 From Korea to Germany. From Alaska to Puerto Rico. All over the world, the men and women of your army are on the alert to defend our nation, you, the American people, against aggression. This is The Big Picture. Welcome to The Big Picture. I'm Captain Carl Zimmerman, here to tell you about your United States army. In this, the final program of the current Big Picture series, we'd like to tell you about a war the army fights all the time. The war against waste. We'd like to show you how the army encourages its soldiers to be cost-conscious. First, we take you to Washington and a word from the Secretary of the Army, the Honorable Frank Pace, Jr. When I described the mission of your army on the first program of this Big Picture series, I spoke of concrete action we were taking to eliminate waste in army operations. In this program, you will see what I was referring to. War, by its very nature, is wasteful. And so are the measures we are taking to avoid war. Army equipment grows obsolete at a rate no business would accept. We have such a rapid turnover of people that the efficiency of our organization is constantly impaired. Remember that soldiers obtained through selective service are available for only two years, and several months are required to train them before they can begin to perform their jobs efficiently. This year alone, we will lose from the army over 700,000 men. To properly replace them is really difficult. In addition, your army composed of more than 1 half million uniform men and women is far larger than our greatest corporation and is scattered over half the world. I've been practically every place on the globe where army troops are stationed. One of the great thrills that I get as Secretary of the Army is seeing our young men stationed all over the world. Actually, it gives me renewed faith and democracy to see these young men training to defend our way of life. To me, they're not only soldiers, they're ambassadors for our way of life, and I think they do a splendid job of it. I've been to Japan, Korea, and Okinawa. I've been to Hawaii and Alaska, where I've seen men battling against the elements. I've been all over this country to training stations in this country, to the Caribbean, to the Panama Canal. I've been over to Europe, in Germany, Austria, and Trieste, where our men stand for the forces of right against the forces of wrong. Now, while all those things are thrilling to me and to you as individuals, nonetheless, it makes for a big, complex, difficult to operate organization. That is one of the things that I have been trying to explain is the problem that faces us in your army today. In telling you about our far-flung depots, and telling you about a 5,000-mile pipeline to Korea, a 3,000-mile pipeline to Europe, I'm not trying to say that the army can't do a better job than it's doing today. I'm merely trying to make clear to you that it's more difficult than most people think. I'm satisfied that we can do a better job. I'm satisfied we are doing a better job, and in the next half-hour, you'll see what I mean. This is a different kind of war story, a war story which began quietly and unspectacularly. No medals were won in this battle, no shots were fired, but on its outcome could have depended the future of the United Nations. This is a little-known story of the Korean War, the events behind a military miracle which saved Korea. On June 25, 1950, the morning in Korea was peaceful. The people, mostly farmers and peasants, went about their daily tasks in the fields. To most Americans, Korea was just another name in the headlines. Then it became more than that. As communist troops and equipment poured down from the north and struck across a 38th parallel, Korea became the concern of the United Nations. In a matter of days, the peaceful mountains and rice paddies became a battlefield. The vicious attack continued, and the people of South Korea reeled back. To meet the aggression, America acted quickly and flew occupation troops from Japan. And the chiefs of the far eastern command hurriedly met to take charge of the emergency. Communications between Japan and Washington buzzed night and day. Armies were on the move. Overnight, occupation troops were turned into combat soldiers, and one of the big problems was to equip them for their new role. The facts were not too good. There weren't enough vehicles available to meet the exacting demands of combat, and our fighting men badly needed weapons, tanks, guns, rifles, ammunition. They needed all they could get, but they fought bravely with what they had. The urgent order flashed back to America, we must have weapons, thousands of them now. But arsenals in America were already overtaxed. Military aid programs for Europe and other countries had almost swallowed up equipment salvaged from World War II. The unfortunate truth was flashed back to the far east command. It would take months before our production lines were ready, and it would take more precious months before the materials could be delivered 7,000 miles away in Korea. Things that were needed most, guns and ammunition, tanks and vehicles, we didn't have. Without them, it would be impossible to stop the advancing raids. The urgency of the situation demanded quick action and to achieve the military miracle which saved Korea, our military leaders turned to this. Junk, buried in the jungles and half submerged on the beach heads of the Pacific, laid tens of thousands of rusting, wrecked weapons of another war, equipment of all kinds, seemingly useless. Vehicles, personnel carriers, machinery, corroded hulks, pockmarked with shellfire. It was all available. The miracle was to make this old equipment fight again. Plans to retrieve and rehabilitate most of the automotive equipment had been laid long before the Korean campaign. But the demands of combat now made the task of paramount importance. The job of performing this miracle went to the Japan Logistical Command. From their headquarters in Japan, they directed the biggest salvage drive ever. The stakes were high, American lives in Korea and the prestige of the United Nations. It was a race against time and slowly, the miracle of supply which was given the name Operation Roll-Up moved into high gear. From collection points in the Pacific Islands, vehicles and weapons were rounded up. Gradually, the jungle gave up its valuable captives. Tanks, trucks, all kinds of vehicles and weapons were routed out of overgrown battlefields and transported to Japan. Ships belonging to the United States but manned by Japanese seamen carried the equipment to Japan. Storage areas began to grow. Trucks, thousands of trucks, tanks, hundreds of tanks, tractors and machinery of all kinds, weapons carriers, jeeps, ambulances. Day by day, the equipment poured in, all kinds. The scrapyards grew and the huge stockpiles stretched almost as far as the eye could see. Meanwhile, the task of reclaiming the collected scrap went on. Japanese plants and factories formerly devoted to production of war against the United States were converted for the Herculian task before them. More than 50,000 Japanese workmen were hired and trained to work on the assembly lines. Sparked by American supervision, the factories operated on a mass production schedule and slowly bit into the huge piles of war weary equipment. The miracle of rejuvenation began. Trucks stripped to their chassis entered the plant. Skilled scavengers went to work. Stripping the rusty carcass, they removed the cab, engine, wheels and axle assemblies. The clean-picked skeleton of the body frame was dipped into an alkali bath to get rid of the rust, dirt and grease. All the different parts of the vehicle were cleaned chemically, mechanically or by hand. After the cleaning, the component parts were repaired. Engines, the heart of the vehicle, got complete surgery. Cylinders were re-bored, pistons refinished. Engine blocks were honed and crankshafts were re-grounded. In a metalizing process, worn out parts were built up by grafting molten metal onto them and were then ground down to the correct size and finish. Rebuilt engines got a protective coat of paint in front of a man-made waterfall which cleans the air of offensive fumes. A two-hour test run followed and then it was packed to a weight requisition. To make this synchronized rebuild operation work smoothly, more than 40,000 different items had to reach the assembly lines at the proper time. Throughout the day, the repair and reassembly went on. The body frame was ready to shoulder its burdens again. Its cracks welded and rivets replaced, it was ready to start a second life. The assembly went smoothly, taking only 30 minutes to dress the frame with axle assemblies, engine, wheels, cab and hood. Completely equipped, the vehicle rolled off the assembly line ready for the punishing test that would qualify it for active duty. All the know-how of American industry was thrown behind the effort of bringing the old weapons back to life. And as the rejuvenated items came off finished assembly lines, they were quickly sped to the fighting fronts. Late one afternoon in November 1950, word came to Japan that the second division had suffered heavy losses in Korea. Before dawn the next day, three train loads of equipment enough for an entire combat infantry division were being loaded on ships at Japanese ports. Another time, 52 hours after the Marines marched out of the Chosin ambush, re-equipment for an entire division was at sea, and all of this equipment came from our derelict weapon heaps. The mountains of materiel collected from the battlefields of Guam, Saipan and Okinawa. With these reclaimed weapons, UN forces broke out of the Pusan perimeter. With rifles salvaged from the scrap heap, the 10th Corps hit the beaches at Incheon, and the 8th Army pushed north to meet them. In the first three months of the war, we used 100,000 tons of ammunition. All of it reclaimed through operation roll-up. In the first four months of the campaign, 89,000 M1 rifles were rebuilt from the old weapons reaped in the Pacific roll-up or brought back from Korea. 49,000 jeeps and trucks were salvaged and used in Korea. 45% of all the tanks used in Korea were reincarnated from broken hulls, 82% of the armored cars, 75% of the artillery, 64% of the precision instruments, and 80% of the infantry weapons, mortars, rifles, car beams, bazookas and machine guns all were brought back from the jungle and made to fight again. From the front, impossible orders would come in. Activate and equip a medium tank battalion, said the orders, and an army of workers clawed into the heap of dead steel. The Japan Logistical Command lowered the whole of Japan for tankmen and screened men arriving on every ship. Anybody with tank experience pitched in to get the World War II Goliaths back into shape. 28 days after the order, 44 good as new medium tanks were in action in Korea. Riding in rehabilitated tanks, vehicles, and with their fingers on the trigger of former scrap-heap guns, the army drove the Reds out of South Korea. The miracle had been worked. The North Korean army was defeated before the first shipment of rifles from the U.S. reached Korea. But for these made-over weapons, Korea could have been bloodier and costlier. It could have been a tragic defeat for the free world. And in working this miracle, Operation Roll-Up saved the American taxpayer billions of dollars. Today, this reclamation program continues to convert wrecked weapons into fighting machines and does it at great saving. Every four minutes, a new vehicle rolls off the assembly line and takes its place in the ranks of ready replacements. These trucks would cost $6,000 in the States, but rebuilt in Japan, they cost one-fourth of that figure. It salvages a $2,000 jeep for $800. An $18,000 tractor for $500. And a gun worth many thousands of dollars is returned to active duty for $400. Size is no problem to these giant ordinance repair shops. Whether it's a $200,000 tank, completely rebuilt for less than $5,000, massive five- and six-tum prime movers, bulldozers, or other heavy-duty equipment, trailers, trailer tanks, fire engines, road graders, the number of vehicles rebuilt in one year has reached a quarter million. The variety of repair is infinite. Half-track personnel carriers or small arms. Several rifles or carbines can be rebuilt for the price of a box of cigars. Not only ordinance items, but everything. Signal equipment, things like this complex and delicate teletypewriter with its hundreds of parts are completely reclaimed by Japanese mechanics. An outstanding discovery has been that about half of the old tires, which have been deteriorating in the jungle for the past six years, can be economically reconditioned. Operation roll-up brings back to life 16,000 tires and just as many tubes every month. The tires are inspected and shell splinters and fragments are removed. They are repaired and recapped with new rubber. Then the tread is remolded, giving the tire a new lease on life. It's another way of making every bit of army equipment give full dollar value, and the total savings alone on salvage tires amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Today, after its gradual build-up, the Money Saving Army Reclamation Program is in full swing. As the result of a large-scale cost consciousness program, the tentacles of conservation and salvage stretch out to the corners of the world, wherever there are military posts. They stretch right on to the battlefield, where the Money Saving fight is still carried on. Conservation teams follow in the wake of combat, retrieving and collecting abandoned equipment. Everything is picked up and brought in, including captured enemy weapons and equipment. Gasoline cans are collected by the thousands. After reconditioning, they are used time and time again. Battered canteens are remolded and put back into use. Reconditioning of clothing is a big item in the Army's Money Saving Program. In forward areas, native women are used to wash and renovate the collected items. From the frontline laundry, the clothing is sent back to warehouses in Japan where it gets further renovation. It is unpacked, repaired, sorted, bundled and bailed, and returned to stock. In one five-month period in 1951, three and a half million items of clothing were reclaimed. Even useless scraps of cable are stripped down and put to another use. Shell cases are another big item of salvage. Ordnance retrieving parties pick up the piles of used shell cases from gun emplacements all along the frontline and take them to a central dump. Korean labor is used to do the work wherever possible, and they wear special wooden harnesses to carry the heavy loads on their backs. The Signal Corps also carries on its conservation program in behalf of the American taxpayer and rehabilitates its old cable for reuse, time and time again. In an eight-month period, approximately one million dollars was saved by rehabilitating cable, which is now being reused in the war zones. In the States, the drive toward economy and salvage continues. Russian tanks captured in Korea are hauled from the scrapyard and are cut up in readiness for being melted down. Out of these Russian and Japanese tanks, new weapons are being forged for United Nations troops. The Army's Preventive Maintenance Program, begun after World War II, is today paying off in more dollars saved. The Letter Kenny Ordnance Depot in Pennsylvania is one of the Army's large storage areas where surplus vehicles are kept fighting fit. Tanks and combat vehicles surplus after the last war have been successfully stored for six years in special dehumidified cans. The Army had this equipment in storage when the Korean conflict began, but it was a battle of time. It would have taken months to ship this equipment to the battle area. Operation roll-up, a time saver as well as a money saver, filled the gap until we could get equipment out of storage and on its way to Korea. Stored in a ready-to-roll condition, the vehicles are all set to be dispatched. They can be preserved for years while stored in the humidity-free cans. Vehicles stored this way can remain in their cocoons for as long as 20 years without deteriorating. The atmosphere inside the cans is scientifically controlled. A starting device, which is triggered by blonde human hair, keeps the dehumidifier working. The human hair, which must be blonde, say the experts, tightens as the atmosphere in the can changes and automatically starts the dehumidifier. By signs and posters, soldiers and government employees are constantly being reminded of the Army's cost-consciousness campaign. Army equipment and vehicles are tagged with their price to further the money-saving drive. Another of the Army's big money-saving items is the preventive maintenance packing given to equipment before shipment. Equipment going to the Arctic gets a tinfoil covering, as well as a coat of grease preventive to stop rust. All items for export are treated with a special grease compound mixture and are packed in special preventive wrappings to ensure their arrival in good working condition. The Army today dutifully aware of its responsibilities to the tax-paying people of America is on guard against waste. Everywhere, the Army continues its war of salvage. In this battle, there will be no ceasefire. America today faces a new problem. It faces the problem of purchasing insurance for peace for the first time in its peacetime history. We are people who believe in insurance. We are likewise people who believe in getting the most for the dollar. That is how America has grown to the great nation that it is today. As Secretary of the Army, I am dedicated to the proposition that we will get more for the taxpayer's dollar. That means that we'll get more fighting power for every Army dollar that's spent. Expressed in simple terms, it means that if a soldier turns off a light button that might otherwise be on, it means that if he stops a motor that's running, if he protects a rifle that he might otherwise lose, that means that somewhere in the world there is more equipment for those who are fighting for the forces of freedom. That's why we have a cost-consciousness program and have had one for over a year that identifies in every soldier's mind the fact that he is a taxpayer as well as a soldier. That's why we started Operation Red Tape to try to cut the red tape out of the Army if it's possible. Even more important, that's how we achieve certain measurable savings, such as $8 billion in saving for rehabilitation of old equipment. There are other statements of savings here, but the big point is that I think today the Army as a whole realizes that it's important that it saved the taxpayer's dollar, their dollar. In doing so, it means that the insurance for peace can be bought more cheaply in a time when our economy is as important as our national defense. Thank you, Mr. Secretary, for being our guest on this final program of the Current Big Picture Series. What you have seen during the past 13 weeks has been a documentation of your Army at work, an Army second to none dedicated to freedom and the defense of the United States. An Army of men and women, intelligent trained soldiers whose strength lies in their state of preparedness, an Army of the finest weapons in the world today, backed by science and industry, an Army made of many individual parts welded together by teamwork. The Army of the United States is your Army, dedicated to the defense of the American heritage from which it was born.