we got through the atlantic wall. not very far. the british were supposed to get to cannes on d-day. they didn't get there until july, but they got through the atlantic wall. the americans at omaha were supposed to get seven or eight kilometers inland. they got less than a kilometer inland, but they got through the atlantic wall. germany put such a tremendous effort into the thing, and it didn't hold up the allies for even a morning. we paid a price, 10,000 casualties, but we got through. c-span: how did you decide what went into this book? was it hard? >> guest: i sat down with the transcripts of all 1,300 interviews and read them through. c-span: how many pages? >> guest: some of them 50 pages, some of them only 10. the average would be 20 pages. c-span: you read them all. >> guest: i read them all through, and in that first serious read-through -- because i had been collecting them and reading them as i went along -- at that first serious read-through i put maybe half of them aside. what i was looking for was phraseology or anec

it really did turn on getting ashore and penetrating that atlantic wall. now, once that atlantic wall was penetrated and we had a beachhead and you could begin to move from england into the continent, this tremendous outpouring of america's factories that we had managed to get over to england by winning the battle of the atlantic in 1943, if you penetrated the atlantic wall then it was no longer a question of who was going to win. it was when is the end going to come. germany could not possibly prevail against -- but if rommel stopped them cold on the beaches -- this was an all-or-nothing operation. eisenhower, when he took command in january of 1944, said, "this operation is being planned as a success. there are no contingency plans." had they stopped him -- and they came very close to stopping him -- we would not have been able to mount another operation in 1944. this was hitler's great chance to win the war -- stop them in june of 1944 on the atlantic coast, then he can move 11 panzer divisions to the east. eleven panzer divisions might well have swung

that was the year that hitler ordered his top field marshall to fortify the atlantic wall against a seaboard invasion. from the tip of norway to southern france, the nazis lined steep cliffs with machine guns and artillery. low lying areas were flooded to block passage, sharpnd poles awaited paratroopers. mines were laid on the beaches beneath the water. and by the time of the invasion, half a million germans waited for the allies along the coast between holland and northern france. at dawn, on june 6, the allies came. the best chance for victory had been for the british world air corps to take out the guns on the cliffs while air borne divisions parachuted behind enemy lines. but all did not go according to plan. paratroopers landed miles from their marks, while the fog and clouds prevented allied planes from destroying the guns on the cliffs. so when the ships landed here on omaha, the an unimagined he will awaited the men. many never made it out of the boats. and yet, despite all of this, one by one, the allied forces made their way to shore. here, and at utah and juneo. golden sword. the

. >>> don't forget the cal ri kin all-stars, and it is the mid atlantic classic in wall dore f. come on catch orioles and they all launch their careers or you can watch the game live. get out early for the home run derby at 5:30. admission is free but your doe neighs are greatly appreciate. more information, ripkenseniorbaseball. org or call. >> buck: a lot of the proceeds from those donations will go towards revitalizing those baseball parks in their respective leagues. you can see some good players. >> jim: here is john baker, the catcher, first ball swinging and he fouls it back. baker, 28 years old. he was drafted originally by the athletics and was traded over here just before opening day in 2007. there is an off-speed pitch for a strike and it is 0-2. it is amazing how 2 marlins, buck, can continue to turn over their roster and yet remain competitive. obviously a lot of it is financially driven, but they keep coming up with players. there is a ball swept to second base. roberts to his right has it. and the ground out for the first out here in the third inning. >> buck: koj

think eel be hosting the valley league all-staffers, the mid atlantic classic in wall dore f. you can come out and catch luke scott, aubrey huff, where they all launched their careers. game time is 7:05. get there early and the home run derby at 5:30. the admission is free and your donation will be greatly appreciated. log on to ripken diss senior collegebaseball. org or call. >> rob: i wanted to ask jim about yesterday, smoltz struggling, but for jordan zimmermann who pitched well, but to watch a possible future hall of fame struggle, is that a good 1-2-3 inning or a bad thing for a young player? because i feel it is a good 1-2- 3 inning because it just shows how humbling this level is. >> jim: well, it really is. and you go back and you look at smoltz, he was the 574th selection. and jordan zimmermann was born 353 days after he signed, talking about john smoltz. this's how young he was. >> rob: disirm was 2 when smoltz made his big league debut. >> jim: he was not thinking about jordan there when he got signed, june 5, 1986 or something like that. but -- the bay by, somewher

on july 15th, furnish tour stadium, regency furnish tour stadium in wall cover. homerun derby and for ticket information, (410)588-9900. >> rob: i was going to say about cristian guzman, he cannot be hitting the ball in the air like that. he does not have the kind of power to put it out of the stadium. he has to work on getting the ball down on the ground and get on base for nick. they were eating up garza first time through the night. this guy came in with a 5 earned run average. >> bob: nick johnson hits it hard the other way. longoria to his left with a fine play, two outs. nearing the 10 0-0 hour here on the gulf coast in florida. tropicana field, capacity 44,000. the rays are averaging 22,000. pitch change cominging up. bases empty, two outs. brian zimmerman on the way against wheeler. ♪

and the article in the "wall street journal" is fundamentally foolish because the fact is, at the right price we have more coal than saudi arabia has oil and it is an enormous potential asset. we have biofuels in ethanol in growing abundance, new breakthroughs in hydrogen, electric engines, solar. america today in energy is artificially weakened by bad government policies which favor imports over american energy. and let me assert clearly and simply. bowing to the saudi king is not an energy policy. [applause] for national security, for the national economy, we should keep the money here. we should keep the economy here. american people agree that we need an american energy policy. gree. we launched a petition drive of drill here, drawn-out, payless. it 79 percent of the american people agree that both for economic reasons and national security, we should develop american energy, and that it is a key to our future. the american people reject an american energy tax. this is an energy tax. every american at every level will pay it, and it will export jobs to china. [applause] the american

to design improffering the integrity of the road bed along 230 miles of the new york, mid-atlantic and new england divisions. similarly, we're making good progress in our $100 million equipment plan. we do most of the work in-house with an amtrak workforce. we've also have existing agreements in inventory levels for parts. in some cases progress is still subject to the ability of suppliers to get us needed components but we're moving ahead. we have 52 mechanical employees and another 108 employees at our back shop in beach grove, indiana. and i expect the workforce at these two facilities will be returning the first of the m-fleet cars to service in the middle of july. the first of superliners by the end of july. at the end of july, we intend to award the contract for a team of regional project managers who will manage a slate of 394 projects with a total dollar value of $636 million across the country. many of these projects will be relatively small and they will be excellent candidates for small business set-asides. regional managers will oversee the effort and our expectation is tha

this will include improvements such as the ditch and drainage improvements, retaining wall upgrade, and improvements in design to improve the integrity of the roadbed along nearly 230 miles of the new york mid-atlantic and new england divisions. similarly, we are making good progress in our $100 million equipment planned. we do most of his work in house with an amtrak workforce. we've also existing agreements of inventory levels for parts. in some cases progress is still subject to the ability of suppliers to get us needed components, but we are moving ahead. era funding has allowed us to add 52 mechanical employees at our delaware facility. another 108 employees that are back shop in indiana. and i expect the workforce at these two facilities will be returning the first of the empty cars to service in the middle of july. in the first of the super lighters by the end of july. at the end of july, we intend to award a contract for a team of regional project managers who will manage a slate of 394 projects, with a total dollar value of 636 million across the country. many of these projects

that is because of wall slocombe. i am grateful for your service, and we're delighted to have a distinguished former pentagon official moderate this evening's discussion. [applause] >> thank you. it is a great honor to be asked to introduce that roe keating. he has that kind of resume that mere mortals only dream of. he graduated from the naval academy in 1971. shortly thereafter, began a distinguished career as a legal aviator. the most impressive thing is not the stress on his sleeve or the stars, if he were wearing a slightly different uniform, but it is that he is carried out 1200 arrested landings on aircraft carriers. he was the did the commander in thewing during the first gulf war, and he was the commander during visiting gulf war. in between, like all senior military officers, he has to do the additional penance, working in washington and a variety of jobs. i have had the honor and pleasure of working with him when he was the deputy j-3 during the 1990's. he then became, after his service, in connection with