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

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

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

who fought in 1812. the medal of honor had not yet come into being, but the qualities that the medal would one day be created to honor, these were there as they have always been. and these qualities were soon again to be solid tribe. before it was a century old, the nation faced a conflict that shook it to its foundation and marked in deep suffering the beginning of its maturity: the civil it has been called the war of brother against brother, and so it was. a more tragically exact description would be hard to come by. the soldier in gray fought with fiery bravery that was rooted in a proud way of life. a tradition in which honor and gallantry were deeply fundamental. his skill and courage were never

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

best. but he well knowsth technologic no easy road. he knows, too, that however hard the road, others have traveled it before him and what men have done, men can do. what enables a man to move forward into a maelstrom of roariroar in flying steel and flame? the mere words in which a commander shapes the orders to do so, the knowledge that the others who move forward count on him to be in his place, a sense much pride that are not let him do less than his friends or leave them with more to do because of him? or the simple consciousness that will this is going to be done and it is his time to do it?

whatever it is, whether we name it courage, sense of duty, bravery or sincerely guts, it is there and they go and get it done. in the vietnam fighting, many americans have been awarded the medal of honor. in the combat zone, you will find the face of courage casually worn anyway you care to look. and so the honor is doubly great for those who from among the brave are singled out. in one sense, these medals are

no more than stylized bits of metal. but in another more fundamental sense, they are the tangible representation of a priceless intangible. this then is in celebration of that somet in is both in-definable and undeniable. for this, the hall of heros exists to say to all who come this way, read these names. think for a moment of the men whose courage put them here. what they did, each in his own moment, is a statement, a shout, a cry that echos for each of us. remember and be proud. ♪

you're watching american his other tv. all weekend every weekend on c-spa c-span3. for more information, follow us on twitter,@c-span history.

>> hosted by our time warner cable partner, american history tv is in beaumont, texas, this weekend to explore its history in literary culture. for more information on our tour of six city, visit cspan.org/local content. we're standing on crockett street in downtown beaumont in buildings that were probably built around the turn of the 20th century. they were built along the railroad tracks where the railroad came through town. so they were an important part of the business district there. at some point, parts of crockett street became more notorious and they were a mainstream establishment. beaumont had turned a blind eye

more or less to prostitution as long as it was in some remote corner of the town. however, this was not. at some point the dixie hotel became a brothel. but it was considered to be a very fine one and the clientele was limited. the employees there were supposed to be the prettiest girls around. and it was not the sort of thing that anybody could just walk in off the street. and patronize. ms. rita was ms. rita ainsworth and she was the madam and she started off in one of the brothels in towns and ended up marrying the son of the owner. his name was matt ainsworth and they together operated another hotel until he died and then she took the money that was left in the estate and brought to dixie. it was hers for years until it closed down. if you're a patron of the dixie,

which was a bordello, you would have come in through this door and then you would have gone up the stairs. and when you got to the top of the stairs, there would have been a counter there and you would have checked in at that point. we're now in the interior of what would have been the dixie hotel, the operations floor. at one time this was just a series of hotel rooms with a long hall and there were also living quarters for rita ainsworth, the proprietor of the dixie. she sent her daughter off to the exclusive catholic school and she didn't want her to know what she did for a living. she didn't know until she was in high school that her mother ran

a bordello. she had an efficient system set up t privacy in that there was a system of locks and bells. and when a patron came in to go st oto onethe room doors were locked until he was safely inside the room with the girl. and this was to -- in order that no other people might come out of the hotel room when he was going in. so that these people did not see each other and didn't have to acknowledge each other's presence in the hotel. tom james was a state representative and he was young and ambitious and idealistic. and there was a fear at that time that national organized crime was going to come in and take over parts of texas. and he -- and the other members

of the commission -- it became named after him, because he was the chairman and he was also the most ambitious one. the james commission was a state legislature mandated group that and not just to jefferson county. but also to other parts of texas as well. galveston being one that comes t organized crime had already penetrated these areas.n't ink national organized crime but they found lots of local crime. so there was a united citizens for law enforcement. ucle, that was formed. they began to try to get action taken. they were eventually indictments against some of the local officials. some of them were removed from office. others were just not elected. the dixie was ultimately closed down although ms. rita continued to operate in another set of buildings and she operated out of her house for some years, but

she died in the '70s. crockett street today, this part of it is wonderful. you can of course go dance at the dixie dancehall which is country and western venue that was made from the old dixie hotel. bobby jindal is scheduled to reveal his proposal for the budget, $900 million in the red. in shreveport, it's mostly cloudy and 37 degrees at the airport. 38 in mendon. next weekend, book tv and american history tv explore the history and literary culture of shreveport, louisiana. saturday starting at noon eastern on book tv on c-span2, author gary joiner on the union army's failure in louisiana from one damn blunder from beginning to end, the red river campaign