But Longhorn was the only exercise that simulated an occupation with real civilians. Brian Linn is a professor of military history at Texas A&M University.

“There was a lot of concern about brainwashing and Americans not standing up to Communist brainwashing,” Linn says, “and Communist occupation of a town and how Americans would react.”

So the military flooded Lampasas with propaganda.

KHIT played messages from Aggressor officers:

“Never again shall the political gangsters who have held the people of this great nation enslaved for so many years, have the power of life and death.”

And local leaders like Dan Nixon, the city manager:

“All we can do under the circumstances is to passively resist until we are liberated by our own U.S. forces,” Nixon said on the KHIT newscast.

And from persuaders like Aggressor Annie, who would broadcast a particular type of message to recruit Americans:

“Hello boys. We are not really enemies, but friends. So, let’s get together.”

For some Lampasans, this wasn’t much more than a passing curiosity. But for people like Carol Wright it felt real, and frightening. At this particular place and time, a nuclear strike or foreign invasion felt possible.

“They weren’t supposed to do that in my hometown,” Wright says. “You know – we had fought a war, we were supposed to be through with that.”

But the theatre of the occupation was just one aspect of the operation. For a couple of weeks, war games pitted the 82nd Airborne against three other divisions out in the countryside. Travis Herring’s father helped the military secure a plot about the size of Delaware for the exercises. But many of the ranchers paid an unexpected price.

“After it was over with, there was lots of them that was upset,” Herring says. “He was wondering then whether he was doing the right thing, cause he was getting their signatures so they could come in, and they’d just run over gates, and fences. Some of them – not all of them – but tore up stuff.”

Wayne Boultinghouse is now the Lampasas County Judge. Most mornings, he had a front row seat to tanks, planes, and troops passing by his house.

“After it all settled down, most folks were glad it was over and out of the community,” Boultinghouse says.

So glad, in fact, that they never wanted it to happen again. The plan was to stage another exercise in Central Texas a few years later. But Operation Longhorn left such a bad taste in the mouths of locals that the Army couldn’t secure enough land to pull it off. They went to Louisiana instead – and Lampasas was liberated once and for all.