FORMER SECRETARY OF THE NAVY JAMES WEBB TALKS WITH 'CBS SUNDAY MORNING WITH CHARLES OSGOOD' ABOUT HIS NEW MEMOIR, HIS CAREER IN THE MILITARY AND HAVING A SON IN THE MARINES
WEBB TELLS DAVID MARTIN: 'IT'S HARD TO BE IN COMBAT, BUT EMOTIONALLY THERE'S NOTHING HARDER THAN HAVING YOUR KID IN COMBAT AND NOT KNOWING EVERY MORNING, NOT KNOWING WHETHER HE'S ALIVE'
James Webb, the former Secretary of the Navy, talks about serving our country and the stress of having a son in combat in an interview with CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin for CBS SUNDAY MORNING WITH CHARLES OSGOOD to be broadcast May 25, 2014 (9 a.m.) on the CBS Television Network.
Webb's son served in Iraq as a Marine Lance Corporal during some of the worst fighting in the war, Webb tells Martin. It was a war Webb vehemently opposed as a Democratic Senator from Virginia.
'It's hard to be in combat, but emotionally there's nothing harder than having your, your kid in combat and not knowing every morning, not knowing whether he's alive,' Webb tells Martin.
Webb talks with Martin about his new memoir, I Heard My Country Calling, published by Simon & Schuster, a division of CBS, in which Webb details growing up in a military family and his own time as a Marine lieutenant in Vietnam.
'The people who were there with us in the Marine Corps largely are the finest people I've ever met,' Webb says.
Webb also shares thoughts about visiting Arlington National Cemetery where both of his parents are buried along with comrades from his military service. Webb tells Martin about visiting the grave of Corporal James Ward every year on May 9, the anniversary of the day Ward was killed in action under Webb's command in Vietnam.
'The enormity of this place is what I love,' Webb tells Martin. 'And the notion that this is our national shrine to military service and sacrifice. I can get lost in this place for hours and see the headstones of people you'll never even know who they are, and that's every bit as important to me as my family.'
CBS SUNDAY MORNING is broadcast Sundays (9-10:30 a.m.) on WUSA9.
