 It was a time of violent change and massive challenge for so many people in so short a period. When the Nazis struck Poland in September 1939, America had less than 200,000 men in her army and less than 100,000 in her navy. But between November 1940 and June 1945, more than 10 million men and women entered the army and 4 million more joined the navy. The Marine Corps and the Coast Guard. Thus in a few years 14 million people were changed from peace-loving citizens into the greatest fighting forces the world had ever known. It seemed like a miracle in a way it was. But this miraculous accomplishment had a truly humble beginning when the undramatic, unglamorous job of training was launched in earnest with whatever materials were at hand. Racing against time, training became most challenging and exacting. First was this sobering realization. Learning the art of war is a life and death business. Our enemies were armed with advanced technology and hardened by ruthless experience through blitzkrieg. Facing tremendous odds, our citizen soldiers had to learn why we fight to acquire the will to win and how to fight to attain the ability to win. To do this gigantic job on borrowed time with a scarcity of qualified instructors the armed forces urgently needed superior tools to give more learning and less time with longer retention. And the vital part of the answer was training aids and devices. The tools for learning. The value of teaching aids and devices in civilian education had been a subject for debate up to the outbreak of the war. But now it was the time for decision. The case was clear. Human beings have five physical senses. Seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching to teach more effectively. Stimulate as many of these senses as possible simultaneously. Use graphic materials, charts, graphs, maps, cartoons, photographs, schematic drawings and pictorial messages. Use demonstrators and practice devices. Models, breadboards, synthetic trainers and simulators. Use auditory devices, recorders and phonograph records. Use projected aids, opaque projectors, transparency projectors, film strips and films. Yes, above all use films. This favored American pastime was now drafted for war as the military entered full tilt into the motion picture business. Applying the truism one picture is worth 10,000 words. The army used films to inspire, to inform and to instruct on a scale unprecedented in history. Informational films kept our troops constantly informed about their prime interest, the progress of the allied advance. June 4th, 1944. Rome was free. Liberated after 21 years of fascist rule. Platon's troops forged bridgeheads over the Moselle south of Metz. But more to the point for our story were the training films. Designed to facilitate training, speed up the development of skills and set standards of performance, they presented specific objectives to successive and widespread audiences. They taught more fully than the lecture and could reach even those with little education. This type of film was especially effective in illustrating concepts and activities difficult to explain in the classroom in any other manner. The quiet of dawn, broken only by the hushed approach of assault craft. Then it's fixed by grim fighting men crouched low in the specially constructed barges. If this were the real thing, a ticklish and savage job of gaining a foothold along a hostile shoreline, it would be the result of careful planning and rehearsal. An amphibious assault by American troops in the southwest Pacific is an outstanding example of the effective use of motion pictures as an informational medium. Released right after V.E. Day, it was shown to over 90% of American troops all over the world in less than 10 days. And to practically everyone in the armed forces within three weeks, ever on the Japanese surrender on the Missouri, the armed forces produced more than six times the number of all educational films and film strips ever produced before in the United States. The war was won and few among the cheering millions realized the case for multisensory aids and devices was proven by victory. Films emerged as an economical and effective medium for teaching. Declared this army publication entitled Training Films in the Second World War, the training film program of the army was a success by any measure. It taught well. It taught many men. It made competent teaching universally available in the army. It has turned out men who will not forget how they learned by films. It is thereby hastened a revolution in civilian education. Thus on the American education scene, audio visual aids came of age and grew to be part of the teaching family. No doubt this development was one of the more constructive benefits to come out of the destructive struggle. One war had ended, but other conflicts followed to keep our armed forces constantly on the alert. Compared to the early 40s, our military training now involves fewer people, but far greater complexity. Intense political and technological revolutions, the fast shifting of power on many continents is coupled with leaping advances in nuclear research and space exploration. Wide use of films and film strips, the army initiated a network of training aid centers in 1950. These centers make available a broad range of other aids and devices to the smallest units within the zone of every army command in the United States as well as overseas. The training aid requirements of all army activities are thus served with a minimum of delay and expense. A typical example is the center at Fort Meade, Maryland. The training aids officer in each center is a consultant as well as an administrator. His help and advice are constantly sought by training personnel within his area. Under his supervision, the center is organized into four main divisions. First, the graphics section. It produces charts, diagrams, signs, and other two-dimensional artwork for specific needs not fulfilled by ready-made items and reproduces them by silk screen process when more than one color is required or by the Ozilid machine for single-color copies. Second, the device group. It makes three-dimensional models and devices, whether in wood, plastics, or in metal. It is equipped with a spray room for painting large surfaces and a paint shop for detailed work. The warehouse section. It stores issues, inspects, and ships the ready articles. Fourth, the administrative group. It maintains records, renders reports, and supervises the center personnel. Inventory requests, shipments. All can be checked out at a moment's notice. In the training aid center, an Army instructor may get the locally prepared materials developed with ideas from the field. He can also obtain the standard military training aids centrally procured and distributed. As he looks through this Army publication, he's reminded that this is a storehouse of ideas. Actually, this storehouse is only a display window, but the wealth of training aids readily available in the Army can never be contained in one catalog. Production of these aids are supported by the entire Army educational system. There are more than 30 service schools in the United States Army, and they all use training aids extensively. For instance, the infantry school utilizes many devices for basic training, such as this model of a compass. It combines several important characteristics of a good training aid. Its size makes it visible and clear to a large class. Its accuracy gives true understanding of the real thing. And its ruggedness makes it portable, durable, and useful in the field, as well as in the classroom. The design of an M-14 rifle model is much more complex, but the same principles apply. Comparing the actual firing mechanism and the enlarged version, the student can readily see the corresponding parts in action and come to understand the cycle of functioning from feeding to cocking. Thus, he becomes familiar with this basic weapon of tremendous firepower. The use of a terrain model on a sand table helps greatly. To explain the plan of attack or defense in field exercises. The making of a paratrooper shows that training devices are sometimes indispensable. This swing landing trainer gives students realistic practice in landing without injury. Each student must perform satisfactorily on this trainer before he is allowed to progress to the next stage. A mock door provides the setting for a brief course in the technique of exiting an aircraft. Then up the 34-foot tower the airborne trainee learns how to control his body from the moment he leaves the plane until he receives the opening shock of his fully inflated parachute. With confidence in his equipment, in his technique, and in himself, developed on various trainers, the trainee can face the space below him unafraid and touch the ground uninjured to earn the coveted silver wings of a paratrooper. In armor school trainees get a concise briefing with this large map before they run through the tank leader's reaction test course. And a cutaway model of a tank turret familiarizes the trainee with actual equipment. Its accessibility makes teaching easy, direct, and effective. What the student learn can be immediately applied to operate the field equipment. At the artillery and missile officers candidate school, the intricate functioning of artillery components becomes simple and clear through the magic of operating models. Realistic trainers. They are part of a well-coordinated training system designed to achieve the artillery objective, swiftness of operation, and accuracy of fire. The core school simulated gas contamination adds realism to field maneuvers without real danger and high cost. At the quarter master school, the art and science of meat cutting are illustrated with a simple model with nothing left to the imagination. At the transportation school, the transmission of power through fluid is shown by a series of models. With this open and transparent one, the instructor points out how the liquid stirred up by one half of the coupling drives the other half. The next model, now enclosed, approximates the shape of the real clutch. What happens inside is exactly the same as demonstrated before. The lower shaft drives the upper one through the liquid. Finally, when the coupling is put in the actual position where it would be installed in a vehicle, the student can easily understand how the engine is connected by this flexible link to the transmission and the wheels. Experience of cargo handling on a freighter is imparted to the trainees by putting them to work on a ship, a ship that forever dreams of going to sea. A land ship, that is. At the engineer school, a lesson in the proper way of building a dyke can never be forgotten by anyone who has seen this demonstration. At its airborne section, the art of vertical movement is practiced first on the ground. On this platform, trainees learn the technique of rigging heavy vehicles for air movement. Each device, simple or complex, helps to lay the solid groundwork for swift, spectacular, and safe transportation by air. Approval Marshall General School, a model of a typical city, provides the future military policeman with many troublesome situations that may confront him. For example, problems in traffic and riot control are realistically illustrated. At the Army Language School, an impressive array of audio-visual equipment helps to penetrate the sound barrier of a new language. All kinds of teaching tools are tested for their efficiency. Film projectors with magnetic sound tracks, phonographs, tape recorders, each is utilized for its particular advantage. In the language laboratory, students in individual booths can check their own pronunciation without disturbing their neighbors. Life-like settings like this Italian cafe motivate them to use foreign tongues on a best effort basis. An ordinary table and chairs become scenes in restaurants, nightclubs, cafes, or private homes dependent solely on the student's imagination. At the Army Aviation School, the eyes and hands of trainees make direct contact with the parts to be maintained and repaired. Then, to understand the complicated designs of a helicopter gas turbine, they have this scale model which exposes its secrets. In today's Army, the rapid advances in new weapons and equipment multiply and intensify the problems of training, including the ever-present consideration of cost. While it is relatively simple to fire a few rounds to train a rifleman, it is another matter to fire a few red stones just to break in a new crew. This redstone trainer is one of the new simulators developed to meet the exacting demands of safety, economy, and efficiency. It gives realistic experience by permitting thorough and repeated practice. It is rugged. It has the same size, weight, and center of gravity as the real thing. It allows the trainees to erect, fuel, count down, and simulate firing again and again. The instructor can introduce troubles at any point to give the team a real workout in operation as well as in maintenance. In UMissile, there is a new trainer for Sargent, LaCrosse, Honest John, and Little John. These trainers are the tools for learning in our space age. Such complex training devices are the products of a unique institution called the U.S. Naval Training Device Center, located in Port Washington, Long Island, in which the Army participates fully. Its capabilities meet the special training requirements of the Army's technical service schools, from imitating the burst of nuclear fire to simulating the operation of Nike radar units guarding our skies. Without these ingenious devices, the cost of training in terms of money and time would be prohibitive, and their potential has just been touched. The scope of motion picture production alone has broadened. Since World War II, the use of films as a teaching and informational medium has grown in ever-increasing effectiveness. With training films, the armed forces have been able to piece together in clear, concise pictorial language man's great advances into research and development, bringing to our military preparedness the speed, strength, and knowledge needed for today's global defenses. The magic of both film and radio is television. As early as 1949, the Army saw its potential as a great training medium. Through more than a decade of study, experimentation, and utilization, the Army has become a leading user of TV for teaching. In 1959, the world's largest military closed circuit TV system came into operation at the Signal School at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. It is a multi-channel system with six channels for transmitting films and the seventh for live broadcasts. Thus, seven different programs can go out at the same time to reach 500 classrooms and five large theater screens on the post. These TV facilities have the capacity for training 14,000 soldiers at one time. Similar TV installations are available in other Army schools, such as the Southeastern Signal School at Fort Gordon, Georgia, and the Armor School at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Looking forward, the potential of training aids and devices is keeping pace with the ever-expanding frontiers of knowledge. For graphic materials, audio equipment, projected aids, television, models, and simulators, our man's constant companions on his road to learning. They help him to learn more in less time at less cost. They help him remember longer what he has learned. The United States Army, in its constant quest for better ways to train its men, has thus contributed significantly to the rapid development of these tools for learning to serve our citizens as well as our soldiers in war and in peace.