50 years ago writer and director Norman Corwin was commissioned by CBS Radio on the night before the Japanese surrendered to write something commemorating the end of World War II when accepted the offer set up all night and hired actor Orson Welles to read on the air and resulting dramatic poem called 14, August to Mark the 50th anniversary of the end of the war and the surrender of Japan producer is Mary Beth Kirchner and Dan get even contacted Corwin once more to create a new work titled 50 years after 14 August today at. Midday. We're going to present Corwin's new program and also will be asking you to tell us about your memories about the End of the World War II so stay with us, but first here is fifty years after 14 August by Norman Corwin the following program starring Charles kuralt and Pat Carroll and written and directed by Norman Corwin has been made possible by a grant from a Corporation for Public Broadcasting.14 August Slaughter on a grand scale is always pulling what world war was the most MBA mandible blood Purge of them all. Exactly 50 years ago the second global war to be known by a number came to an end. Today after half a century of unstable peace and intermittent lesser Wars. We commemorate the surrender on 14 August 1945 of the most powerful and haughty Asian Empire that ever was Congratulations on being alive and listening Millions didn't make it but coarse was long and winding tank tracks Vapor Trails. The frosting wakes of Warships Skies popped by a CAC Landscapes of unmitigated ruin mountains of ordinance Warheads homing to living targets never bothering to ask which way to the barracks or the ammo depot. And as in every war new ways of killing and a new way to of instigating War by gathering a fleet of carriers and hiding them in The Mists of the North Pacific and plotting and rehearsing deception. I'm surprised then steaming South to strike on a Sunday a good day to strike a day off for church day at Tenison golf day. It's all in the record. They came in over a wahoo in two ways and expertly surgically lose bombs and Torpedoes that successfully surprised killed and maimed 3500 to 7 people destroyed or damaged 18 warships and 188 planes and task accomplished flew back exalted to their hives. It was a Triumph of sleazy criminal grandeur. We have seen pictures of that attack seen them many times have blows at once shocking and beautiful like a painted Masterpiece of a massacre and we have heard or herd of the president's address to Congress the next day starting with yesterday. December 7th 1941 a date which will live in infamy What most of us may not remember what the president added moments later yesterday? the Japanese government also launched an attack against malaria last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong last night Japanese forces attacked Guam last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands last night the Japanese attacked Wake Island And this morning the Japanese attacked, Midway Island? Overnight Warhead and coil the tentacles of a monstrous octopus Falling Waters now Pacific in name only shopping list of islands at Tolleson archipelagos who soft names and hard battles with some slick hideous Atlas Guadalcanal. Hello, Elaine, Okinawa, he will Jima the beaches raped by counting the jungle shredded the caves and tunnels Scorch by flaming napalm. What did they want those gentlemen of Japan? Why did they lavish yin and Men on arms and armies carriers planes the ponderous baggage of the Arts of War why rape Nanking in bang-up Moncton and Korea and when censored for that storm out of the League of Nations why an elaborate flim-flam of duplicitous diplomacy borrowing from the waist then hitting below the belt what did the piers and Barons counts and princes Admirals and Generals expect to gain a lot Great Expectations. They meant as a logo to Blazing on The Marquis of history and label for an Enterprise. They called the greater East Asia co-prosperity sphere Manifest Destiny Far East Division. The announced intention of the sphere was to establish the so-called new order an era of good deals for everyone around the rim of the Western Pacific the unannounced intention the One They Carried what's the Seas other people's land and property in order to make room for Japan's expanding population and to ensure that the riches of Asia the oil rubber 10 cold sore scab. That phone would be in Perpetual Loop Supply. A polite government might have negotiated for all such needs but politeness in the ministries of Tokyo was rarer even then resources in the ground the few moderates who raised objection who said wait a minute, let's think of consequences. We're parked at and grunted into silence and the warrior Creed of Bushido gleaming and Polished as a ceremonial sword took over. Armageddon is to refine the name for all-out Modern War atrocities of the past and fresh ones waiting to be exercised multiplied like casualties of that go. There was no room for armies in the Sullivans. The Gilbert's in the Marianas. It was never just a scrimmage or a tangle of patrols and his Defenders on Tarawa only 17 all of the Wounded were taken alive. On a rhombus of an island it would Jima only two and a half miles wide 6821 Americans died. Do you remember the photograph of six Marines planning the American flag atop Mount suribachi three of them were killed in the next 2 days. In 9 weeks of action on Okinawa bombardments aliens benza charges hand to hand combat. The Reckoning was nearly 200,000 casualties of which 120,000 died. Numbers the stuff of astronomy Commerce and body counts a thousand hundred thousand a million 10 million 30 million. Tidy figures simple to write easy to say but hard to understand or even to conceive when dealing with authorized murder. Odds in battle are at best ridiculous, like rolling warped dice on a lumpy table the ultimate risk of the gamble is of course loss of everything with no chance to recoup known metaphorically as death. When the British Cruiser Hood banking 1338 was struck by a show that pierced its magazine three men were left alive. When our submarine queenfish torpedo of the Japanese transport our Maru caring 2004 passengers one survived. 1 charity towards the enemy in war is less common than tap dancing on quicksand, but there are never any bounds to Cruelty all it takes to excel at it is power opportunity and vileness the Nazis colleagues of Japan in the vaunted axis at MoMA D lined up 129 American prisoners of war and shot them. On Wake Island Admirals Sigma 2 ordered 100 more prisoners to be killed and they can at all and again, I'm hungry to Japanese beheaded captive American fires beheaded them. War has the voice of a million muzzles and where it speaks dust hangs in the air for weeks violence is consummate no worm is safe the bomb digz deeper the memorials. All creatures living in Earth and Air in Tire censuses of seas feel the shock the twin screws of the dreadnoughts cutter plankton in luminous water depth bombs blow up whole nations of schooling fish. Not even the sky's the limit of the shedding of blood every leaf and every Franz knows the score. I'm so do neutral mountains a hemisphere distant for the crust of the globe is sensitive and will instantly relay a jolt in Micronesia to the jittery seismographs of Pasadena. Micronesia. Melanesia Polynesia benign enchanting outskirts of paradise pretty is an Operetta set tender climates caressing breezes languorous Waters and plant life welling up like green geysers. But no storage Island, however, ornamental enjoys immunity if it turns out useful as an Unsinkable aircraft carrier a rooted submarine tender A Passage to a Bastion number. War is not only hell but waiting and monotony to in the smelting heat of Aiden in the climate for The Lofts on Sudden ground where rains come down like Niagara every afternoon at three troops assigned to hardship and Hazzard try to stay clear of mildew bugs and enemy Raiders and are forever short on sleep. They trace late which they have no warranty of safe access even to a latrine. And the word Goes Out Among the vine ropes of New Guinea to Jungle fighters from Boston Spokane and points between but a singer from The Uso a living female uniform the bottom of a shape distinct and recognizable is that a woman has arrived and maybe gandered for a short time only before she flies on the Marianas. And in the Hothouse evening through the Strangling green of Tropic Bush soldiers Grizzle, sweaty hike 4 miles down to the airstrip just to gaze and Silence from 50 feet away upon the constellation of a single girl flash of golden hair a sparkle of white teeth and trim American ankles. And in The Shining symbol conspicuous and jeweled as a meteor and a moonless sky, the gics is wife is honey. And is Hope and the vision stands for all things ever said and done between the two the walking on the beach evenings at the movies the first kiss in folding arms Awakening Dawn and flowers on occasion. Add an evening gown packed in Moss balls in a trunk waiting for the goddamn war to end. FYI stand invisible snare began to tighten around Japan, especially now that her accessories before the fact the powerhouses of Germany and Italy, we're already down Hitler dustpan Of Cinders swept up with other trash in a suicide bunker Mussolini hung up by his heels at a gas station in Milan now the object all Sublime to be achieved in the shortest possible time was the seat of the greater East Asia co-prosperity sphere itself where it all got started four years ago. We have to be pondered among them the logistics of siegecraft but one thing was for sure, it would be no sense to Landon to sustain Ground Forces on the home islands of Japan where two and a half million troops remain ready for suicidal defense wear civilian militias of 28 Millions more at mines and grenades to work with and where 10,000 aircraft were available for Kamikaze strikes against Allied craft a tactic used successfully against some of the biggest war ships on the Seas how many more okinawa's Guadalcanal midway's and manila's would it take The answer came sooner than expected. Little boy that was called a 2 billion dollar City Crusher its core was constructed out of secret ingredients in Tennessee. It's plumbing and she'll devised by Laboratories in New Mexico by the authority vested in the American High command. It was disassembled shipped by roads. When are bass flown to San Francisco and loaded aboard the Heavy Cruiser Indianapolis for delivery to an island in the Marianas there to be reassembled for transport to a site in Japan not yet selected. The Indianapolis was a great lady who had carried FDR to South America and elsewhere had Convoy ships to Australia bombarded Japanese positions in The aleutians Fault anime warships off the Philippines supported Landings in the Gilberts and that he will Jima and learn so far 10 of the owners known and Naval etiquette as Battle Stars and then having safely offloaded the working parts of little boy on tinian. The Indianapolis raised anchor and set out for Leyte in the Philippines on the third day at a quarter past midnight in a Tranquil Sea. She was torpedoed and 881 of her crew went down. Retribution have not long to wait there would come towering reprisals in behalf of the Indianapolis and the ghosts of her sunken sisters in behalf of sailors entombed in the Arizona Pearl Harbor and the half of holdouts in the tunnels of Corregidor the death marches out of baton and the stuck corpses of The Killing Fields. Messages went off to whom it concern in Tokyo warning of an offstage weapon capable of inflicting unparalleled destruction and along with that warning a demand for prompt surrender unconditional surrender. Both messages went unanswered. Washington resolved wait no longer a point on the map was picked. It was Hiroshima the rest, you know. Faith and Fishin were on our side the Wrath of the Adam fell like a commandment and the Very Planet quivered with implications. In the same Chambers, we're not long before Warlords had gormandise don't Intrigue in menus of invasion. Now there was consternation what to do about the shocking new executioner the Behemoth The Fireball 10 times brighter than the sun. So Fierce, it blistered granite and startled steel and masonry into a state of shrapnel and cremated on the instant. 90,000 Japanese what to do surrender, Japan surrender never had that happened never could it happen to raise a white flag to give up and give in we're not in the language of Shinto. One of the thousands the tens of thousands of Warriors soldiers Sailors Airmen of the Rising Sun who had fought to the death who if taken at all had to be taken wounded. More delayed now in those exalted Chambers in those cold calculation rooms hesitation by the same Hawks who had hasten to make war. Add a past no response to the call for surrender. Day 2 still no answer on day 3 bomb number to name Fatman for it's bulging waste was assigned to double the force of persuasia fat man was a little boy growing up more complex more vehement and new wrinkle season with plutonium. The city of cucuta was elected to receive them. But when the B-29 on which Fatman Road reached its Target kokoro was sucked in so pilot Sweeney veered off to an alternate goal Nagasaki. The Bruce that the impact point was blunted by moderating hills around the city but still 70,000 people were obliterated in a blinding instant and that was enough for the rest of the nation to Sue at last four piece. Even though a Japanese General still unconvinced said we must fight the war through to the end no matter how great the odds against us Japan surrendered on the 14th of August. 7 p.m. Eastern wartime Bob shop reporting the Japanese have accepted our terms fully. That's the word we've just received for the White House in Washington is the end of the second world war the United Nations on land on the sea in the air until the four corners of the earth and Victorious. 14 August 14th, August to the gun turret in the turret lathe 14 August to the Tractor in the Wheatfield to the flag on suribachi to the mother of the five Sullivan Brothers of Iowa brothers who died together when their Cruiser was blown apart in a battle of the Marianas. 14 August to Anne Frank die arrest to partisans and Patriots to Jews and gypsies priests and poles torched in the ovens of the death camps. Now homecoming. Now the future can begin dog tags exchanged for a civil names ranks converging from outlandish zones of time from Secret somewhere is known only to post Masters buddies will write letters to each other for a while then drop out of touch the mess Halls where the meals were on the house will be forgotten between Jim Steiner and Home Cooking. Beaches without beachheads jobs without Sergeant's Gunners who tilted The Guns of battleships and Stoke them and epic combat will ride the level fairies of bay and River. The Tank Man will drive a powered lawn mower while his father watches. The pilot was many missions will do errands for some civilian company the Bombardier crushed today in a blinding instant will help his wife dry dishes in the kitchen sink. 14 August say it tonight as 50 years ago with saluting guns with songs with champagne and with laughter, but let's never forget the fields beyond the names and faces Beyond. Here in this August the grass is Hardy the sky friend play The Wind in the wind sock. Birds are competitive the hills of Home are in their accustomed places. all is accounted for except the farmer's boy and the middle hand who lived near the canal and the young man from the city block where the gutters fry and summer. One of them sleeps with sand in his eyes when he fell on a beach in Palau. the bones of the fisherman rest in play far from the rocks of Maine the cricket sings in the summer night, but the groceries clerk says nothing. Perform leaps in the wolf proof would but jungle Roots twine the postman's feet. The turtle is Young at 61. What the flyer is dead that 18? Remember them when July comes around in the Shimmer of noon excites the locusts when the pretty girls bounce as they walk in the park and the moth is in love with the 50 watt bulb and the par on the road is blistered. They've given their Nunes to their country. They've trusted their girls to you. They live very still in Alien Earth. for a bunch of tomorrow's remember them in the fall of the year when Frost airbrushes. The withering Leaf in The Silo is fat as a bearing woman and the cleats of the backfield dig up game stripper Praise of the stadium. When the number one Goose says it's time to go and the flock points of e to the South. They gave their seed to 50 states their football tickets to you. The shirt on their back is a worm cut rag for a bunch of tomorrow's. Remember them in the sleeping months with a SAP stand still in the veins of the tree when the skating girls Eddy like snow on the rink and the storm window hooked on the Prairie Farmhouse Motors in the Gale out of Idaho. They're dead as clay for our right to live for people the likes of us. If in the Millennium but did not wait for them. There were to happen a miracle the size of all creation in which the dead of the war awakened from their dreamless sleep their eyes reopened and their tongues restored. What would they say to us? What they purses would they warn us would they bless us what they asked us to work it out not fight it out. What they asked us to honor what they died for by living in honor. What they propose perhaps and redefy perhaps a simple benediction for the lot of us for black for white for yellow and red for us and our posterity and might go something like this. Make tribes of trees to send with your children to a time when the shade of the oak spreads wider than the shadow of War. Amen to the notion 14 August starring Charles kuralt and Pat Carol was written and directed by Norman Corwin. Boric acid copy or transcript of 14 August call one eight hundred four one one mind that's 1-800 411 mind. If you would like to send comments about this program right us at Norman Corwin and care of national public radio 635 Massachusetts Avenue Northwest, Washington, DC 20001 or send your email to Corwin at igloo.com. That's Corwin at iglou.com. The program was produced by Mary Beth Kirchner and Dan get him in with a associate producer Mary Oliver Smith and production assistant Debra Romano engineer's were leszek. Wojciech. Michael schweppe and Bill Deputy special. Thanks to Norma ring Rick Madden Andy Trudeau, Marty Halperin and Everest records. Funding for this program was made possible by a major Grant from The Corporation for Public Broadcasting additional support comes from National Public Radio member stations and NPR who's contributors include the National Endowment for the Arts and the Lila Wallace Reader's Digest fund helping people to make the Arts part of their everyday lives. This is NPR National Public Radio World War. I found many of us our parents and our grandparents in different places somewhere in their homes other stationed at military bases in the Pacific other places around the world as well. And of course the news brought tears laughter and dancing in the street. And all this afternoon, we'd like to hear from you. If you have some memories of the end of the war Recollections about where you were 50 years ago today when the Japanese announce their surrender and upper half what your feelings were at the time don't be shy or perhaps your parents are grandparents have told you stories about their experiences on those memorable days. And while we're waiting for some calls memories of some people who attended a World War II Air Show at Holman field in St. Paul recently. They share their thoughts with the FM news stations Mike McCaul tangra, then we're occupation dirty. We move back into Germany and a little time by frightened are Frankfurt to weinheim. And that's where we were Oh and VJ Day took place of Arrow actor. We were so pleased with the atomic bomb because they were they were so far as we were concerned when I dropped that bomb instrumental been around everybody would have kissed him. Where were you 50 years ago? I was on an island in anyway talk atoll. South Pacific, Marshall Islands You remember the specific announcement of the signing of the Armistice? No, I don't remember that at all. I don't know what the hell they even passed the word but I remembered they open the swap. Shoot free beer and everybody got plastered. Did you have a feeling that you were going to be sent to Japan or sent him to further combat? No, I was mad because I didn't I missed on Okinawa. They wouldn't take me I had to hurt my hand and my outfit moved out and left me back and deal. I just begged to go. I want to go with him and they wouldn't take me do you remember hearing the announcement of the dropping of the A-bomb? I'm sure it's hardened. I mean brought the end a lot quicker. I'm sure if they fought like they fought everywhere as else and it had to go in and kill them one by one they come out of a hole and kill him. Were you two together 50 years ago? Where were you 50 years ago? I just all I can remember is that it was over with and there were tears and there was rejoicing and You going to dance in the streets? In St. Paul downtown it was supposed to been just really wild. I saw pictures of it after but I couldn't go it was it was a terrible thing. I had never seen a war left you a war before I was terrible. It was wonderful. When I heard it was over. Do you remember the announcement of VE day and then how you felt that day as compared to V-J day was there a big difference in the two days is completely over with with DJ Dave a day. That was that was we were getting to it sir. v e day I don't celebrate it again. Weight loss for people over b e David member one guy got clobbered one guy broke his leg goats. You said you were in Okinawa 50 years ago. Yes. I was on Okinawa. I'm Holly Rod full. I was in the 2nd Marine Air Wing in Fighter Squadron there at 4 use and when we first heard about the surrender or we just had a beer issue that day too and people got pretty wild they were drinking beer and I start getting out their rifles and start shooting and everything else and it was a it was dangerous really I was going to say because people weren't used to drinking that much to her. But then after a while with the when the war ended, I you know you as a twenty-year-old kid. Do you don't think too much of it then? Well, it's fought over I wonder and I'll be going home and all that. If you just graduated there and wondering when when the ship would come into the harbor there, why was by Buckner Bay? So it's a big party in Okinawa on VJ Day. This was not VJ Day. This was some of our Pilots coming back because they always would go up there on raids some of our fighter pilots coming back. So they'd heard it on the radio that Japan was talking about surrendering and all that. Just you might say all hell broke loose. Do you remember the end of the war? But I do remember. Evelyn when the war ended and bought I tell you what, is there a celebration what kind of Celebration just really having a big time you have any relatives in the service of that time? And then after that then he got out. Remember his reaction to get a chance to talk to him shortly afterwards. But his wife is very happy that do you remember any of the reactions of the other folks and Eveleth when you were celebrating him? Big celebration. I think that was typical of everybody all over Minnesota and everywhere. Really? SDI voices of Spectators attending an air show in St. Paul recently that featured The Plains of the second world war. You could hear them in the background. So nice out there from the FM news stations might be called pain growth and I as you just heard a lot of fun to hear about the folks roof, remember that day and I've heard stories from their parents and grandparents and I once again be like to hear from you any memories you have about where you were on that sounds like a lot of fun or a lot of celebrating going on the day Japan surrendered. Our first caller is Mary from St.Paul. Hi Mary, you have to tell calling from from my childhood and I was a small child during the war. And as most children, I think my Recollections are those of my perceptions of the adult around me since I was 7 when the war ended and I remember it and that much the same way. They remember the first day of the war and another special events when the President Roosevelt died and that was because on the beginning of the war Mary call my grandmother crying and saying your uncle is going to have to go into the store and I remember thinking at 4 years old my gosh, you know, what's going on a minute then when President Roosevelt died coming home from school and everyone was sitting around and they were all sad and crying same thing. But this was the happytime because I was outside my mother worked at in the defense plant and my father was it said war in the Navy and a lady was babysitting me a neighbor and she called me in from playing outside with with her young children, and she said come in. You must hear that she said you will remember this as long as you live. And as this other person had said and leave you just played traffic everywhere people coming and I remember sitting on my stairs which to me seems all day long watching cars going by and people yelling and laughing and being a child not really understanding but understanding fully that it was happiness. And that's all I recall that day. And I I was only grateful because afterwards my first memories shortly afterward there with my father and my uncle are out there walking down the street with me in civilian clothes. They were in today in Carlos. What if they pass and one in uniform to a solute recollection, but I was a child. Thanks so much for calling. We have a lot of folks calling in so I would like to hear from you as well and we go next to and from Duluth High in what kind of story do you have for us? 350 General Hospital on our way to the Philippines to be part of the invasion of Japan served in France and then got aboard ship and they were sending us out there. But we did know how did you hear about it? Wake up your buddy and stand by and we thought we were going to be told her thinking or something, but they announced that it was DJ day and the divorce over to Panda come to have decided to settle and then there was a celebration aboard the ship all that day. Well, I don't know. I don't suppose I can do it. Unit in favor of the officers their head. They had some liquor in your Footlocker. Couldn't find her. You know, you had to be with him. I was hiding under life board. I couldn't swim and there, but then we went on to Japan or to the Philippines, and then later on. We went up to Japan and we were married there in December of 1945. My husband and I were you would also in the hospital unit. That's a great story Dorothy. Thank you for calling I'm sorry, I'm sorry, and Dorothy is next and Dorothy's from Virginia by Dorothy and the nurses Cadet score in training at the University of Minnesota. And I remember that very well and we're on imagine had a bender Nicollet Avenue and it was better chaos. There were no cars on the streets are just people running up and down and cheering and hug each other and kissing and it was just a real celebration down. There are just stalling from to imagine anything like that or is it just a once-in-a-lifetime experience? I'd say that was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me and it was just us when we were in there. Just a nursing for the duration of the war. And of course that released us from that not that we wouldn't have gone in her done what we had to do, but that did releases from war was over. There was a real happy happy time. Sounds like a thank you Dorothy. And Dorothy from Virginia now why Joe from Minneapolis is next high Joe. I was coming up in a small town in Upstate New York and I had five brothers in the service and when the bells started ringing It's a Small Town lyrics kind of signal the end of the war and everybody came out on their porches and on their steps in there was kind of like the First National Night Out my brother and my glock in front of the house and when my mother came my brother came out when the bells started ringing and she might have stopped because she didn't think that was quite forever enough for the for the time. Did you understand what was going on at 12 at five brothers when they all came back window and uncomplicated patriotism in 1945, and so we're kind of proud of that fact. Elaine from Bloomington is next time you laying what kind of the story do you have for us? And we would Farm in the Puget Sound area of the state of Washington about a mile from town and BJ day August 14th was my sisters 13th birthday and we made a cake using not sugar but the liquid corn syrup, but we were given able to use during the war get the cake homemade realize we had no birthday candles called my grandmother in town. She said yes, she scraped up with you. So I hopped on my bike and rode into town and at my grandmother's house all kinds of people were clustered around the radio cuz we knew surrender was imminent. I stayed as long as I could. And he said I better get home half ways home. I heard the church bells start to ring and I knew what that meant. And I pedalled the rest of the way with the tears to get home coming down. My face is starting to come down. So we had more than a birthday celebration at the evening can it not as nasty as rock is his downtown but to the farm ring pretty well that night night story. Thank you Elaine. Lots of people calling in with their stories about Recollections of VJ Day whether they were just a child or had other memories and I would like to hear from you as well and Dolores from North Branch is next. Hi Delores and your story. Training school for the Air Force but it been turned into a deployment base in the Air Force Styles or being deployed from the European theater to the Pacific Theater. And when the news came through why everything broke loose in Sioux Falls and John Gunther who was in town and wrote a book about a book called Inside USA Subs for somebody to pull up a fire hydrant and roll it down. The street would have been not noticed. It was utter chaos, and then the fellows would have been in England. We're doing folk dances out in the squares and and but there was no damage to any of the windows or anything but Phillips, I just met him. It's all controlled celebration. That's always nice to hear. Vertigo into the lobby of one of those it wouldn't go through so they back it up and turned it over and set it on fire and but there was no damage. It was just exuberant. Thank you very much. And I story Dolores and your story please a little village called and after they eat a day while we are we're pretty sure that we were going to come to the United States and then be sent on to the song windy day day day day day came along we were pretty certain that we would be coming home soon when we were the last American Hospital we were Down to the southern part of England and just before we came back and try blowing up 46th and Terrace before we came home, but I'd had a Minecraft without American Red Cross attached to the military hospital. So I have great memories and I had to I really kind of hard money hurt years. great volunteers for us in the hospital Very good. Thank you for the call and we go next to Ken calling from near Tower I can. How are you today? Just fine. How about yourself and your story on August 1945 or something of a day of irony. I was born in the United States Navy on the 14th of August 1945 in Minneapolis earlier in July along with another 87 recruits or shipped off to a naval training base in the San Diego in between that time. We had to breathe breathe so easily again, we did celebrate. So the day was something of a day of taking me for me as well as having food and I spent the next two and a half years in the naval service during peacetime. That's that's pretty much my story. Very nice. Thanks for calling Ken and Ruth from Virginia's next time Ruth. And I truly was a member of the cadet nurse Corps in 1945. I was on duty as a student nurse at the Fitzsimons General Hospital in Denver. Colorado taking care of her putting in our last six months of training by serving the country what's been such relief. Because they had all put in their years of service and has been wounded and of course would have had to report back. Canadair units September of 1945 my husband-to-be who is still alive earlier filled in Paris France. He was at Archie's Communications, and he did not come home till April of 1946. Maya just celebrated its 50th anniversary. And we were part of the Mainland Hospital contingent in St. Paul. Although we were U of Minnesota students 47 of us started at Miller 41 graduated for his deceased in thirteen of us. Just got together with her husband calling Gwen from Minneapolis. Probably our last caller that see Gwen. What's your story in the old executive building which is right next to the White House. I went to classes at night school at George Washington University where I found out the news and everyone was rushing out off the GW campus rushing back. To the White House and what we saw President Truman's come out to greet us and it was a huge mob there also a fire station a fire of wet wagon. So we climbed on top of the Sapphire Way. Road all around Washington whooping and hollering all over and Lafayette Park was just jammed with people. It was extremely exciting and Washington them. Very good memory. What's up? What what you saw that day when thank you. Thank you for one more quick. Call Elizabeth from Minneapolis Elizabeth. It just about a minute. What's your story? In Washington DC working working in the Pentagon and a few hours before before the official announcement not to tell anybody but there was going to be peace and that we were in the berries and didn't dare tell anybody about it. But when we found out I call my parents will come up and tell him how much for calling. Thanks to all the folks who have called out today. We sure enjoyed the stories here in midday.