer to do what I'm doing with you.
I'd rather talk one on one and watch a person's face
in their reaction because I can gauge that.
I can't gauge what a text message is.
To often we become so enthralled with that,
we don't see what's going on around us.
I would say pause,
talk with your fellow classmate,
talk with your teacher, volunteer.
How many people know what it's like to be homeless?
We have a homelessness awareness week
here at Kennesaw State University.
But how many people have literally gone out on
Highway 41 and seen individuals,
given them clothes, given them food, given them shelter?
We had a pop-up thrift store
last year at the Marietta campus.
We did that, we provided clothing, we provided food.
And what was interesting,
some of the young students had
never had a suit in their life.
So I took four or five of my old suits.
And these young men, I said,
I'd like for you to take a suit
because if you go on a job interview,
appearance is going to have an impact.
And so if you have a suit and tie,
it's going to leave a better impression if you don't.
What we found was that a greyhound bus
stop heads at the campus there.
Many of the individuals who get
off are hungry and homeless.
They need shelter, they need food.
So if I were to say I were a student here,
why not volunteer with care center?
Why not go over to the Marietta campus?
I will promise you there are
students on this campus who are homeless.
You may not believe it, but there are.
They'll use the gymnasium to take a shower in.
They'll stay in the library for heat.
They'll stay in parking garages
and grab a nap or something like that.
Always be aware of your fellow student.
Be aware of employees on the campus.
The staff, many are at risk.
All of us we don't realize how close we are sometimes,
but just a kind deed,
I think would be of great benefit.
>> So you've shared some wonderful stories and wisdom.
Is there anything you'd like to talk
about that I haven't asked you about yet?
>> No. I'm honored to have been asked to be interviewed.
My wife, Lana and I've been married 35 years.
We were here at Kennesaw State University.
I think one of the things I'm most proud of here,
we've created a triumph scholarship.
And what that is, it is a scholarship
available for anyone who has been homeless at some point,
in his or her life.
They can apply for this through the foundation,
and it covers their cost,
I believe of tuition from freshman all the way through.
And so we do that.
We also have a scholarship
we've created at Georgia Southern,
and that help originally single mothers,
be able to secure their degree,
but now it's a sociology major.
The other organization that we work with is
called Orange Duffel Bag that's for
homeless and foster kids who are attending
technical college or university system
of Georgia institution.
If they should be at risk,
let's say they might have to drop out of
college because they don't have sufficient money.
Maybe they don't have money for food,
maybe they don't have money to commute or whatever,
they can apply to our emergency fund,
and we will provide funding so that they
can stay in school and complete their degree.
Our first one was a single mother of three children.
Here's some water,
was a single mother with
three children whose generator
went out during the winter.
So for $600, she got
a generator was able to complete her education,
and they have programs that prepare
students to go to technical school or hire.
And so we provide funding of $200 per student that
graduate through this program
to help them as they move forward.
So those are the three things I'm most proud of.
>> Excuse me, you need to leave? [NOISE]
>> Yeah.
>> You may.
>> I was just going to conclude.
Thank you very much for sharing your story with us.
>> Thank you for honoring my wife, me,
my father, my mother,
my family by doing this, and the military.
Thank you for doing that.
>> We're honored.
>> Thank you.