A comprehensive document capturing the essence of the National Steering Committee conference call.

Transcript of an oral interview with Richard Petri. Born in 1922 in Kansas City, Missouri, he joined the Navy in 1943. He began his training in the Naval Air Corps, but soon discovered he had no aptitude for flying and was assigned to the Navy's V-12 college student program. After completing his Bachelor's Degree, he completed Basic Training in Norfolk and Midshipman Training at Notre Dame and Navy Supply Corps school at Harvard. Upon completion of Supply Corps School he was assigned to the Navy Yard in Washington, DC. He was told to await further orders which arrived after two weeks when he was sent to Patuxent River, Maryland where he boarded a plane, beginning a long journey east, eventually flying over "The Hump" and into Kunming, China, where he assumed duties at the Naval Supply Depot, one of two such depots in China (the other at Chungking). He recounts the excellent treatment he and the other young officers received from the Chinese National Army. He recalls that after the release of American officers taken at the fall of the Philippines, including General Wainwright, all of whom had been imprisoned in China, a group of them came through Kunming. He …