"Let him come back to me," he told them.
Among the dozens of speakers at the three-day conference were veterans of Jimmy Doolittle's "Doolittle Raiders;" Brig. Gen. R. Steve Ritchie, considered "The Last Ace" pilot who flew over Vietnam; Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and United Press International correspondent Joseph Galloway, co-authors of "We Are Soldiers Still"; and Maj. Nicole Malachowski, an Iraq veteran and the first female pilot selected to fly with the Air Force Thunderbirds (she's currently a White House Fellow assigned to Barack Obama's transition team).
Also on hand were the legendary Tuskegee Airmen; military disc jockey Adrian Cronauer, who co-authored the original story for the movie "Good Morning, Vietnam"; and a half-dozen Major League Baseball players — Joe Anders, Lou Brissie, Jerry Coleman, Bob Feller, Monte Irvin and Ralph Kiner — who put their careers on hold to serve in World War II.