 From Korea to Germany, from Alaska to Puerto Rico, all over the world, the United States Army is on the alert to defend our country, you, 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. Welcome again to the big picture. Today our Army cameras will be trained into several corners of the globe to bring you a pictorial report of on-the-spot Army news. Our first report is on the Army's development of television for use on the battlefield. TV history in the making. The Army's first mobile television unit arrives at West Point to cover the Military Academy's summer maneuvers. Special equipment, transmitter, receivers, power bands roll onto the field to provide an on-the-spot record of the mock warfare as it unfolds. In the command post a few miles away, the staff will be able to study the battle as it develops on a TV screen. These signal corpsmen are assigned the important task of discovering TV's role in modern warfare. To accomplish their job, they are provided with the finest equipment. They are highly trained technicians in video transmission. At a sand table mock-up, three TV cameras go into action. While on the field classroom, 180 cadets receive instructions. In the central video control room, three live pictures are produced on monitor screens. Technicians select the picture best suited for transmission to the audience at their receiver sets. In this way, the lessons of the infantry artillery team are presented not just to one cadet class, but to many simultaneously. Lecture and training aids are coordinated by the TV camera. The cadets use the Bishop training aid, a device used to simulate battery fire. This one-class demonstration may be seen by hundreds on their TV sets miles away. The cameraman focuses his lens to cover the action. Fire. Demonstrations like this are proving the enormous value of TV as a military training aid. The TV camera now prepares for its role in military tactics. Signal corps commentators at Lake Papal Open watch the monitoring set and give an account of the action for the official observers. Miles away, the Academy staff will prepare critiques based on what they see on their receivers. The combat equipped company of cadets prepare for a simulator to self on an enemy beachhead 200 yards away. The action is presented to the audience as it happens. Combined audio and video is fed to TV film recording equipment to any point up to 20 miles away. A TV close-up covers the boat launching and closely follows the progress of the water crossing. A television camera is airborne to transmit an aerial view. In wartime operations, this type of visual information could prove invaluable to an audience of staff officers giving them an immediate picture of the battle situation. Intelligence, reconnaissance, fire control, briefings. The military potentialities of television are unlimited. The experiments conducted by the signal corps mobile TV section prove successful. An enthusiastic audience sees the beginnings of a new future for military television. Every day the Army grows stronger as mechanical improvements are made to weapons and equipment. But in the final analysis, it is still the foot soldier who must win and hold the battlefield. To make sure our combat soldier is tough enough to carry out this mission, whatever the battlefield terrain, the Army has this kind of finishing school for infantrymen. Join the Army and stay on the ground, said the recruiting sergeant. So what happened? I'm making like a mountain goat 12,000 feet up in the air already. Mountain warfare training they call it. You're gonna be able to fight and know your way around however high the mountain. And to learn the ropes they got a school for it in Austria. One morning they put some packs on our backs and marched us to the mountains just like that. You're gonna be mountaineers, they said. It was a kind of day infantrymen just loved. Rain poured down steadily as we gathered around the instructor. And a steady trickle of water running down the back of your neck felt good when stopped. Before you can learn how to climb mountains, you got to be able to walk on them, said the instructor. Of course he forgot to tell you he was gonna tilt the floor to a crazy angle. Ever tried walking on an uphill grade covered with ball bearings? So hours later you finally get to the top. And when you do, what does the man say? All right you guys now run down in the bottom and down you come. Now that you've mastered mountain walking, you must learn a few hand and footholds which will help you turn into a human fly. This is known as your buddy's dirty boothole. When possible it should be used during rainy weather. Otherwise you don't get as dirty. You're on your roll now boy. Use an hand and feet and sometimes your knees. You just got to climb that rock face. You know the handholds just do like the man said. What's that boy? Nothing to hold on to. Great old white hat would just love that. You're learning fast boy. See I knew you'd make it. Yep this is the top. What do you do now? My boy you're new ain't you? You climb down again boy. Then the complicated stuff begins. Your hands and feet will take you just so far. Now you must learn about rope climbing. What knots to use and what knots not to use. The climbs get tougher but so do you. And there's a terrific thrill in conquering nature's greatest obstacles. It's a science. A science where a slip of an inch can be as good as a mile straight down. There are all kinds of ways of beating this old mountain and you learn them all. Upward down you know how to do it now. You've lost a few fingernails but your hands are like hooks and instead of legs you got a couple of clamps on two long springs. You're becoming a mountaineer and you respect the danger. This business isn't funny anymore. A guy might be injured up there on the mountain. There's ways of getting them down if you listen and you listen. Because one day that guy on the mountain might be you. There are many ways of evacuating the wounded from a mountain. You have to learn the right way. How to lash a man to a stretcher and keep him there is all part of the training. He's got to be tied down tight for his journey to safety can be rough and dangerous. Whether it's Indian fashion or aerial tramway it's the final stage of the course now. You've learned how to climb up the impossible. Now you must learn how to make a rope bridge so you can climb from one impossible to the other. And once you've made it you've got to know how to get across it. It's easy. They show you how it's done and then it's your turn. One step forward and you push out with your arms. It's easy once you know how. By graduation day all the hours of practice have paid off. And a dangerous uphill rope bridge over a deep ravine is the final test of your skill and training. Whatever the terrain or obstacle we're ready. There ain't a mountain in the world that can scare us. A little known role in the Army's many activities but one of the most important on the battlefield is that of the Army pilots the soldiers who fly the Army's planes. We take you now to an airfield in Korea where a mission is about to begin. It's quiet on the strip now the planes stand idle in and out of the hangars frozen by the uneasy truth. But not so long ago they worked around the clock here in Korea sending Army planes deep over the enemy's lines to reconnoiter and report. It would begin like this. The operations officer got the first word by phone he learned that a troop commander at the front was running into trouble from a concealed enemy gun. Its position was concealed from ground observation by the mountains. It was up to Army air observers to do the job. A sign to the task were an Army pilot and observer and a small Army plane. From the ready room came the pilot and observer veterans of many such missions. First it's to the operations center to get brief. Trying to find that gun can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. So get all the information you can before take off. Whether you find it or not might mean the difference of a lot of lives saved or lost. It can be hot up there too while it lasts. So slip on a flak vest. Your life has been saved twice by it already. You don't need convincing. And this is Bertha your plane. She's slow and she's never owned a gun in her life. But she's got a tough skin and she's been going steady with you for a long time now. Before every mission the plane must be checked over completely with the mechanic who keeps her in trim. She's been shot at and peppered with small arms fire but she's never failed to bring you home yet. A last minute check with the tower and the mission begins. You stay high until you get over the enemy's lines but all the way you keep your eyes peeled for trouble. And now approaching battle zone. Black is light and going down for a look see over. A closer look to confirm the position and then up and home as quick as you can. This time it was easy but all the facts of the mission must go into the record just the same. How many guns did you see. What was their position. Whether any obvious troop movements. It must all go into the report day and night during the Korean campaign our army pilots and observers flew their missions over enemy territory their only protection of forty five strapped to their leg and an abiding faith in their own flying skill helping them to write this new page of army aviation history where the mechanics and technicians who kept the flying birthers flying fit theirs was not such a glamorous role but it was every bit as important they were part of the great army team which fought so well in Korea without ever firing a shot today the crewmen and planes of army aviation stand ready still awaiting the outcome of peace small planes unarmed and slow but doing a big job a man size job man size that's an expression you hear a lot in the army we'll make a man of you says the sergeant to the training any ex-army man will know that this is what he met at Camp Gordon Georgia an arena called a struggle pit gives single-core basics a taste of man-to-man combat a painless first step in eliminating any timidity among trainees that is man today we're going to give you a chance to have some fun in the struggle pitch first off we're going to show you some things that you may not do in the pit demonstrator come forward first off remember you cannot use your fingers to grab the man's eyes you cannot pull or twist his nose you cannot grab his lips to pull him to push him or twisting you may not use body slams with your fist any part of the body you cannot grab the man's ears remember you may not use any to get to you also may not use any doodle also you may not use your knee to the groin you may not run your feet down the man's shins or use his instep to hold me the only thing the only way you may get the man out of the pit is by bodily picking him up carry him to the wall and throw it now we'll run over our procedure that we file here in the pits using a whistle on the first whistle you will get on your feet move under the ropes line up on the outside of pets on the second whistle you'll charge into the pits and engage each other on the third way in other words junior it's murder by the numbers on the fourth whistle you'll clear the pits by your respective side now if anyone is injured remember call a referee or myself we'll blow the whistle everybody stops and we get him out of there are there any questions is there a doctor in the house it's gonna be a lovely day for a hanging sweet dog to get saw off I can take a hint all right already go quietly and so junior loses fear and timidity and what's left emerges as a man a lighter side to army training but one which has its kicks for our last report we go to Germany where our on the spot cameras record the military police on duty in this powder keg country of all the American troops stationed in Europe it is the military police in Germany who come closer than anybody to the tensions of this strategic area the MP on town patrol must work closely with civilian authorities in preventing any kind of trouble which might flare up between East and West American military police and the German civil police jointly patrol the town and a normal day's duty will see the MP checking his beat with a German policeman and his police dog at the lonely border stations where a wooden barrier across the street is the difference between democracy and communism the MP again works in unison with the German police it is at spots like this that the tension is at its highest and the military police patrols must constantly be on the alert a special MP highway patrol polices the autobots and is part of the huge security network which protects the western zone any suspect car believed carrying contraband goods from the U.S. zone can be halted and searched at any of the border crossings a German customs official carries out the actual search under the watchful eyes of the MP customs unit freight trains entering the east zone are checked by the MP customs unit men trained to look for strategic materials and phony documents search the manifest to make sure the consignment is in order by the end of his very full day the MP in Germany is ready for bed but he doesn't always get a good night's sleep sometimes this happens alert alert even MPs living off post are called back in everybody turns out with full field combat equipment they might be gone for days if they are wanted the MPs are ready to turn out for any emergency at a second's notice the MPs also ride the Berlin Express as one of their many duties at the station in Frankfurt they stand guard while passengers board the train the Express passes through the Russian zone on its way to Berlin and maximum security precautions are taken the passengers are a mixed lot of all nationalities their papers must be checked and rechecked and each passenger must carry a copy of their traveling orders in Russian it takes a lot of paperwork and permits to travel on this train once on board the passengers must stay there until Berlin is reached in the morning the tensions of a journey on this Express are reflected in the face of the German train guard the last passenger is put aboard and the MPs follow him every door of the train is locked and is kept locked for the entire journey patrolling the train the MPs protect the US personnel and male which nightly ride the Berlin Express every day the military police in Germany stand inspection before going out on duty standards are high but these men are veterans carefully trained for their difficult job as long as our troops remain in Germany the military police will be there guardians and protectors of our army as well as soldier ambassadors of America next week the army will bring you another pictorial report on your army at home and overseas now this is sergeant Stewart Queen inviting you to be with us then the big picture is a weekly television report to the nation on the activities of the army at home and overseas produced by the signal Corps pictorial center presented by the US Army in cooperation with this station you can be an important part of the big picture you can proudly serve with the best equipped the best trained the best fighting team in the world today the United States Army