the army's geopolitics, or the army officers of politics, and the army's role in politics. the balance between the national standing army, for the regular army if you prefer. it is not clear. people did not, the regular army in capitals. you see it as regulars. talking here about that standing army, the more or less permanent army rather than the mass of intermittent militia and volunteers. force structures and the balance between them, to what extent of the u.s. employed national standing army, to what extent did it rely on militia or volunteers. we are talking the 1820's and 1830's. no really large wars that would employ lots of militia and volunteers. the third question is that of command. when the united states diploid troops to florida and the second seminole war, for georgia to force the cherokee indians to move fast, tour along the canadian border, or the border with taxes, who commanded the u.s. troops. or whereular officers the commanders volunteered citizen soldiers? which we often tend to think they were. we think of jackson himself. he began as a militia general

the army's view of politics or view of army officers of politics. and the army's role in politics. second structure between the army or the army if you prefer, it's not clear, people haven't called it the regular army in capitals, capital a back then. you'll see it referred to the army in lower case or regulars, but in any case, but talking about that standing army, more-or-less permanent army rather than the mass of intermittent militia and volunteers. so four structures the balance between theme. to what extent did the u.s. employ the national standing army to what extent volunteers. to what extent did it employ militia and volunteers. the third question is that of command. when they deployed troops to florida in the second seminole war or to georgia, to force the cherokee indians to move west or along the canadian border or border with texas, who commanded the u.s. troops? was it regular officers or were the commanders say volunteer citizen soldiers. which we often tend to think they were. we think of jackson himself began as a militia general. and then was commissioned into the

of politics or the view of army politics and the army's role in politics. second, to balance between the national standing army or the regular army, if you prefer. it's not really clear -- people didn't call it the regular army in capitals. you'll see it referred to as the regular army lower case or regulars. but in any case, talking here about that standing army, that more or less permanent army rather than the mass of intermittent volunteers. so four structures to question the balance between them to what extent the u.s. employed the national standing army, to what extent did it rely on militia of volunteers. note, we're talking the 1820s and '30s, so no really large wars. the third question is that of command. so when the united states deployed troops to, say, florida in the second seminole war or to georgia, to force the cherokee indians to move west or along the canadian border or the border with texas, who commanded the u.s. troops. was it regular officers or were the commanders, say, volunteer citizen soldiers, which we often tend to think they were.

he issued a address to his army. it created unease in the army. the army then began to move up -- move on may 1 leaving chancellorsville. let's see if we can get this. times been trying three -- you are just thinking it that time. [laughter] >> i am tired of standing up. mr. hennessy: the army moves out from chancellorsville on the roads to come to the confederates. then, he stops. he pulls back. there is this tight solid line around the intersection. you can see that there. i do not want to get into a critique of that, other than to suggest a couple of things. whether or not this was the right thing to the primary thing that i would cite was the astonished surprise of virtually all of hooker's subordinates. cite was thenot down the chain d slocum and governor warren who was his chief topographical engineer, who helped plan the campaign. they said if this was the plan thatlong, it was the plan he had kept to himself. the combined with the boasting of what he would do to robert e. lee. what he would do to robert e. lee. not defeat him but bag him.

now, the army continued on. one of the things that interests me very much, in fact kind of the focus of most of the work that i do is the army of the potomac is that it was able to continue on. after chancellorsville there is a diminishment in morale for sure. but it's interesting. hooker's efforts to localize the failure at chancellorsville with the 11th corps which was a partially immigrant group composed by a great many germans and eastern european soldiers. about 40% of the corps was that. ultimately when an organization fails, organizations survive in part by finding internal, localized reasons for that failure rather than accepting the failure as a commentary as a whole. that worked very well for the army of the potomac after the battle of chancellorsville. were simply able to resist what happens because it was the 11th and from now on pleased him that he could pin this on a man that he described at the same time. joy don't see the army sag as it did after fredrics burrow. inhad stead you see it pick itsel

the generals army was isolated. he was losing men every day through attrition, skirmishes, disease, desertion and his food supplies were running lower and lower every day. the general decided he had take things into his own hands. he devised a plan that he would move out with 1500 officers men. -- officers and men. the forces would move toward the gates cap. the general determined that he, who is going to be with this probing force a 1500 officers and men, was going to try to view the american lines of the dense for himself. upon viewing the american lines of defense from a distance, he would make the determination whether or not to attack the next day, if the lines were weak enough, or if the defense looked to be too strong, he would go back to his camp, wait a few days, wait for more time to pass in which clinton might make more of a showing of himself against the rear, then if nothing happened, make a retreat back toward canada. when they went out with the probing force, they come upon a wheat field. two wheatfie

stewart concluded his letter by praising wayne's position within the army writing "be assured the army is the place for sociability, friendship, and happiness." providing another perspective six-day kids after the american revolution ended, a private remembered "the soldiers each in his particular circle of acquaintance were as strict a band of brotherhood as masons." so what did these are mark still some about life as a member of the continental army? i will argue that their comments can tell us a great deal. that theassessment continental army was a place of happiness undoubtedly reflected the mood of the army after the victory against the british. however, his other remarks that the army was a place of sociability and friendship provide insight into the atmosphere cultivated by officers and soldiers throughout the american revolution. environment was conducive to the development of intimate bonds among men, which soldiers also recognized. even after so many years, martin's recollection of the tightknit community fostered by soldiers remain clear. my talk here tonight is organized in

and the army commander liked that idea. soon the war department sent burnside to new york to begin recruiting troops, and obtaining ships. by early january, 1862, burnside's new army styled the coast division was ready to liberate coastal north carolina, which was reputedly a region brimming with latent unionists ready to be freed from confederate control. what followed proved to be one of the most successful union campaigns of the war. another insight into burnside's personality, many of these new troops saw this makeshift transportation fleet that was going to take them from northern harbors down to north carolina along the atlantic coast and they didn't like what they saw, in terms of the seaworthiness of these ships, and so burnside decided, well, i'll give up the new ship that was designed -- to transport me and my staff and i'll take the most rigid tub in the fleet, inspiring troops. -- that is the kind of leadership that would inspire loyalty and his troops. once he got to north carolina, i think we have a slide on t

his army began to retreat. his army only made it eight miles north. the american army was in hot pursuit. the american army caught up at a place then nona saratoga. it is known as the villages of schuylerville and victory. general gates begins to surround general burgoyne after a few days of siege and negotiations. he surrendered his army 1777. this is often called the turning point of the revolutionary war. burgoyne's surrender was a major factor in bringing about the french alliance. we had envoys and ambassadors to france who are trying to get the french to side with the united states. they were not biting as far as an official alliance. our envoys had that peace that they needed to bring about the french to convince them to not only recognize the united states as a real legitimate country, but to become our formal allies. the french signed a treaty of alliance and a treaty of amity and commerce. it's with this french alliance it's with this french alliance we eventually won the revolutionary war. the last major battle engagement occurred in yorkto

liked army commander that idea. soon the war department sent begin e to new york to recruiting troops, and obtaining ships. january, 1862, urnside's new army styled the coast division was ready to liberate coastal north carolina, reputedly a region brimming with latent unionists from to be freed confederate control. what followed proved to be one most successful union campaigns of the war. insight into burnside's personality, many of these new saw this makeshift transportation fleet that was going to take them from northern down to north carolina along the atlantic coast and they didn't like what they saw, the seaworthiness of these ships, and so burnside decided, well, i'll give up the -- ship that was designed staff and e and my rigid tub in most fleet, inspiring troops. rick kitty. first captured roanoke which is right there, on he map on the seventh and eighth of february, and then, on -- in march, rather, and then on the noose river and attacked knew burn, and i'm to look at this map. i can't really see -- here

by army officers. you had political leaders whether it had been monroe or now president jackson or secretary of war calhoun who had supported the army doing so. they would be saying that. they would say, yeah, sounds like a good idea. but most of this reform was coming from the inside, the actual ideas for the reform with a support of political climate. these were brought on by resur gents largely in the form of jackson's policy of forcing iin indians to leave their land. the schools had to close reducing opportunities to practice and to train larger units of soldiers. this is because they were deployed from the artillery school it is sort of this -- you can see here the image of slaifslaifves rising up and attacking the slave holders. there was rumors of slave unrest in 1831. for several years there governors, mayors, state legislate tos, congressmen from throughout the south, mostly the eastern sea board states but also louisiana, they were constantly sending letters to army commanders. there were ru

he issued an address to his army. it caused some unease in the army. the mixture of unease and joy as it seems the success they had sought was upon them. at least i hope. the army then began to move on may 1 leaving chancellorsville. -- leading from chancellorsville. let's see if we can get this. i have been trying three times -- you are just thinking it that time. [laughter] >> i am tired of standing up. mr. hennessy: the army moves out from chancellorsville on the roads and encounters the confederates. then, he stops. he pulls back. there is this tight solid line around the intersection. you can see that there. i do not want to get into a critique of that, other than to suggest a couple of things. whether or not this was the right thing to do, one argues it was his plan all along. i don't see the evidence of that myself. the primary thing i would site of the astonished surprise virtually all of hooker's subordinates. but slocum, chain, war and who was his topographical engineer who helped plan the campaign. it has been suggested this was the plan all

from that army. finally he sends an order and says look. take 3000 men and go escue pemberton. so he goes off, and he says look, 3000 men are not going to do anything against grant's 40,000, 45,000 coming from the outhwest for jackson. the only way this will work as if i combined my forces with pemberton's forces. he sends pemberton in order that says a evacuate vicksburg. this is long before it is besieged. pemberton called the council board. what else would you do, and says i have orders to get out of vicksburg and join with johnston so that we can collectively join an ttack. this is before the battle of raymond, when it would have been possible. he said i do not want to do it, because i know jefferson davis wants me to hold vicksburg at all costs. the area is the key. we cannot let it go. so, he says no. i won't do it. but he says i can't just stay here because that is too passive. so what i will do is go out and fight sherman at the big black river. pemberton was doing what he knew davis wanted h

in shiloh, buell gets a lot of credit for saving a's army. -- grant's army. can you comment on that? do you agree? >> that is a great question. shiloh is one of the great controversies in what actually happens and what we come to believe happens. if you read the comments of the day from people who were there, buell saved the day. as grant's star rises, so does his battlefield command at shiloh. buell's diminishes because his credibility diminishes as a whole. as we think about shiloh in the sense of a memory, because ises, his exploits at shiloh become more positive. buell's are diminished. day, the nextthat few days, the journalists covering the campaign, it was clear that the mood of the army and people followed -- that followed the events said that buerlell saved the day. that is why i would say, what happens, compared to what we believe. people who were there thought that buell had saved the day. buell's profile diminishes in civil war history, so does his contribution at shiloh. did grant comment on buell in his memoirs? no. the interesting thing about,

wings of the army advance. mike, you're going to split them so the further each one advances away from support. ultimately hancock's men will be here. if they were going to help warren they would have to cross it's a totalin and of 7 miles and two river rossings in the face of the enemy so if either wing to it becomes a other huge logistics challenge making vulnerable.ly it's the perfect trap because second oing to lure the corp. down in this direction and to slam this shut to send the second jaws and it's the brilliant. the meeting breaks up. the meeting breaks up in the oak the muleart because of within the mule. and lee calls out what are you mule?to that to a voice says, what's it you? it ain't your mule and lee uietly gets up from his stump and goes to pay a visit to the the mule train. e don't have a record of what actually happened but i can only imagine. the rest of antime the army mobilizes and line if you the have a chance to visit you see impressive azingly earth works. my head and they're just fanta

both commanded armies during a changing political environment and both were better at creating armies than using them successfully. both evaded combat because they feared defeat. buell maintained his object was not to fight great battles and storm in fortifications but by demonstrations and maneuvering to prevent the enemy from concentrating his forces. war had a higher object than pure bloodshed, he believed. if precaution and the observance diminish the number of battles, sometimes missed the accidental success which folly or recklessness might have gained -- it is nevertheless true in the end they usually triumph. he asserted that carefully concentrating a well-organized force against an outnumbered enemy constituted solid tactics and he strove to develop within his voluntary army or volunteer army an efficient and effective fighting force. his superiors grew tired of his maddeningly slow campaign. when president abraham lincoln refers to mcclellan as a general who's got the slows, he may have been speaking of buell. the president grew frustrated in the summer of 1862 with a march

in september 1863, the union army of a cumberland and confederate army of tennessee came together in north georgia and thought the three-day battle. the second-largest battle of the civil war, 130,000 men. approximately 340,000 casualties confederate army of tennessee out of that. one of the things i found while researching this is that everybody has a different number for the casualties. as noted, it is i a confusing battle. i will give you a brief sketch of the first two days of the battle. september 18, 1863, largely a recovering force action. thank you, derek. you're defining that. there are a lot of parallels with reactions on july 1 at gettysburg. brigades went well. across chickamauga creek for the best part of a full day. they disrupt the confederate battle plan. as a result, the fighting that begins next day, which is sometimes seen as the traditional first day of the battle, but i think it's in midst -- the fighting that begins on september 19, 1863 will begin at 7:30 in the morning. it was at night and consist mostly of back and forth in the woods between the road called t

army,s a real truth -- no even a friendly army, even a conscientious army, can live in perfect harmony with a foreign society. we have a hard time doing it with american society. the army is consisting of young, footloose men. these young footloose men have their idea of what should be happening in france. they should be welcomed as liberators and every time they turn around they are being overcharged. doughboys complain that when they go into a town, there is one price for the locals, one price for the french soldiers and there is a large price for the americans. you have to love that one. yorker -- new lockerbie worse than one of these rubes taking you for allied -- for a ride. don't they know we were coming here to save them? the doughboys do not realize they are complicit in this problem. when these young men come into a town, the first thing they do is go on a buying spree. the soldiers are paid $30 a month minus reductions for supporting dependents, but that makes them the best paid soldiers in europe. , the french have all of these delicacies so the american start buying up milk

lee took his army into maryland, while brexit brag took his army his -- while bragg took army into kentucky. it ultimately did not work. the battle of antietam is overshadowed -- overshadowed everything that was happening at the time. a fairly complicated set of maps that i will try to explain clearly tracing lee's invasion. here is washington dc and lee is operating to the south and west. the union army is gathered around washington to prevent him from attacking. here is mcclellan, here is lee. lee's route was across the potomac into this part of western maryland. eventually he would get all the way into pennsylvania, as he later did. a year later, he would be at gettysburg. one of the things he wanted to do on the way was capture a union force at harpers ferry. there were about 12,000 union soldiers there. here is how far he had gotten in five years. the cleland realized what he was doing and started shadowing him. there is the army surrounding harpers ferry, and this map on the bottom is more details about harpers ferry. and various other parts of lee's army are scattered through western

in the army. he is known as the best horse dr. in the army. being a kentuckian, his grandfather and uncle were founders of the horseracing industry in kentucky. they were among the elite leaders of third bed -- thoroughbred breeders. in the early stages of work he was working in the attorney general's office inspecting horses, found himself stuck behind a desk. pope made a great decision and plucked john buford out to do some extraordinary work, some of the best of the war. he ended up being slightly wounded at the second bottle of .- battle of bill run he is struck by a spent ball that leaves a nasty bruise. instead, he ends up being appointed the administrative head of calvary for the army of the potomac. it is a paper pushing job, andn't entail field command he will hold this until the spring of 1863 until john hugger orders the massing of the men forming a core structure for the first time. at his own request, john buford commandinted to reserve , which consisted of the four regular cavalry ar

he now holds the highest honor in army historian can have. he is the general of the army george c. marshall chair of military history at the u.s. army command and general staff college at fort leavenworth which is, by the way, the , longest title you can hold as an historian outside of the austro-hungarian empire, which doesn't exist anymore. his most important title here is friend of the kansas city public library. over the last 15 months, we have won eight awards national, state, and local. we won them because we have fabulous staff, a supported board, and supportive community. but bring much because we have great partners. our first partner when i arrived at this library was jim wilbanks. they are the best, year after year, great, thoughtful lecturers from a truly fine faculty at the command school. they are the intellectual center of the army. full of men and women who have given great service to their country. above all else, they are leaders. jim is certainly a leader, but most importantly, for the last 25 years, he has educated current and future leadership of the united sta

i would not even think about rebranding the army. the army doesn't need a brand, it is what it is. performance in northern ireland, the balkans, afghanistan, in iraq, soldiers today deployed in places like cyprus by my own regiment, the royal anglican regiment, and they are of course still in afghanistan. the track record of the british army speaks for itself and any message we should be delivering should be in that our enemies or potential enemies and that message needs to be that we are a very strong army and we have political will behind us to use if we need to and that is what helps to deter and prevent wars. in terms of the message to our own population at home in terms of recruitment, what we need to do, we don't need to rebrand but we need to sort out the recruiting mechanism which is broken. most people i speak to who wa nt to broken. most people i speak to who want tojoin broken. most people i speak to who want to join the army run broken. most people i speak to who want tojoin the army run up against brick wall which the army's recruiting agency, outsourced to capita, whi

army, even a conscientious army, can live in perfect harmony with a foreign society. we have a hard time doing it with american society, i'm just saying. the army is consisted of young, footloose men and these young footloose men have their own idea of what should be happening in france. they should be welcomed as liberators and every time they turn around they are being overcharged. complained that there is one price for locals, what price for french soldiers, in a very large price for the americans. you have to love that. what could be worse that in these jerk water towns you are for a ride. the ingratitude! didn't they know we were coming here to save them? the doughboys don't realize they problem.icit in this with these young men coming to town, the first thing they do is go on a buying spree. they are paid $30 a month minus reductions but it still makes him the best paid soldiers in europe. they have cash. the french have always delicacies. the american start eyeing up eggs, milk, cheese, bread. it is only logical for french peasant already hit hard by the war to

army. he comes up with wonderful designs and pieces of equipment and believes that he knows better than anybody else what the army needs. to quote him, it is not well understood that tactics are usually written around a weapon. field operations normally do not generate ideas leading to new material. a new piece of equipment must first be produced, for example a machine gun, before the tactics can be devised for the weapon. for these reasons it's necessary for the ordinance department to take a strong lead in the development of new equipment and to get the help of those services to determine where the weapon best fits into battlefield operations. so if you talked to ordinance, technology drives doctrine. it's kind of hard to argue the fact that, well, how can you know how to use a machine gun if you didn't know that such a capability exists. however, this is what army grand forces thought. the bottom line here is that army grand forces would draw up the specifications and they would then be

what is it about the army?and should be elitist, but i am pretty confident myself and i have met many people, particularly people thinking aboutjoining the army from all sorts of backgrounds including ethnic minorities, and not one has ever said to me he or she is put off by the fact there is a slogan that is be the best. people want to join something that is the best, it is a great aspiration for people. would theyjoin something that suggest it is not the best? particularly an army, which suggests it could well be defeated and people could end up becoming casualties as a consequence. do you think it was the secretary's place to step in and intervene? well, i don't really understand quite what happened here and i think we have to be careful about what the spin actually says. i have no doubt that if a decision was taken it was in consultation between the defence secretary and the chief of the general staff. i would have thought it would have been better coming from the chief of the general staff, if he had decid

he is a colonel in the regular army. he's a career regular army officer. he's an artillery officer and a very capable guy. him and buford have a good working relationship. he commands the army of the potomac, which consists of the and 11th corps. the first corps when to become a because he is a wing commander. buford starts worrying because he sees how make confederates -- how many confederates are coming at him. he also knows because of some very accurate intelligence reports that there is a large force of confederates coming down from carlisle. these are the two divisions of rhoes des and johnson. how do we know this? he sends back reports. and these reports providing incredibly accurate intelligence. it is likely the first shots fired at the battle of gettysburg were not fired on the chambersburg hike but fired up north. let me dispel in their myths previously heard the myth that robert e. lee had no cavalry at gettysburg. wrong. a brigade of calvary was with the force and lead their way -- led their way down from carlisle and is likely the first shots

there were two them core in the federal army. one marching northward towards his rear at gainesville. jackson had done nothing to protect that retreat route to lee and thoroughfare gap. another historian noted his men had become engaged in an orgy of plunder. many were dropped, and the fighting effectiveness of all had been impaired, at least temporarily. jackson's men can't march in a not even to fire after what they have captured at , manassas junction. jackson was supposed to knockout the hundreds of heads of whiskey and wine and brandy. streams of spirits ran like water through the sands of manassas. the soldiers, on their hands and by the evening of august 27, a sight to behold. by the evening of august 27,-- a sight to behold. by the evening of august 27, jackson had each of his positions marching toward the temporary position. it appears that jackson wasn't sure of where he wanted to make his next move. as august 28 would dawn and jackson accomplished his objective that general lee had laid out. general longstreet's divisi

why we join the army air core and the army, prevented from fighting. segregation. evilness. but that's part of my life. >> talk about flying. had you flown before? >> no. learned how to fly as an airmen. >> tell me about your solo flight. >> i grounded. our training was exactly the same as white training. nine months. it was primary with a steer man. basic and advance. three mornts each in each phase. and it was exciting. learned how to fly. learned how to ground loop. flying underneath the bridge in detroit. oh gosh. but, in combat, i flew long range escort missions. where you in the squadron we had four. we accompanied the b 17s and 24s from italy to germany. italy to austria. italy to. we flew top cover above the bombers. and as colonel davis often said, stay near the bombers. don't go off chasing germans. and trying to get some victories. every american bomber that you protect you protect ten lives. because every b 17 had four officers, pilot, co-pilot, navigator, bomber. and six enlisted men. every time you save and protect a bomber you save ten lives. this was our miss

washington entice them to reenlist and try to create the army but his biggest fear that his army wouldaway. >> this famous scene took place in the winter of 1776. the winter of 1778 1778 saw washington's troops trying to survive the bitter cold of valley forge, a time also memorialized on canvas. but much less is known about where his army endured the winter of 1777. william styple is now convinced it was here in what is remarkably still an open field in chatham new jersey, just 20 miles west of newark airport. >> everybody knows about george washington crossing the delaware but not a lot of people associate this place with george washington. >> the 1777 encampment was largely overshadowed by the following winter at valley forge. in the year after that in new jersey, marx county. those horrible encampments, very hard on the army, hard on the men, became well documented and the chatham encampment more or less became forgotten. >> jon: forgotten until styple located in 1855 newspaper article quoting a reverend samuel tuttle. also we historian from new jersey puts washington's camps here

army come a once -- and the russian army, the social composition of the army necessarily reflected that of russia as a whole. supposedthe army was to be a pillar of the state, protecting it from internal and external enemies, by the beginning of the third year of war, the army had turned into a potential threat to the and acal system destabilizing factor. slide,you can see on the of the soldiers and to the valuered system of the present mentality or consciousness. which means the traditional peasant community. beliefs underwent some transformation during the war but the ideas of political and social justice and of the allocation of land remained central to the mindset. first of all, i would like to soldiers were that a question had to be salt in their favor after the war. quote one of the soldiers letters. one soldier wrote. we hear that no regiment is going to fight until people are given land. we shall not fight until they give us land and they are sure that we must take the land away from land owners and we are waiting here on it is all done. if it does not happen, we shall soon go a

it was the 118th meeting. >> go army. beat navy. >> go navy. >> go army, beat navy.e're definitely favoritism -- we definitely show favoritism towards army. >> go navy. to be able to match up on this field especially in philadelphia i think it's where the game belongs and it's just a great matchup. >> tailgating fans talked a little bit of trash before the game at lincoln financial field. they also had a lot of fun as well. the game certainly did live up to the hype. now the linc looked like the frozen tundra though with all the snow covering the field today and the fans were treated to a very entertaining game. let's bring in lesley van arsdale with the highlights. >> last year the black knights snapped a 14 game losing streak to the midshipmen. today they looked to make it two in a row. second quarter army up by four navy with the ball quarterback malcolm perry calling his own number goes right then changes directions finds the crease in the army defense and he's gone 68 yards to a very snowy house and the midshipmen take the lead. in the fourth quarter army qb ahm

both sides first they'll be professional army national army during king and officers are trained if they think the other side i think it will help achieve more obese more durable beasts because so far the russians are working on one side not take into consideration the revolutions and this is one way to prove that we are with they have to also hear our demand to have better syria pratik syria more dictatorship in syria. so far until now the government and government have. lately we had good took control of the crossing to syria which is one salama gerard was on the raw and allow us to income and reckon support this army so this army came real idea is going to hold up and build a really good because we start to have some income at least seventeen people have been killed in a blast in the afghan city of jalalabad explains as reg to a motorcycle decimated join the funeral of a former district chief taliban's tonight involvement in the attack gunmen have stormed an army training camp an indian mess of kashmir killing four soldiers they still fighters have also been killed play said the attac

the army being as it is, i was trained to be an advisor with the south vietnamese and the thai army. i spoke zero thai. but they were in the process of going home as a process of downsizing in 1971 in 1972. then i went and joined the 18th division. andas pretty much like tom rich talked about in the same area, running around triple canopy jungle, trying to keep the --th vietnamese and ong out of thet c towns and cities. i found myself landlocked on the border up against the cambodian border, with about 4500 south vietnamese and 15 to 20 other advisors from various units. byfound ourselves surrounded 35,000 north vietnamese. three-montht of battle after desperate fighting. during the course of that i was wounded twice. and then went on to a full military career. i retired it fort leavenworth after serving in japan and other places. been on the faculty of her since. i was an advisor on the ken burns series. i think the history is right. iti have a problem with it, is that those like the people you see on this panel, who went and did their job is best they could, and came home proud of

army? i think -- this is pie pohypothi think the polish army ended the war with 76 military tanks because they got their supply of replacement tanks from the americans. if the americans had fireflies in the depots they had gotten from the british they could replenish their allied units with the correct type of equipment. this is speculation but it has happened. the biggest single foreign purchasers of the centurion was the u.s. government but they bought them to give to the danish and dutch and everybody else. that's a kind of long-winded way of saying firefly did not suit the americans. what did suit the americans turned out not to be good enough until they got a reality check and they started building the m 36 with the mind or h vac ammo that manufacturer made it in large numbers but there weren't large tanks to shoot at in the first place. >> thank you. >> hello. if belton cooper was here, the author of "death trap," what would you say to try to change his mind or debate him? my other qu

army in 1970 was broken. it was in a sad state. the army was paying the bills for vietnam. as an infantry officer, i got promoted to captain. i thought my duty was in vietnam so i volunteered. that is a decision i revisited several times in the coming year. i went to an advisor training course at fort bragg. it is a special warfare center. then to fort bliss texas to learn vietnamese because only the u.s. army was send you to el paso, texas to learn vietnamese. my skills were rudimentary at best so once i got to vietnam, there was a sergeant who said, you are late. the army being as it is having , trained to be an advisor with the south vietnamese, they sent me to be an advisor with the thai army. . spoke zero thai they were in the process of going home as part of this downsizing. i only spent a couple of months with them and then i went to join the 18th armored division and the first couple of months were pretty much like tom and rich talked about. in the same area. running around jungle, trying to keep the north vietnamese and the viet cong main force off the towns and ci

different from the air force and the army. >> thank you, bob. alex, do you want to talk a little bit about what i just mentioned your wife the tuskegee airmen joined? >> number one. this is my country. .umber one best country in the world. i have news for you. where are you going to go? if you don't like the country, leave. i am serious. to -- as ao wants black man i know segregation went on for 350 years. this country got free labor. think about it. what is slavery means. when you work a guy from morning to night. free labor. hadhis country had not slavery, you would never have the civil war. you would never have jefferson washingtonmilton, raise all kinds of hell. if you did not have slavery, you would not have the civil war. and all the rest that made this country so great. still have a lot of the crazy cooks in this country. , that you are here learning the basics. we depend on young people to -- ton and take apart become part of this country and make this country better. i ain't leavin. [laughter] i can't drive my cadillac through the jungl

why we joined the army air corps and the army prevented from fighting segregation, evilness. that's part of my life. >> talk a little bit about flying. had you flown before you joined the tuskegee airmen? >> oh, no, learned how to fly as the tuskegee airmen. >> tell me about your first solo flight. >> a ground loop. that's where you go up on the side. steerman. our training was exactly the same as white training. nine months. you go through primary with a steerman, basic, and advanced. three months. three months in each phase and it was exciting. learned how to fly, learned how to ground loop, fire underneath the ambassador bridge in detroit. oh, god. but in combat i flew long range escort missions where you're in the squadrons -- we had four squadrons, we accompanied the b-17s, the b-24s from italy to germany. italy to austria. italy to spain. we flew top cover above the bombers and as colonel davis often said, damn it, stay near the bombers. don't go off to try to get victories, every american bomber that you protect, you protect ten lives because every b-17 had four office