James Scott

Honorary Chairman James Scott, historian and author of Target Tokyo, Rampage, and Black Snow will welcome you to the conference that brings history to life.

Scott is a sought-after public speaker about World War II. Over the years he has lectured on military bases, at presidential libraries, book festivals, and in universities and museums around the world. Included among those institutions are the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, the University of the Philippines, the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, and the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Scott’s talk will focus on the Doolittle Raid recounted in his book Target Tokyo.

Alex Kershaw

Educated at Oxford University, Alex Kershaw is the widely-acclaimed, prize-winning, New York Times best-selling author of twelve books, including The First Wave, The Longest Winter, The Bedford Boys, The Liberator and most recently Against All Odds. He has been a journalist for over thirty years, having written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, AARP Magazine, The Guardian and many other newspapers and magazines. 

Kershaw is a popular public speaker, and designs/leads history tours around the world. He is also the Resident Historian for Friends of The National WWII Memorial and chairs the Colby Award selection committee. He lives in Washington D.C. 

Kershaw’s presentation will focus on the story of the D-Day landing in his book The First Wave.

Jonathan Jordan

Jonathan Jordan is a military historian and an award-winning author of three books, including the New York Times bestseller Brothers, Rivals, Victors: Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley and the Partnership that Drove the Conquest of Europe. He is a regular book critic for The Wall Street Journal, editor of the Library of Texas edition of To the People of Texas, a contributing author to The Amazing Book of World History and The Amazing Book of World War II, and the author of nearly two dozen articles appearing in MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History, World War II Magazine, Military History, and World War II History magazines. In addition to showcasing his military history expertise in the documentary Silence Patton, he has made numerous live, televised, podcast, and radio appearances. Jonathan lives with his family in Marietta, Georgia.

Jordan’s presentation will focus on the story of the Battle of the Bulge in his book Brothers, Rivals, Victors.

George Sarros
WWII Navy veteran

George Sarros is a WWII Navy veteran who served on LST 515 during Exercise Tiger. Exercise Tiger was a rehearsal for D-Day. LST 515 and other LSTs were to land troops and equipment on Slapton Sands England. Because of a mixup in communications, there were no British warships present to protect the LSTs from German Torpedo-Boats. Many LSTs were torpedoed and over 700 men were lost. George remembers how he and his shipmates pulled sailors from the sea that was burning with fuel oil. His captain disobeyed orders to return to port, so that they could rescue more sailors. The story was classified for many years, but now is told in the book Exercise Tiger.

On D-Day itself, George’s battle station was on an anti-aircraft gun on LST 515. He remembers a German Me-109 diving to strafe them, but an American P-47 shot it down before it reached them. They landed tanks, ambulances and engineers on Normandy Beach. Then they evacuated the wounded. George made 65 Channel crossings in the days after D-Day.

To read more about George click here.

Ed Cottrell
P-47 pilot, Army Air Corps

Ed Cottrell served as a P-47 pilot in the Army Air Corps in the Battle of the Bulge. He flew 65 missions of close air support to the infantry, targeting German Tiger Tanks. On one mission his plane was hit and his windshield was covered in oil. Two German Me-109s appeared on his wingtips. “This is it,” he thought. The Me-109s escorted him back to his base and gave him the the “OK” circled thumb and forefinger sign before peeling off and returning to Germany. Ed knelt down and kissed the ground when he got out of his cockpit at his base. The next day his crew chief told him that 8 of the 18 cylinders in his Pratt & Whitney radial engine had been shot out.

Ed credits the dependability of the Pratt & Whitney engine with helping to save his life. In this iconic photo, Ed revisited his old air base in Belgium two years ago and found the gravesite of his roommate who was shot down.

To read more about Ed click here

Joe Cooper
Served in the Navy as
a gunner’s mate

Joe Cooper served in the Navy in the Pacific. In the battle of the Leyte Gulf, Joe was a gunner’s mate on the Escort Carrier Ommaney Bay. He helped shoot down a Japanese “Betty” bomber. Then a kamikaze “Betty” plane crashed into the flight deck and exploded. Joe remembers dumping ammunition overboard when the order came to abandon ship. He jumped 65 feet into shark infested waters. He survived 5 hours in the water before being picked up by boats from the USS Minneapolis.

After the war he enlisted in the Army and served in the Berlin Air Lift. Then he volunteered to go to Korea. He was in the 7th Recon Division and did recon patrols at Heartbreak Ridge and the Punchbowl.

To read more about Joe click here

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