 The latest weapons, coupled with the fighting skill of the American soldier, stand ready on the alert all over the world to defend this country. View the American people against aggression. This is the Big Picture, an official television report to the nation from the United States Army. Now to show you part of the Big Picture, here is Sergeant Stuart Queen. This is one of the laboratories within the Research and Development Laboratory at the Army Engineer Center in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. It is from Fort Belvoir that many of our celebrated military leaders in American history have come. Today's Big Picture, however, is devoted not to the men in uniform, but to a large group of civilian scientists and engineers who are an extremely important part of this and many other Army installations. This is one of the most important young men in America. His name is Wendell L. Keyes. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia. Mr. Keyes is an engineer, a civilian engineer employed by the Army. As an engineer, he belongs to one of the most desperately sought-after professions in the United States. For there is, in this country, a steadily increasing shortage of scientists, technicians, and engineers like this young Virginian, a shortage which must soon be corrected or result in national disaster. Without engineers, no nation can grow. Indeed, in this technological age, no civilized nation can continue to exist without the constant efforts of millions of highly trained, scientifically educated men. This vast land of ours is rich in every conceivable kind of natural resource, a land of endless promise if we know how to use it to develop it. But it is only through the talent and industry of its engineers that any nation is able to develop and use the natural gifts which Providence bequeaths them. Our standard of living at home, our place among the nations of the world, depend on no small part on the work of our engineers. They give us our economic strength, our industrial capacity, and in the competitive world we live in, industrial strength is the basis of all strength. America has no monopoly on engineering talent, far from it. In the Soviet Union today, new engineers are being trained at an enormous rate, perhaps as much as three times as fast as in our own country. For the Russians, well realized, where lie the springs of power in this technological age? It was Lenin, after all, who said that one engineer is worth fifty communists. True aggression, if it occurs, will come thundering in on the wheels and wings of an advanced technology. We must keep ourselves continually ready to meet any such military technological challenge. For if we once permit ourselves to fall behind, we may find ourselves engulfed by a force which has no comprehension or sympathy for the things we value most. And so it is no exaggeration to say that this twenty-five-year-old American engineer is one of our most important citizens. Without him and those like him, our country would be in serious trouble. Wendell Keyes lives in Alexandria, Virginia, just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., in this modern house which he designed himself. This is the community in which he grew up and where he went to school. Except for a two-year tour of duty as an officer with the Army Corps of Engineers, he has lived here all his life. He married a girl whom he first met when both were together in the seventh grade of grammar school. Mr. Keyes is a fortunate man. There is a stability, a continuity to his life, which many have lost in an age when it sometimes seems that all the world is on the move, where parents, children and grandparents are so often separated by half a continent. This man's roots, his past, his present work and his family's future remain here in northern Virginia. He drives to work five days a week past a large motel which his father and uncle own and manage. It was while watching the construction of this same highway as a boy that Wendell Keyes discovered his calling. He grew up wanting to build highways and bridges. Today he not only builds bridges but designs them. They are not, however, to be found along the public highways. For the bridges on which Mr. Keyes works are military bridges. He is a civilian engineer employed by the Army Corps of Engineers conducting research in the famed Engineer Research and Development Laboratories at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. The major portion of Mr. Keyes' work as a research bridge engineer consists of design for new types of bridge equipment and then coordinating the manufacture of that equipment with the private firms which will fabricate the equipment for future military operation. Design, planning and coordination make up the principal work of most government engineers. The challenge of being in on the beginning of new technical advancements of helping to direct the development of new devices in collaboration with leading American industrial concerns is, in fact, a major reason why such men enter government service. There is a vantage point from which to survey the entire future of America's technological development. The research and photometric section of the Engineer Laboratories at Fort Belvoir. The gentleman with me here is Dr. Robert Wiseman, who is chief of the section. Doctor, would you tell us what sort of an experiment is in progress here today? I thought we would show you a series of experiments to demonstrate the versatility available in the government laboratories. We'll show you some of the research that is going on to help the soldier see better at night. We shall show experiments on light sources, the testing of filters. We shall talk about optical systems and the image tube which converts the invisible infrared into visible light so that the soldier can see at night. The first experiment that we will demonstrate will be a carbon arc. And this carbon arc has been designed so it will have a long horizontal width. This is necessary for the projection of light in wide angles. The brightness of these carbon arcs can be as high and exceed the brightness of the sun. This happens to be a mercury capillary measuring its brightness and seeing how this brightness varies as the foliage is buried on the land. You see a plastic reflector tested to determine its scatter from the surface of the reflector. Then we have an infrared filter being tested to see how the energy is transmitted through the filter. How much infrared, how much visible, and what wavelengths of energy are being transmitted. In the final experiment we will show the image tube being tested. The image tube has its operating voltage. We're putting radiation on the front surface of the image tube. The image tube front surface then converts the invisible infrared into electrons. These electrons are focused similar to the way that light is focused. And these electrons as they fall onto the phosphorous screen glow the same way that your television tube glows. That was a very interesting demonstration, Dr. Wiseman. How would you describe an experiment of that sort? Is it typical of the sort of work that is being done in the laboratory every day? I would say that this was typical of the activities that take place in these laboratories. We combine the knowledge of many different fields. Even in our own laboratory here, we have combined the knowledge of electrical engineering, of illuminating engineering, of physics, chemistry, electronics, and even psychophysiology. We do a certain amount of basic and applied research here in these laboratories and then contract with universities and other private industries for the rest of the work. We have the latest equipment. Obtained special equipment for our own particular problems. And we have available the latest information from industry and from other government agencies. It's our job to coordinate all of these new ideas and the new programs and to apply them to our particular problems. I would say that it was this opportunity to do research that is the most attractive to the young scientist and research man. Why younger men particularly? Well, it's my observation that the junior engineer or scientist gets an opportunity to take charge of his own projects much sooner in our laboratories than is usually the case in commercial labs. Outside the government, well, it's not uncommon for a scientist or engineer to spend five or even ten years as someone's assistant before being entrusted with a project of his own. When we find a man with good ideas, we try to give him a chance to develop them. You believe then that your research workers have considerably more freedom than the average? Yes. Our people find that it's comparatively easy to switch from one specialty to another. In other words, we are not necessarily confined to one narrow line of research. There's more elbow room for the man who becomes interested in something that is a little outside of the particular field in which he specialized in school. In addition to that, the art laboratories are interested in the individual. And besides the individual having the knowledge that he's doing vital work for his country, he has the opportunity for rapid advancement, for becoming a supervisor if he has the capabilities. The laboratories offer him on-the-job training in conference leadership, creative engineering, management development, rapid reading course and effectively writing and speaking course. What about graduate study, Dr. Wiseman? Does the government engineer get a chance to work for a higher degree? He certainly does. The government not only encourages advanced study, but in many cases it will finance it. Speaking of advancement, doctor, I understand from Wendell Keyes that he actually received a promotion while away from his job on active duty with the Army. Is this a regular practice? Yes. A physicist or engineer who takes a civil service job before reporting for the military service will be carried on the rolls and receive his normal promotions in absentia. In other words, he would come back to his job in a higher grade and a bigger salary than when he left. I should think that that would be an important consideration for men with a tour of duty in the service ahead of them. As a matter of fact, any civilian engineer or scientist working for the Army becomes a part of the career service of the federal government and is automatically qualified for work not only here at Belvoir, but in many other government laboratories both in and out of the Army itself. Thank you very much, Dr. Wiseman, for this interesting demonstration and the insight you've given us into your work in the research and photometric section. We've been talking with Dr. Robert Wiseman, chief of the research and photometric section of the engineer research and development laboratories at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. As Dr. Wiseman has indicated, the Army engineers are not the only branch of the Army which needs civilian engineers, physicists, or others with scientific training. Here are some other branches where the need and the opportunities are just as great. The Army Signal Corps and its laboratories in northern New Jersey and in other parts of the country is conducting research and development work in problems dealing with heat, light, sound, magnetism, and other phases of the physical sciences. The civilian engineers and scientists of the Signal Corps are at work on projects dealing with radio communications and systems, television and photographic equipment and processes, and a host of other projects which attract worldwide attention. To carry on their work, the Signal Corps provides its scientists and technicians with laboratories which are among the largest and most modern to be found anywhere in the world. In them are to be found electronic and other testing devices and equipment of every conceivable type. Civilian researchers are also an indispensable part of the Army Chemical Corps, which employs not only chemical engineers, but also mechanical engineers, construction specialists, and many others. Young engineers are attracted to work with the Chemical Corps by the opportunity to work with new and often very unusual equipment and on projects unlike those encountered anywhere else in the world. And, of course, a major employer of scientific and engineering talent is the Army Ordnance Corps. Most people associate the Ordnance Corps with the design of such things as tanks. The Ordnance Corps does work with tanks, but its range of research goes far beyond, extending to such unlikely seeming projects as fungus research or the effects of ultraviolet light on new materials. No report on the work of civilian scientists working for the Army could be complete without a view of Army rocket research. This whole new field of engineering was pioneered by Army researchers. These same scientists, assisted by a growing body of younger researchers who have chosen missile research as their career or at work today on spectacular developments which may make headlines in tomorrow's newspapers. Rapid engineering advancements are a commonplace phenomenon in America. America is an engineer's paradise. Our transportation system, our great material wealth, our practical application in huge quantities of each new scientific discovery, our steadily accumulating volume of consumer goods. All these are to a large extent an engineer's creation and all of it consumes engineering talent, talent that is in very short supply. Other countries, many of them, do not find such uses for their engineering skills. Moscow streets are quite a different place when the parade has passed. Consumer goods are rare in this country. The engineers who might design them are busy on military projects. The United States has never accepted the dictum which totalitarian rulers invariably preach to their subjects that all life, all industry, must be sacrificed to the needs of a gigantic military machine. In two world wars, the U.S. has shown the world that a free enterprise economy can produce for war if it must. The vast engineering talent which in peacetime gives us a material luxury undreamed of ever before in history can, when challenged, create the world's mightiest military technology. Today's challenge is something new for us. We are not at war. It is a time of peace, but an uneasy peace, a strange peace which carries with it many of the responsibilities of war. Today's peace is being preserved for us, not only by men in uniform, but by the day-to-day research and skilled planning of the highly trained scientists and engineers who have volunteered their knowledge to the service of their country. Men like Mr. Wendell Keyes of Alexandria, Virginia, civilian engineer U.S. Army, there is need for more such men. A grateful nation will not let them serve unrewarded. Civilians with Mr. Keyes' scientific ability and sense of dedication to America's welfare play an indispensable role in maintaining our nation's future security. The whole story of these talented civilian specialists is as big as the Army itself. We are happy to have been able to show you a small part of it. Now, however, we must turn to another aspect to that complex organization which is today's Army, one which I think you will find especially interesting. When the United States aircraft carrier Corregidor steamed into Bremerhaven, West Germany recently, a new precedent was established in military history. In place of the usual complement of aircraft carried by the flattop was a unique cargo. For the first time, an entire company of U.S. Army helicopters was being delivered to an overseas base in an operational state. The 18th Transportation Company composed of 21 Sikorsky H-34s was en route to Army headquarters at Ober-Schleishheim, West Germany. There it was to become part of the Army's new organic aviation. When the copters left the Corregidor, however, their first destination was the nearby Port of Embarkation staging area where they were to be fueled and completely checked before beginning the long cross-country flight to Ober-Schleishheim. These flying windmills, as the Army calls them, are capable of reaching altitudes of over 11,000 feet and of speeds exceeding 100 knots per hour. The European Defense Alliance, NATO, is dedicated to preserving the peace in Europe through preparedness. The swift-moving helicopters capable of going anywhere, covering land quickly and carrying heavy loads, are part of a plan to improve the speed and mechanization of the defense organization. The Bremerhaven Port of Embarkation staging area was reached shortly after taking off from the Corregidor. As you can see, even these large copters can land as gracefully and as accurately as their smaller brothers. They are designed for use in a new Army program which calls for a flexible fighting force able to move troops, ammunition, food and equipment instantly to wherever they are needed. At the staging area, the transportation company was to be briefed for the overland flight that lay ahead. In a few short days, these helicopters were brought almost 4,000 miles ready to fly, ready to serve. Fueling for the long trip and a painstaking maintenance check was executed by the company's own mechanics. Every instrument had to be in perfect working order. Finally, the last preparations made, the helicopters were ready to go. On a cool gray day, the pilots received weather clearance and maps of the terrain. The forecast was for clearing in the afternoon and some heavy winds. But the best laid schemes of mice and men can often go astray. The weather did not clear and the winds were very heavy indeed. These, combined with the unfamiliar terrain, led to a total loss of position. In an empty field near a small town, the copters had to land to seek directions. West German civilians, attracted by the unusual spectacle, came to stare and give directions. With the help of several friendly farmers, the pilots were able to locate their position and recharge their course. An unscheduled stop and a short delay, and the flight was once more on its way. The weather had finally begun to clear and the rest of the flight was routine. Ober-Schleisheim, the new base of the 18th Transportation Company, a West German home for these 21 helicopters and their crews. This was the first helicopter company to join American forces stationed in Europe. But in the near future, U.S. troops supporting NATO will be getting more and more of these flying egg beaters. For frontline, organic aviation is essential to a mechanized military force. Should they ever be needed, these men and their Sikorsky helicopters will provide transportation quickly, efficiently and without fanfare. They are part of the modern American Army, dedicated to preserving freedom and liberty all over the world, for freedom is the Army's business. Organic Army Aviation, another important step designed to help the American Army retain its position as the finest army in the world. Now this is Sergeant Stuart Queen inviting you to be with us again for another look at your Army in action on The Big Picture. The Big Picture is a weekly television report to the nation on the activities of the Army at home and overseas, produced by the Army Pictorial Center, presented by the United States Army in cooperation with this station. You too can be an important part of The Big Picture. You can proudly serve for the best equipped, the best trained, the best fighting team in the world today, the United States Army.