 coupled with the fighting skill of the American soldier stand ready on the alert all over the world to defend this country you 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 today on the big picture we shall look at the army from the standpoint of recent accomplishments to introduce our film report army and review is the secretary of the army it is a privilege to introduce the Honorable Wilbur M. Brocker the primary mission of our armed forces and of the United States is to preserve the peace deter aggression and to prevent the eruption of another disastrous war to accomplish this mission our defense forces must be strong strong enough to convince any potential aggressor that military attack cannot succeed we must be strong in every respect capable of dealing promptly and effectively with any eventuality from a small brush fire war to an all out nuclear war we must be strong enough to achieve victory under any circumstances each of the individual services bears a unique responsibility for our national security to show you how your army has been preparing itself to carry out its vital mission as part of the French team is the purpose of this issue of the big picture since American commitments today are on a world scale the American army is deployed on a world scale more than 40% of its personnel is presently stationed overseas in support of NATO the North Atlantic Treaty Organization we have troops in almost every free country of Europe in an arc stretching from Scandinavia to the Black Sea American officers and men are helping local troops to solve their own particular defense problem from these snow covered mountains of Norway to the Bay area road it hills of Turkey our troops are constantly on hand to help in training and to advise on the employment and maintenance of machines and weapons in joint maneuvers such as Red Trident Army troops along with the Air Force Marines and various other NATO units participate in exercises designed to test the local defenses in addition we are undertaking a large share of the actual defense of Europe ourselves in Germany American troops constitute a force in being at one of the world's most explosive trouble spots by their very presence these troops serve as a strong deterrent to aggression but they do not rely on their presence alone in training exercises such as cordon blue they learn through actual experience how to coordinate their operations with units from other NATO countries the troopers from Great Britain and hard bitten tankers from France the Army's primary peacetime mission of deterring aggression puts great emphasis on readiness troops fully trained under the most realistic conditions so they are prepared to go into combat on a moment's notice and these combat ready troops in Germany of course must be backed up by other American Army units in other parts of Europe in France for instance a large contingent of communication zone troops are required to man the vital supply lines running from the French ports into Germany they must not only man them but in some cases build them army engineers recently designed and supervised the construction of a large capacity pipeline across France to guarantee a steady flow of oil and gasoline to the thirsty trucks and tanks in Germany and these communication zone troops must be prepared for any eventuality since a shooting war might quickly deprive them of the usual dock and harbor facilities they must know how to bring in all types of supplies quickly and in great quantity over the beaches during these unloading exercises which in some cases may last as long as six weeks these troops have a chance to perfect their skills and test new items of equipment they can also develop more efficient techniques for handling supplies on the beaches and getting them started quicker toward their eventual destination across the channel other American soldiers are to be found in England for the first time in history during peacetime while these troops have some opportunity to see the country they are not here on a vacation they have as their mission the defense of the vitally important air bases used by the American Air Force like the communication zone troops in France these troops also must be constantly on the alert prepared for any eventuality but not all of our troops overseas are located in Europe many are stationed in Asia and the far east some are included in military advisory assistance groups assigned to the training of allied units this group for instance is training Japanese paratroopers and the training is carried on in a thorough and extensive manner using American planes and equipment and being taught the latest jump techniques by their American instructors the Japanese paratroopers undergo a rigorous course of instruction in the employment of airborne troops in modern warfare the Japanese troops are being prepared so they will be able to bear their full share of the burden in defending their own country and they must be able to meet an attack from any direction and under any conditions of terrain or weather but there are other American Army units in Japan for a care not only to protect Japan itself from attack but to help deter aggression anywhere in the far east these banded together in a mutual assistance pack which became known as CETO the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization the United States of course pledged its support to show dramatically how rapidly this organization could act how quickly aid could be dispatched to a nation under attack operation firm link was scheduled full combat equipment was picked up in Japan and flown directly to Bangkok the capital of Thailand which had been selected as the site of the operation operations for firm link were well advanced the American airborne troops were to take part in a two-day exercise with troop contingents from most of the countries of Southeast Asia naval forces representing the United States Great Britain and Australia steamed into the Gulf of Thailand from the deck of the United States carrier Princeton helicopters loaded with American Marines took off and headed for the airport meanwhile other troops such as these from the Philippines were getting settled and preparing to play their part in the exercise on the second day as a climax to a full program the battalion of American paratroopers staged a mass jump onto the airport jump gave final proof it proof was as a quickly available to any CETO nation which faced aggression army does not consider it enough to have troops on hand near the various trouble spots of the world we must also have the ability to move in overwhelming force at a moment's notice mobility this is one of the key words in army thinking today as a test of its ability to move large units long distances in the shortest possible time the army planned and carried out with the Air Force the operation known as gyroscope in this operation one entire regimental combat team the 508th airborne was picked up bag and baggage at Fort Campbell Kentucky from here the unit was transported in Air Force globe masters 10,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean to Japan planes took off at the rate of one every five minutes upovers were few and far between however the man had little opportunity to become bored the entire movement from Kentucky to Japan including all stops occupied a total elapsed time of only 52 hours and was ready for duty was to be replaced the 187th airborne was packing up in preparation for its return to the states leaving its base at Camp Chikamaga it headed for Ashiyo Airport only a few days after the 508th arrived and 87th was loaded into the same globe masters which brought the 508th to Japan and the entire unit was flown back to the United States gyroscope was exactly 10 days this was convincing proof that large units could be moved quickly on a moment's notice to almost any spot in the world where they might be needed in other words strategic mobility was an accomplished fact but strategic mobility in itself is not enough our army must also have a high degree of tactical mobility units must be able to move rapidly from place to place on the battlefield itself at the concentration of large numbers of troops and extremely risky business they be fought by relatively small units spread out over a wide area in such a situation however the problems of communication and control become extremely difficult in exercise sagebrush the largest peacetime maneuver held since World War two these problems were thoroughly explored this operation made use of all the newest communications equipment including television to give commanders a first-hand account of what was actually taking place on the battlefield since aviation is one of the principal factors in achieving tactical mobility helicopters were used in sagebrush on a fairly large scale this method of movement can be a great asset to a commander in the field these whirly birds capable of carrying from 14 to 18 fully equipped troops can put their men down even in the most inaccessible places in a matter of minutes and the troops can then move immediately into battle by the field commander with still greater tactical mobility the capabilities of paratroopers have been considerably increased these units can now travel up to 750 miles before making a combat drop onto a target they can also bring with them much heavy equipment such as jeeps artillery pieces and light tanks which will make them much more effective fighting units once they are on the ground but mobility is not the only requirement for our modern army it must also be highly flexible since our military commitments are worldwide our army must be prepared to fight not only under the conditions which might be encountered in the United States or Europe it must be prepared to fight under conditions which might be encountered anywhere on the globe but the jungle training center in Panama selected units receive special training in how to fight and how to survive in the jungle meanwhile in Alaska other units learn how to fight and survive in the arctic in specially staged exercises such as moose horn various theories of movement over snow can be tested and soldiers can become accustomed to living in the extreme cold the modern soldier must not only be a skill technician he must be tougher and more self-reliant than ever before he must be able to provide himself with shelter for instance even under the most adverse conditions to discover how paratroopers could best be used in the frozen wastes of the arctic exercise arctic night was organized tully Air Force base in northern Greenland was designated the headquarters for the exercise a battalion combat team which had been flown in from Fort Bragg North Carolina was loaded into Air Force flying box cars its equipment went along lashed to sturdy oki oh military equivalent of the Eskimo sled taking off from tully airport the paratroopers made a full-scale tactical drop onto a frozen bay located just 900 miles from the north pole to the frosty air that registered 40 degrees below zero these courageous soldiers of the sky landed on ice which measured 18 feet thick after subduing their billowing parachutes they gathered up their equipment and deployed to make an attack on a hypothetical enemy strong point both the men and their weapons were put to a severe test extreme cold always tends to lessen efficiency but it is only through training exercises like this that the army can learn what it has to know how to fight and how to win under any conceivable conditions to help us cope with these adverse conditions all branches of the army must cooperate to produce the best equipment it is possible to develop the quartermaster core for instance is charged with developing new and better clothing for use in special areas bar clothing is designed to keep a man warm and dry even in the extreme temperatures to be found in the Arctic to help in its development work the quartermaster secures the best advisors it can get such as the famed Arctic explorers or Hubert Wilkins the signal core is charged with the heavy responsibility of constantly improving our means of communications engineers among other things are responsible for developing a wide variety of equipment they are continually improving their road building methods in order to take care of heavier and faster military traffic they are constantly developing new and better methods of crossing streams and ditches which always tend to slow down the advance of a modern mobile army they have designed many new types of bridges all of which are able to support the passage of the heaviest army vehicle and for getting small units across larger bodies of water they have developed high speed lightweight assault trap finally in order to increase its firepower the army is constantly developing new and more effective weapons Nike for instance a guided missile of supersonic speed has become the army's number one anti-aircraft defensive weapon Nike launcher sites now surround most of the important targets of the United States offensively we have a number of weapons capable of firing atomic munitions there is the honest John rocket is the corporal our units in the field are being equipped with both of these new weapons there is the atomic cannon itself but the range of all these weapons is limited to develop a truly long-range punch the army has set up that redstone arsenal in Alabama the army ballistic missile agency this agency has been charged with the mission of developing first the redstone ballistic missile and eventually designing and producing the Jupiter missile with a range of 1500 miles in any missile development work a wide variety of designs must be considered and evaluated then testing and more testing is required the flight characteristics of each design must be determined with absolute accuracy once assembled the missile is set up on a specially constructed stationary test stand so it can be test fire delicate instruments record all firing data thousands of gallons of cooling water carry away the intense heat it generates after the missile has successfully passed its test firing it is reassembled and loaded onto a cargo plane so it can be flown to the missile firing range on the coast of Florida it is set up and prepared for actual firing this is the redstone a highly accurate long range ballistic missile in its own right but even more important as the forerunner of Jupiter the 1500-mile ballistic missile which will enable a commander to hit with pinpoint accuracy targets far beyond the range of any ballistic missile now known to exist these are some of the things it is doing to keep itself the fastest moving hardest-hitting army in the world so that it will be able to play its proper role in our national defense and help preserve the peace now this is sergeant Stuart Queen inviting you to be with us next week for another look at your army in action on the big picture here 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