"When one explores the hall of memories, some moments cannot be forgotten or dimmed by the passage of time. I remember the day — clear and sunny — riding in a convoy into Eisenach, Germany, on April 11, 1945, as World War II was ending; and a…

"And we move out a couple of days, and right up to within a few kilometers of Bastogne, which had been surrounded, and we were about 1:30 at night, and we could see all of this trace of fire and everybody running all around us. And we were wondering…

"During the night, we got an MP motorcycle that came in and gave us new orders. And instead we headed north to Metz. This was in north France, heading towards the Battle of the Bulge, which brought [us close to] the Third Army headquarters. We…

"And getting off the boat at Liverpool at night – I can remember being greeted by some of my fellow American soldiers on shore, and they were saying, 'Oh, Black Joe,' as we were coming down the gangplank."Editor's Note:British citizens largely…

"I started out really as a photographer at an air base squadron at Tuskegee, Alabama. And incidentally at Tuskegee it was the training for black pilots. About 1,000 were actually given wings at this institution. It really was not at Tuskegee…

Editor's Note: W.A. Scott was studying at Morehouse College and waiting to marry his childhood sweetheart, Marian Willis, a student at Spelman College in Atlanta, when he was drafted into the U.S. Armed Forces in 1943. He was able to visit her at…

"I ended up getting some more training in camera FLIR at engineering school in Balfour Virginia (sic -- this could be Balls Ford, Virginia), and went overseas with this unit after. The fellows really were ready to eat nails. They had 14 weeks…

"They changed the program, and we were sent to organize an engineer combat battalion in Mississippi, and that's really how I ended up, you might say, going into the phase that I did. But when I got into this engineer combat battalion, we had a…

"I ended up in Howard University in Washington D.C. I completed the program along with six individuals, a pilot. Six of us completed the program, in really two-thirds of the time – a 300 group. But we were called and told instead of commission,…

"And the Army started what they call specialized training program, ASTP, in '43, and it came through and tested individuals. And I said, 'You know, maybe I'll try it.' Because they were offering a little commission if you…