 weapons coupled with the fighting skill of the American soldier stands 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 Stewart Queen history has put to our generation a great challenge the challenge of building a world in which peace will be secure not merely for a long time but we hope forever peace has become the major concern of all the people of the world the price of peace in this atomic era is strength and constant readiness to defend ourselves and our homes from any aggression a single blow can today destroy the mightiest nation if the blow is allowed to fall the complex far-flung network of preparedness by which America keeps itself ready to fend off such a blow is the story behind today's big picture the story of America's strength in a troubled world is a story which might begin high in the mountains of Colorado in the combat operations center of the Continental Air Defense Command 24 hours a day in this room men of all America's armed forces keep vigil over the skyways which approach our continent at the end of those aerial highways surrounding our major cities and industrial centers are swift deadly products of the electronic age the teeth of our defensive system the army's Nike guided missiles and the fighter interceptors of the Air Force are ready instantly to repulse any attack directed at our shores no less important than the fighting teeth of this system however are its eyes and its ears along our coasts and at strategic locations inland is a vast radar complex eternally scanning the sky in strange metal framework rising from the ocean floor a hundred miles off our Atlantic Coast radar is at work in these Texas towers so named because they resemble the offshore Derrick's of the tideland oil regions radar defenses are carried still farther out to sea aboard radar picket ships of the Navy in the flying radar platforms of the Air Force the giant constellation early warning planes the search the relentless scanning goes on always in cities and towns throughout America volunteers of the Ground Observer Corps supplement the radar system by tireless observation of the skies overhead and beyond the United States far to the north stretches the latest link in this gigantic network of sight and sound the remote radar stations of the distant early warning system which we call the due line to erect these stations in regions few men had ever seen a short decade ago was itself an achievement of great proportions to man them to keep them operating bring inadequate food clothing and equipment is another gigantic task and a continuous one the job of carrying supplies and equipment to those remote Arctic stations belongs to the Army Transportation Corps these men of the 589th Transportation Company at Fort Eustis Virginia after weeks of training during the spring and early summer are about to commence an arduous Arctic journey for which their training has been a step-for-step rehearsal 589 Arctic voyage begins with a nighttime trip to Fort Eustis's third port here they will board landing craft which will carry them to larger ships in the harbor for these men of the Transportation Corps moving shiploads of supplies far into the Arctic Circle was to be a somewhat new experience but one they could take and stride their pre-dawn rising ends with an early morning trip down the St. James River after a hectic night men in the lead vessel find time for a short catnap on the way down river the last they may get for some time to come back at the third port docks a steady stream of men and equipment enters the landing craft for a trip down river to the harbor an army may travel on its stomach as Napoleon once remarked but the Army Transportation Corps now moves the United States Army its food ammunition and material by every type of conveyance from truck to helicopter the Transportation Corps this year celebrates its 15th anniversary as a permanent branch of the Army fully loaded the LCM's and the LCU's head out for sea their ultimate destination is the USS Shadwell waiting in the harbor the Shadwell is a type of vessel known as a landing ship dock and promises to be something of an experience for those who have never seen one a float in the harbor the Shadwell looks deceptively small resembling many conventional seagoing craft as the landing boats move under their own power straight into the Shadwell's interior the big ship begins to display her true girth and some of her unique quality the Shadwell which will transport the 589th to their first operations area on the east coast of Baffin Island is a vessel especially designed for this type of large-scale loading and transporting operation men can board with their equipment clean and dry regardless of the weather outside under combat conditions they would also be protected from shrapnel and small arms fire like some kind of legendary giant quail she opens her gaping maw and takes into her vast interior whole boatloads of men and equipment to disgorge them later on the other side of an ocean as her official designation implies she is both a ship and a dock operations performed with such a vessel are at once fast efficient and safe in the choppy ice filled waters of the Arctic Circle the Shadwell will provide a warm snug haven to the men very equipment and supplies to the shore ships loaded anchors are way the Shadwell in company with sister ships oil tankers and escort vessels sets out for points north in a scene reminiscent of wartime convoys about this time also on the west coast the reef not the jumper hitch and other vessels are forming a second convoy which will set out from Seattle Washington with supplies and equipment for the Alaskan end of the continental radar chain to the north the attention of the world today is focused on the desolate wastes of the Arctic we know it now as a strategic nerve center of bleak wilderness which is one of our major defense outposts throughout the foreseeable future men like these will be making the long trek north with food and material from Seattle and from Eustace Virginia a large contingent of soldiers demonstrating that the army to goes down to the sea and ships off Newfoundland the Shadwell's only port of call all route to Baffin Island time to read catch up on your rest stock up on good warm food all the advantages of what the travel posters describe as a salubrious sea voyage the tip of Brevard Island just off the southeast coast of Baffin Island to the east is Greenland to the north the Arctic Circle here begins our first unloading operation one of the newest of the due line radar sites still under construction at the time of the Shadwell's arrival the cargo the transportation core is bringing in thus consists mainly of building materials for the site provisions for the engineers and construction equipment still south of the Arctic Circle but not much these are Arctic conditions and a well insulated tent can make the difference between a sound night sleep and eight hours of shivering cold from the Kingsport victory which rendezvoused with the Shadwell off Brevard Island there comes a steady flow of supplies and equipment crates of food and material and a mountain of drums of fuel oil and gasoline to run equipment and warm its operators through the long winter ahead when it comes to moving freight these men are unsurpassed even in peacetime the transportation core is one of our largest movers of freight unloading operations in this region can be extremely treacherous as drifting ice flows move into areas which yesterday were clear see the core transporting 18 million tons of freight to or from some overseas area all this is in addition to some 20 million long tons of freight moved within the United States itself the site supervisor for the civilian contracting firm which is building this due line station mr. Thomas Smith comes down to the shore to greet major rudas the 589th transportation companies commanding every kind of weather from the moment of their arrival at Brevard on July 26th until departure time August 14th men of the core will be moving supplies and equipment ashore during each daylight hour is delivery of supplies can normally be accomplished only during the few weeks in summertime when the ice moves away from the shore sufficiently to permit ships to land and this gorge cargo when these ships leave the man who remain must survive on the stockpile of supplies which are left behind 389th has completed its stockpiling operation and begins the next big job reloading man and equipment for the second leg of the voyage within a few hours they will be once more at sea and on their way to the dire radar station which lies well within the Arctic Circle meanwhile of course the Seattle Washington contingent is similarly occupied charged with responsibility for sites on the Alaskan end of the new line chain they work almost round the clock building up the stockpiles they will leave behind for the long Arctic winter the polar ice pack pulls away from Alaskan shores only during the mid-summer the job must be finished before it returns these scenes are being repeated all across the northern latitudes of our continent and so they will be for many years to come to the east the convoy carrying the 589th their companion units is nearing the Arctic Circle crews of the USS Shadwell and the icebreaker East wind exchange maps and navigational information as they near the frequently treacherous waters of the Arctic a celebration new recruits for the Royal Society of Blue Noses that select fraternity of men who have crossed the Arctic Circle the hazards which the seafarer must face there is nothing more formidable or more treacherous than ice ice has destroyed entire fleets of ships and obliterated all traces of expeditions unlike hurricanes icebergs do not herald their presence with dark clouds and falling barometers even radar finds their smoothly washed and often rounded sides hard to pinpoint the icebreaker East wind a Coast Guard escort vessel breaks a path through 30 miles of scattered ice flows which lie between the Shadwell and her destination nature which took thousands years to build an iceberg still laughs at men's efforts to destroy gunfire has little or no effect on icebergs and men dare not risk hoarding them to lay dynamite charges but when they are already in their final stages of rotten with slush a stronghold vessel may break them into pieces and he's in their destruction the Arctic regions of Canada to the shores of Baffin new man strange vessels new activities arriving in the wake of the short and peaceful Arctic summers what changes this will bring to the ancient pattern of life in these regions no man can say one thing however seems clear here is tangible visible evidence of a shrinking glow of a world contracting in size what was once a rare occasion the arrival of a stranger is now a common event 20th century civilization with its complexity its strife and its promise for the future has come to the frozen north the deal line sites which these transportation core units are supplying belong to the northern most phase of America's detection system to the south are other radar chains in Canada and along the Canadian border two countries working together to provide their own range defense an unparalleled example of harmonious cooperation between sovereign nations the transportation core of the United States Army is among the first to start operations and the last to cease them in time of war or national emergency troops and supplies must go the transportation core will take them take them and bring them home birds in moving mountains of material and millions of men the core can look upon its new duties in the far north as merely one more interesting assignment finds the operation as interesting as the men of the transportation core find him one of these is hot coffee on a cold day in the era of intercontinental airplanes the polar ice cap wants a barrier has become an open highway to see that this highway does not become the root of a hostile airborne foe is the objective which brings these men north thanks to operation do line remote regions of the Arctic have seen more visitors in a single summer than all their previous history visitors who may soon turn toward their homes in the south rich with new experience rich to in the knowledge that thanks to their summers work sentinels will be on guard in the frozen north throughout the long night and in scarcely a hundred years since the covered wagons of our pioneers last moved westward America's frontiers have truly disappeared not only in the west but in the north as well the frozen Arctic is today a link in our vast chain of defense a chain kept strong by many hardworking individuals not the least of whom are the much-traveled men of the Army Transportation Corps now this is Sergeant Stuart Queen inviting you to be with us again next week 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