spree decor among veterans when we went unto the museum at fort drum, the tenth mountain is there and now exhibits about the tenth mountain. all kinds of exhibits and museums, there was absolutely nothing to commemorate them. nor is there at the fort meade, maryland museum nor at the signal core museum or army electronics museum in fort hancock or the desert training center or anywhere else i could find. in fact, the 23rd headquarters troop, the 603rd camouflager, 3122 sonic company, all disbanded prior to these guys leaving the service either deliberately or accidentally, meaning when they were discharged each of these guys was sent to some far flung -- they were scattered to far flung army outposts and they all were mustered out as part of different units to which they never really belonged. came out of members of the 28th infan fri or something. even the paperwork doesn't follow them to say, oh, yeah.

here's who you were. this is on your discharge papers. the unit was supposed to receive a presidential citation. that never happened. there were a number of men who never got medals, probably should have, never gotten pro motions that should have and never authorized to wear the most prestigious medal for combat troops in world war ii. it's not for me to say whether they should be allowed to or not, because they most often were emulating these troops and on the front lines and under fire at all times it seems to me it's at least an open question whether or not some kind of honor should be coming their way. one of the things i hoped to do with this book. this really is a great untold story, and my father was in the war in the pacific in the air corps and there are zillions of books about that, and zillions of books about patton and d-day, but this was something i hadn't seen anything about and thought

it was a story worth telling for these guys and like i say, it was a gift. i hope that my book is a gift to them. i've been hearing back from veterans for the last week or so. e-mail. telephone calls at all hours. letters. wonderful letter, and they, you know -- they're the best reviews i've gotten so far on the book from probably the ones that matter the most. so -- anyway, let me stop my former remarks thank you for listening and ask you for questions. [ applause ] >> you said at the beginning a lot of the records were destroyed, and my assumption of what you said, i could be wrong, was that it was willful nap it wasn't coincidence. >> yes. >> what was the logic, or was there any reason? why would they hide this after the fact? >> great question. >> it was such a good success. >> the question, why would they hide the records and were the records willfully destroyed? -- writer i mentioned ended up

eisenhower's spiritual adviser. wonderful man ended up an ordained minister. taught at princeton university, preach teach a couple time as year. wrch the sermons talks about deception and so forth. he, for many years, tried to publish the secret history, the official history of the 23rd headquarters special troops which he had been the principle author on after the war. that was his last official duty in the army. and the pentagon repeatedly refused to let him do that. in one of his letters home to his wife he complain head was so tired of burning records. so tired of lying to brother officers about who he was, what he was doing. so tired of never being able to wear his own insignia and telling anybody he met, sorry, i can't tell you about this. or telling them outright lies which all the guys had to do throughout the whole war. i mean, i'm sure to this day there are guys from the 28th infantry and the whatever who are sitting out there who one

dark night heard tanks roll up on their flank and thought, thank god, the sixth armor is here, hover, and in fact a bunch of guys with basically wire recorders and loud speakers and rubber tanks. the second part of your question is a very interesting one because even the os scht and other secret organizations have been allowed to publicize their efforts during the war. the most current theory probably is that because the u.s. was going to use some of the same tactics against the russians, because, remember, we went almost immediately from the hot war in germany to the cold war against russia, and in fact all the chess piece was already there. patton's third army here, first army over who are and whatever, that they kind of thought, well, let's downplay this and, of course, that went on until 1989. there was a company not far from here called tvi that up until the end of the cold war was still manufacturing those rubber dummies and also doing two dimensional ones of the abram tanks.

each night when an abram tank somewhere on the east german border harbored for the nigh, they would pull this thing out of a special place, set it up 300 yards away with its own heat signature and so that if any soviet attack came during those hours or a plane or missile it would be confused as to which tart and increase chance of survival by 50%. so my guess is that tactic, the radio ms. informatioisnvs inforf which adapted as standard operating procedure was probably continued through the cold war turned period. yeah? >> what was the casualty rate for the secret troops as opposed to the regular troops? >> what was the casualty rate? extremely low. they kind of got by for a long time with no casualty except wounded. they would get a lot of shrapnel wounds. one of the funnier things they all talk about, as the barrages came down on them, it would tear

hole ngs the neoprene dummies and suddenly the tanks would be -- these guy, running around with special kits under fire having to blow up tanks and patch them and also diving under the tanks, as if that's going to help. right? and everybody admitted they did this. just a natural reaction. they just dove under them. later in the war as things started heating up along the german border in the sarlaud earn sector, worst incident. they'd actually done their operation and were pulling out and they're all loaded into trucks going into the next place and one of the favorite things the germans used to do was to take their artillery pieces and site on an intersection and thieve several pieces set up and wait until their symbol jintell told them troops were coming or going through that intersection answers then blacht the hell out of it. that's what they did. killed some, had a bunch wounded. grievous wounded, you night imagine. sort of their worst incident. other than that, a lot of more

minor stuff. so they were incredibly lucky, at least up to that point. remember, very few of them. only about 1,000 of them total of whom probably, you know, 50 or 60 at any given time were doing staff jobs talking to generals an planning, doing that sort of thing and often operated in small groups of 50 here, 100 there. 200 there. so -- yeah? >> this is, does the smithsonian or any other base have these neoprene tanks? >> who has a neoprene tank? a great question. i talked to the director of the museum at the aberdeen ordnance museum. his guess, they're just gone. rotted away. nobody that i've been able to talk to at any museum in the army, out of the army knows what happened to them. even tvi can't find their last decoys built in the '80s. i don't know, but i've often thought partly because these guys were artists. many of them. kelly and howard laner and other

people a great tribute for some artist to re-create one of these neoprene tanks, and put it in the military museum or some place where it could be properly appreciated. the thing you have to appreciate about these neoprene tanks, they called them on the battlefield rubber duckies, they called them items. a bunch of nicknames for them. was that because aerial reconnaissance in world war ii was stair ohscopic, that is, basically two cameras and the images brought together, you could see a three dimensional picture of the battlefield. so that shadows had to be exact, because if a shadow gave you awe way, oh, there's a fake. there's the real one. just that simple. and so the guy whose created the neoprene dummies themselves were quite artistic, in being able to mimic the edges and shadows precisely enough that fro the air these things would throw contactually the right shadow at exactly the right angle to be seen as real. one of the great moments that all of these guys had was the

first time they erected these things and overnight as the air cooled off the barrels our wilted. fred foxx said, there's nothing so unintimidating as a limp gun. [ laughter ] make it what you will. you know, there was a long learning curve with this stuff, too, since they didn't have the equipment to train under it much. they got it pretty much after they had got ton europe and in short order in europe right after d-day. >> do we know whether there was a attempt by germany or italy to have a similar deception organization? >> the germans as far as i know was able to find out had no similar counterpart. no battlefield deception effort. it comes from weakness, not strength. the germans used deception to get into poland, a mock to make

the polish look guilty in the eyes of the world then rolled across the border. posed at tourists going into norway. sneaking at the beginning of the war and deceptive. as they got a massive superiority of tanks and airplanes and so forth, they stopped using deception. basically plowed through and over anything. it was kmul aan item of german doctrine almost to end of 1944 any german offensive would succeed in the short run. unstoppable for a given period, like 72 hours. at that point their big problem game they were so far, advanced so far they would have problems with supply and with their flanks being undefended and so forth. that was absolutely an item of doctrine. in fact, one of the reasons why the battle of the bulge was able to take place. the germans just assumed they could punch through for a limited period of time that they could still do that. there was one funny incident that one of the guys told me about. they had, one operation, facing

off. always along the river in ten different places and at one point they had been setting up all of their items, their rubber duckies and facing off against the germans and as the attack went across the river in another direction they came across a bunch of wooden tanks the germans had set up. that's the only occasion in which i heard anything like that. generally speaking they didn't do it. and what they did do it in the battle of the bulge when they were weak, they were masterful. copied's at lied tactics. hid an entire army, camouflaged them. did radio deception. moved it from view, move around a lot to make it seem like that's where the activity was. so. yes, in the back? >> every combine with -- every work together? >> did the special troops and jasper of work together? not as far as i know. although in one of the great kind of crowning ironies of war, when the germans came in, in the battle of the bulge and attacked

through the ar danzen around christmastime of '44 one of the things they did split off some of the american armies from some of the others. one of the armys that got split off was the u.s. 9th army, supposed to have been named u.s. 8th army, but the british protested because it would take away from the glory of think army which had didn't deception against the africa corps. well, the 9th army wound up under montgomery's command because the british were also cut off on that side. at the end of the war the special troops mounted their most successful operation under the nominal command of field marshal bernard montgomery. although they work ford patton for most of the war. i know they liked montgomery -- nobody liked montgomery much. yes? >> any sculkul sculpture or gra painting come after the experience? after it was over? >> any artwork come out of this? the answer is, yes, yes, yes. howard laner, one of the once

wounded wrote a wonderful short story at nyu after the war which i have a good part of it in the book talking about what that was like. he came home and painted 50 canvases. some based on sketches he made during the war. bill bass kept a sketch book. arthur, went on to become a magazine illustrator in watercolors brought home book after book of sketches. and has turned a number of those into paintings and on and on it goes. yeah, there's a lot of that stuff. there's just a few examples of it in the book, but there's a whole lot of it out there. and, you know, a lot of it is ironic in the way that they -- the one thing they weren't allowed to draw or paint or sketch was the thing they were doing. so there is -- they did wonderful character studies of french prostitutes and homeless war orphans and other soldiers and the boats going over and the queen mary passing, and so forth, but nothing virtually nothing about the secret stuff

they were doing. which is kind of a shame. arthur shillstone rae created some of it. the one who illustrated an article in the smithsonian in 1985, i think, about the first mention of this in print. and there are wonderful artists it would be lard to assemble 1,000 -- 1,083, the number of troops, that talented today. hard to assemble. boggles the imagination. yes? >> how were they recruited? were they already in the military? pulled into the service? >> how were they recruited? they were recruited in fairly ingenious ways. one of the things that the army did to recruit the camouflage troops early in the war and they started recruiting as early as 1942. they put the word out in the new york art schools and, in fact, a number of people from, say, the pratt institute of design, parson institute of design, people on the staffs who were reserve officers, gone to the engineering school down at fort

belvoir and way daback. bill blass said, unthinkable not to be in the army. most hated the army but were extremely patriotic signed up in droves and expected to be able to do something more interesting than what they wound up doing for about a year. which was learning how to erect these flat tops over guns. basically four posts and a big camouflage net garland with camouflage material to hide a gun or tank or what have you. and they had expected to be able to use their brains and design expertise, which many wound up doing, of course, because the mission change sewed much. the sonic troops largely gotten through the training program places like the university of chicago, grinnell college and so on. then the officers mainly were west point cadre. the best and said, you're in

charge, and then some others, salted in regular non-comes, old crusty army regulars. they all have stories of those guys. you might imagine. some of which made it into the book. yes? >> there's heavy camouflage that was done on the aircraft -- from california. made the villages and towns an streets and buildings. were they involved in that, too? >> the question has to do with the camouflaging of the aircraft planets and the towns and out in california, on the west coast. not directly in that, but one of the guys, the guy, john walker, a marvelous guy, looks like jack pali palins, the movie actor. his job, by a smoke generating company wound up in the san fernando valley out in california. every time there was a rumor the

japanese were sending a submarine or bomber fleet, whatever, his guys would send up smoke pots. he brags now he created the first smog in southern california. and this wasn't the later stuff which was done through a machine and sort of white and wasn't really that bad for you. this stuff was oily and it was just -- you know, this would kill you if you breathed it for three day fls a row, probably. kind of like the atmosphere out there, the ozone. but that's the extent to which they were involved. they were involve and the east coast, because at that -- remember, at that point, 1942. roosevelt had gone on the radio saying you can expect to be bombed, because it was true that german planes could reach the eastern part of the united states at that point. from outposts in greenland and so forth. that they expected to lose at any moment. so they were busy camouflaging railroad guns up on rhode island, along the delaware bay and so forth. arthur shillstone tell as story he and blass and a bunch of others going up to rhode island.

massive railroad guns about four blocks long and they sort of come in as the pros from dover. they're going to camouflage these puppies now and got all think of stuff set up and say, let's raise the gun, see if it works. comes tumbling down. there we were like fishes in net trying to get out. a training exercise. they got better. >> -- cross the line and back again? >> supposed to be true. i'm not an expert in aviation. supposed to be the outer most reach if they could establish enough forward bases in places they expect them to go. thek expected them to go into greenland and could have made it from there. i don't know if they expected them to build aircraft carriers. roosevelt actually said, prepare to be bombed and the sort of thing one does in wartime to steam receipt soph saying you're not unreachable. they can reach you, too. everybody had better get after

this war thing and make us win it. we can't afford to let down our guard. yeah? >> i think modern echoes reason oaks in what you've just said. that we all recall from past week, but i just have a question about the san fernando valley. are you saying, then, they're attempting to signal that there is industry in the empty san fernando valley so that that would be the target for the -- >> let me make my clear. the question is why send up smoke in the san fernando valley? this smoke would cover a two square mile area and obscure anything from enemy bombers. >> war production in the san fernando valley? >> the lockheed martin airplane, l.a.x., a huge air ternal for stuff going to the pacific and several other parts and things involved sending up a gigantic smoke screen for miles. it would take days to dissipate

wit inversion layer over l.a. just sort of sis there. the idea was if these japanese bombers appeared they wouldn't know what they were aiming at and thus would have to drop their bombs or of course, we kn japanese never quite got that close. >> so extend the not just to the valley, but the old lax. >> yes. time for one more question. all the way in the back. >> you have suggested this before, that, you know, we may be doing similar tactics even now. and, of course no one is going to say hey -- >> how would we know, right? >> but what about previous to world war ii? did you find that there had been a lot of materials in prior wars where we had done similar things, and did that help these guys? >> it's probably true that deception is as old as warfare. i cite a few examples, the trojan horse the most famous one, what seems to be a gift turns out to be an assault vehicle. and it always comes out of

weakness. the confederates used to mount logs and paint them black so they looked like cannons and general mcclellan for months after became general in the army quaking in his boots thinking the geez the confederates have these cannons, no, they had these logs on the road to richmond. and pretty much every army in history in one way or another has figured out how to use this. the romans were great. they used to send draft documents incriminating to the enemy commander and let them fall into the hands on someone on the staff or a cohort of that general. so that there would raise doubts and suspicions of loyalty and get them fighting among each other and then they could strike. so, yeah, and i'm sure this stuff, you know -- and whatever you read in the papers what we're doing with saddam hussein, what was really happening we're not going to know about for many years, which is usually true. wouldn't work if we did know, right? so deception is as old as war. you've been terrific.

thanks so much. next weekend on history bookshelf, alfred regnery talks about his book about the rise of the modern conservative movement in the u.s. from 1945 to present day, led by politicians barry goldwater and ronald reagan. history bookshelf airs on american history tv every saturday at noon eastern. the single largest and most impressive civil war monument in washington to a military officer is the statue to general grant. even though he was president of the united states, it's really his service as the commanding general of the union army that made him famous. it's a very unusual statue. it faces down the mall from the

lincoln memorial, and it's right at the base of the capitol. it's actually several statues together, and it was constructed over time. it was constructed and designed by a man named henry schraddy who was not a professional artist. he was a wealthy man that went into art and literally gave his life to making this statue which took decades to do and it was built in stages. first the marble base was erected around 1910. with a bronze lion. then in 1912 a depiction of the artillery in the civil war was added and in 1916 a depiction of the cavalry was added, and in 1920 the enormous statue of general grant. the statue itself is 17 feet tall. it's on i think a 20-foot pedestal, and the statue weighs something like 10,000 pounds, bronze horse with the figure of general grant sort of slumped down. people have said that the horse

looks more alert than general grant does. the horse's ears are up as if he's hearing battle. but grant had a pose and indeed he seemed to be unfazed, he was sort of waiting in the distance for the report of what was going on i guess, that's what the sculpture was trying to show. the two statues on other side are not glory to war. the artillery is in the mud. it's raining, everybody looks wet and uncomfortable. one of the reins has broken loose and some of the horses are bolting. it just looks like a miserable day. the cavalry, one of the horses is falling. and a rider is being thrown to the ground and he's clearly going to be trampled to death by the other riders. and schraddy used his own face for the fallen rider which was somewhat symbolic, because doing this, these magnificent bronzes,

took years and took its toll on him, and they were going to dedicate the monument in 1922, about the same time that the lincoln memorial was dedicated, it was going to be general grant's 100th birthday and he died two weeks before the statue was dedicated. so he literally was trampled by that statue. this week on the civil war, history professor victoria ott talks about the views of upper class women of the 10north. she spoke in gettysburg, pennsylvania. this is just over an hour.

thank you for having me. i really appreciate this opportunity to share my research with you all. my remarks today come from -- in particular i'm speaking on how these young women viewed lincoln and the north as they navigated through four long and tragic years of war. really in their communities. i'd like to begin with a story, as all historians love stories. about one of my subjects in my study group. in 1863 in the union occupied city of knoxville, tennessee, a federal officer approached 19-year-old ellen renshaw house about her apparent patriotism for the confederate cause. he asked if she believed that "reconstructing the union" was actually possible, and she called the idea simply ridiculous.

she argued that southern children had hated the yankee nation from the time they were born. the hatred grew with their growth and strengthened with their strength. now, this, in similar declarations by house soon earned her a measure of notoriety among the occupiers. eventually a union general sent word to her parents if she didn't stop it, they were going to punish her. she insisted to her parents and to the union officials that all she had ever done was just to wave at the poor fellows as they were going off to prison. meaning the confederate prisoners. in actuality, house had done a lot more than just wave to the confederate prisoners. she actually helped them a lot. she volunteered in the prison, she sent them messages. she gave them blankets. but she often just openly spoke her mind about what she thought about lincoln and the north.

you would think that eventually she would get in trouble for those sorts of activities. well, that's not what got her in trouble. she actually insulted the wife of an officer, and that's when they decided banish her from knoxville. house's mother want to go with her, she's only 19, and she said no, i want to go by myself and meet up with family. she went to eatonville, tennessee, and there continued to help in the war effort, and she referred to her banishment as her badge of honor. now, house's comments and actions actually exemplify the growing animosity women her age experienced as they endured the emotional and economical hardships of war. war that literally in some cases was fought in their backyard. my group that i'm focussing on in my research and the group

that i'm focusing on today are young women from slave holding secessionist families. they were families that occupy the top 10% of the wealthy in the south and, of course, owned the majority of the wealth in the south. most of these girls were born between 1843 and 1849 so they were between 12 and 18 when the war broke out. basically that period -- that formative period of a young woman's life, that's really the stage where they are during this time. i've included also some other women, just for this talk, some other women that i've uncovered who are just a little bit outside of the parameters of that age group, but are still single young women living at home. and i just found some really interesting stories from them. i had to include that for today. these young women only new of a world that was swept up in regional conflict over the fate of slavery in the new territory.