RADIOMay 19, 2022

How fixing Hunter Biden’s laptop SHATTERED this man’s life

In the fall of 2020, when the New York Post published its first article on Hunter Biden’s revealing laptop, it wasn’t just the president’s son facing a now uncertain future. The life of the man who originally repaired that infamous laptop — John Paul Mac Isaac — was forever changed as well. He joins Glenn to describe the life-shattering consequences he faced that all began when Hunter Biden dropped off three liquid-damaged MacBooks on April 12th, 2020: ’To have that idea out there, that I colluded with [Russia] to affect an election…I mean, that's treasonous. And to have a traitor attached to my name, it was devastating for me.’

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: One of the guys I've wanted to talk to for months. Is a guy who was born into a military family. Air Force. And he's a -- he's a -- really, I think, a decent American, that was caught in kind of a Hitchcockian sort of film. Because somebody walked into his computer repair store. And said, hey. Can you -- can you fix this?

Well, that was Hunter Biden's and his life has been an absolute hell ever since. He's on with us now, John Paul Mac Isaac. How are you, sir?

JOHN: I'm pretty good. Thanks for having me on the show.

GLENN: You bet. So can you tell me. This whole thing started on a Friday night, and Hunter Biden walks into your shop, right?

JOHN: Yeah. It was Friday, April 12th. About ten minutes before we close. And on a Friday night, I was kind of excited to get out of the shop. Unfortunately, that excitement, was shot down, when Hunter walked in, clutching three liquid-damaged MacBook Pros that he wanted to get data recovery from.

GLENN: Did you know who he was, at first?

JOHN: No. I'm visually impaired.

So I -- when people walk in the store, I can't really see who they are. It wasn't until I started collecting his personal information. When I requested his name and phone number, and email. And he was surprised that I didn't recognize him, instantly. I guess he said, he's some sort of local celebrity.

GLENN: Yeah. All right. So take us through what happened. You had the laptops. And you were asked to take all of this information off the hard drive. When you do that, normally, do you see what's on the hard drive, or is it just a transfer?

JOHN: Well, in a perfect world, if it's say, a transfer from a perfectly healthy machine, to whatever the customer wants me to transfer it to, that process is generally automated.

In this case, the one laptop that I was able to recover data from, that I actually checked in, that was a liquid-damaged machine. It had power instability issues. So I started to do a transfer, and the power cut out on it. So I basically had to piecemeal the transfer, the next couple of days. Where I get it to power on, long enough for me to manually drag a folder to drop it to our secure store server.

In that process, because it's not automated and there's no automatic verification process, I had to verify that the data that I was copying, was intact. And it was in that verification process, that I was made aware, that there was some sensitive, embarrassing, potentially criminal material on the laptop.

GLENN: Okay. So you fixed it. And you expected him to come back. And you weren't going to do anything with the laptop, right?

PAT: Well, at that point in time, I completed the repair on April 16th. I gave him a ring, to drop off an external hard drive. So I could transfer the data back.

And he did. He came into the shop. Dropped off a two terabyte Western Digital external hard drive, I believe he got from Best Buy. And I proceeded to copy the data that I recovered to that drive. He also requested that it pay him electronically through the Square credit card processing, which sends out an email, and an automated reminder.

I then proceeded to call him the next day, to let him know it was ready. And then I continued to proceeded to call him, to let him know it was ready, for a couple weeks after that. And never got a response again.

GLENN: So after 90 days, what happens to the laptop?

JOHN: After 90 days, on the paperwork he signed, it clearly states, that after 90 days, any abandoned property becomes property of the Mac shop.

So when it became my property, I wanted to make sure what I had seen was real, because I hadn't looked at the laptop during that entire time. I think it was mid-July, where I finally dove into it.

And that's when I -- mainly because Burisma and Hunter were in the news cycle, during the summer.

I was very concerned, that, A, somebody would come looking for the embarrassing content, when he dropped off the laptop, his dad wasn't running for president.

But two weeks later, his dad was running for president. I fully expected the Secret Service to kick down my door, take the laptop and me away.

GLENN: That's terrifying.

JOHN: I think we've seen recently, that the Secret Service is the Biden's cleaner service. So I had a legitimate fear. And then also, my concern that there was the material on the laptop, that was part of a criminal investigation. That was when --

GLENN: So you gave it to the FBI. At it point, you still trusted the FBI, somewhat.

JOHN: I trust the FBI enough to know that this was the proper channel. This is what I had to do. I didn't -- after witnessing what happened to Roger Stone, that previous January. Having witnessing the weaponization that the department of FBI, and the Mueller investigation. I was definitely concerned. So that's why I enlisted my father, from this 31-year military colonel, to go to the Albuquerque FBI. Because I didn't -- I was trying to keep myself out of it. Like a secret. I had a business. And a place -- I didn't want to lose any of that.

GLENN: Sure.

JOHN: So I enlisted my father. He approached the Albuquerque. I believe it was October 8, of 2019. The Albuquerque FBI office. And he was promptly kicked out. He was asked to don't talk about this.

GLENN: Holy cow.

JOHN: He made an effort to try to get them to drive. And they seemed not interested whatsoever, and wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole.

So we felt pretty defeated at that point. And it was about a month later, when an FBI agent reached out to my father, in an effort to get a hold of me.

A couple weeks after that, I had the FBI meet me at my house. I expressed my concerns for my safety. And what I was hoping to achieve by going to the FBI. Which was basically, get this thing out of my shop.

GLENN: Right.

JOHN: And give me some level of protection, if somebody comes looking for it. I want a phone number that I can call, and, you know, I have someone that I can reach out to, should something go bad.

GLENN: When -- when this finally broke in the New York Post, you were destroyed. Your business was destroyed. You were -- what was it? Fifty-one different intelligence experts signed a statement, saying that this was Russian disinformation, which made you, you know, in league with the Russians.

JOHN: Yes.

GLENN: I know. Because we reached out to you. And you were like, I'm just trying to get out of here. I don't want to do any interviews. I want to get out of here.

How afraid for your life were you?

JOHN: You know, it really started the morning of October 14th.

The New York Post released a story at 6:30 in the morning, and I was getting death threats by about 6:45.

So it didn't take long for people to make the connection. Then it really -- initially, it was -- you know, I'm a hacker. I'm a thief. How could I do this?

GLENN: Yeah.

JOHN: Then the narrative slowly shifted to Putin thanks you for your service. And you're a stooge for Russia.

And to have that idea out there, that I colluded with a foreign power, to affect an election. I mean, that's -- that's treasonous. And, you know, I come from a very distinguished military family, to have the label traitor attached to my name. Is just -- it's devastating for me.

GLENN: At you ever -- ever think that your country would do this to you?

JOHN: No. I didn't. I really did not expect what I witnessed on October 14th. Within three hours of the Post releasing the story. There was a digital Iron Curtain that descended around the story. And anyone trying to report on it. The New York Post blocked from Twitter for weeks.

To see that level of collaboration, and collusion, I figured out rather quickly. That this had to be something, they were prepared for. They were waiting for this to happen.

And I think Zuckerberg was dragged before Congress. On October 25th.

And he said that the FBI reached out in the late summer, to Facebook, Twitter, and Google, to warn them, of a massive dump of foreign intelligence, that's going to affect the election.

And to be ready for it. And I can only imagine, that that was the because on August 28th, is when I overnighted, a copy of Hunter's drive to Rudy Giuliani's office. And next week, the FBI warned them. It kind of begs the question. Who was on their surveillance. Was I can monitored? Or was the office of the United States being monitored?

GLENN: You recently filed a lawsuit against Adam Schiff, and I just -- I want to say, I love you for that.

CNN, the Daily Beast, Politico, why are you suing these guys?

JOHN: Well, I think Adam Schiff is pretty clear. He had no problems going on, Wolf Blitzer. On the 16th of October. To tell the American people, that this was an operation run out of the Kremlin.

He is supposed to be the chair of the intelligence committee. But he was handed zero intelligence. If anything, the intelligence community, at the time was trying to convey to them, this has nothing to do with Russia.

And he went on the news, anyway, to spread this narrative. And I think that's a major problem. Because look, the narrative that was spread. Is the narrative that seems to be sticking for all of them. Let's blame Russia for the 2016 election. Let's blame Russia for collusion with Trump.

And they tried it again. I'm the last person you could ever possibly call a Russian. My family has a history of fighting during the entirety of the Cold War against communism. So I think they just chose the wrong guy.

GLENN: You sound pretty together. And I'm glad to hear that.

I -- we prayed for you. I think a lot of people in the country, prayed for you.

I'm doing a special tonight, on how this is about Joe Biden. I'm not sure how much of the laptop, you read. Because it's yours. Isn't it?

JOHN: Uh-huh. Well, the FBI has it now. I gave them the receipt.

GLENN: You'll never get it back. You have a copy of it, though, didn't you? I would have. You did. Okay. Good.

JOHN: I made a copy. I made two copies before I went to the FBI. I made a copy to give to my father, so he could go to the FBI with it. I also made a copy to give to a close friend of mine. Should anything happen to me, she had explicit instructions to hand deliver this to the one person that was in Ukraine, during the summer of 2019, looking up the same information that I was in possession of. And that was Rudy Giuliani. This was a decision that I made back in early October of 2019. So time passes, almost a year goes by. It turns out, that would be the same drive, of Rudy Giuliani. I'm in possession of my father's copy, which predates Rudy. So if there's any question out there, of any data that's been erroneously or maliciously added to any copies that are out there. We have a copy that pre-dates Rudy. So we can always compare it. I definitely offer that as options, to anybody who questions the integrity of the data that's out there.

GLENN: The media says that they are -- you know, yeah, we -- we realize now, it wasn't a Russian operative. You know, and a Russian op. However, they're making this about the son, not the father.

This is clearly about the father, don't you think? That was my concern. Concerns I had for national security, weren't about Hunter.

Sure, there was -- this guy was incredibly reckless with this technology. I wouldn't be surprised if the Russians had a copy of his laptop, or the Chinese have the copy of the laptop.

So, yeah. There was that level of Hunter-based national security. But the blue star strategies was on a weekly basis. Sending information, directly from the White House. Not the vice president's office. But the White House.

All the policies toward Ukraine. Anything that had to do with Ukraine, including the vice president's travel schedule, which should be a state secret. Was being sent in the open, not secured, to private Ukrainian citizens that were running a natural gas company that employed the vice president's son.

That was a concern of mine. Because this is stuff that you shouldn't send out in the open. And you shouldn't send to somebody who is financially benefiting your offspring.

GLENN: Yeah. And now that we are involved in war. I question everything that is going on. I can't thank you enough, John. And is there a way for people to help?

I know that there's a GiveSendGo, because you are under tremendous financial pressure. And I think you can just go to GiveSendGo, Build Back Mac Isaac. I-S-A-A-C.

JOHN: Yep.

GLENN: Is that the best way for people to help you?

JOHN: You know, my friend Kristen -- I never wanted the profit off of my actions, during this entire process.

GLENN: Of course.

JOHN: Even -- even when it came to mailing a copy of the drive to Rudy Giuliani's office, I didn't take the credit card. Because I did not want -- I've seen how money can pervert noble efforts, and I didn't want to fall into that trap.

GLENN: Yep. Yep.

JOHN: And I still was kind of reluctant to go with any kind of fundraising. Because I made my bed. The American people to foot the bill.

My friends convinced me, informed me that any money that I planned to achieve through my book, will probably take a while to get there. So I will need to do something, or I won't survive this. And I need to survive this, so I can continue to fight.

So my friend set up my GiveSendGo for me, and I'm grateful. Actually, I do want to say, how -- I am completely astounded by the report I've received. Not just monetarily, but prayers. And just general support from all walks of life. And all corners of this country.

GLENN: I'm glad.

JOHN: And I can tell you, that support has given me the strength to get this far. Because it got pretty dark, like a year or so, ago.

If it wasn't for the support for the American people, I wouldn't have the strength to continue this fight. And now I know how big this fight is.

GLENN: John, I have to go. I'm against a network break. I would love to have you on again.

GiveSendGo. Build Back Mac Isaac. Back in a minute.

The ONE “forever war” Glenn Beck supports

This Fourth of July, Glenn Beck reveals the only “forever war” he supports. It’s the war Americans have been fighting since our nation’s founding, and we must continue the fight…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Two hundred forty-nine years ago, I think it is tomorrow. Right? Is tomorrow the second, or is it the first?

What day is it today?

So it was 200 -- 249 years ago, tomorrow, that somebody sat alone, in a -- in a one-room hotel room.

And scratched out the words, when in the course of human events. Those are the first six words of a document that is so dangerous!

Still today, so revolutionary.

It was whispered in those candle lit rooms by men who knew. Knew. That if I signed this document, that's a death warrant.

I'm dead!

I'm dead.

But in the course of human events, shh.

Jefferson wrote them!

33 years old. Adams would later say, you do well to revere Jefferson. But he didn't write alone. Basically, I was there too.

And so was Ben Franklin. The ideas were forged in the minds of men like Franklin, who is old enough to know better. And Adams, who was stubborn enough, not to care. And they weren't perfect men. But I love this about the left. They try to make you think.

That you think are perfect. I don't think they were perfect! I mean, Ben Franklin used to walk around naked in his house a lot. That shows, I mean, for as smart as that guy was. It shows, maybe he had a lack of mirrors. But they weren't perfect!

They owned slaves. They argued. They compromised.

How does that make them different than us?
I mean, we should be able to relate to them!

What is it that we tolerate right now?
What is it that we compromise on?

What is it -- what are our failures that future generations are going to go, these people just didn't get it? Perhaps what we should notice is that they, unlike most of us. They were willing to gamble their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

For something that had never, ever been done before. Something entirely new!

The idea that rights don't come from a government, or from a king, or from a parliament.

They don't come from the majority voting. Everyone has certain rights.

You know, for all these people who are, you know -- going in Macy's, and burning down towns. And then stealing clothing. And they're like, because I've been oppressed!

And you can't -- I've got rights, you know.
Yeah. Yeah.

You know who the first people were, to articulate those rights?

You know the only country that actually has stood for those rights?

And we're imperfect!

That idea came from the Founders, that you say you hate.

But the actual rights come from God, which you dismiss!

Think of this. Just ponder this for a second.

That all men are created equal! That their rights are given to them, by a creator.

It's not a political assertion. It's a genius. That's eternal truth!

That's theological dynamite, lobbed straight in to the thrones of Europe.

All over the world, it's still dynamite.

They knew what they were doing.

And I don't mean like, they knew what they were doing.

They had it. No. They knew that the British crown had the largest military force in the world. And these guys, they were farmers. They were printers. They were lawyers. They were a ragtag collection of intellectual and idealists, facing down an empire, where they said, the sun never set on the British empire. Meaning, the colonialism was everywhere!

You could not escape England. And yet, they declared it. We're leaving, without apology!

And they said that when a government becomes destructive of the ends of liberty, life, and the pursuit of happiness, it's not only the right of the people, it's their duty to throw it off!

Wow. And you know what is amazing? That's not rebellion.

That's -- that's not revolution. That's -- that's responsibility.

That -- that kind of language today, that would have you flagged, shadow banned. Labeled an extremist. In most countries, disappeared!

But that is the foundation of what we call America. The American experiment. And it's that. The American experiment.

And it's just that, an experiment. We didn't know if we could get it right. And we haven't gotten it right. But isn't it worth experimenting?

Isn't it worth trying to get that concept right?

When you fail on that concept, you're like, eh. That's a stupid idea.

That's not a stupid idea. That's the greatest idea of all time.

Why are so many people willing to just quit?

The experiment is self-rule. It's not perfect.

Never has been. Slavery. Jim Crow. Internment camps. Assassinations.

My God! Forgive us, for what we have done.

But at the same time, what nation has done more to correct its own errors?

What people have shed more blood, not for conquest, but for freedom.

Twice in the last century, we crossed oceans. Not to claim territory. But to liberate that territory!

Our sons and daughters fought and bled on foreign soil to push the darkness back, to fight against Naziism and fascism and Communism. And here we are. Here we are today.

After 249 years tomorrow of that experiment, standing at the lip of the very abyss, those men feared.

A godless chaos, rising in the east and a cold atheistic utopia, clawing at the foundations of the Western world. Islamism and Communism, two ideologies that have killed tens of millions of people. Now dressed all in new robes, selling old lies.

And we can't even teach a child where their rights come from. We have replaced Jefferson and Adams with TikTok influencers and bureaucratic groupthink.

We're raising generations to not even know the truth about their own identity.

But to question their identity. And they could be, oh, you're a funny, funny colored unicorn today. What do you want to be tomorrow?

We don't teach them anything about truth, or their inheritance, most importantly. Their inheritance. What good are hot dogs and fireworks, if the soul of the nation is up for auction? What is the meaning in Fourth of July, if we have forgotten the why? If we don't even call it Independence Day anymore. Most people don't even know who we fought against for independence.

They think we fought for its independence! Most people think we fought the South!

And yet, we'll light the sparklers, or blow our fingers off, because we're just that stupid.

This Independence Day weekend, would you do me and yourself and your country a favor, and read the words out loud. Speak the words out loud.

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands, which have connected them with one another.

And to assume among the powers of earth, the separate, but equal station, to which the laws of nature.

And nature's God entitle them.

A decent respect to the opinions of mankind, requires that they should declare the causes, which impair them to the separation.

What are they saying?

Look, we want to be decent people.

We want to be decent people.

And we have to separate them.

But we believe it's only right that we tell you why we have to separate. And it's not because of all the bad things you've done. We'll get to those later. It's because we're different. And you don't understand. You have been telling us all of these things, we no longer believe in. We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created equal, and they're endowed by their creator with certain inalienable. Unchangeable rights.

And just among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

That to secure these rights, government are his instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

My gosh. Read those words. And let your children hear what thinking and courage sounds like.

That to secure these rights, I'm telling you, the king, who thinks that your government was given to you, by God.

And you are the ruler.

And you will tell everybody what to think, what to do. What to buy. What to sell. What to tax. What not to tax. Who gets land. Who doesn't get land.

No, no, no. Government are his instituted among men, deriving their powers, their just powers, from the people. And that government is only there, established by those men to protect the rights that God has given each of those men.

Let them feel the chill, that runs down the spine, when Jefferson writes, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the government, or from the governed. Let them hear the words, of -- of responsibility. What responsibility sounds like, with courage and freedom. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these rights, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.

And to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their a lot of and happiness.

In other words, you have the right, you have the responsibility to stop tyrants. And if the government has gone bad, to throw that government off.

But reconstitute a government, that will do a better job at protecting those rights. Not to form a communist government.

Not to do anything else. But you want a new government?

Fine! Let's find the way to make men more free. This is not a metaphor. This is a declaration of war on tyranny in all of its forms.

I mean, I said, yesterday, freedom isn't free.

It was paid for by somebody's blood. But you have to remember, they paid for their freedom, not for our freedom, necessarily.

We -- there comes a time, we have to pay for our freedom. And God forbid, that it comes down to blood.

But at least shake off the apathy. We -- we must renew this promise of this experiment of America.

We need to fight for it as well. An out-of-control government that seeks to rope us into forever wars, over and over again. We're all against forever wars. I'm against it.

I hate them.

But there is one forever war, that is required in a free society. A different kind of forever war.

A war against ourselves, a war against human nature in each of us. Because of human nature, we get fat. We get lazy.

We get tolerant of abuses. Let your children hear you speak these words. And when you speak them, ponder them yourself.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes.

And accordingly, all experience has shown, that mankind is more disposed to suffer while the evils are sufferable than to right themselves, by abolishing the forms in which they're accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a sign to reduce them under absolute despotism.

It's their right. It's their duty. To throw off such government. And provide new guards for such future security.

In one paragraph, we make the point twice. And they tell us, look, we've studied people.

We know you're going to get fat and lazy and apathetic. And you won't want to do stuff for transient causes. Because this is really not good.

But when push comes to shove. And everything is moving towards absolute despotism. Absolute tyranny. Then you must stand up.

I ask you to ponder this. This particular part, when a long train of abuses and usurpations. Prudence will indeed dictate that governments long established should not be exchanged for light and transient causes.

And accordingly, all experience has shown, that mankind is more disposed to suffer while the evils suffer, than to right themselves.

Aren't we exactly the same people, that their experience was talking about?

Aren't we the people that are more disposed to suffer, than to right ourselves? Because we're too comfortable. Or we're too afraid, just to stand up and simply say no to lies.

No!

There is a difference between men and women.

No! Communism is to be feared. It's killed over 100 million people, in the last 100 years.

No!

Muslims aren't bad. Islamism is!

It's evil. No!

You can peacefully protest, any time, any place. And I will fight to the death for your right to do that.

But when you start burn cities down to the ground, no!

We're just a few days away. And we have marked our 249th birthday. Maybe. Just maybe, this year, can we stop asking what America was, and start deciding what America will be?

Where it just slips quietly into history. In the dark of apathy and ignorance.

Because the only thing more dangerous than tyranny is the people who have forgotten what it took to break its chains.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

We need REAL jobs in America — Trump should do THIS now!

It is clear we need to create more productive, high-paying jobs for American citizens. But that doesn't mean bringing back the same exact jobs of the past in massive numbers. It means creating and supporting jobs of the present and future that will better the lives of Americans. Glenn Beck and Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts break down exactly what this entails and how President Trump can make it a reality.

Watch Glenn Beck's FULL Interview with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts HERE

The most INCREDIBLE World War II story you’ve NEVER HEARD

One of the biggest American World War II cemeteries in Europe is in a small town in the Netherlands, where thousands of Dutch people continue the tradition to this day of “adopting” a fallen US soldier and checking in on his family. “The Monuments Man” author Robert Edsel joins Glenn Beck to tell this incredible story, which he documents in his new book, “Remember Us.”

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Robert, welcome back to the program. How are you, sir?

ROBERT: Great to talk to you!

GLENN: It's great to talk to you.

Can you remind me? You were on with us, after Monuments Men. And you talked about this great service that is still going on, where people that -- they were still looking for paintings and pieces of art, that had been taken by the Nazis.

And if I remember right, didn't somebody in our -- our own audience reach out to you, and say, I think we found one of those paintings?

ROBERT: Yes, sir. Absolutely.

The Glenn Beck audience. And Glenn Beck, you yourself deserve a lot of credit.

Because I hadn't walked out of your studio last time. You know, in Dallas at Las Colinas.

Headed back to our office at Monuments Men and Women Foundation office, before someone in my office contacted me and said, we've already had a lead, as a result of your interview with Glenn. And it turned out someone whose aunt had been given two paintings during World War II.

She had worked for the government overseeing Germany, and these two paintings were missing.

We were able to identify who the rightful owner was, and get them back.

So it's a great thing that you performed. And, you know, it's a magnificent conclusion, though obviously a very difficult part of history.

GLENN: What was it like to give that back to the family?

ROBERT: It was a deeply moving experience. We -- the foundation found and returned more than 30 works of art, from paintings to documents, ancient books. Tapestries, to museums. Individual collectors, and so on.

And, you know, when we see, oftentimes, the people just stand there, and they cry.

They don't even know what to say. Because they may have worked 50 or 60 years, trying to find some work of art that's been missing. And they haven't had leads. And to -- to see us standing there, with something that belongs to them.

Not asking for anything in return. Don't charge anybody for doing it. Because we feel like everybody who went through World War II already paid enough.

Words -- words just fail. It's just pure gratitude.

GLENN: I can't wait for you to tell this new story.

Tell me the story of the care takers. The care takers of --

ROBERT: Well, it's a story that found me, just as Monuments did.

I have written about -- in the Monuments Men, I told the story of two Monuments Officers who were killed in combat, one British soldier and one American, Walter Huchthausen. And Huchthausen was killed. He once did a last casualty at war. He was killed in the last month of World War II, and is buried in the American benevolence, American cemetery, in Margraten in the Netherlands. I knew that story, and I had made mention of a young girl who was harbored in September '45, asking for the address of his mother, wanting to write her and tell her, that she walked 5 miles, several times a week, from her house to the American military cemetery. It was called then. To put flowers on his grave. Because her family knew them. And they were grief-stricken to know that they were killed.

And I knew that story too. I mentioned that. And then in 2015, the nephew of Huchthausen wrote me and included a photograph of this elderly lady with this crown of white hair. And he said, here's a photo with Frida, and I couldn't place who this was.

I had no idea who it was. And I realized, my God, this is that 19-year-old girl that is still alive. So I flew to England. She married a British soldier after the war. And I went to meet with her. She started showing me photographs of when the American -- Americans liberated her area of the Netherlands.

And all these American soldiers that they knew.

And she said, you know about the American military cemetery.

She said, have you been there?

And I said yes. And she said, so you know about the great adoption program?

And I said, what? She said, the great adoption program.

I said, I have no idea what you're talking about. So I started doing some research on this. And learned, at the end of World War II, our largest World War II cemetery in Europe, was not Normandy. It was the Netherlands American cemetery, where 17,800 boys and a few women buried at this cemetery by May 1946.

And by that time, every single grave had a Dutch person, a local person, who volunteered to be an adaptor of that brave.

Go out there on the first death date of the soldier, Veterans Day, Memorial Day.

And if they had the contact information for the next of kin, send them a photograph of the grave.
And a letter.

Because they realized, it was okay to adopt the bodies of dead boys.

But where the real need was, was to reach across the ocean, into the American homes and try to assuage the grief of the families.

And they knew some of these boys. And I found it the most heartwarming, uplifting, and certainly unique conclusion to a World War II story that I think has been written.

GLENN: So are they still some of them still doing this?

ROBERT: Not some. In fact, there were about -- in 1940, 748.

American families were given the choice to have their loved ones sent home, or to be left overseas in a military cemetery.

The Army had no idea, how many -- how many families would want their boys sent home, and as a consequence, they couldn't tell how many cemeteries they would need.

We thought almost everybody would want to have the families sent home. But it turned out not to be the case. So about 61 percent came home. About 39 percent stayed in Europe, which was about the numbers from World War I.

Although, the numbers in this area, in the Netherlands were higher.

The -- the graves that are there now.

There are 10,000 boys there. And four women.

8300 graves. 1700 names on the walls of the missing.

Every one of them has an adaptor for 80 years.

All those graves have been adopted, without interruption.

There's a waiting list of almost a thousand people in the Netherlands, to become a doctor. This is a -- not just a --

GLENN: This is --

JASON: A privilege. Because they take their kids out to the cemetery. They turn the cemetery into a classroom. And you go out there. And, yes, there's a somber element. They're instilling in their kids, you're able to think, and say what you want to. Because of the freedom that was given to you, by this American girl or boy. And we don't do that in our country anymore.

GLENN: So this is one of the most incredible stories that I've -- I've ever heard.

And I'm shocked that the world doesn't know this!

Is -- have you -- is there anything like this, anywhere else in the world?

JASON: No. We couldn't even find a comp of any nature.

There are -- that is not to say, the people in Normandy area, don't care about Normandy and other cemeteries. They do, of course. As do the Belgians in other cemeteries.

But there's no place that created an organic great adoption program, during the war, in January 1945!

These people in this area of the Netherlands were so grateful, having been neutral in World War I.

And having not lost their freedom for 100 years!

And they didn't like it!

And when the Americans liberated them in September 44. I'll never forget this woman Freda. This elderly woman I met, looked at me, the first time I interviewed her. I knew her for eight years. The last eight years of her life.

I delivered a eulogy two summers ago. She looked at me, there were the eyes of the 19-year-old. And she said, when I saw that first tank over the hill and I realized, we were saved.

I looked at my dad, and I said, Papi, these American boys come all the way across the ocean to say this. And there were tears in her eyes.

Because they didn't -- they couldn't imagine how we could have moved that equipment across -- across the ocean.

And why we would have cared so much.

So there isn't anything like it.

But January 45, these people in this little town of Margraten.

A mile from the cemetery, organized a meeting of the town leaders. The town who got 1200 people.

And they were trying to find an answer to the question: How do you thank your liberators, when they're no longer alive to thank? And they came up with this idea of this great adoption program, and it's a story that I tell, following the lives of about 12 different American combat soldiers.

Bomber recipients.

Tankers.

Because we don't know that story.

We don't what knows to an American story, when they're killed on the field of battle.

Because it's depressing.

We move on to the next scene in a movie.

Well, I want people to know, you started your program with freedom is not free.

It's ugly.

Let's talk about that. Let's talk about what the cost is.

Let's talk about the stripping line that the body goes through, and the removal of dog tags, one being put in the mouth, if there's still a head. And the other being nailed to the cross, because they don't have time to stencil the names on yet.

Let's talk about that, and let people know, it's not just a Marvel movie. Or a gang war.

This is real. This is painful. And, of course, at the end of the war, when we Americans declare victory, and move on with our lives, there's millions of family members in the United States, whose lives will never be the same.

So it is -- it's still happening today. It's still happening today.

GLENN: The name -- the name of the book is Remember Us.

And take us -- I mean, because that's really kind of the -- the -- the beauty of it.

Take us through the rest of the book, just briefly.

It starts with what?

ROBERT: Well, I follow -- I began what a nice life was in the Netherlands. Until May 10, 1940.

And the Netherlands does not get much attention from World War II, and yet everybody has heard of Battle of the Bulge. And Battle -- those are all within 50 miles of what we're talking about.

They happened around there. Of course, World War II, in western Europe, begins right here in this area. Because the German tanks roll across the border.

So I cover the life of these 12 different Americans. I interviewed all their family members. Some make it through the war. Some don't.

You read the book, you realize who makes it, who doesn't. But their lives converge around this area of the Netherlands. And when post-world War II stories end, with the war being over, remember us kicks into a transcendent moment when the Dutch come up with this idea of this great adoption program. The Americans refuse to provide the names and addresses of the next of kin.

So they're foiled with trying to achieve their ultimate objective. Which is to try to contact all the American families.

And frustrated, there was -- one of the key figures of the book.

A woman who is the mother of 12 children.

Who takes it upon herself. She's a woman of action.

She writes president Truman. And pleads for him to get involved.

When that doesn't work. She gets on the first airplane, she's ever flown on. She leaves her kids behind.

She flies to New York. Lands in LaGuardia Field.

She goes to Washington, and meets the members of Congress. Including a young guy from Texas, named Lyndon Johnson.

Who says, young lady, you need to go to Texas. Because there are so many military bases there.

She flies to our hometown. And lands in Lovefield.

In June of 1946. And is met by two family members. And for five weeks, she lives with American families, that lost somebody during a war.

And to each of them she says, leave your boys with us. When the election comes.

We will watch over them, like our own forever.

And they have done that. Now, today, these 10,000 Dutch doctors only have contact information for 20 percent of the American families.

They couldn't ever get the others.

GLENN: You're kidding me. Where is the list? Do you have a list?

ROBERT: Yeah. The Monuments Men and Women Foundation entered into a joint venture with the Dutch Foundation for Adopting Graves.

Not charging anybody for this. And we have created a website called foreverpromise.org.

And on that website is a list of all 10,000 men and women, more women that are buried at the cemetery, or whose names are on the walls missing.

And it's a searchable database. We're asking people to go and see. Do you have someone you know, or a relative, who is buried there.

And if so, we have a short questionnaire. What's your relationship? Are you aware of this great adoption program? Are you in contact with your adopter? Would you like to be? Would you allow us to share your contact information?

I connected a lady from Richmond, Texas. Saturday night. To her -- to this young Tammy, that's the adopter of her brother.

She's 93 years old.

She was in tears. At the thought when she leaves this world, there will be someone there to watch over her brother.

And that's what we're all about is this connecting.

GLENN: Rob, I have to tell you.

You've really done something with your life. I mean, I know you don't need me to say it.
But what a great job you have. And what a great service you have done for so many years.

Thank you so much.

Please, look this up.

The forever promise project.

You can find it at foreverpromise.org. Foreverpromise.org. Robert Edsel is the author's name. The book is Remember Us. It's a perfect read for this week.