>> close to nine years old. >> well, i've been wondering how long have these horses kept in service and what happens in way of replacements for them later on? >> some of them work up to the age of 18, some 20 years of age. come on, boy. >> actually, ben, these are the remaining few in the army today. >> they are. >> and so we have here today a living symbol in sergeant roger gregory, and big boy. of the mounted service that goes back to the early days in the founding of our nation. >> every sunday on the drill infantry invites the public to attend a review. the band accompanies these functions are the same that welcomed the dig tears at the airport. it is the united states army band. it is another of the unique organizations in the military district of washington.

since its creation, the army band has led a varied and distinguished career. open-air concerts are given each summer in the city and are enjoyed by thousands. it is the army band that leads the inaugural parades. besides these duties, it has represented the united states army at many musical functions and celebrations throughout the world. ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ >> faced by the united states army band, the old guard passes in review. ♪ ♪ >> but not all the troops in the washington area are stationed here for show and ceremony.

many fill jobs that are vital to the defense of the city. let's visit with some of them. in the suburbs surrounding washington, there are many anti-aircraft batteries such as this. ready for action 24 hours a day. >> battery commander of charlie battery of the 14th anti-aircraft artillery battalion is 22-year-old lieutenant david lacey. lieutenant, we have mentioned the overall picture of the army anti-aircraft command being our first line of defense. but just where does your battery fit into this picture? >> well, sergeant, i would say that we here around washington are in the last line of defense rather than the first. i say this because i feel that if the enemy is able to penetrate our other defenses, and get through, it would be up to us to protect the capital.

>> living here in the backyards of some of our neighbors in the residential area of our nation's capital, have you had an opportunity to become acquainted with them? >> yes, we have. even though as you know we have to stay only a few minutes away from the guns. we have found time to become quite acquainted with our neighbors. we have an open house here at least once each year, where we invite the folks in and show them around the area. and we have a couple ball teams who practice on our diamond down here during the summer. >> the teenagers come over and join some of the men here at the battery in playing ball? >> that's right, they have. >> good. >> even some of the young fellows across the road have come over and played football with the guys here. i think we are fortunate in having very fine neighbors. >> this constant alert status, more or less, must keep the men pretty much on their toes. i've been wondering, do they get an itchy trigger finger during these battle stations? >> no, they don't.

we realize that's a problem, however, so we have a schedule whereby each unit can go up to the firing range in delaware and up there the men can fire the guns and as you might say give that trigger finger a good workout. >> well, i won't take up more of your time. thank you for coming by for a minute and filling us in on the details of your battery. >> you're welcome. >> now i think we'll just stand by and take a look at some of the activities that take place here in a typical gun sight of charlie battery of the 14th anti-aircraft artillery battalion. firing tactics up on the range are necessary, but football tactics are important, too. especially when you've got to spend all of your time on that same little piece of real estate. then it's the neighbors that count. and kids especially are always good for a fresh approach. here's some new tactics that are bound to succeed. and there's the payoff.

though the city of washington may be only a few minutes drive away, these soldiers seldom get the chance to enjoy it. they must find recreation here at the battery and as the lieutenant said, it's the neighbors that make it enjoyable. but all good things must come to an end. somewhere on the screen of an early warning radar set an unidentified aircraft is picked up. it's probably friendly but could be an enemy bomber. the aa command can take no chances. to these men alerts such as this are routine. they happen every day. so far they have always proved to be only an alert. but men and guns are ever ready. but what are those other washington soldiers, those proud men of the old guard? what would be their mission in time of emergency?

here in a third infantry room the duty sergeant receives a phone call. this regiment has been called out on a practice alert. at the barracks the men hop to. off the locker tops come field packs and combat gear. this will be as close to reality as training will allow. over at battalion headquarters, the c.o. briefs his officers. this is explained, then the alert orders are given. >> this regiment, the 3rd infantry, has been ordered to execute plan able. this battalion will move without delay to positions as directed in the defense plan. >> back at the barracks the men take their rifles. and then the heavier stuff too.

bazookas, mortars and machine guns, everything has been carefully planned for this moment. in an emergency as on parade split-second timing plus teamwork pays off in performance. these are the same men, the ceremonial troops, the color guards, the sentries and the caisson detachment and those qualities that made them the best ceremonial soldiers make them the best combat soldiers, too. down at the tank park the alert is also sounded. and 3rd infantry tankers prepare to move out.

>> if this were a genuine attack the 3rd infantry's primary duty would be defense of the capital and protection of the nation's leaders. today they follow a prepared alert plan simulating this mission. heavy caliber machine guns are mounted, engines revved up and communications tested. all guard tanks get ready to roll. ♪ >> while the tanks rumble to their destinations trucks pull up to receive the infantry. there is an attitude in the old guard, you begin to feel it after you've been around them

for a while. they are determined to be the best at anything they tackle. that's what makes them good soldiers. that's why these men are in the third, and that's why the third is in washington with so many important duties to perform including the defense of the city. with the pentagon for a backdrop, tank elements race down the main highways to establish road blocks at critical intersections, no tickets for speeding today. in the real thing, swiftness of movement would be essential. now, really only minutes after the alert was first sounded, the various elements of the third ve respective assignments as given in the prepared alert plan able. tanks are eased into positions for effective fields of fire.

now with the nation's capital under the guns of friendly forces the alert is over. you have seen only a glimpse of what goes on here in washington. you have visited only a few of the many military installations around the city. and now, every evening, the people who work in all of these places go home to rest and recreation. but elsewhere there are others who will not rest tonight. at the anti-aircraft batteries the watch is kept. the guns point into the evening sky. they are still now, but always ready. the pentagon is quiet too. the offices are empty, the day's work is done. at the tomb of the unknown soldier a solitary bugler sounds "taps." ♪

♪ ♪

>> the old guard, the army band, the anti-aircraft batteries. all these are part of the washington scene, a part of the military life that gives the nation's capital its color and vitality. a part, too, of the nation's defense. now this is sergeant stuart queen inviting you to be with us again next week for another look at the big picture. the united states army in action. >> the big picture is a weekly television report to the nation on the activities of the army at home and overseas. produced by the signal corps pictorial center. presented by the u.s. army in cooperation with this station. you can be an important part of the big picture. you can proudly serve with the best equipped, the best trained, the best fighting team in the world today, the united states army.

this weekend, american history tv is in beaumont, texas, expanding our reach from washington, d.c. for programming on american history. beaumont is home to the first major oil field in the united states and has a population of about 120,000 people. learn more about beaumont, texas, all weekend long on american history tv. here at the texas energy museum, we talk about science primarily of oil energy. go from the geology of oil all the way through the refining of the products we use every day. texas wasn't the first oil state. oil was first found in the united states in titus, pennsylvania, where rockefeller became famous. as oil was moving west and people were trying to find oil everywhere, this is about the turn of the century, now, we're

looking for oil in california, kansas, oklahoma, small showings everywhere. texas had a very small oil well in 1895 in course krsicana. let's say the typical oil well at that time in pennsylvania was producing 600 barrels a day. spindletop blew in at 100,000 barrels a day. that ushered in a completely new industry in texas. and people started looking everywhere for oil. at the turn of the century, texas was primarily cotton and cattle. and that was its main production. it was an agricultural state. so almost overnight, texas was transformed into an industrialized economy based on oil. in the early part of the united states history of oil well drilling, it was pretty much used with a cable tool rig. in this particular equipment, you're taking a very heavy steel

bit and it's picking it up and dropping it over and over, just like if you were on the back end of a -- had a post on the end of a seesaw and you're rocking it up and down. as the driller is controlling the drop or the rate of which that cable and that bit is dropped into the ground, they're only picking up the bit maybe 3 or 4 inches at a time and then dropping it again. this is fairly lightweight equipment. it wasn't heavy enough to drill spend ltop in 1901. they brought in heavier equipment which we call the rotary rig. the rotary rig became fairly more common in texas after 1901 because it was heavier and able to take the spindletop production. the culture and folklore of the oil industry is rampant with stories of different types of people who worked on the rig. the early cable tool guys considered themselves experts at drilling. there was a high degree of

technology. it took a lot of experience in drilling with the cable tool rig. these guys were coming into texas from other parts of the country. they had gotten their start in pennsylvania and ohio and illinois. and they came in and they were very proud of the techniques and the experience that they had. the rotary drilling actually took less education to really work in those types of rigs. and these two groups of people, if one oil field was using a cable tool rig and another -- the same oil field, they had the folks that are working rotary drilling, they didn't want to talk to each other. it was an antagonism between the two and hostileties would occur. rotary rig drilling is used throughout the world. oil has several characteristics when it comes out of the ground. it can have different colors, different thicknesses, which is viscosity.

in this exhibit, we can see the viscosity of oil reflected. you can see the different colors, there's a thinness to a thickness. what i'm going to do right now is they're going to rotate this wheel. and we should be able to capture the flow which indicates the viscosity. now, what makes the difference, when oil is priced, when you would say the spot price of oil is $90 or $100 is based upon what they call an intermediate oil or west texas intermediate, which is a nice grade of oil. oil as it's sold is sold at different prices based upon the number of characteristics, one of which is its viscosity. other, how much sulfur it has in it or other impurities. very thick oil is going to be harder to refine. that's one of the issues today when talking about getting the oil out of canada and these oil sands. it's a very thick oil that's embedded in loose sand instead of rock. it's a much thicker oil. it's tougher to produce. it's tougher to refine.

you can have very light oils, which would have less impurities in them and it's an early indication -- all oil is made up of carbon and hydrogen. all different kind of compounds are in this oil. as you refine oil, we're basically separating the hydrocarbons and the different compounds out of the oil. some of the early crude oils that you found up in pennsylvania were somewhat like this, they were lighter crude oils. they were easier to refine and had a lot of kerosene compounds and kerosene cuts in them. made very well for that. when spindletop was pais famous in 1901, its crude oil was a fairly thick crude oil and had a lot of sulfur in it. and the main product was kerosene. it was one of the instigated a whole new market for crude oil, one of which was firing sugar refineries in louisiana and also they started using it on

steamships. they replaced coal with fuel oi oils. with fuel oil with spindle top and they're still steam powered but you're using the fuel oil to fire the burners. we have a small exhibit that talks about distillation, one process in refining. we're heating it up here and anything it distilled it's obviously heating into the vapors or gases and condensed. refining, what we're dog, the first step of refieng is to take crude oil and heat it so that the various compounds in the crude oil are going to separate. and they separate in what we might think of right now in terms of products, from heavy asphalts at the bottom to die l diesels and fuel oils up to kerosenes and gasoline and then up to lighter gases. and as these gases condense or cool down, then they could be pulled off.

that's where you get your various products. one of the things that's always inhairnlt in dealing with oil is the environment. and we've had some disasters, obviously, the bp oil disaster and spill in the gulf is a disaster that should not have happened. but the industry as a whole, going back hundreds of years, we have to look at an industry that's evolved quite a bit. in the early days there were no environmental regulations at all. when you drilled a well, oil just went everywhere. so obviously we've come a long way since then. so it comes to a combination of public concern, governmental action and the industry themselves. i think all of those things come together. today i think you see a lot more of the companies and companies we deal with every day are very concerned about the environment. i think there are issues today. we think of issues when we talk about the fracking jobs and some of the shale formations. the public is concerned, and i think the industry is concerned so i think we see a lot of

things working together now. it's all a balance. you might say the easy oil to find and get out of the ground has been found and has gotten out of the ground and we have drilled for it and produced it. the oil that's still there -- again, we still think we have huge reserves available to us, but it's deeper, in harder formations. so the big issues coming up, the big things you'll see are increases in technology and finding ways to safely and personnel safety as well as environmental safety to get this oil out of the ground in a cost-effective manner. but the technology is going to do that for us. in may of 2011 historian richard norton smith led a ten-day bus tour from asheville, north carolina, to austin, texas. the group stopped at several presidential and historic sites

along the route. one of the stops was the six-floor museum at daly plaza in dallas. the museum is located in what was once the texas school book depository. from the sixth floor southeast corner window of this building, lee harvey oswald shot president kennedy on november 22, 1963. curator gary mack talked about the museum and how the information on the assassination and ensuing investigations is is presented. >> what we set out to do was to basically tell what happened and not draw any of our own conclusions about what it means but to present what history has told us. and there have been several investigations, and various developments over the years. most people, according to the public opinion surveys, have never been satisfied that it was just lee harvey oswald. but none of the other theories have been proven, and, as far as many people are concerned, they've all been dismissed.

the official explanation is is three shots were fired, all from lee harvey oswald and all fla southeast corner sixth floor window. the rifle that oswald supposedly used was his. it was traced to him and to his post office box. he was left behind in the building on the sixth floor. the warrant commission had a reconstruction done in one of the xibexhibits is a model of d plaza that helped them study how the shooting happened. ultimately the fbi and warrant commission decided that the first shot came from when the car came out from underneath a tree. the tree is still there, much taller than it was then. from that moment to when that fatal shot was fired is about six seconds. well, then they had the problem of, well, could that rifle be fired that fast. not easily, and of course the faster you try to fire a rifle the more inaccurate you tend to

be. but the later thinking is the first shot was fired before the car went under the tree, which adds a total of two or three more seconds. so if you have eight or nine seconds to fire, then you can do it. the rifle had a scope, but that doesn't mean he had to use the scope. you would normally -- and i've talked to a couple dallas police officers who fired test shots from that window in 1978 for the second investigation. they told me and all the reporters present, these are easy shots. no one would miss. it's the timing that makes it difficult. but if you have enough -- if you have seven, eight, nine seconds, you can do it if you have used that weapon before. there is no hard evidence in the medical evidence that kennedy was hit from any other direction other than behind and above. now, whether there was another shooter who didn't shoot or did fire a shot and missed, that's a

question that some people are still not comfortable with answering because theyt satisfi knowing. let me give you an example. you know, in a criminal investigation, there's always -- there are always loose ends. every investigator will tell you that. when the shots were fired, within 30 seconds one of the da doing traffic control at the intersection started running down the side street here and he ran back to the area that's now known as the grassy knoll and the parking lot. he encountered a man dressed in coat and tie. the cop had his gun drawn, and he went up to the man. the man identified himself as secret service, told him he was secret service, and flashed secret service credentials. the cop let him go and proceeded to search around the parking lot and found nothing. the warren commission was told about this, and they asked the eke receipt service, well, who

did you have -- who of your agents were loebl s were locate ground? none. those of us who studied the assassination would then look to see what happened as a result of getting this information. you would think there would be some sort of investigation. well, who is this guy? why is has he not come forward? how come his supervisor hasn't come forward to say, well, it was ralph or something. nothing happened. there was no follow-up whatsoever. and there are -- i don't know what the total number is, but there are enough of those questions that make a lot of people scratch their heads, you know, what's really going on here? is there more to it? or was that just some guy who po for some reason did not or could not come forward at the time? we don't know. most people are just not satisfied with the kennedy assassination and how it ended, leaving some questions up in the air and no motive for lee harvey

oswald, no known motive. so perhaps that's one of the reasons or two of the reasons that people come here. >> we have had members of the kennedy family here. we don't identify them by name, but the kennedy family is quite happy with what we do and how we go about it. for more information about the sixth floor mu seummuseum, visi jfk.org. to learn more about the tours, go to presidents and patriots.com. you're watching american history tv, all weekend every weekend on c-span3. this past monday the national archives announced the release of an audio recording of radio traffic on air force one made soon after president kennedy was assassinated. the recording made as the airplane traveled from dallas to washington includes

conversations among pilots, aides, lyndon johnson and others, and includes over 30 minutes of audio not previously part of the public record. here's an excerpt. >> a c-140, three members are 497, last three numbers. >> he's inbound. his code name is grandson, and i want to talk to him. >> grandson. okay. we'll see what we can do. we're real busy with air force one right now. >> you don't have the capability to work more than one, huh? >> we're running air force one on two different frequencies, giving two different patches right now. that's all we can do. >> i see. >> what is your drop, sir? are you drop-off the washington switch? >> i am. either 303 or 79225.