 Big Picture, an official report produced for the armed forces and the American people. Now to show you part of the Big Picture, here is Sergeant Stuart Queen. Today's Big Picture brings you the story of a famous National Guard unit and a group of boys age 11 to 17. You'll see how between them, soldiers and boys keep alive a tradition and a way of life now gone from the modern military scene. The National Guard is the 102nd Armored Cavalry. It's present address, West Orange, New Jersey. But the 102nd's proud history was fashioned in other less peaceful surroundings. In D-Day, the 102nd Armored Cavalry, as part of General Patton's Third Army, moved on to Omaha Beach, spearheading the Normandy invasion. The 102nd wants the Essex troop of horse cavalry and poured its way across North Africa and up through Sicily. It was a long way from its native New Jersey as it pushed on through Europe. It was a member of the 102nd who devised the hedgerow cutter, a development which greatly speeded up the armoured advance. The war found the 102nd in Czechoslovakia with the victorious Third Army. Another chapter added to its long record of battle honors. Today at this impressive armory in West Orange, New Jersey, the second squadron of the 102nd, like other National Guard units across the nation, is busy with its training schedule. Keeping its instructor personnel up to date on the latest in armoured equipment and maintenance techniques, weapons and communications. The military descendants of the original Essex troop horsemen now use their skills to control and direct the armoured monsters to the modern cavalry. In keeping with the army's ever-growing mobility and firepower. But the tradition of the old days of the horse cavalry is far from forgotten. Because since 1931, the Essex troop has sponsored a unique organization, the junior Essex troop of cavalry. The troop was originally founded as a cadet auxiliary of the 102nd and used the same horses the mounted soldiers used. But since the army disbanded its horse cavalry, the junior troop has maintained its own mounts. A large stable and barn houses 28 horses. A neat white cottage serves as junior troop squadron headquarters. On the ten and a half acres which make up the Essex troop farm, there is a fine cross-country jump course with its pastures, fences and brook. The farm also has two riding rings. Captain Palmer, a former cavalry officer is director of horsemanship and holds responsibility for the overall training of the troop. Every Saturday morning, the young troopers fall in bright and early for inspection. Or if not actually early, well better late than AWOL, Captain Tim Perry as commander of Troope does a business-like job of inspecting his troopers. And the boys themselves, from the smallest on up, are serious about doing their best. The enthusiasm and esprit of the unit is obvious to the visitor. And military discipline and courtesy are not a game. But the accepted framework within which the troop members work. Each trooper is thoroughly trained in the care and handling of his mount. Even the smallest soon learns how to saddle up without help. The schedule this morning calls for a horsemanship class in ring two. The charter of the troop states as its purpose to encourage patriotism and to foster the love of horses among boys. And to train boys in the art of horsemanship, cavalry drill, marksmanship, military training and discipline. These basic horsemanship classes, the young troopers are watched carefully for proper seat and control of mount. These first and second year men are doing quite well. As troopers become more advanced and win their spurs, they can begin training for jumping. Gradually the bars are raised. There's little that can compare with the thrill a youngster gets from his first time over the jumps. For work session with the horses, each trooper is responsible for the proper care of his mount. The tack, the saddles and bridles must be removed and set aside for cleaning later. Then true to cavalry procedure, the horses are walked around the paddock until they are thoroughly cooled up. What are the horses taken for watering? While each horse is carried and brushed by the boys of troop A, troop C has been receiving instruction and rifle marksmanship. Men of the 100 and second donate their time as coaches and as always many hours are spent in dry run practice before the young rifleman gets a chance to fire live ammunition. Close order drill is part of any military training and in this the junior troop is no exception. The boys gain much in terms of teamwork, individual responsibility and leadership. A high point of the year for all is the annual spring horse show. With the first warm weather, excitement begins to build and preparations get underway. There's plenty of willing, able and unpaid labor available as the parents of troop members pitch in to put things in shape for the big occasion. The local guardsmen of the 100 and second get to work putting up the tents that will house the horses which come to compete in the show. The day before the show horse trellors begin to arrive, handsome and well tended thoroughbred horses and very capable young handlers and riders and just when it seems to every youngster the big moment will never arrive, it does. Dennis Glackam former troop member and a candidate for the 1960 Olympic equestrian team gives some younger troopers a few last-minute pointers. Lieutenant Troy a veteran of the 100 and second is on hand too. The junior trooper with him is his son Rick. An impressive array of trophies will go to the winners in the three-day show and the competition is ready to begin. The spring weather holds good for the competition over the cross country jump course on the back acres of the farm. The show is coordinated by the junior troopers themselves and they do a professional job. Show teams from other military groups come each year to compete in the horsemen ship and jumping classes offered on the crowded three-day schedule of the show. The young riders are good and competition is keen. Essex trooper Carl Kinney takes his turn over the jumps. Carl has been a trooper for five years and rates as one of the better horsemen in the squadron. Hello junior troopers are pleased and well they might be. Since Sergeant Kinney is once again among the winners. The punctuality which many an adult horse show might envy. The scheduled events follow one another in rapid order. The admission fees received from the large crowds which come for each of the three-day showing goes a long way toward paying the expenses of the troop during the rest of the year. The jumping competition Essex trooper Rick Troy whom you saw earlier tries the complex and varied Netherlands jump course. It's a perfect round as trooper Troy and his mount complete the circuit without a fault. And it's a performance which brings yet another silver cup into the record books of the junior Essex trooper. Now comes an event the crowd as well as the troopers have been waiting for. An exhibition by the junior Essex trooper Blancers. A demonstration of the confidence which the horses have come to have in their young riders. Final troop review is held as the full squadron of troopers turns out to mark with formal ceremonies the close of another year's work and growth. Hard to find a military unit anywhere with more pride in its colors than the troops of the junior Essex squadron. Taking the squadron salute his colonel Depew commander of the one hundred and second and of the one hundred and second can be justifiably proud of their role in sponsoring this group of youngsters as they grow in confidence self discipline and leadership toward their own important role as the citizens both military and civilian of tomorrow. The year since man first realized an age old dream and took to the air the parachute has played a role of ever increasing importance. Today the parachute like flight itself serves in hundreds of ways the purposes of both peace and combat. In the unusual scenes you are about to see the big picture brings you some of the highlights in the development of these umbrellas of the sky. Years of our present century a group of government and military men gathered to evaluate the possibilities of a new vehicle for use by the army. Here the air age began. Many of the early designs were not the most reliable aircraft. In point of fact some prove themselves to be no aircraft at all determined to fly and the beginning of the air age was also inevitably the beginning of the widespread development of the parachute. True even as late as World War one most American pilots did not wear parachutes but as air warfare developed the French and the Germans made them regulation issue among their pilots. In the years just after World War one the parachute in America remained a device for barnstorming stuntmen. But by the early nineteen thirties Russia looking ahead to the time when she would need shock troops for her global plans began experimenting with the parachute for military use. This experimenting was not confined to human parachutists but included vehicles and weapons. The airplanes at their disposal were crude but their vision of the future role of the parachute in military operations was clear and even in these so-called peacetime years every means of increasing communist striking power was to be explored. Early method for cargo drops in which the parachute was dropped before the cargo. They even tried dropping manned vehicles without benefit of parachute. But though some attempts were successful it became clear that the parachute was the most practical means of air to ground delivery. Even before the actual beginning of World War two the parachutes new and more deadly role was put to the test by the Germans. On a larger scale than their earlier drops into Norway the Nazis airborne operations in the early Blitzkrieg thrusts in Europe set a pattern. They were the first to mount really large scale successful airborne attacks as they dropped into the Netherlands and scored a major success in the parachute Blitz of the island of Crete. This highly profitable Nazi paratroop attack on Crete established clearly in military thinking the importance of this kind of highly mobile striking force. By the time America began massing her forces in England for the invasion of Normandy our own paratroop units were in being highly trained and formatively able at their work. The time for using the men of America's airborne infantry had come and the men were ready. World War two the parachute found a great many other uses vast areas of the enemy shipping lanes were seated with mines from the air with parachutes to slow their descent and prevent detonation from landing shock. Toward the end of the war the Germans came up with an unusual ribbon shoot designed to act as an airbreak for dive bombers and gliders. The Russians continued their experimenting too. They worked out a complicated two-stage canopy which would bring their paratroopers down at greater speed. A smaller canopy slowed the fall for most of the descent then a larger square shape canopy opened to cushion the final approach to the ground. It was interesting and it worked but it never came into widespread use. In Korea techniques for parachute delivery of huge masses of combat material to the front lines were developed to an almost exact science. Special shoots big enough to drape a suburban home had been developed. Shoots big enough to handle jeeps artillery even light armor. The big nylon umbrellas had brought a great change in the concept of military supply. Tons of essential combat material could be delivered over distances that would have been out of the question in terms of land transport. The importance of the parachute in making possible this high speed large-scale delivery of material is virtually impossible to exaggerate. With the development of supersonic aircraft parachute escape techniques had to change. The seat ejection parachute was about to come into being. Initial testing involved men as well as machines. Seat ejection would have to be swift but not so swift that pilots could not bear the acceleration stresses. During World War II the Nazis had worked on an ejection seat design and captured German film showed us something of the problems they had encountered. We didn't intend for this kind of thing to happen with our design. So the testing the designing and refining went on. In the search for a way to give a pilot and his parachute a protective package. A self-ejecting package which would get him clear of a supersonic jet in a hurry and with safety. It was a tough problem but the solution was found and the ejection seat principle was proven in practice. In still another way the parachute has added a margin of safety to the flying of jet aircraft. Special braking shoots are standard equipment on many jets giving pilots the ability to land safely on a much shorter runway than they could otherwise use. In the field of guided missiles this same adaptation of the parachute has found wide use. The Regulus supersonic submarine missile is a good example. The missile is recoverable because it can be guided to a landing by escort aircraft and because it uses a rugged nylon canopy to slow it to a safe unswerving stop once it touches down. Army's drone reconnaissance craft controlled from the ground can fly over enemy terrain. Taking such detailed motion pictures is these for use by field commanders and then return to base to be used again and again because it carries its own recovery parachute to bring it and its cameras down gently. Rescue teams need special parachuting skills and they practice them often. For instance, the right timing for slipping the harness in a water descent comes only with experience. Or take a jump over thick woods to battle a forest fire. A man needs know-how to land in the treetops and come out of it in one piece. Encountless other situations as well where relief could come only from the air, the parachute has brought supplies, aid, and comfort to those cut off from help. Recently, a lot of attention has been given to parachuting as a sport, both military and civilian. Skydiving, it's called, and clubs have sprung up everywhere. Perhaps it isn't likely to replace baseball as the national pastime, but few sports fans can claim the thrills that parachuting gives the skydiver. Parachute has truly come a long way from the early days of the barnstorming daredevil to its hundreds of uses in the world of today. The parachute has brought into being a whole new field of techniques and given a new type of fighting man to the modern army. The airborne soldier of today must know everything that classic infantrymen had to know and a great deal more. And the added training, the added mobility, the added striking power, which has come from the full development of the parachutes ability to deliver both assault troops and combat supplies, forms a central element of the fast-moving, hard-hitting pentomic army concept. Even with the space age opening up ahead, it seems safe to speculate that they are here to stay, the dependable, versatile umbrellas of the sky. Is an official report for the armed forces and the American people. Produced by the Army Pictorial Center, presented by the Department of the Army in cooperation with this station.