 The responsibilities of today's Army are worldwide and challenges to those responsibilities can and do come at any moment from any corner of the globe. The Army cannot be everywhere in force, but it must be ready to go anywhere and to function under whatever conditions it may encounter. This is a possibility only when a great many skills and a great deal of specialized equipment are functional around the clock. Movement is the key, and this is the story of how an Army moves. For centuries before our beginnings as a nation and long after, armies moved almost exclusively by foot. Overland movement of equipment and supplies was limited to the pace of horse-drawn wagons, plodding feet and wagon wheels. No greater speed was available. By the time of our Civil War, the steam locomotive was on the scene, and it was a significant help. But the tactical movement of the mountains of supplies, munitions and equipment needed by field forces still had to be accomplished by wagon train. Horsepower of the four-legged variety remained the prime basis of Army mobility, and this held true into the late 1800s. The cavalry was still the fastest moving force available. To American military men, as the Western frontier was tamed. Even in the early 20th century, when mankind's first global conflict burst upon a startled world, horses and mules provided much of the multi-power for ground forces on the move. But a recent development, the internal combustion engine was now beginning to change all that. Slowly at first, but irrevocably. Large vehicles of considerable power were being developed, though considerable ingenuity and agility were sometimes needed to keep them on the move. In World War I, rail transport figured heavily in the large-scale movement of forces. Doe boys of the AEF still recall the dubious comforts of the 40 and 8s. 40 men, 8 horses, standard accommodations for a move to the front, over there. After the war, an important pioneering experiment got underway. The year was 1919. More than three dozen vehicles of varying type set out to establish a first in Army movement. A military convoy from coast to coast, from Camp Mids in Maryland to San Francisco. Along the way, certain structural modifications were necessary. Beyond the Mississippi, the convoy followed trails worn into the prairie by Conestoga wagons long before and camped among the ghosts of the Western pioneers who had followed this same route. The flavor of adventure was still there. Each day's movement brought the same kind of difficulties the early settlers had known. The unforgiving terrain and the unending distances. Sometimes the pace was slow, other times it was stopped dead in its tracks. There were no expressways, interchanges, or overpasses. What trouble you got into, you had to get out of, on your own. The answer was simple, but not easy. If you can't go across, go around. Still, nothing stopped the caravan for long, and San Francisco was still the goal. Ruts carved into the soil by hundreds of covered wagons had to be filled. There was plenty of sagebrush handy, and the rolling truck wheels released the pungent smell of sage, new and pleasant to many of the men who had never been west of Pennsylvania. Now came the Rockies, looming in jagged majesty and silent challenge before the Army convoy. Some vehicles were showing signs of their ordeal. The strong helped the weak, and the rest kept steaming along. Over the top, they had crossed the Rockies, and however untrue it might be in fact, the men felt that from here on it was a downhill run. Approaching San Francisco, the feel of a smooth, hard-top road beneath the wheels was a welcome novelty. This first cross-continental convoy of military vehicles achieved no great fame among historians, but the achievement was historic nonetheless, for something had been proven, and a limitation removed from the minds of military thinkers. They had now to begin planning in terms of overland movement, nationwide, but no one, however visionary, could have foreseen what the passage of a mere 25 years would bring. It was quite a step from the rickety convoy of 1919 to the gigantic movement of armies in June of 1944, which stands in history as the greatest single shift of military forces ever accomplished by man. This was D-Day, a peak of military movement which remains unmatched in the long history of mankind. Here was a movement on a scale which was difficult for the mind to encompass. Seemed impossible then, and it seems incredible now, but it was done. It was in this, the greatest of all conflicts, that the army truly learned the meaning of mass movement, and of what it takes to supply and sustain such a movement. And this learning was to continue as the Korean conflict emerged quickly from the post-war global tensions. Modern combat is demanding. It uses up so much of everything, so fast, for every item consumed or expended. Another must be moved in to take its place, and this movement of supply demands specialized skills. If an army is to be kept on the move. So at Fort Eustis, Virginia, you'll find specialized equipment for teaching army men to function in a little publicized role, that of stevedores. Here aboard a land bound but full scale mock-up of the working section of a supply ship, soldiers are trained in the skills which will help them to keep the stream of military supply flowing without interruption. For soldier stevedores trained aboard the SS Never Sale, the transition to the decks of a real supply ship off the coast of Korea was a natural one. As the static years of the Korean conflict dragged on, the men who moved the army supplies had ample time to polish the skills of their trade, adding greatly to the army's proficiency in delivering the needed item to the right place at the right time. In Korea they learned to establish a smooth running large scale dockside operation without a dock. Landing craft and a shelving beach took the place of normal harbor facilities, and techniques were worked out which enabled such a beach supply center to function on a par with most conventional ship supply operations. Tracks were laid to bring rail transport directly to the beach, and this brought into play another group of men whose work is not what we usually think of when we hear the word soldier. These were the army's railroaders. Schooled in the United States, these army specialists took charge of every aspect of military rail transport in South Korea. They knew their work and took pride in it. They drew satisfaction from what they knew was an important role in the movement of everything an army needs. In a combat theater, the rails could not go, the truckers could and did. This too has worked for a specialist, threading maximum loads around the hairpin turns of Korean mountains in a ceaseless stream day and night. If the foot soldier is indispensable, so is the trucker, or without him. And the work he does, no combat effort could be sustained for long. Wherever men, supplies, ammunition and food are needed, movement must be provided to meet that need. As with others on the army's transportation team, the truckers make certain of it. Today's army may be called on to move through any environment, over any terrain that earth has to offer. Vehicles must be found, tested and evaluated to make this possible. Vehicles perhaps like this, snow cat, with independent power for each of its four broad tracks. Or perhaps the roller-gon, whose oversized low pressure rollers can swallow jagged rocks, or move undeterred over ice and snow. Or what about this lightweight combination of enclosed sled and aircraft propulsion called the snow scout? It can skin the ice at a nimble 30 to 40 miles per hour. For heavy transport duty, the snow train was conceived as a possible answer. One man could drive it, yet each car could hold 15 tons. Out of such research, testing and evaluation have come working answers. The vehicles and equipment which enable army men to move with safety and dependability on polar ice and provide overland supply when air supply is impossible or impractical. Inside the caravans, the men live and work in the comfort of their natural environment. The world where the potential for crisis is ever present, the army must also be ready to move with the swiftness which only air transport can supply. For the long haul, close teamwork with the Air Force is essential. But the army has many short-range air mobility needs. To meet these needs, today's army has at its disposal a wide range of both fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft, each designed for a specific need, each with its own particular range of mission capability. Relatively small, agile and rugged aircraft such as these, for example, can lift a small force from any open field and put them into action at a key point 100 miles away in less than an hour. For troop movement on a somewhat larger scale, the dependable caribou can airlift 32 fully equipped soldiers on short-haul tactical missions. The caribou's takeoff run is amazingly short even when fully loaded with troops or with three tons of priority cargo. Using techniques still under development, the caribou provides faster ways to deliver cargo, for example this, landing, unloading and takeoff in something under three seconds. The outstanding feature of army air mobility, however, is the versatile helicopter, a rugged workhorse with tremendous lift capacity. It can go almost anywhere because of its unique maneuverability. The chopper proved its indispensability in Korea, and today its development is a prime means of swift tactical movement continues. Army maneuver such as this provide a chance for practical testing of the ever-expanding functions of the copter. It delivers men and their combat equipment on the spot and ready to go into action. In short, the helicopter can be the key to a swift assault on a vital objective, giving a quickness of reaction time which can be decisive. Its ability to land anywhere there is room for its rotors makes the copter an ideal air ambulance, when moments saved can mean lives saved. The Iroquois with its jet rotor speed is especially good for casualty pickup. It has established several world helicopter records. Worldwide military commitments also demand constant refinement of the army's means of surface movement. To speed special cargoes from United States ports to units serving with NATO and Europe, for example, specialized equipment and techniques have been developed. Cargo ships have been designed so that dozens of loaded truck trailers can be driven directly aboard from the freight dock state side. And at its destination, driven directly off. The technique is aptly called roll on, roll off. While conventional cargo is still being handled at dock side, the priority loads in the truck trailers are on their way. Borrowing a trick from the Pony Express, the cargoes keep moving on long trips exchanging cabs at points along the way. The skilled army teams work to shave seconds off the transferred time knowing that in time of crisis every moment could count. And the time to find ways of saving moments is before the crisis arrives. In huge depots like the one at Kaiserslautern, a vivid impression comes home. Until you've seen such a major supply center, it's hard to visualize the extent of the equipment needed by a modern army which must be prepared to move. And there's a further implication here. A mechanized army moves on petroleum. At key points in NATO Europe, American Army specialists make sure that the necessary petroleum products are in plentiful supply. They man the pumping stations from which a vast network of pipelines fan out to supply the military forces of America and her NATO allies. Still other specially trained personnel operate the control centers from which the petroleum flows into a network of pipelines. Quality control is the responsibility of still other soldiers, scientists in uniform who staff the laboratories of the liquid fuel supply network. The control of movement in terms of supply becomes a major military function in mid-20th century. Literally millions of individual items must be moved and each must be kept track of. Remembered and catalogued, it's a job beyond human capacity. And so another army specialty emerges. The monitoring and operation of electronic computation and record keeping equipment which can do in moments what it would take a team of humans days to accomplish. The ultimate objective of all these specialized activities of course is here. In the power of the fighting forces they serve, the combat arm which they keep ready to function on a moment's notice. Meantime the needs of tomorrow also demand attention. The testing, evaluation and improvement of the army's mobility needs is constant. Question, how much punishment will a vehicle take as now designed? How can it be made tougher? What can it do? And how can it be made capable of more? Mud has slowed the advance of armies since armies began. What sort of vehicle design can best overcome it? Army research is seeking an answer. Needed, a vehicle to carry 15 tons of payload over extreme terrain and negotiate ditches that would mean a snapped axle for an ordinary transporter. The army will come up with a design. Sometimes the answer to a specific need can be impressive indeed. Item, a vehicle for recovering beached landing craft. Weight 101 tons, height 23 feet, wheels 10 feet in diameter, length 75 feet. Here is a response to the need for a speedy method of clearing landing craft from a beach. Strange appearance as well as unusual function is to be expected among items being tested for research and development. Example, the air car which rides not on wheels but on an invisible cushion of air. Any level surface will do, water, land or ice. Will elements of future armies move in vehicles using the air car principle? Army researchers cannot overlook the possibility. This design called the flex wing is also under study by the army. Highly maneuverable, stable, easy to control. Its nylon wing can be folded up for storage like an umbrella. It can do 100 miles per hour, yet it can land at almost a walk. Again the possibilities must be explored. What seems weird and far out today may well become a vital aspect of army mobility tomorrow. The events of the past half century make one thing clear, for tomorrow nothing can be assumed impossible. In less than one man's lifetime the technology of transport has shrunk the globe. 45 years ago it took a small group of army men some 60 days to cross the United States from Maryland to California. Less than one year ago, thousands of men crossed the Atlantic from Texas to West Germany in just over 60 hours. This was Operation Big Lift, the first trans-oceanic airlift of an entire division in the history of the world. The star of this dramatic move was the famed, hell on wheels, second armored division. For the approximately 15,000 men of the second, the timetable was tight. Within 72 hours they were scheduled to have their feet on West German soil. The Air Force had assigned more than 200 transport aircraft to the historic airlift and they were ready to go on schedule. Once Big Lift got underway loading and takeoff went smoothly day and night. A unique undertaking and rapid response mobility had begun. As recently as World War II a man had time to write a book on his way overseas. But in Big Lift there's time to play a tune or two, enjoy a few hands of cards or as an experienced soldier will to catch a bit of rest while he can get it. Now as it's touchdown in Europe, time to unload at one of the Big Lift terminal points and get back into high gear instantly to carry on with the demanding timetable. At the designated areas, prepositioned vehicles and equipment are waiting. Duplicates of those left behind in Texas, complete with ammunition, spare parts and everything an armored division needs to go about its job. Hours ahead of schedule, the men of the division marry up with their equipment, check their supplies and load their vehicles for the field maneuvers. The objective of their swift transatlantic movement. In the days that follow, the second armored, together with units stationed in Europe full time, put their experience and training to the test. In swift, massive movement they maneuvered toward their simulated combat objectives. The field maneuvers made sharp demands on their skill, their combat readiness and the serviceability of their machines. Less than a week before they had been in Texas. Big Lift was a striking success. The first trans-oceanic airlift of an entire division had not only gone without a hitch, it had been completed more than eight hours ahead of its 72-hour deadline. Today, the Army holds itself responsible for being able with the help of its sister services to move Army forces to any spot on Earth, to deliver them in decisive strength and in time for their strength to be decisive. This is a large order, but to an extent till now unknown in military history, it is being met.