 This is The Big Picture, an official television report of the United States Army produced for the armed forces and the American people. Now, to show you part of The Big Picture, here is Master Sergeant Stuart Quain. Since World War II, it has become increasingly apparent to the free world that its manna nations in order to remain free must be constantly able to explain liberty and freedom. The challenge of the present communist threat to the freedom of individuals and nations must be met by dynamic action. The communists have made amazing gains to date because they know what they believe, why they believe it, and can explain it to people anywhere in understandable terms. On the other hand, we as a free people who believe in the true form of liberty have many times been incoherent and lacked the verbal ability to explain or defend completely what liberty is. In the city of Atomwa, in Iowa, we believe we have found a living example of everything we the American people stand for. At the crossroads of the nation in southeast Iowa lies the city of Atomwa. It might be your town or any town, USA, for here in this typical hometown just being itself can be found that intangible substance which we call our American way of life. It is a substance which lives in the people themselves, each of whom in his own way contributes to its growth. All the people of all walks. Among them making his own special contribution is Sergeant Wallace Bacon. Just as he has done for several years now, Sergeant Bacon, the Army recruiter for Atomwa and surrounding districts, leaves his office in the federal building for an appointment with a boy and a problem. To the people of Atomwa, Sergeant Bacon's car is a familiar sight as it travels the streets, and country lanes on its military mission. For Sergeant Bacon is in this community a friend, as well as a symbol of an obligation which at some time must touch the lives of all of us. I know the farms that lie outside Atomwa, as well as I know the city streets. I've been visiting them for years, unjust such an errand as this trip to the farm where Geralt Brunk lives a few miles outside town. I know the mothers of Atomwa. Women like Mrs. Brunk look forward to my visits with their sons with perhaps a little more apprehension than the boys themselves have. For all mothers everywhere, find it just a little sad to realize their sons are growing up to accept men's burdens. But however difficult it might be, Mrs. Brunk, like all Atomwa's mothers, knows the meaning of words like duty and patriotism. There are often enough my allies in my job of advising their sons on the nature of the duty that lies ahead of them. Before he called and asked me to drop by and visit with him, I had never talked to Geralt Brunk so I knew little about him. But I did know from our short phone conversation that he was a military age and was wondering what to do about his military service. Meeting him out there in the fields, the army seemed far away. And yet I knew that right now it was the biggest thing on Geralt's mind. When would he have to go? Where would he be sent for training? He had a score of questions and I had to help him find the answers. Coming to grips with such urgent questions is easier when you take time to get acquainted first. We discussed the crop prospects and town news for a while, and then we got down to his problem. Facing Geralt was a difficult decision, whether to wait for the draft to call him or enlist now and plan his military duty so that it would interfere as little as possible with his future. It's not an easy choice for any young man to make. It is not easy for Geralt or for any young man like him to understand why his life in this time of peace must be interrupted by military service. The countryside offered a symbolic backdrop for our discussion. For we were talking about Geralt's duty and his future within the very side of the things in his life that were important to him. His farm, his family. It was up to Geralt to understand that just as his father did when he was a young man, he too must now help protect all of this, these familiar fundamentals which literally constitute his way of life. Like most of us, Geralt takes his way of life pretty much for granted. His big problem is building up a prize herd of Suffolk sheep and learning all he can about farming. Farm work and chores go on in a pleasant routine and there's little to disturb his plans. On Saturdays, he helps his father take the livestock to the sales barn in Atomwa, just as he has done ever since he was old enough to climb up into the family truck. Atomwa, like any other American city at size, is filled with landmarks that do not change much from year to year. The town square, the post office, the five and ten cents star in the corner. The railroad crossing, where every day the guard holds up the morning's traffic to let the 905 to Des Moines go through. The friendly face of Tom Northrup, the guard, is a familiar sight in town, as is the train engineer's wave. As they do and on the other farms in Atomwa on a Saturday morning, lead to the sale barn, a community meeting place for town and country folk alike. Cattle are highly respected out here. A good head brings a good price. In the auctioneer's ring, farmers from miles around gather to sell off their livestock. In this barn, after years of visiting it with his father, Geralt has come to learn the business of trading. He has come to understand the auctioneer's chatter. When is the price right? When should he sell? These are the business instincts he must acquire. Farmers are important citizens in our community. The land and its produce have brought industry to Atomwa. Here is located one of the biggest meat processing plants in the country. Here also are made some of the finest modern tools that till the land. Our city is something to be proud of, and so is the life we have here. The things that make up this life have not come as a gift. They have been hard won over the years. We draw strength and pleasure from the life we have. We benefit from it in direct proportion to our appreciation of it and our determination to preserve it. This is true for all of us. It is true of the old. It is true for the young. It is true for the housewife. No less than for the husband. We live together, work together, make our common cause together, and each of us is called upon to sacrifice something for the many freedoms we enjoy. It has been that way ever since our forefathers first came to this bend in the river, 110 years ago. The Indians call this place Atomwanak, place of swift waters, and it was here that our ancestors drove deep their stake in our nation's future. Today, from his vantage point on top of the courthouse, Chief Wapello watches over his campsite that gave birth to a town, a beloved reminder of our city's beginning. Across the square in the library is written the record of our town's history. At this spot, our people built their first schoolhouse. They cleared the land and farmed and went into business. They worked hard, and by the time the railroad came, we were a thriving, prosperous community boasting many fine homes. By the turn of the century, Atomwa, like all America, was booming. New industries flourished, and Main Street was buzzing with the noise and bustle of prosperity. Signs of good times were everywhere. Then, something happened. The battlefields were a long way away, but still close enough to threaten the comfortable life we were used to. Still close enough for the young men of Atomwa, like all other Americans, to be called upon to defend it. Sergeant Arthur Mengie, Private Charles Orman, Private Marlowe Work, They and hundreds more of Atomwa's own company, G, 42nd Rainbow Division, answered the call and marched off to work. Some did not come back, but remained where they fell, in heroes' graves. Captain Oscar B. Nelson, DSC, 168th Infantry. The citation read, Alone he attacked two enemy machine guns, killing two of the enemy and capturing 19. Killed the same day, taking Shadowland Hill. Those who came back had something to come back to, life in a town that was rich in opportunity and rewards. 40 years have passed since Private Charles Orman was wounded on the battlefield in France. Like most of his buddies from Atomwa, he believed in the future of his town, and he settled down to enjoy to the fullest his participation in it. There are a lot of veterans in Atomwa, just as there are in any town. Men like Amos the Barber, and Art Mengie, wounded in action, and now the custodian of our high school. Men like Police Chief Canny, all of these men are understandably proud of their memories of military service. They don't consider themselves heroes, they help to protect what they believed in. Out of the services of such men as these, the rewards and pleasures of living in a city such as ours have been preserved. It's a good place to live, a rich, thriving city, in step with the nation's progress, serving the heart of the great Midwest. We are proud of our city. In the 40 years since World War I, we have watched it grow into one of the most important commerce centers in the state. New shops and banks, community centers and hospitals have risen up out of the efforts of our people. We have worked hard, and the rewards have been a way of life and a standard of living, second to none anywhere in the world. From our community, we have sent our state its governor, Governor Herschel Loveless, an Ottawa man born and raised. And from this house on Davis Street, we sent the world one of its most beautiful women to the Miss Universe Contest. Swimming Coach Carol Morris. Carol Morris competed with some of nature's loveliest creations and won the title of Miss Universe. When people talk about Midwestern beauty, this is what they mean, and we're mighty proud of it. War has touched the life of our town and the lives of our citizens, as it has touched the nation twice more since World War I. Like all America, we have woven into our pattern of living the ceremonies of remembrance. Veterans Day is a day of honor for us. We all participate in it in one way or another. Twice in our generation, men have left this town and carried the hope of freedom and the willingness to defend it to faraway and lonely places. The hedgerows of Normandy, casino, heartbreak ridge in a place called Korea. The names change, and so does the generation. But never the cause. Liberty does not come as a gift. The price of freedom has always been high. We cannot honor this knowledge too much. We cannot learn it too deeply. The willingness to pay for freedom stands with the fundamentals of the only kind of life Americans know is worth living. And taking time to honor this fundamental lends a degree of strength to the life we enjoy. Men like Mayor Stoltz and civic leaders gather with the rest of us to recall for a silent moment those men who made the supreme investment in our future and kept this country safe. The monument is granite. As hard and unyielding as our belief that the price of the kind of life we lead has never been too great. We are fortunate to have in our town council far-sighted men dedicated to our city and its future. They are average citizens, but they are civic leaders too in the finest sense of that designation. And they bring vision and imagination to the task of charting the course of our community. The future of any community depends on its youth. In Ottomwa, we encourage all kinds of activities for our young people. At the annual Scout Jamboree, the whole town turns out to honor them. Boys themselves put on a colorful display. Governor Loveless and other state leaders attend to show the importance they place in our youth. It is through youth organizations like the Boy Scouts that our young folks first learn the meaning of community responsibility and come to appreciate the freedoms that serve as the very basis of our community and national life. We're a friendly community and freedom from fear is one of the first freedoms we learn to take for granted. The policeman on the corner is not the agent of a suspicious and hostile state. He is a friend, one of our neighbors helping us to protect our rights. Another fundamental freedom that we take pretty much for granted now is the freedom we enjoy at voting time to elect our leaders by democratic ballot without intimidation or threat of reprisal. We enjoy the freedom of equality and fair play for all. We recognize no social distinctions between classes. We enjoy the rights of free working men. We have the privilege of teaching our children the ways of a free people and providing for all a good opportunity to receive a proper education. These are our freedoms and protected by them from grade school to graduation. Our young men and women are training themselves for the future and along with the learning comes spiritual guidance too. For as with all free people we are never far out of the sight of God. It's the biggest freedom of all is our right to worship as when and where we please. According to the dictates of our conscience in a tumble with a population of approximately 40,000 we have over 30 churches of all denominations. We have a lot to be thankful for and our churches are usually pretty well filled. This Sunday morning service gives us a chance too of course to visit with our neighbors and make new friends. There's a good deal more to be said about the way we live in a tumble. For one thing it's fun to live here. We enjoy life. These quiet pleasures are important to us and it would be hard for us to imagine life being otherwise. And as always the responsibility for preserving the way of life that is ours falls on the young men of our community. They face a future far richer than any generation before them. Their stake in life has never been so high. For them as they approach maturity begins a time of responsibility and for most of them the biggest immediate responsibility they must face is military duty. Helping them to discharge their military obligation with as little interruption to their private lives as possible is the job of sergeant Shealy and myself. They call us recruiters but counselors would be a better word. Our job is to visit all young men of military age and explain to them the army's program. With the cooperation of our education department we carry the army's message into our high schools and answer directly the questions uppermost in young men's minds. We tell them that every American generation has been called up for military service after trouble broke out. The idea today is to prevent and deter war by being strong all the time. How do you defend millions of Americans? One way is to have a big standing army. The American way is to have a small standing army backed up by trained reserves. If a boy enlists his time of service remains the same but he can choose the branch of the army he would like to serve in and can split his duty up in any one of several ways. High school graduates who enlist can pick their own technical training everything from radar to medicine or photography to finance. Some boys can take advantage of a new ruling which permits them to join the local army reserve or national guard outfits and serve out their military obligation in their own hometown. Here they will learn how to become soldiers. The local airport becomes for them a parade ground. They must learn all phases of training from foot drill to communications maintenance of vehicles and operation of weapons. Here too they learn a little of the ways of army life in the field. Under the watchful eyes of instructors they learn how to assemble clean and use their weapons. They become modern minute men carrying on the traditions of a TUMWA's famed Company G Rainbow Division truly a ready army in reserve. Today the army is a permanent part of every town and city and a proud part a sober symbol of strength standing amid the familiar pleasures of life's routine a symbol of the obligation that faces all of us in one way or another the young men to whom that obligation has the most direct meaning become familiar with our recruiting offices through the doors of these offices to past the loved ones and parents of men and women already in service. Policewoman Louise Crooks drops by the office to tell me her son Jim has received an appointment to West Point. Dr. Keesey the dentist joins us long enough to let me know his daughter Catherine is doing fine in the wax. Every day there is word from someone we know serving in the armed forces. The people here have come to accept the army as part of their way of life. Even more gratifying to me is that they now seek me out as a friend. They know I can help their sons over the most difficult years of decision in their lives. Young men like these stand poised to take the step from adolescence to maturity. For such young men this step is the most important one in the world. It is a giant step and a boy does not take it quickly. There is no moment when a boy suddenly turns into a man. The process to maturity is a gradual one and no one can place the precise time when the transfer to manhood occurs. But one thing is known about it. The step into maturity is taken at that age when a boy is eligible for military service. For Gerald Brunk this is the moment of decision. Everything has been discussed. He has the information he needs and he knows what there is to know about the obligation ahead of him. Military duty must be faced. Now the question is his alone. Before him the pathway to maturity and manhood beckons. Now it must be his choice. This is the story of just one Iowa farm boy and his town. Its fields and families and its future. But it is more than that for this is America. This is our heritage. This land. This way of life. This concept of freedom. In all young men this nation now puts its trust through them in service to God and country. It shall forever remain free. Your army today is indeed embedded in the life of America. Inseparably linked to the welfare of its citizens integrated into the pulse beat of its communities. Hundreds of communities across the broad face of the nation varying in size and character but all of them like a time while Iowa citados of the way of life we treasure. Now this is sergeant Stuart Queen your host for the big picture. The big picture is an official television report for the armed forces and the American people produced by the Army Pictorial Center presented by the United States Army in cooperation with this station.