one of my favorite stories is a forgotten battle the marine corps fought in. it was one of their bloodiest, even in some cases more bloody than june 6. it was a place called blanc mont ridge, where the french want to take the seven -- second division to somehow sees and -- an impregnable fortress. here -- it is called that because the face of the mountain is white. white mountain. it shows, but white mountain was deceptive in the sense it was ringed with machine guns as, artillery -- nests, machine positions. for over three and a half years, they had tried to take this, and nothing worked. there were bodies all over the place. there was an attack only days earlier. the french army failed to take it. they called in the second division as well as the 49th company and marine corps. 1/5 is what they were a part of. here was also another member of this book, edward younger, the chicagoan. many of these converge on blanc mont, the field artillery, combat engineers. their stories always converge as they attack this seemingly impregnable position. they have to go acros

and the army corps of engineers. october of 2017, letters went to hhs, d.o.d., including the army corps of engines nears, dhs, including fema, requesting documents. if memory serves me correctly, this committee has accessed over 18,000 documents. you did not hear that in the opening statement given by my friend from maryland. so we're up to two member briefings and 18,000 documents and we're not out of october of 2017 yet. and that's when committee staff traveled to texas. not for five minutes and a youtube opportunity, but to actually talk to their fellow americans who have been devastated. so, garrett, that's why i appreciate you mentioning staff. it was staff that made that trip to check on the well-being of their fellow americans. november of 2017, a follow-up briefing. mr. long with fema on disaster contracting and reimbursements. that's over a year ago. january of 2018, a letter to the gao requesting a comprehensive evaluation of the federal government's preparedness, response, recovery efforts for hurricanes an

i'm honored to testify before you today to discuss the u.s. army corps of eng. our lessoned learned from the 2017 storm system, and actions we have taken to improve our performance during this last 2018 season. mr. spellmon: i served as a distinguish command for the corps' northwestern division previously. the krp conducts its activities under two basic authorities. the stafford act and public law 8499. under the stafford act and the national response framework, the corps works under the direction of fema, serving as a lead federal coordinating agency for emergency support function number three, which is public works and engineering. public law 8499 provides a separate source of authority for the corps to prepare for and respond to floods, hurricanes and other natural disasters. under these authorities, the corps maintains 50 specially trained response teams supported by emergency and preawarded contracts to perform a wide array of public works and engineering missions. the 2017 hurricane season was historic in its scale and we continue to identify and apply less

the corps responded to a total of 32 events in 2017. among these other events were the october 2017 wildfires in northern california, the central u.s. blizzard, the big horn river ice jam in wyoming and other flooding and severe weather events. the bipartisan budget act of 2018 appropriated over $17.4 billion for the corps to accomplish three broad tasks. to repair and rebuild existing project that war damaged by these natural disasters, construct new flood and storm damage reduction projects and to complete flood and controversial storm damage and construction studied. we identified over 250 studies that will receive funds and we. we also applied lessons learn and best practices from 2017 in our preparation for and execution of 2018 season. we completed several hurricane exercises along with our federal partners for the gulf and east coast, the mississippi river valley, as well as for puerto rico and u.s. virgin islands. we participated in to the 2015 national level exercise have updated our hurricane plan and standard operating procedu

for the united states marine corps, these are statistics out of the history of the marine corps, the marine corps total casualties in vietnam were higher than any other war, including world war ii. there were more killed in world war ii. 19,733 marines were killed in world war ii. 67,000 wounded for a total of 90,709. in vietnam, 13,000 killed in action, 88,591 wounded for a total of 103,000. the peak years for ground fighting were 1967 through 1969 for the united states forces. you can actually see a bell curve when you look at american casualties, and those three years -- actually 1968 by far was the highest year for american casualties. 1969 was second and 1967 was third. by 1967 and 1969 were almost -- almost equal. when i was getting ready to go to vietnam, finishing basic school, we had a lieutenant colonel at basic school who took us aside. he'd just come back from a tour of the battalion commander in vietnam. he had served on you would jima -- on iwo jima as an enlisted marine. he sat us down. we had 71 lieutenants in my basic class who were going to be infantry officers. and

but it would have been the navy, marine corps -- the marine corps being part of the navy as well, -- plus the army. host: there's obviously a reviewing stand in downtown washington, d.c. mitchell: right. it looks so much different. almost looks like a village in france. host: is that pennsylvania avenue, do we know? boy, it almost is unrecognizable to me what part of town that is. that's interesting. allison: it's important to know that the navy and the marine corps were there, because even though it's called the tomb of the unknown soldier, the term "soldier" was meant to represent every member of the military, not just those in the united states army. host: and the parade continues in downtown washington from the u.s. capitol, and there is the casket of the chosen unknown soldier representing fallen in world war i. allison: i think one reason so many people came out to this parade and this ceremony was that they were really seeking a sense of closure from the world war. they were trying to find some meaning in the senseless losses and especially working through the grief that many

they held positions of authority in the tank corps headquarters. several infantry officers who served in the tank corps during the war also wrote about their personal experiences and papers to their infantry advanced course at fort benning, georgia, in the late 1920's and early 1930's. next slide please. i first became aware of the fort meade reports when i began my career as a deputy field artillery branch historian in the early 1990's. at that time, the fort sill library was one of the best libraries in the army. when i started my career in the early 1990's, i started a file copy of the personal accounted reports, and i said that these are pretty interesting and somebody someday should get these published. that was in the early 1990's. i had several book priorities and publications before this, so probably about six or seven years ago when i was getting the project dusted off and working on, over the next year or two after that, i had the good fortune of living here in the area. there were about a dozen or so of these personal experience reports,

yes, the fox white house press corps correspondent. del of civility and probing questions and objectiontivity as well. joining -- objectivity as well. joining me now to discuss the national left wing media to the president, the former reagan white house political director and the fox news political analyst ed rollins. ed, it's just -- i still, when i watch this, i cannot believe it's being permitted by the white house or that the news organizations and their parent companies would tolerate such behavior. >> it's outrageous. you can't treat a president with disrespect in his own house. he did the courtesy of opening the east room up and letting them all come in there. >> lou: he talked for 90 minutes. he has given more access -- >> 87 reporters. to be insulted in your own house. it's not like he hasn't given access in plenty of places. i said a long time ago, a lot of discusses -- i have been in a few white houses. moved them out of the press room and put them in the old executive office building. press secretary would go once a day and

in the marine corps before 1917. they were doing constable security,and stateside all of that. walter cornell's story to me, or gunnar cornell, as he was known to the young marines, his story is that he showed leadership in the first few days of combat when these young marines were looking to somebody for direction. looking for leadership. it comes down to is he was a marine sniper. long-range rifle fire, very effective. he would come in every night. with more notches on the stock of his rifle. he had actually been injured relatively severely on the sixth of june. he was shot in the side, and part of his ear got shot off, but he refused more than just the basic medical attention and went out on the morning of the seventh of june and a leader -- and they essentially bombarded his position. they never found out exactly how they died. at that point of his death, he was looked to for leadership. many young marines said if they can't get cornell, they can't get us. they all thought a little bit harder those first few days

. >> reporter: in 1971 the u.s. army corpsengineers placed this wooden fish ladder at the beginning of a concrete section of culvert as part of a flood control project, but it isn't much help to the steelhead trying to swim up to spawn. >> the water moves so quickly that the fish tire out and get washed back down. >> reporter: ross' ys the fish ladder is actually one of the reasons the downtown floods in a storm. >> it causes a hydraulic jump in the water of 3 to 4 feet during big flows. so we want to get that removed. >> reporter: the fish ladder was supposed to be temporary until the concrete culvert could be extended up through town, but over the years environmental regulation increased putting the entire project on hold. now the corps wants to complete the flood control by removing the concrete in this area and widening the creek into the city's frederick allen park. >> they say they can replant trees and make it a recreational ammenity or will they? we don't know. we don't want to really move forward until we really know

the u.s. army signal corps. "america goes over," is one of many silent world war i films that the national archives has restored. this is about one hour. susan: welcome to american history tv, c-span history network. let me introduce mitchell yockelson and allison finkelstein. as people actually see this film, how are these films made at the time and who saw them? mitchell: in the case of the film, it was done by the united states government. it was a compilation of mostly u.s. army signal corps footage by cameramen overseas. the idea was more propaganda to promote what america did, which was help bring the war to a close on the allies' side. susan: it was released after the war was over. how was the propaganda intended by the government at that point in time? allison: this film would have been intended to reassure americans they fought for a just cause. it was important because there was actually quite a bit of backlash against world war i after it finished. this is the era where you see america retreat into neu

i know as a very well and deeply respected many of the press corps for many years, jud deck epidemic-- i know you must appreciate as we all do a president willing to engage in front of the cameras for 90 minutes nonstop, including with leur colue from pbs.

here's more of the press corps at work. cnn political analyst april ryan, pbs, run-ins with the president of the united states, and apparently they think they have license to insult, to debate and even dismiss the president, not simply report on him in the interest of the public. >> you just have to -- sit down, please, sit down. i didn't call you. i didn't call you. i didn't call you. i'm not responding. excuse me. i'm not responding to you, i'm talking to this gentleman, will you please sit down. reporter: [ inaudible ] excuse me, will you please sit down. no, you rudely interrupted him. you rudely interrupted him. go ahead. reporter: on the campaign trail, you called yourself a nationalist. some people thought that as emboldening white nationalist. >> such a racist question. reporter: some people say that now the republican party is seen as supporting white nationalists because of your rhetoric. what do you make of that? >> why do i have my highest poll numbers ever with african-americans? that's such a racist question. h

we also had our new start award from the united states army corps of engineers and the administration, which was a very big event for us, the gold standard for partnering with the corps on the seawall. our infrastructure financing legislation, which i'll talk more about in a moment, did not make it out of the california senate, unfortunately, but we will try again. executive director forbes reported out and everyone heard our g.o. bond, we were successful there with over 80% of the vote. and we had also crafted some language in hope to benefit from the statewide water bond sb5, but that failed at the statewide ballot on the 6th. so our priorities going forward, at the state level we do want to pursue infrastructure financing district legislation again. rm3 passed, and we're eyeing the china-based freight lining for that, and upcoming regulations to the california resources board could potentially have a big impact on our cruise business, so that's something we very much need to stay engaged. on the federal level, what we're proposing is the army corps' work plan, where they fund their

the u.s. marine corps. wassays her proudest moment leading a company of marines into iraq during the 2003 invasion. leading them back to safety. she is a participant in the bush institutes stand to veteran leadership program. retired u.s. navy admiral william mcraven. he led the planning and execution of a secret raid that eliminated osama bin laden in 2011. he led a force of 69,000 men and women and was responsible for conducting counterterrorism offer -- operations worldwide. a former navy seal and white house national security council advisor to president bush. he service chancellor of the university of texas system from 2014 until retiring in may. stellar in a leadership program. mym proud to say one of colleagues at boeing. as a senior manager for boeing, he is responsible for creating and executing our engagement strategy for veterans at boeing. he is a graduate of the u.s. military academy at west point. while deployed to afghanistan in 2012, he was wounded by an ied. he medically retired from the arm

let's turn to the white house press corps. rules, we can call them the acosta rules, i don't know what you want to call them in which the press corps gets to ask one question they get to be civil and have to be focused on their manners. what you think? >> i love it. i think if acosta wants to be respected as a journalist he has to be re- expected and respect the president. no more acting like a baby and sucking on your pacifier. you're gonna get thrown out and the press will be here again. >> if you act like a child you will be treated like a child. >> uncertainly in the presence of the united states and the white house that should come second nature to any american. let me turn to foreign policy. the president who has introduced the entire country and our trading partners to an extraordinary concept. balance trade, you are not going to steal from us by the hundreds of billions of dollars per year anymore. specifically that fits china. they are behaving like children and want to keep stealing and they want to think we should be

on the federal side of things, the army corps' work plan is due out in about two weeks, so we'll know if we're going to get funded or not on these two big projects. the second is year-two funding for the seawall, it would be very unusual for us to not be funded. usually once the first year is funded in the new start, we get the full three years, so we're looking forward to confirmation of that. the second project is something that was authorized from legislation going back to 2007. there are five piers authorized for repair or removal with a fairly large authorization, so we're back in the hunt for that. it's almost $6 million. the army corps put forward the full amount of that, and, you know, if we're lucky enough to get that funded, it will have some major improvements to the pier 70 shipyard area. part of the water resources development act of 2018, which is the primary funding vehicle for the army corps of engineers, had in it a reflection of all kinds of ports across the country that were -- and other army corps users, that were dissatisfied with the way they do their cost-benefi

it was by invitation that the press corps first came to the white house. they used to hang out in the lobby. they didn't even have their own little area. now they do. now they have a whole facility that they get to use at the white house. prior to president eisenhower, it was just a lobby you could hang out in the lobby and try to look for people. they didn't have offices. they didn't have a press secretary that would necessarily, you know, create a climate where they would have access to information, so there's been an evolving relationship between, quote, the west wing and the white house, the executive branch and the press corps. i do believe in a strong free press. i also believe in a strong article 2 of the constitution. i defended presidents, but i tend to think president trump's administration has reacted a little more aggressively than i would have recommended. there were times when -- i actually think i can remember times that white house credentials were not susperespe when they were denied, some people were denied access. it was usually based on

the army corps put forward the full amount of that, and, you know, if we're lucky enough to get that funded, it will have some major improvements to the pier 70 shipyard area. part of the water resources development act of 2018, which is the primary funding vehicle for the army corps of engineers, had in it a reflection of all kinds of ports across the country that were -- and other army corps users, that were dissatisfied with the way they do their cost-benefit analyses, that it was too restrictive, didn't allow for the individual complications of jurisdictions, like, for example, seismic reactive regions. that's not part of their mission, and so, you know, we were disadvantaged in that way. other jurisdictions are disadvantaged in other ways. so part of that legislation created two one-year studies, where they are going to just take another look at all of that, turn it upsidedown, see if they can improve on it, and we very much want to be at the table for that, too. so we're working diligently to make sure our advocacy strategy is solid on that, using both the city's federal advoca

artworks is this depiction of a soldier who was part of the army corps of engineers. this was an engineer soldier. >> let's turn to perhaps the heart of the a.e.f. art collection, the battlefield paintings. perhaps one of the most compelling and best known aintings in the a.e.f. art collection, one by amby dunn, is this one called "the century." this is a compelling image. you see a lone soldier but you see the fatigue and stress and loneliness of war on his face. and it really gives a very powerful expression. there was a famous artwork from the second world war called the thousand yard stare which often was reproduced and you saw the drawn look on the soldier's face. but i think dunn's painting here captures that in even a re powerful way in the century. the first world war was again characterized by the massive industrial scale of the war and the amazing amount of shelling and bombardment that was characteristic of the first world war was often summed up in the term no man's land which was the reference to the area between the lines, between the enemy lines. and thi

let's return to the musique marine corps vetera n return to the musique marine corps veteran has killedbar in california. —— us marines. earlier on our correspondent said us this update. first of all the government shot the woman at the front desk checking people's ids and then went into the bar apparently firing with a handgun at random. witnesses say he was tall, dressed in black and was wearing either a black hoods or hacked. there was panic inside and the place began to fill with smoke, some people use bar stools to smash windows to escape. we spoke to some survivors.” remember seeing, i don't know when exactly, it had to be before the shots but i saw the gunman with his gun at the front where you pay and i was really, really close to him. that is the wall and then some ta bles that is the wall and then some tables and the dance floor i was right by the tables and the dance floor and as soon as we heard shots we dropped to the floor. my friend said, get down, and we were hiding. i was pushed against him and eve ryo ne i was pushed against him and everyone was trying to go under the

but -- so we would suggest you go into the finance corps. so i signed up for that and they told me all the neat places i would go in the finance corps. then something happened in january of 1968 called the tet offensive. they called me in and they said, mr. milam, we've changed the rules now. and the rules are if you want to be in the finance corps, even if you have an mba, you must go to infantry ocs first. and if you graduate in the top three of your class, not 3%, but the top three, you can then choose the finance corps. and for any of you that know anything about infantry ocs, if you graduated in the top three, probably the last thing you would choose would be the finance corps. so i went to infantry ocs and was commissioned in the infantry. and the ocs experience that i had was quite good. i have actually, when i got out of -- when i went back to school to earn my ph.d. i actually did research on what the officer candidate school is and what rotc is and what west point is in terms of commissioning. and what i found at ocs was a program t

that he got out of the marine corps three years before his time was up. this is documented. this is what they tell the american people. they going to great detail that lee harvey oswald got out of the corps because his mother was an accident, which was the truth. when he came home he stayed with his mother for three days. and then he left for russia. and so this is supposed to be cut and dried. but when you read the report and you know the case, then you see where the warren commission says that lee harvey oswald was given a passport by the state ,epartment to travel to russia the dominican republic, cuba. at that time, these countries were not restricted. getcan lee harvey oswald out of the marine corps three months ahead of time, and at the same time be issued a passport to travel? >> the evidence is overwhelming that mrs. oswald is wrong as to what her son did. yet, there remain disturbing indications that she may not be quite so wrong about some kind of link between oswald and various intelligence agencies of the united states. the question of whether or not he had relati

the following telegram. woods now entirely u.s. marine corps'. ear, the president of the french republic presented to president trump a sapling, to be placed on the white house grounds. taken from bella wood. a place renamed by a grateful ally. the wood of brigade of marines. finally, there was a less celebrated warrior. a nearsighted farmer from jackson county, missouri, who cheated and lied to get into the field artillery because he could not stand the thought of his friends and neighbors going to war and he not being there to support them. he would go on to become one of the greatest presidents in our history. so there they are. captain abrams summerville, my great-grandfather. sergeant alvin york, private, my wife's grandfather. robinson, william johnson. private martin. sergeant dan daly, and captain harry s truman. they are the testament to the ordinary citizens who performed extraordinary deeds in defense of this republic, from lexington to afghanistan. all told, more than 41 million american men and women have served during times of war an

he's working on the ground in syria basically providing the public and they're in the corp of. regime change current policy surely the year i should first of all be left on economic sanctions and it should then be if it's necessary be collaborating with the syrian government to provide aid to the areas where it's most needed because i don't expect this to happen irregardless it's a sick and sad joke on the american taxpayer trillions of their hard earned money spent on the war on terror originally on defeating al qaida and all the while they've been paying to feed and finance those very same jihad ists nato's drills in norway leave behind a trail of mayhem some very angry locals the details on it's coming after this. you know world a big part of the lot and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that mainstream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door. and shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now for watching closely watchi

four and a half years in the corps, in the marine corps, not only that but served in afghanistan during some of our bloodiest fighting. 2009, 2010, 2011. he was there during the surge. he was also rated as a machine gunner. i mean, he carried an m-240 or 249. he knew his way around weapons. if he had the extended mag that police talked about or was proficient in changing magazines, yeah, you could do that kind of damage if you're that skilled and a marine corps serviceman that served in the helmand proves where the bloodiest fighting for the corps was, yeah, he could accomplish that. >> you're also a veteran, and you're not besmirching veterans. you're saying he had a certain kind of skill that he learned. >> an aptitude, certainly. >> some witnesses, phil, say the gunman used smoke bombs and they were unable to confirm that. if it's true does that say anything about the planning or motivation? >> it doesn't say much to me. one of the simple questions i would have in that circumstance, jake, is to determine when the person acquired these. if they had them for years, that would suggest t

milam. [ applause ] now, we had planned a third panelist to represent the united states marine corps. barrett graham, also a member of vmi class of 1967. however, due to the effects of hurricane florence and more than one tree down the top of his house and business as well as his work as a volunteer first responder for his community, barrett was unable to come. we wish him well, and his entire community a swift recovery. again, i'll moderate the panel. and i will begin with a couple of questions. and please raise your hand and be recognized. and a microphone will come to you. let me start out with a question to both of you gentlemen. could you please spend a little bit of time and tell us why you joined the united states army in the middle of a hot war? and then tell us just a little bit about your initial training and assignments as you deployed to vietnam. and let's start with phil. >> okay. i think the army, in my family was kind of a family business. we have had someone in the u.s. army from the spanish-american war forward in every major war. we didn't get here in the civil war,

the marine corps part of the navy budget but part of it specifically for marine corps activities, and then the air force, interesting thing about the air force budget a large portion of the air force budget is classified pass through funding. it doesn't stay in the air force. it goes to other classified activities and agencies. >> let's talk about another force, your latest briefing for csic is about the cost of the space force. what are the estimates on the space force? >> i went and looked at a bottom up estimate if you create a space force, what's it going to involve. the vast majority of the funding for a space force would be transferred out of accounts that are already existing today in the services budgets. most would come from the air force, since the air force does most of the space activities today, about 85% of the funding year to year, and so you would move all of that into a new budget, so that's neutral. it doesn't add overall to the budget. then you do have to add a new headquarters, staff on top of that for a new service, and create a new secretariat staff for a secreta