 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 Captain Carl Zimmerman. Capitalizing on the element of surprise, airborne troops first proved their effectiveness in World War II. More recently, we've used them with great success in Korea. And in any war in the future, the men who wear this paratrooper insignia can be counted on to strike behind enemy lines, or do swiftly reinforce our troops along any front anywhere in the world. Commander, we are now two minutes from target, altitude 800 feet, airspeed 177, happy landings and good luck. The time, 0900 hours, good Friday, March 1951. The air is cool and clear, and below are the mountains of Korea. This is enemy territory north of Seoul, 10 miles short of the 38th parallel. And these paratroopers of the 187th Airborne Regiment will not be welcome. Artillery and vehicles make the job too, from flying boxcards. The 187th lands near Monsan. And by nightfall, it achieves its objective, destroys the remnants of a retreating North Korean army, and links up with advancing UN tanks and ground infantry, completing our second successful air drop in Korea. As for future operations, our airborne troops may well play apart. They stand ready. Now for report on paratrooper training, we take you to the airborne school at Fort Benning, Georgia. Those 250 foot jump towers are landmarks here at Benning, and they familiar sight to thousands of paratroopers who trained here at the airborne department during World War II. Men who fought at Bastogne, and on a dozen other battlefields. As for the new arrivals here today, well we begin by setting them straight on parachute training. An injury is almost an impossibility. If you apply what you've been taught, and do what you're told. Past experience has proven this. To date, hundreds of thousands of troopers have been trained since the school was founded back in 1941, and our injury rate is less than two-tenths of one percent. It's a sure bet when an injury occurs that the man was careless or he forgot what he was taught. Accidents caused by faulty equipment are very rare. Some of you will not have the stamina or the endurance to complete the course. This we know beforehand. Those that do complete the course we feel will uphold the high standards of airborne service. The chute packing room is where we're headed now to show you one reason why basic paratrooper training has been cut from five to three weeks. In the last war, we found that a trooper doesn't have time to repack his chute once he's jumped into combat. So why spend a week teaching him to fold it? Qualified rigors do all the packing now. A trained rigor can shake out these 28-foot canopies, clear the suspension lines, and pack up the whole works in 15 to 20 minutes. And we're saving time in another way. Let's go outside. Thanks to helicopters and assault transports, we've eliminated a week of glider training. You don't need any special training to sit in an egg beater, and these copters are less dangerous and more economical than gliders. They pick you up and drop you down nice and easy, and they can be used over and over again in an invasion. These babies have a mighty handy in the mountains of Korea where glider landing would be pretty rough. In this business, you've got to keep ahead of the game. So we're always experimenting with new equipment, like this new landing trainer used to practice parachute landings. You never know when it will drop you or in what direction you'll fall. But one thing hasn't changed around here. You still go everywhere on the double. The physical conditioning is just as tough as ever. Makes you wonder whether you really want to be a paratrooper. But those who wash out of the department usually do it right over here. That's why this 34-foot jump tower is called the separator. Sometimes a man will freeze in the door. A new group is being oriented right now. The mock tower orientation period. Observe to your friend you see a 34-foot mock-up tower. If you will visualize that mock tower as the rear end of a C19C119 type aircraft, you'll notice that it is going in which direction. Which direction is it going? Point that way. In that direction, right. Now if the aircraft is flying in that direction, which door are we concerned with on this period? The right door. The right door. Now during this period we're not going to be concerned with any other door but the right door. If you're assigned to this side of the tower during a period of instruction, you'll work on this side. Your details will be on this side. You jump from this side and get your grades on this side. A gentleman, this tower up here, if you will notice attached to the cables up here are welded steel trolleys. Attached to the trolleys are risers. Those risers have a tensile strength of 10,000 pounds, which I don't think any of you can break. Hook up your single riser. Take up a number two man position. Shuffle and stand in the door. Son off your name and number. Laker number one. Ready? Ho! Hoop! Hoop! Hoop! Hoop! Hoop! Hoop! Hoop! Here you learn the correct body position from the time you jump out of the plane to the time your shoot opens. Every jump is criticized. 462, soldier you had your hands crossed on your reserve and you're too vigorous. You're trying to go out too far instead of going up in the air. Recover. 457, soldier you had your head up. Over in the 250 foot tower area, men are learning to handle their parachutes. We'll move over there now. We call this the home of suspended agony. Uncomfortable, but it helps you learn how to handle your shoot in the air. How to guide the direction of your fall by pulling on those risers. To slip forward you pull on the front risers. Later on men get a chance to practice this in the air. Way up in the air. Floating down from that 250 foot tower is quite a ride. We'll follow this man up just to show you the sights and give you the feel of a parachute jump. How do you like the ride? Off the ground. Reach well up on all four risers. Make a good landing fall. On your feet, soldier. Let's go. Drop one. Drop two. Drop three. Front number two. Number two. Make a normal slip to the front. Number two. Hold those risers well down. Slip to your front number two. Well up on all four risers. Feet underneath together. Over here at Lawson Air Force Base, men are waiting for the big test. An actual jump from a plane. They've never jumped from an airplane before and one of them has never been inside a plane. Equipment is checked carefully before the takeoff. Each man wears a reserve shoot for emergency use. A student parachutist is required to make five jumps. They bail out from 1,000 feet up. Students are coached all the way down by instructors. Let's join these men now and find out how they enjoy the jump. I don't see why I haven't been doing it before now. It's a real thrill, I'll tell you that. I'll tell you what, the best thrill I have when I got my opening shot and saw that one brother sitting up over me. The old Ronald's been around for me. I'm a sore neck to prove it, but other than that, boy, I'm fine shaped. Well, the whole thing about this whole program, they've been teaching how safe it was to come out of that airplane. And I believe that they're absolutely right on it. My first reaction when I hit the ground was that I landed in a feather bed. I hear you've never been up in the plane before this jump. Is that right? Yes, sir. I think it was pretty exciting just going up and then How about that opening shock? I didn't feel it too much. I didn't feel it too much. The ride down could have been a little longer. You haven't been in here too long, have you? It's May. Well, you've gotten in a good branch. Back at the airborne department, another class has completed its training. And this is the finale. Graduation. Officers and men who have worked and trained together to win their wings. Yes, they'll get an extra $50 a month jump pay, but training here gives a man something else. Pride and confidence in himself and in his ability to serve his country. That comes along with those paratrooper wings. Good morning to receive your parachute qualification badge. The badge of distinction, the badge of an outstanding soldier. You should be proud of yourself and you should wear that parachute qualification badge proudly. Soon these men will be serving with airborne units. Well-trained men and a credit to the service. The story from the airborne department, Fort Benning, Georgia. One of the most famous units to which a new paratrooper can't be assigned is the all-american 82nd Airborne Division. The men who served in it in World War II made this patch a symbol of good soldiering, courage, and determination. We thought it would be interesting to inspect this division as it is today through the eyes of a World War II veteran now back in civilian life. His report comes to us from the home of the 82nd, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Well, from that big sign at the entrance to the mock-up towers, the 82nd area looks about the same to me. And it looks as though the men in the division today are getting the same rugged training that we got back here in World War II. In this outfit, there never was much time to just sit around. We exercised on the same parade ground, lived in the same barracks across the way. But I doubt that we were any tougher, more alert, or better trained than these troopers of today. They are kept here to guard this country against invasion. I guess most of us would like to know how fast they could move out and meet an invader anywhere from Maine to Alaska. The best place to get an answer to that question is the division headquarters. Of course, our World War II commanders, General Ridgeway and General Gavin, have moved on to new assignments. General Gerald J. Higgins is the head man today. He's a man with many years of airborne experience. General, how long would it take the 82nd to move out of here into action? This division is always prepared to move out on short notice. We keep our combat units at full strength, our equipment ready to roll, and our arms and ammunition immediately available. From experience gained in past alerts, I know that this division can board planes ready for combat within four hours the time we receive the alert notice. To give you an idea how this works, I have just alerted a rifle company. They're getting ready to move out now. Company is getting ready. That's Captain Douglas Culpepper briefing his platoon leaders and non-coms. This is our drop zone, our assembly area. We secure our main route of advance along this road. Our objective is the airfield. We must have that airfield in order to establish resupply base for future airborne operations. All right. It's exactly $100. You have one hour. Have the company ready to move full combat equipment. Any questions? Move out. In a few minutes, everyone in B company gets the word. Gentlemen, our mission is to secure the main route of advance, and we'll also protect the left flank of Company B. I have just 20 minutes to be back here in full combat uniform. Okay, show off. Let's go. These men sure have the spirit of the old 82nd. Matter of fact, some of the old timers are still around. There's Master Sergeant Herbert Kitchen. He's been with the outfits since it was activated back in 1942. Went through most of the campaigns in Europe. Now he's got about 130 jumps. And some of you may recognize Gilbert Roberts over there by the truck. He's a Master Sergeant now. Joined the division in 42. Jumped with us in Sicily and Holland. And you'll remember these names on the street signs. Men who didn't come back. P.S.C. Charles de Clapper. He won the Congressional Medal of Honor in Normandy. Lieutenant Colonel R.G. Cole, Medal of Honor, killed in Holland. Private John R. Toll, Medal of Honor, killed in Holland. Names not forgotten by the 82nd. Seeing these men ready for action somehow takes you back to those hours before they jumped into Sicily, Normandy, or Holland. We were dressed about the same. And our minds were working overtime. We stood, waited to move out, waited for orders, sure to come. You're headed now for a marshaling area next to the airfield. The procedure in the marshaling area hasn't changed much since the old days. Every man still gets a careful briefing on where he's going, what the objective is, and what he can expect. Men, your drop zone is Sicily North. You're flying from North to South at an azimuth of 220 degrees. Your flight time is approximately one hour. Your formation is a V in trail. Your IP is Overhill Lake, at which point the four-minute red light will indicate four-minute flight to the DZ. Your secondary checkpoint is Manchester Road, 10 seconds prior to exit over crossbar of T set up by Pathfinders. Mass parachute jump over crossbar. Now a word of caution. The wind upstairs is 15 miles per hour, downstairs between 8 and 10. On your emergency procedure, on the intermittent ringing of the bell, I want you to stand up, hook up, and sit down. The pilot will then try to correct the emergency. If unable to, he will cause a constant ringing at the bell. At that time, you stand up and bail out. But before takeoff, they still practice jumps from a mock-up. Stand up, hook up, check equipment, sound off for equipment check. The members of B company will remain grounded, but they sure keep an eye on everything, including the practice landing falls. In the old days, we were taught to tumble when we hit the ground. Now the boys use what they call a five-point landing. It's cut down the injury rate a lot. From here, they move over to the trucks to draw their main and reserve parachutes. About now, everybody feels keyed up. I know we did in World War II, but you're kept busy. Then the jump master are checking the weather, takeoff time, jump time, and other flight details. Don't get the idea that paratroopers do nothing but put on shoots and jump out of planes. They're infantrymen, well trained to fight on the ground after a jump, and we always packed all the weapons used by an infantry company. You carry some of them in those general purpose bags. All told, you may carry over a hundred pounds of equipment. You're not light on your feet. Of course, every man gets checked very carefully, and those rigors really know their business. They don't miss a thing, and that's fine with you. The worst part of a jump is that waiting, standing, or sitting. The closer you come to take off time, the higher the tension gets, even for the old timers. Bill, how many jumps will this make for you? This makes about forty nine. Well, John, how do you feel? You still got that old good-look charm with you? I sure do. I've had it with me now for seventy-five jumps, and it hasn't filled me yet. Boy, that would have deserved master jump wings, don't it? I don't think an invader would like these men climbing aboard a C-119, carrying machine guns and other weapons with them. As after the first alert, these men are on their way. Sure, it's just a practice run this time, but if this were the real thing, they could be streaking to any part of this country. To Maine, California, or Alaska, wherever an invader might strike, they could meet him. Ready? In that sky, there's a message for all of us who ever wore paratrooper wings, just this. So long as there are men who have the spirit and the courage and the desire to meet the challenge of the air, a part of us will never die. And across the nation, when night comes, every American can rest easier, knowing that these men are here and ready. Yes, we can still be proud of the 82nd. The men who made it famous as America's guard of honor still live on. In these, the paratroopers of today. Story of the 82nd Airborne Division in the post-war years illustrates how your army is preparing for possible global warfare, developing a well-trained, highly-movial fighting force. And in this modern army, our airborne divisions stand ready. 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 U.S. 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.