Transcripts For CSPAN2 Over There 20170514

Writers symposium in vermont, retired colonel Robert Dalessandro describes strategies countries developed during world war i. Good morning. Good morning. And for those of you new to the occasion for this session, welcome to the 22nd annual colby military write is sim bose yum. This year we embark on a multiyear discussion of world war i. As one continuous half century of hostility. We call this years installment, won the war, lost the war. Centennial legacy of world war i, to establish this symposium theme to suggest its direction. This morning it is my particular honor to introduce colonel Robert Dalessandro. Connell Robert Dalessandro, is among relatively small group of world war i historians in america today, having written extensively on American Expeditionary force in the great war. Currently, colonel dalessandro is acting secretary of the American Battle Monument Commission and former director of the United States army center of military history. Colonel dalessandros special interests is suggested by his celebrated publications include military insignia, especially as worn by the officers and men of the American Expeditionary force, and the africanamerican soldier. His book, organization and insignia of the American Expeditionary forces, 191723, received the Army Historical Foundation Award for excellence in writing, which, okay, of particular note to officers on active duty is his Army Officers guide, which he continues to edit. Among his favorite hobbies leading battlefield tours to historical site in the United States and europe. This morning colonel dalessandro will speak to us on the american extraordinary force in france. [inaudible]. Yeah. So on behalf of the colby military writers symposium and norwich university, we welcome connell Robert Dalessandro. [applause] so thanks for the kind introduction and i got to tell you, it is great to be here. I feel like ive never this is my first time at norwich but i feel very connected to this place because on three separate occasions i worked for general sullivan. So i had to hear about norwich quite a bit and much like the cadets here now, i often heard about it at very odd hours of the night or early, early, morning, so it is a pleasure to be here and im very excited to be able to talk to you a little bit about the aef. I did use the word extraordinary for a very specific reason. I was talking i walk from the podium. I always feel trapped back there. Keep my back to the wall. Im always asked, always, always, always, and im sure jennifers heard this as well, why are you interested in world war i . People ask me about it all the time. You know what did a good person like you get involved in world war i for . The truth of the matters it comes down to the reason that i love being here today with young students. And its because i want you to take a look at this photograph. This photograph was taken in washington, d. C. , at Union Station and taken in 1919 if i remember. Doesnt say it on it but it is at the end of the war. You see in the photograph a mother just beaming because her sons back from the war, and he is holding a baby and you see his brother there, the sailor and the wife looking on, of the guy who is returning. And this picture totally explains why world war i is important to this nation and everybody in the room. This is my world war i Centennial Commission pitch. That woman, the mother, that woman is probably the child of a Civil War Veteran, would be my gut on her. And, that soldier, holding the baby, that baby, by the way, is a member of the greatest generation. That soldier, was born in an age of horse and wagons. He probably had not traveled before he went overseas with the American Expeditionary forces, he probably hadnt traveled much out of the county he was born in, even though he is coming into Union Station in washington at this point. And that person, that was born in the age of horse and wagon, who could speak to a Civil War Veteran is probably going to pass away in the age of jet travel. I want you to think about that for a minute. Frank buckles passed away in this decade, the last known world war i veteran. Think about the world that that person grew up in, and how america changed in that persons life in so, so many ways. And this isnt really the pitch in my talk but i want you to think about the importance of world war i in our daily lives. When we entered world war i, we thought that women were way too fragile to be in combat, let alone in industry at home in any way. Probably what would happen is a woman would have some nervous issue if we put her in a factory or if we put her in a situation where she was near combat. We thought about africanamericans. Okay, 300 some odd years of slavery for an africanamerican. How can we count on this person to fight for america . A person that has been told their whole life what to do . They cant think for themselves. What if they get into a situation where their leaders are dead . Hypenated americans. Some 20 of the American Expeditionary force, theyre immigrants. What if we put these people in a line, are they going to be loyal to america or germany . What if theyre irish . Are they going to be fighting for the british . Well, thankfully, everyone of these prejudices were smashed by the war. Sure, it is going to be a long road to civil rights but women acquit themselves well in world war i. Africanamericans, when given chances and many of them are, many of them will be in labor positions there, acquit themselves wonderfully. When you take two million some odd people, army allin, Armed Services were about four million people, if you were mobilized, but we get two million over there and change when you count the American Red Cross and all volunteer organizations. When you take two million some odd people and pluck them from that county, i love to say, the town of chitlin switch, west virginia, put them on a train and pass through new york and paris, see london, some see italy. And come back, you forever alter the fabric of society. I think that is why these people are important. When you stick your toe into the worlds stage, there isnt any going back. You know you can have the isolationist movement and you can do other things, but the truth of the matter is, there is no going back once we get in the war. These are the people, that guy, is the person who opened an american century, birthed the greatest generation and set up the world that we live in. If you dont believe world war i is important after that get out. I dont even want to talk to you anymore, im finished, but you will have to stay here if you want any credit. That is my openinger on this, i want to talk about how that American Expeditionary force shaped america by the way it built the world we live in. Anyone going to be associated with the army, everything that you know in the army comes out of this. We had a wonderful discussion about this doing the question and answer if we have to. Just a quick, this is my very quick refresher for nonworld war i people in the room. There is the world. This is one of my National Park service maps i come out with. Were plucking a new book i did, plugging world war i for the National Park service. This is what the world look like before we enter. Italy came in on side of the allies. You have blocs of nations. What is going on before we get there. This is i can loot quickest review of world war i history ever. The plan to quickly resolve world war i ends. When the plan fails, held up in belgium too long, the british, bef, british Expeditionary Force deploys. Western front stablizes. The all quiet on the western front period. Eastern front going toward germanys favor during the war. We go to the soft under bellly of europe if you will, the dardanelless in this particular case. That doesnt work out. Verdun proved to be costly fights for both the french and british. Meanwhile back in the United States, it is mexico. There is trouble on the mexican border. By the way this is a very interesting sidebar. Ill tell you when raids occur on the mexican border, our u. S. Intelligence services are convinced that the germans have their hand in them, long before the Zimmerman Telegram appears. So it is really an interesting thing because number one, talking about prejudices before the war, its generally believed in the Intelligence Services that the mexicans cant pull anything off on the mechanic can border, they need real supervision. That real supervision is germans and there germany is behind everything going on down there and fixation of on mexico. By 17 the french are on the breaking point. That is a moment to talk about. So in 1 117, the germ 17 germans realize the that the nights is probably coming in. United states didnt do much. Theyre only involved in the last months of the war, essentially, 47 days of combat, depending on the big push and how youre counting but, america doesnt do much. Well that is not totally true. Were the biggest supplier of the british in world war i. Britain spends most of its war budget in the u. S. In fact one of my favorite hobbies on battlefield walking if you walk out on the somm you will find a nose cap in the field of an 18pounders because of number of shells fired there. I will give you even odds you pick one of those up when you look at it, it is stamped alcoa or made in the u. S. That shell was fired in july of 1916. We didnt have americans that far north. We had them slightly south but no american fired that round. So that is Proof Positive that americans supplying the allies. And shes leaning toward that way. So, there is this huge risk gamble needs to be taken, you can cut the ally supply lines, okay, my slides dont want to cooperate. You can either cut the allied supply lines, i got a wonderful picture here of a ship sinking. I need help. You can cut the allied supply lines and risk that the United States will enter the war in favor of the allies, or you can do nothing. So thank you. I love that shot. It is National Archives shot. This is the kind of thing, by the way, at that really evokes a lot of feeling in the United States, maritime nation. You got the guy about to jump off the ship. There is, nothing worse than people jumping off ships and ill tell you the other thing i did not make a copy of it, there is a very famous poser is of the sinking of the lusitania, it was the first thing i thought when the president gave his speech. It is very famous poster of a woman and she is sinking into the atlantic. You know her hair is beautiful and her hair is kind of floating like a mermaid in the sea. She has in her arms, this little beautiful baby. And, of course that is perishing with her. Boy, did that play on american consciousness. We dont enter the war because of the lusitania through a lot of political maneuvering but the truth of the matter is, these posters and jennifer spoke about them in her section, evoked so much passion, that poster was one of the ones that really helped change americas view of how the war was going. But, if you think about it, if you were germany and willing to resume unrestricted warfare, submarine warfare, youve got a reason and the reason is if the United States does come into the war, if we declare war you have to have opportunity. It has to be worth your time. I mean, in other words you just dont resume unrestricted submarine warfare you will do it and your sub captains are mad because theyre not doing anything. You will do it because the risk gives you rewarded. The risk and rewarded is, that you can conquer on the western front, you can bring the french and the british to the stable on the western front before the United States can mobilize. And the germans decide that they can do that. Of course its a bad decision but, i like to say, that a lot of this comes from the fact. Well talk about it in a minute, a lot of this comes from the fact that look at 1918, the spring of 1918 when the germans think the u. S. Will be able to start getting troops over there as a moment of opportunity for the germans. We had people over there before, looking at it seriously and you have to make a couple assumptions. What is the force . What is the compose of, what does it look like . I love my second bullet. Im often accused of hating the battle of belleau wood in france but im getting ahead of myself. I hate the battle of belleau wood because marines got credit for it. Purging was so angry at the marines, a Single Service got credit for the battle of belleau wood that he took some pretty drastic action, summarily removing marine corps officers, army formations. And we cant combine the marines and army and navy, and a point made in the last two talks, and the secretary armys office, and how many people do you need people behind that action, if you look at the next war, or the spanishamerican war. It is about one to 4. Every trigger, every person shooting at a german, or four people. Moving bullets and picking them up off the battlefield. You are close, 20 to one. There are one to 32. It looks haphazard but if you think about it we are not fighting in the United States so everything that is american seems to be transloading, has to be shipped somewhere in the state, usually in new york, norfork and one of the big hubs over there and put it on the rails, get it off the ship, what we call trendline, sent to the front. You have a huge logistical operation that you have to run. The discussion is what should the detail be . That creates a brandnew Organization Called the sos service and supply. There is not such a thing in military history. Not to this extent. It assumes the rails work, you see it . Purging aside the million by the end of 18, and there are 300,000 hanging around if you look at that 300,000. The United States like the even numbers. We need 100 divisions. 100 divisions would be. It is decided that how you array those, i find it very interesting and this is one of the points i want to make the future Army Officers, they take the army to build its essentially Current Force Structure in world war i. One single Army Division i singe eve of world war i, the racing National Guard divisions and the incursion. They set it up just like this. Regular Army Divisions, what does that mean, they are not regular Army Divisions. They will be mostly draftees. And and good news to be a lieutenant. The bottom line is it is a regular army person. When you do world war i genealogy you can never figure this out. Going from corporal to Sergeant Major overnight. And National Guard units. The National Guard units and pull them regionally into divisions. And regular army officer on top of that division. The hardest fighting divisions of world war i, the sixth division. It is from this area, created a National Guard unit from massachusetts, connecticut, maine, new hampshire, they put a guy named Clarence Edwards in charge of it, to the congressional delegation up here. They going to combat, the office into 100 series offense but they are very much linked to the National Guard heritage. You can supplement them with draftees and the core of the National Guard, people who have been starving serving in the state militia. National armies moved the new deal, 7699, that is drafting and the office those people from a new program in new york, harrison, that would produce offices quickly and candidate School Program and other College Graduates that will align into the Training Corps and again, you are seeing regular army offices but the National Army regionally arranged in a weird set of situations where the War Department comes up and the 76 comes from the area around pennsylvania, 77 from new york. Too hard to understand. So then, of course, if you were here this morning, this is taken apart wonderfully, you have a Selective Service, at the morning lecture the point was made very well, the number of people you need to invest, for a lot of different reasons. The most compelling is the conversation in the United States that we shouldnt be in this at all to begin with. Who would listen to george washington, the interesting thing about Selective Service or the draft, it is as close to universal as ever will be. The bottom line is africanamericans need to register and they can be drafted, generates an entire different conversation about who needs to be in the war. Some of us think a lot alike. This was a british poster because i couldnt find the american one. One way to get people to do this is to shame them, what did you do in the great war. So they try all kinds of ways to make sure the draft works in shaving people, the pretty girls run around with you, it is cool to be in the army. And big brother is always watching, he is going if you dont get in the army. Where do we get these people. The us population, it is interesting. I am a big guy on comparisons to world war ii. 24 million men ultimately register. I want to show you world war ii. The question is asked, what is the number of people you can put in uniform before you change the nature of society . These questions, i if we put everybody of a certain age group, nowadays women, if we put them all in uniform, what is the magic breaking point before you change the fabric of democracy in the republic . I view this as a comparison. If you look at where we come up, 7. 8 of the population, it 10 is the breaking point. After you put 10 , if we put 10 of the people in this room, small community. Everyone is related to somebody, starting to become a military state. I use the world war ii comparison because that is a percentage of the population. We are okay insat. As i said, a number of ways one thing we forget about, this picture for a number of reasons, they play to this idea of lafayette and purging being lafayette in reverse. We are paying back the debt to france that we had from fellows in the revolution. It is just another thing, you can be a big part of this. If it plays well it is very much i deal with the french a lot, this is very much a reminder, the french when we talked about the centennial there were two things they were interested in, they were interested in us coming to the table for the armistice. And the other things they cared about was i hate to use the word reenactment, a commemoration of the replaying at the tomb of lafayette. What they said to me was, i am talking about welleducated people, people in the United States, to the you think they have an appetite to do a similar ceremony in yorktown, virginia. We are outclassed by these guys. How Many Americans could make that connection between lafayette, yorktown and world war i. They talked to me about, we should do something, that whole crowd. That is uppermost on your mind, uppermost in the mind of people like this. I love this photograph. My second favorite photograph. This shows mobilization of americans. The flag is from 1874 if you count the stores. This is in nowhere, america but look at everybody, the sun enlisted and the mother is not only a nurse but is knitting a sweater, at any rate she is knitting and the daughter is farming for her Liberty Garden and the young kid is pitching in with her little shovel. There is the first family of america and this is the message you want to send, all of america is mobilized and i am going to breeze past this one but this is how we talk to the Africanamerican Community, going to pay your debts to abraham lincoln, gave you freedom. Interesting conversation in the Africanamerican Community is very complicated and very interesting. Web dubois and others saying if we bleed for our country, we get people in combat, put these two divisions in combat, we will get rid of jim crow. Other voices say this is a good time not to come into the the naacp and others prevail, we spent 175,000 africanamericans, double that number will be drafted in service but in segregated divisions and only the rarest cases with africanamerican officers although there are africanamerican officers in several legends. This is an interesting moment that doesnt play as well in world war ii. Back to what i was talking about in 1918. Often we think those who know a little bit about world war i know about the push in 1919, the war is going to be over in november. Couple things happen that i think you need to be mindful of before we turn and talk about the aef and combat. That is looking at a big map of europe, france, looking at germany. Germany as everyone in the room knows, is a victim of her geopolitical position. Essentially there is no way around it. The original plan, knockout france quickly and turn to russia and that doesnt work out as you know. By 2 feet of by 1917 there are no more russian so all these combat divisions, you couple that with some pretty significant lessons the germans learned. In a nutshell here is what they were. They learned of the burden and layer and when i say they learned this, you have to be careful because this is what the germans thought, the french are no longer a formidable enemy, they have been bled white, they see what happened, there were mutinies. The french army is on the ropes. Dangerous enemy on the western front is the british Expeditionary Force. If we want to do anything we got to get rid of the ves one way or the other. They also learned that they need to modify their tactics, defensively and often to flee, defensively they decide to build defensive death like they never have before, the germans were very good throughout the war defending terrain. They build defensive lines that are in great debt, allowing them to give ground, all the popular literature you hear about the hindenburg line, a series of lines, deep series of lines, they learn offensively essentially what we will call storm tactics in later years which is to exploit any breakthrough and forget about having an enemy in your area but yet to their area as fast as you can to disrupt command and control. If you can breakthrough i dont care who is on my left or my right, i can exploit this breakthrough, lightly orange to push out on that initial tack, turn the enemys flanks and get deep into their rear area. Back to my favorite comment, the flaw on this is logistics at the end of the day. If you get somebody 30 or 40 km into the rear area, how do you supply . Running out of ammunition. At any rate they do come up with new tactics. These two top pieces, they are kind of, it is decided and bring them to the table and if you look at france, a hard read line, easy thing to do is divide it in half, that is the british and that is the french and that is a broadbrush view, the most broadbrush you will ever get. Near the town ground, in this area. On that line. That is where american operations will begin. You all heard the talk about purging not wanting to put america in as a seller and that is not so true. We will talk about that in a minute. Lets get back to what the American Army looks like, back to that hundred divisions, in the civil war, in broadbrush, c people, in world war i it is twice that number. What does that look like . Show what it carries, there will be combined arms available to those people but not the way we do it today in the brigade combat team. In round numbers 207k commanded the civil war guy would recognize this, it would be a lot bigger than it used to, the regiment, the company would play a less independent role than it did in the civil war so it is not fixed, they use what i call a famous 35 rule. It depends on how to organize, it is my favorite sharp. Spend so much time making this but i a really good point talking about these things again. In the civil war these people would all be riflemen. This is a fascinating thing. Take a look at the way they organize the rifle platoon and it tells you everything about the way we are thinking in world war i. Why do you want this for a principal first section . Think about it. How do you take out a machine gun nest . A grenade. You have grenadiers. The second section are rifle grenadiers . You see this little thing on the end of the springfield, that is the grenade launcher, they can fire a grenade farther than a man can. And you fire grenades further to go get them. Those are your triggers, and here is the first one that is interesting the way the aaf is organized, look at the fourth section. They have light machine uns, terrible light machine guns, but the rifle platoon, automatic weapons fire, that is a real first. If you tie this to the larger echelon a Division Commander and Brigade Commander and Regimental Commander have access to artillery. We had gone from the civil war model that has nothing to a commander that has the ability to deploy automatic weapons, tap into artillery and in addition there will be a Machine Gun Company too, light and heavy machine guns so that is a big jump in combined arms if you will. That is what the regiment looked like so it is interesting emotionally speaking of the machinegun companies in the First Battalion can move around, supply company in the third, putting Headquarters Company as a regiment in the first, it is kind of interesting. People ask me if there is no j company. Square division because four regiments in two brigades. I again put up the triangular division. More artillery available, the world war ii formation to the right. What the army came out of this, we need more artillery to the folks that are fighting. A little fun fact, when we shipped over to europe in our first fights, not one single americanmade machinegun in the hands of the American Expedition and artillerywise the only american manufactured artillery in world war i are naval guns in heavy artillery. We use all french artillery, we use british and french machinegun, they are british made and pretty good guns, those have aircraft model. Fly through some battles and leave time for questions, first battles, first infantry division, often known as pershings pet division. If you dont do a great job in command in the First Division or training purging will summarily relieve you, no second chances. This is the first team, not just saying that because i served in the First Division but these are the guys. Lessons learned, this is what you care about. Purging thinks like us grant a lot of times. He thinks americans are better, have higher morale, they havent been on the front, they can overcome the weary germans easily. He does not buy into many of the lessons of french warfare. Happily the first Division Commander disagrees with him as do many of his officers so what we learn is you may be able to take a place, a town in this particular case but the germans will throw repeated attacks against you, furious attacks against you to retake it. Think about german strategy, plays right into that. Germans have this indepth flexible defense, we take the town, they fall back a couple lines, reorganize, pounds the town to pieces and a come back at you. You make after the first or second line trench for coming back. We are not finished but as i told you we also learn there is a great deal of tension between purgings thought about what battle, the rest of the allies. All right. May and july, 1918, this is a game of salience in the line. What matters is germans managed to break out again and get there. Smart river. 35 or so miles, the high watermark of the german assault on friends maybe 10 miles out here, we will hear this afternoon from some people working at the museum, this is where significant numbers of americans go in, Second Division is involved in this, Third Division involved in this, the idea is to reduce the salient and get the line back straight. Americans in the second or Third Division, the marine brigade initially, the third crowd, germans get over and intensified over here, the americans pushing back. The more interesting thing that happens here, the germans capture americans, capture them before but capture a number here and world war i is not world war ii or vietnam. People speak pretty freely. Couple people that are captured are interviewed by german staff and basically is they say they are not traders or anything in the Third Division. The 26 is here and the first up north and the second is here and there are a lot more consequences and when that information gets to the german high command they are shocked and i call this a turning point because if your intelligence is so bad the way we are coming into friends, we dont know there are multiple american divisions, you have a problem but what it causes is it causes the germans to abandon the push on paris, they cared about defeating the british, but are having some success here, a couple miles away from paris, captured and done and it causes him to fall back on his next to me line, this is on this line essentially, falls back there and we will continually beat him back during the champagne offensive line by line from there. We are supplementing the french essentially, it is a couple divisions in, the discussion turns that is the first shot and if you want to see that at the west point, liberty loan tour. That is a cool shot so purging offers help, we commit. The thing you heard about the most in that fight, it is a 30 day battle. There are a number of organizations involved in the marine brigade for quite a while. And i tell you i do believe that joint operations, marking the battlefield, i would commend putting quality product together. If you are ever in france it is not that far, go there, walk and amazing fight, very complicated back and forth but it is a neat place. I hate the statue. A beautiful world war ii marine statue. How do you like this . How did that run . We fight from that offense that i talked about, slowly back to the river. Quite frankly the americans are doing a fantastic job because the germans fighting the rearguard. You see what happens from july 18th to september 5th, by that time look at the division numbers. You have the 42nd division, the 28th division, 26th division, regular Army Division, 77 an end, first and second up north. Think about that. How many divisions you are in by september. In june of 17 it is a token force. Not the full division. In bella would, that is an army unit. You never get this wrong. This is the most still captions photograph you will ever see of world war i, generally titles marines fighting in bella would. That is the Headquarters Company of the 23rd regiment, i think. It has got to be the headquarters, this is a neat little weapon. This is a 37 mm cannon. On the ft 17, this was another thing the Regimental Commander was doing, he has his own artillery, itis french. They love it. They were always in the headquarters, using it at that point as a heavy weapon. Those are army guys and sometimes you will see it captured in bella would. Toward the end, by the time those guys were mopping up bella would. One of my favorite photographs i am a photographs guy. This is a neat photograph or couple reasons, they helped germans on the other side on the river, this is the machine gun french made, this was one of our go to heavy machine guns. This is a british gas mask, these guys, all combat, probably got british helmets too. Okay, the first big offense, sending out a deal, purging cuts a deal. And the french high command, a major offensive operation, you can do it but got to reduce this first. Get rid of this bulge. This is the first major operation, 82nd to 90th. Not a huge fan because it is a simple operation. We come at it here to pinch that bulge, what is interesting about this, this is where snoopy gets shot down. This is a fortuitous selection because this is the premier of army air power. This is a chance where the crowd like Billy Mitchell and company take out an independent arm. A lot of what we are using in world war i was not dogfighting but observation. In 17 the War Department suggested Division Commander have his own air so he could spot his artillery. That doesnt work out, you never have army people command air force. This is the first big era from the american aspect. The other thing that is important about this is the post. What has to be done, 40 kilometers from lunch point, you got to take this whole crowd and move them to the other side. And so this, the two things that are important about this i the preview of american airpower and the might of american logistics. It is the logistics of moving an army, taking some out of the fight and taking them and restationing them north of where they are and using the roads. This is a very rural part of france. They do not have movement that way. This is important for those reasons much more than the next slide. The other things that happens is american tanks gets his moment in the sun, dont amount to much but they are a new combined organization. The best map ever made, try here. As i mentioned the hindenburg line is not one line but multiple, take a look at these defenses. Each one of these is a german line, has switched back and forth. This is the main hindenburg line. The idea of the campaign, people are always intimidated. I had someone ask me, it is so complicated and there are big books on it. Here is the simple solution. There is a rail line that runs behind the german lines. That is the lateral supply line for the german army. The target of the new campaign is not the hindenburg line. If you can capture the rail line in sudan you can cut the line and germans wont be able to supply the hindenburg line and say will have to fall back at least on the other side of sudan. Pretty simple concept for a pretty complicated campaign. First, fifth, third, you just go at it. There you go for a monthlong campaign. That is the simplest explanation i can give you and we pound our head against the hindenburg line and this series of lines for the next couple months to give you an examples, it takes two weeks to do that. This is where casualties come from. This is a hard fight. September 26th, this is the launch line, there is a great quote, a pretty famous place in france, no town there anymore because of the german and french, 33rd Division Commander, 35th Division Commander in this thing, takes the town in a couple days and makes the comments, the french tried to take the town for over three years and i took it for three days. I probably could have taken the town. It is not easy from that launch line from the november 2nd line. Our cemetery, in the town, that is there because that is the factor. We break through the line. Sudan is taken. A wonderful political game sitting where the First Division fights with french on who will liberate the town of sudan and purging says the first Division Commander, be out of a job, good idea, take the town back because sudan plays in another story. There is the news in a thumbnail. I want to talk in closing about a couple things. Any world war i person would say this. World war i for the United States was not so much in the trenches. It is not a british experience but it is no less horrific and i love the art, this is a painting to buy a guy who is embedded with the American Expeditionary force from atlantic magazine and he did some wonderful wonderful paintings of the war and they all talk about it like pippin, the horror of the experience, the fighting, gas, wire, high explosives. It shaped a generation. The people i showed you in the photograph, people that wanted life to be normal. Very much a generation of people suffering from ptsd. And other things that connect the current generation with the world war i generation, at least the current generation of soldiers. The great hero of the lost battalion holds out with the battalion, not lost but he holdout with the lost battalion many days with severe casualties, being shelled by his own artillery on and off. He is our model citizen soldier. He really is. An attorney before the war, a reluctant officer but does his duty. All he wants to do is get back to his life. Shortly after the war, with roughly is another guy who questions whether he did the same thing, should he have surrendered in a pocket, what did he have done . Should he have asked the germans for aid for his wounded. He tries to go back to his normal life, shortly after the war he is coming back from cuba. Not on holiday, business holiday if you will and sit down to dinner. Fancy for dinner. And he bids his colleagues at the dinner table a good night and he gets up and walks off. The fantail of the ship. It is never seen again. I think this want and desire by world war i generation to return to normalcy is best expressed in the president ial campaign. Something that is pervasive in that generation. It was a generation of people who wanted to get the job done and get back to normal life. For that reason, many of the things i talked about, that is what makes this an extraordinary Expeditionary Force and i think it applies to our world today so thank you. [applause] i didnt use gary cooper. There is your thought, George C Marshall and john purging said that in one way or another. I would like to invite all of you, 12 00 to 1 00. If you have any questions. [applause] [inaudible conversations] the military writers symposium, judge david baron, winner of the 2017 William E Colby award for his book waging war, provide a h