to the bugle's sound of valor. those years and that valor have been given tangible focus here in this quiet shrine of tribute, the hall of heroes. here on the inner ring of the pentagon, this space is dedicated to a nation's remembrance. not of events, but of deeds. deeds of americans in uniform who gave more than was asked, more than could be asked of them. not always their lives but always themselves without pause and without reservation. each man whose name appears on these walls and those whose names will appear here are members of a unique fraternity of courage. they are all recipients of our nation's highest award, the

medal of honor. it is given to those whose actions meet the standards spelled out in these few words: gallantry and intrepidity, the risk of life above the call of duty. to such men the hall of heroes was dedicated on a sunny spring day, may 1968. >> today we confer the medal of honor on four more gallant americans. this is the first time that four men from each of the military services have been so honored together. charles e. hagermaster, james e. williams, gerald o. young, richard a. pittman. they will place their names now in a new hall of heroes, created here in the pentagon as a

memorial to all who have earned their country's highest award for courage in combat. seeing two of his comrades seriously wounded in the initial action, specialist hagermaster unhesitatingly and with disregard for his own safety, rushed through enemy fire to provide them medical aid. [ applause ] >> sergeant pittman quickly exchanged his rifle for a machine gun and several belts of ammunition, left the relative safety of his position and unhesitatingly rushed forward to aid his comrades. [ applause ] >> petty officer williams was serving as patrol officer of two river patrol boats when the patrol was taken under fire by two sampans. he boldly led the patrol through

the intense fire and damaged or destroyed 50 sampans. disregarding serious burns, captain young aided one of the wounded men and then attempted to lead the hostile forces away from his position. for more than 17 hours, he evaded the enemy until rescue aircraft could be brought into the area. [ applause ] >> with the addition of those four names, the roll call of valor totaled 3,210. each name a reminder which illuminates for every man who reads it a higher vision of his kind. originally, there was only one version of the medal of honor. today there are three. this one specifically for the army, and there another one for

the men of the navy, marine corps and coast guard, and finally, one for the air force. they all, however, celebrate the same qualities and actions, qualities and actions which add up to what we call, inadequately, heroism. it's a quality whose high connotation is safe now as always, because those who would pull it down somehow never stand quite tall enough to reach it. it is a quality for all times and all people. and for us as americans, its roots reach back to our first beginnings. it was there to put steel into the determination of the ragged ranks which moved to defy the british at concord bridge.

it was there in the hearts of the first citizen soldiers who left homes and families, gathering to pursue their awakening dream of national independence and individual liberty. it upheld them through the incredible hardships through years of struggle. it led them through trenton, saratoga and finally to yorktown. the flame which lit from within those first men to call themselves americans and to place their lives and all else that they had or might hope for in the balance of freedom was kindled there, never to go out. but the hard-won independence of the united states was to require reassertion again and again. the next test of whether american sovereignty was to be an accepted and honored fact

among the nations of the world came in 1812. the british practice of stopping american ships on the high seas and impressing american seamen into the british navy was at issue here. and the war was primarily a naval one. its one major land battle has come to be known as the battle of new orleans. stubborn, resourceful american woods men faced ranks of disciplined british forces who fell bravely, but in numbers too great to be borne. in the end, this brief war of 1812 made its point to the watching world. americans would live in liberty and individual citizens would enjoy their rights as citizens wherever on earth they might travel. no names appeared here. from among the ranks of those who fought in 1812.

the medal of honor had not yet come into being, but the qualities that the medal would one day be created to honor, these were there, as they have always been. and these qualities were soon again to be solid tribe. before it was a century old, the nation faced a conflict that shook it to its foundation and marked in deep suffering the beginning of its maturity -- the civil war. it has been called the war of brother against brother, and so it was. a more tragically exact description would be hard to come by. the soldier in gray fought with fiery bravery that was rooted in a proud way of life. a tradition in which honor and gallantry were deeply fundamental. his skill and courage were never depleted, but in the end, his resources would be.

the men of the union forces that first suffered from the effects of overconfidence and disunity in their high commanders, but their ultimate mission was too desperate to allow prolonged discouragement. on each man in blue, a profound responsibility rested. whether the nation endured would depend heavily on his faith in the union's cause and his ability to prove that faith in the most demanding of all testing grounds. so it was that the nation, searching in its agony for the promise of its future, found itself looking into the faces of its sons. the longings, fears and loneliness of a boy coming suddenly into manhood. this was so like the developing state of the nation itself.

soldier and nation together found that their fears and doubts were not so strong as their faith in the cause of a unified country. the soldier in blue kept that faith and fought for it with steadfastness and courage, and a grateful people in the midst of war forged a medal to honor their courage. in the swirling fury of this war of american against american, the medal of war was born. the end, we know, because we live in the unity that this tragic war preserved. and in national shrines like gettysburg, we honored the men of both sides who gave what they believed to be right. ♪

>> here are the names. the last of the men in blue are gone. but the union they preserved remains. and honors for all time, the men who made it possible. and right over here is a roll call of names from the years which followed the civil war, the time when the nation grew, expanding westward, the west. charwi the frontier safe was the regular army. out west that meant the cavalry. the troopers who rode into that

wide country were vastly outnumbered. and their adversary was often a master of combat, a rawhide tough and experienced fighter, dangerous to underestimate. this era in america's growth has passed into legend, but real men lived it. many were awarded the medal of honor. the names of their battlegrounds are obscure now, most of them. others will never be forgotten. names like little big horn, where 24 of the men who stood with custer won the nation's highest award. but wherever he fought, on the plains, among the buttes or in the timber, he got the job done. that job was simple enough to state. it was to establish security and stability across the vast middle reaches of the continent.

from ocean to ocean, the union stretched, and the continental united states was changed from a goal to a fact. but full security had only just been established in the great western country within our borders when americans were called on to do battle outside our shores. in the spanish american war, america's desire to help the cubans to their independence from spain flamed into action when the battleship maine was blown in the harbor. roosevelt's charge made their famous charge up the slopes of san juan hill.

30 soldier of this war, won the nation's highest tribute. the first to win army medals of honor on foreign soil, 81 navy and marine corps fighting men were also awarded the medal. this first conflict by american ground forces outside our nation's borders was brief, but it was a hint of things to come. america's growth, the prospering of the adventurous idealism on which it was founded, these were making the united states a world power. a position of world leadership unsought but unavoidable was even then being thrust upon the this time it was no isolated conflict. this time the challenge to freedom and the involvement of free men in it were at such a scale that a name never used before in man's history was

created to describe it. the world war. from our perspective in history, the first world war. but for the doughboy in hundreds of thousands, it was the world war. on a personal level, it was perhaps very little different from any war any time. >> where did that sergeant go? we're due to move out any -- >> wow! take your time, sarge, don't hurry on my account. where do they get 'em all? there's not that many shells. you lousy -- how can we go out there? how?

>> we can move until -- i wish i was home. i wonder what they're doing -- >> -- at home. come on, let's do something! >> the war that faced the doughboy was one of massed fire power and jagged trench lines cutting across the heart of france, facing and using weapons more deadly than ever in history. the men in olive drab pressed the attack, each enemy position a step forward. bravery is not fearlessness. it is going on in spite of fear. a million men met this definition across the scarred and flaming fields of france, and the bravest of the brave, 95 of them, joined the roll call of

those who wear the medal of honor. 95 names, a private who silenced four machine gun positions and was killed while charging into the fifth. a captain cut down by machine gunfire who led his company to its objective from a stretcher. and the legendary sergeant from tennessee whose one-man assault on an enemy position brought in 132 prisoners. the war to end all war was over, or so many of us in our inexperience believed. but a mere heartbeat of history, two decades, would prove otherwise. a lot of our fire power was at the bottom of pearl harbor.

with what remained, we paid a little something on account. and while we bought time, 14 million americans responded by most destructive war in history. so began world war ii, and before it was over, 430 from among the 14 million would win the medal of honor. some would come upon their moment on islands of the pacific, others in african desert or the steep and hostile terrain of italy. but for each, it would be a moment when somehow the price that action might exact from them was left unconsidered, shouldered aside by their individual commitment to meet the need for that action -- d-day.

5,000 ships and on every one of them, men thinking of loved ones, of home, of just how much they had to lose. >> my darling, we got your letter dated may 25, and as ways, i've read it a dozen times. i keep them all. we'll read them together someday. johnny is as tall as my shoulder, fine and straight, and there's more of you in his eyes every day. mom and dad are well, and they send their love. i have your letter here and will read it again before sleep. meantime, try to know how much i love you. come back safe to us. >> come back safe.

dawn came. d-day had begun. for each man who made it, this landing held a moment beyond which everything would be remembered in a kaleidoscope of bits and pieces. this was the moment when the ramp dropped down, and there was the beach. they knew what they were to do. they knew where and in what sequence they had to do it. the thing they didn't know was could it be done.

it could be, and somehow, it was. but only the men who were there would ever really know what it took from each of them. was. but only the men who were there would ever really know what it took from each of them. we know only that what it took, they gave. from d-day onwards, their strength never stopped growing and the spearheads of that strength penetrated steadily up ward towards the enemy in heartland, sometimes more slowly and then more swiftly as the strait mounted and the enemy was worn away. the end was inevitable and finally it came, first in europe, then quickly in the pacific. the second conflict to bear the name of world war was over.

once again, hundreds of thousands came gratefully home. others remained in ground they had bought and paid for with the ultimate currency of life itself. unlike the doughboy of world war i, the serviceman returning from europe or the pacific was not so quick to believe that the conflict just ended had ended war for all time. but he did know this, forces which had once again threatened to destroy his way of life had been defeated, and that way of life preserved. and he knew, too, that without him it could not have been done. korea, june, 1950. for the first time the armed aggression was that of a communist enemy. the answer was clear and emphatic.

through years of what became stalemate combat, while true stocks wore on, men did what had to be done. constant patrolling, fighting again and again over the same bits of splintered ground day and night. in the end, the point had been made once again, that aggression against free men would be met and thwarted. these names, 131 of them, were added to the roll call of valor during the korean conflict. and here in the hall of heroes, this is the last honor roll but one. this latest section has not yet

been completed. earlier you saw four of the men whose names appear here. like all the rest, they are in illustrious company, and once again, the challenge they face is far from our shores. here, as in every conflict the americctivess of all else depends upon him, the man himself. true, the means of his combat, the swiftness of his mobility and the staggering volume of his fire power are such that the battlefield has never known before. but the man himself and the inner force that animates him, these are unchanged. he arrives at his objective faster and fresher than any man of arms in history. and in his hands are weapons more deadly than any of the best.

but he well knows that despite all the technological advances, in the final analysis, there is no easy road. he knows, too that however hard the road, others have travelled it before him and what men have done, men can do. what enables a man to move forward into a ma-strom or flying steel and flame, the mere words ins which a commander shapes the orders to do, the knowledge that the others move forward count on him to be in his place, a sense of pride that will not let him do less than his friends or leave them with e simple consciousness that this is going to be done, and it is

his time do it, whatever it is, whether we name it courage, sense of duty, bravery, or simply guts, it is there, and they go and get it done. in the vietnam fight, many americans have been awarded the medal of honor. in the combat zone, you will find the face of courage casually worn any way you care to look. and so the honor is doubly great for those who, from among the brave, are singled out. in one sense, these medals are no more than stylized bits of

metal but in another, more fundamental sense, they are the tangible representation of a priceless intangible. this, then, is in celebration of that something in man which is both indefinable and under -- un -- undeniable. for this, the hall of heroes exists. to say to all who come this way, read these names. think for a moment of the men whose courage put them here. what they did each in his own moment is a statement, a shout, a cry that echoes for each of us. remember and be proud. ♪ you're watching american history tv.

all weekend, every weekend, on c-span3. >> i head lcv project, local content vehicle. we've got three of them. the purpose of these vehicles is to collect programming from outside of washington, d.c. how do we do it? we staff each one of these with one person, with a small video camera and a laptop editor so they are able to roll, record, produce and edit things from the road. that's what we're doing with lcvs. why do we want to do these? get outside of washington, d.c. and collect programming for all networks. we're doing what we call an lcv city tour. we descend on cities, one do history programming and historic, the other book tv programming, bookstores catching up with authors, third community relations events. community relations work with cable partners in each one of these cities. the last one that's important to know, all this not only goes on the air but archived on the

website, c-span video library. what we're also doing in these cities is extensive social media. you'll see us on facebook, cable partners on facebook. you'll see four square with location-based, tell people where we're going. you'll see us on twitter as well. it's a chance to get out our message not only on air but also o.j. and through social media as well. so that's why it's important get out of washington, d.c., do programming places we don't normally and produce programming for all the c-span networks. >> if you had said in 2006 that the world would be begging for the united states to use force in the middle east within three and a half years, we would have said you're crazy. >> brookings institute fellow robert kagan, only an adviser to the romney campaign but serves on secretary clinton's advisory board. >> what you've been writing for a year