Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Talk With One of This Country's Most Highly Decorated War Veterans
Aired February 27, 2002 - 07:40 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: This is a story that General Joe Foss, one of this country's most highly decorated war veterans, can share with his grand kids and his great grand kids, for that matter. You see, the general is 86 now. Recently, he was detained at a security checkpoint at the Phoenix Airport because of an item that he was carrying that had sharp edges.
That item was the Congressional Medal of Honor, which he had been given in 1943 by the president of the United States. The medal was harmless, of course, and to Joe Foss, priceless. Yesterday, I talked with him about that experience and about his career.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAFFERTY: General Franklin Roosevelt, the President of the United States, awarded you the Congressional Medal of Honor and your picture was on the cover of "Life" magazine June 7, 1943. What did you win the medal for and what can you tell us about the day you were given the medal by the president?
GEN. JOE FOSS (RET.), AIR NATIONAL GUARD: Well, actually, I was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for action over Guadalcanal. The pretty (ph) Solomon Islands in the South Pacific. And the specific -- the way the medal reads, all of the write-up on it, it's for the conglomerate action. See, I was the top ace during that time.
CAFFERTY: You shot down 26 enemy aircraft, is that right, General?
FOSS: That is correct.
CAFFERTY: That is amazing.
FOSS: And then, of course, I did like -- we were the decoys over the enemy fleet a number of times to fly over at 12,000 feet and have everyone shoot at you. They try to get you and then you dive -- take a vertical dive on the warship in the middle of the thing to draw fire so the torpedo planes could get in.
CAFFERTY: Unbelievable.
FOSS: Yeah. CAFFERTY: Let me flash ahead now. You have the -- you've got the medal with you. Hold it up, will you, so the viewers can get a look at it. I'd like to take a look at it myself. That's quite an accomplishment all those many years ago. There it is there.
FOSS: This is...
CAFFERTY: Now you want to -- go ahead.
FOSS: This is the medal that I had in my pocket, and I do not normally carry medals around with me.
CAFFERTY: Right.
FOSS: I was on my way -- after an NRA board of directors meeting -- to go up to West Point and speak to the sophomore class there.
CAFFERTY: And you were going to take the medal and show the cadets up at West Point. You got to the airport, what happened?
FOSS: Well, you see, when I got to the airport I planned on just going through as I normally have in the past. But they had this mass of checkers back there that seemed to hone in on me.
CAFFERTY: Because of the metal in that medal? Is that what...
FOSS: No, not at this stage of the ball game.
CAFFERTY: Oh, OK.
FOSS: I had on a western hat, which I normally wear; and this tie, which is known as a bolla (ph) tie; and a belt buckle that says "Dakota Gun Collectors" on it; and western boots.
CAFFERTY: They eventually wound up taking the Congressional Medal of Honor away from you, didn't they, at the airport?
FOSS: Well the whole deal was, the medal and this little thing that was with it, which has a little fingernail file on it, and it has the Congressional Medal Society insignia on this thing -- I've carried it for years -- and that set off the thing when I threw my jacket in there. They said, "Take everything out of your jacket," and I thought I had. I'm just not used to carrying a medal in my pocket here. So I threw the whole thing in a basket, and when that set that off, they said, "We thought you emptied the jacket." And now it came back. And that started the fracas and they said, "Off with your boots. Off with your belt. Off with your tie. Off with your hat." And they twisted that good.
CAFFERTY: Were they nice to you at this time? I mean, were they polite?
FOSS: No, they were very nasty. It was a nasty group of individuals that I couldn't seem to make understand. And I was trying to show them this medal, that it had all the inscription on the back there. About me receiving it from the President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and so forth.
CAFFERTY: Right.
FOSS: And -- but no one seemed to know what was going on. And then I said, "What happens to the stuff you take from me?" And they said, "Oh, it's destroyed." And I said, "Well, you aren't taking that medal, that's for sure. Or this other thing." And so then the next number on the program, I had some keys and stuff that I -- and an imitation bullet thing -- it never was a bullet...
CAFFERTY: Sure.
FOSS: ... but it looked like a bullet that President Charlton Heston of the NRA gave me. And they took that. I said, "What happens to all of that?" "It's destroyed." So then I said, "Can I keep any of it?" And they said, "No, unless you go over there, right that desk right there, and mail it back to yourself." "Well OK." What happens, I step over there and they say, "Off with your boots. Off with your belt. Off with your hat." I said, "You just checked me."
And, of course, then in the meantime, my jacket gets lost in the back and we horse around. And all of this operation took about 45 minutes or so. Finally, I get out of here and I get to the gate. And as the passengers pile on, I had a first class pass to get on -- not pass, we paid for the ticket -- and they take me out of line and the lady says, "Off with your boots. Off with your belt. Off with your tie."
CAFFERTY: This is the third time?
FOSS: That's the third time. And by that time, I was fairly warm (ph).
CAFFERTY: I bet you were at that, General.
FOSS: And, of course, the questions that they asked and all it was so nonsensical, the whole thing. There's no way you could catch a terrorist. In fact, you'd be -- while you were looking at some clown like me, the terrorist would go by.
CAFFERTY: Yeah, I here you. Now you talked to the officials at America West, the airline that was involved in this, and I understand...
FOSS: They've been very nice.
CAFFERTY: ... that there's been a visit arranged. Tell us about the visit that's upcoming here.
FOSS: Well the airline, America West, has been very nice. The vice president called me and I personally talked to him. And the PR Director, (UNINTELLIGIBLE), talked to me. And I'm going to have them out to the house to meet my wife and the rest of the tribe and let them know that we are not terrorists.
CAFFERTY: That you're not a threat. FOSS: No, we're just ordinary citizens trying to get on an airline to go someplace and back home.
CAFFERTY: General, let me thank you so much for a very entertaining and interesting, if unfortunate, story. Let me also thank you for what you and your buddies did all those many years ago. Because I've got a hunch, without the likes of you back there during World War II, the likes of me wouldn't be sitting here right now talking to the likes of you. Good luck to you sir, and thanks very much for being with us on AMERICAN MORNING. I appreciate it.
FOSS: Thank you, sir.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
