 The latest weapons, coupled with the fighting skill of the American soldier, stands ready on the alert all over the world to defend this 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 Stuart Queen. The host of the armies of World War II had specially trained mountain troops. Mountainous regions were fought over in Burma, China, New Guinea, Okinawa, North Africa, Greece, Italy, France, Germany, and Soviet Russia. In the United States Army, there was one mountain division used in Italy. Today, many of our army units and elements of her sister services receive specialized training for this type of operation, from the military and civilian specialists of the Army's Mountain and Cold Weather Training Command. Here are some highlights from that training program, conducted near the command's headquarters, high in the mountains of Colorado. The story of the Mountain and Cold Weather Command begins in the streets of European cities in World War II, for it is the child of total war, a war in which we were forced to carry the fight to our enemy wherever he might be found. Through the streets of his cities, overfield and meadow, where the unchanging rhythms of growth and harvest seemed at times strangely oblivious to the Holocaust raging about them. We fought in cold and snow, where to the unwary or the ill-equipped, death might come from no human enemy, but from a hostile nature. We came up from the sea to beaches where literally every foot of sand and seashore had to be rested from enemy hands. With our British and French allies, we carried the struggle across the desolate sand and rock of North African desert, where the watch words were speed and mobility. And then we fought for agonizing months and years in South Pacific jungles, where every mile of advance had to be carved by hand, painfully and perspiringly, from insect-ridden enemy-infested tropical undergrowth. Finally, high in the mountains from North Africa to New Guinea, we learned once and for all that any type of terrain, anywhere in the world, may become the scene of aggression which we must be prepared to repulse. Equipping American soldiers to defend this sort of terrain is the job of the Army's mountain and cold weather training command, here in summer session near their Colorado headquarters. Mountain nearing, an important part of the curriculum, has been defined as the art of moving about safely in the mountains. It is an art requiring knowledge and experience, but most important, it requires athletic ability coupled with intelligence and common sense. The rock climber must first select what seems to him the safest route up the mountain. And after the route has been selected, exercise both energy and skill to follow it to the top. The skill of a rock climber is shown by his choice of handholds and footholds. Over the centuries during which this art has been cultivated, dozens of different positions have been prescribed for the climber's feet and as many grips for his hands. Handholds and footholds are as varied as the situations in which he may find himself. Here, a natural rock chimney formation is negotiated by the pressure of the climber's back and feet thrust against the walls. Much depends on a climber's ability to estimate the firmness of a rock before he throws his weight upon it. Every rock mountain is slowly falling to pieces under the weathering action of wind and water. And a great deal of skill is involved in transferring your weight from one rock to another. A sheer, nearly perpendicular rock face is the supreme test of any climber's skill. Now it becomes necessary to resort to that complicated mountaineering science known as rope climbing. Many different types of climbing irons, metal spikes or nails have been designed which can be driven into the natural crevices of rocks. By using them in conjunction with his rope, a climber learns to traverse safely smooth slopes that would otherwise be inaccessible. The rope is a climber's greatest safeguard. A party of men, rope together a few feet apart, can hold up a member who falls. Only one man moves at a time. His partner or partner is remaining firmly placed, ready for any emergency. A falling body gains speed with every foot. The trick is to check the fall before too much velocity is built up. Two groups are making this climb by different routes. As the advance party or guides for a much larger military unit, these men are interested in more than just getting to the top. They're searching for the fastest, most practical route over which to lead several score soldiers who will be porting weapons and equipment. This group has struck a piece of bad luck. A sheer, almost completely smooth rock face, only a short distance from the top. It is something that can happen along even the best selected route of climb. The climber resorts to a technique that is slow, but sure and safe. Tying together two small rope slings, he will use the climbing irons driven into the wall to pull himself up, literally one foot at a time. This is one reason why in mountain climbing, the top man is usually the man with the greatest skill and experience. Once he gets up, assent for the others in his party will be comparatively easy. The top at last. And now the immediate job of getting his partners up with him. With luck, the other half of the party which had the easier route should arrive in time to help. The dangers which the craft of mountain climbing has been developed to avoid are of two main kinds. The danger that the climber may fall, and the danger that something may fall on him. After the first man is up, the rope is a great safeguard to the others. But it must be used in such a way that it does not dislodge loose stones and start them tumbling down on the heads of those below. A single falling rock may not make a landslide, but it will feel like a landslide to the man underneath, and it could easily start a real one. The more difficult the assent, the more pleasure there is in arriving. It's not Mount Everest, and others may have been here before you. But it's always a thrill to get to the top. Mountain climbers find it hard to explain the fascination which their craft holds for them. The classic answer to the question why climb a mountain is, because it's there. To the soldier climber, the answer is more obvious. You climb the mountain because if you don't, someone else may. Someone intent on the destruction of your troops, your supply columns, or your cities in the valleys below. And in war, no enemy is finally defeated until you can seize and hold his terrain, particularly such natural rock fortresses as these. He who goes up must eventually come down, and the qualities of strength and intelligence are as necessary now as on the way up. Descending is easier and faster. The problem is to make certain you don't come down too fast. Going up a mountain, the first man who carries most responsibility, who takes the greater risks. Coming down, the situation is reversed. The burden now is on the last man, the only man who cannot rely on support from someone up above. Using climbing irons and a double strand of rope, the last man lowers himself to a ledge. The rope can be freed from below for use on the next leg of the descent. There is a traditional affinity between sailors and rope. Watching these men ascend and then descend this mountain, it is apparent that to no one is a stout rope and a sound knot of more importance than to a mountain climber. For these men, a frayed rope or an improperly tied knot would mean catastrophe. A large part of the mountaineer's basic training is concerned with tying and testing a dozens of different knots he will have to use in operations such as this. A small band of men belongs to the historic tradition of mountain guides, a tradition which began in the middle of the last century with the famed Alpine Guides of Switzerland. They are professional climbers with an expert's knowledge of rock and snow which enables them not only to lead, but to assure the safety of those who follow them to their lofty destinations. To an army, mountains are both a hazard and a friend. The main effect of mountains on military tactics is simply to make operations slower because of the greater efforts required. But in friendly hands, mountains are a great asset. They lend themselves to defensive warfare as Allied armies learned in long, hard campaigns in Italy and in Korea. Equipment, men, and supplies of the United States Army are today able to move over the most formidable of terrain. The skills and techniques which make this possible are taught to an ever-growing number of Army personnel during the year-round training cycle of the Mountain and Cold Weather Command, a first-class example of how not to climb a mountain. Ignore the rope and the instructions of your guide. Go off on your own. Decide you're not as good as you thought you were. Get scared, lose your footing, and start all over again. Mountain climbing takes courage, but it is not as hazardous as it looks. Most accidents occur as the result of carelessness or inadequate training. This exercise and the preparation that went into it will produce military mountaineers who are both prudent and skilled. Under the competent supervision of the Mountain and Cold Weather Training Command, another Army unit is acquiring the kind of experience that pays off in fewer casualties and more efficient defense. Training headquarters for the command are at Camp Hale, 10,000 feet up in the Colorado Mountains near Colorado Springs. The training cycle has both a summer season with its emphasis on mountaineering and a winter season with emphasis on skiing. Camp Hale has the two main requirements for mountain and cold weather training. Its altitude is high and its winter is cold. There's an ark to chopping wood. This man hasn't quite mastered it, but he's learning. In these cold Colorado winters, he'll get plenty of practice. No step backward is the outfit's motto, and it applies on days when even a mule would rather stay in bed. Men arriving at Camp Hale may begin their training in any one of a number of ways, perhaps with a graphic demonstration of the value of the skills they are about to acquire. They learn that the human foot is not a very efficient means of locomotion where the solid earth is covered with three feet of snow. Snowshoes, worn by the file of men on the left, is one answer. Distributing your weight over a large area, a pair of snowshoes will keep you from breaking through the surface of the snow. With snowshoes, you can overcome the snow. With skis, you can actually take advantage of it. Like the file of men on the extreme left, you can move even faster over the snow than you could walk on solid ground. With this object lesson behind him, the trainee can be issued his skiing equipment with assurance that he'll appreciate it. A practiced civilian skier will recognize certain differences between military and civilian skis, notably the binding, which is used both downhill and for level cross-country skiing. Civilian skiing usually calls for a long cross-country ski and a shorter downhill ski. After much trial and research, the Army has developed a single, medium-length, all-purpose ski. Such facts are of interest chiefly to the experts, however, and our typical Camp Hale trainee is far from being an expert. In fact, he is about to learn that the same sliding action which will later enable him to travel at great speed begins by making it hard to move at all. The problem here is the same as for children learning to roller-skate, except that the skates, in this case, are seven feet long. Of course, the snow is a little more accommodating than a concrete sidewalk. On the other hand, in snow it is not always easy to get back on your feet again. Always begin at the beginning. Clearly what's called for here is some preliminary instruction in how to fall down and how to get up again. The trick is to fall on your side, landing with skis parallel. It is practically impossible to get hurt this way, and if you hang on to them going down, you can use your ski poles to get back on your feet easily and quickly. You learn faster than you expected, and in no time at all you're snow plowing down a slope in the training area. This is a technique for reducing speed when coming downhill, a very valuable skill for the novice skier to have. Of course, there's always one sure way to slow yourself down. Basic skiing on the level is the most useful technique in the skier's repertoire. Only when that is mastered can he advance to the more spectacular downhill phase of the craft. Good control of your skis and your body is required even while taking advantage of free rides up the ski tow. You continue to progress and in short while find yourself feeling like a champion, which in fact this instructor is. Even the best of us sometimes fall. You get better and better only to have the instructor demonstrate that you still have a long way to go. This maneuver, known as bump riding, is indispensable to the military skier who cannot expect to do all of his skiing on the specially prepared courses of a ski resort. A downhill obstacle course. First the instructor and now the students. Although firmly packed, the snow here is quite deep. Hazardous as it looks, none of these men was injured. This is the only way to learn and gradually, you do learn. Ski photography is itself an art. Scenes like this raise the question of where was the cameraman when he took the picture. Our big picture camera crew solves the problem on a railroad flat car. And now comes a reminder that these are military skiers mastering a sport that has military applications. A military maneuver beginning with a rival by parachute on a remote mountain slope in the hands of enemy aggressors. The paratrooper must always guard against being dragged by his parachute. Here on these snow-covered slopes he runs the risk of becoming involved in an involuntary one-man sleigh ride. These men are soldiers. Infantry on skis. In combat their mission would be what the infantry soldier's mission has always been. Close with the enemy and either capture or destroy him. Long before arriving at Camp Hale they underwent the basic training of an infantryman. Itself a rigorous course of instruction. What they are learning now are the special applications of the infantryman's skill to the problem of fighting on skis or snowshoes. To a man with a rifle skis may be either a handicap or an asset depending on whether he knows what to do with them. Military defense against atomic warfare requires the organizing of your army into relatively small self-sufficient units and the employment of hit-and-run tactics. For that sort of operation ski troops are already remarkably well-qualified. Sudden surprise thrusts by small bands of self-sufficient men have always been the fundamental tactic of the cold weather soldier. This is a rigorous, often exhausting occupation. One practice by such men as these is vital to the security of our country. The reason is immediately apparent from a glance at this map. In the past decade the once remote Arctic has become one long frontier. At one point along this frontier the two most powerful nations in history lie just 56 miles apart. The Alaska of Klondike fame is today a gateway. A gateway which must be guarded by our unfriendly trespassers. To accomplish this a steady stream of American soldiers graduates of the mountain and cold weather training command passes through this Arctic and sub-Arctic region to receive on-the-spot training. Special skills are required to defend this huge snow-swept wilderness. Skiing using the Laplander's Akiyo still the best known way to transport light equipment is part of the program. There is no personal satisfaction in all this for to learn Arctic survival is to become one with the long tradition built up by men of all races and from all parts of the world. The trappers, traders prospectors and soldiers who have lived, worked and fought in the far north. The men of Arctic legend were not Superman. What they had was knowledge. Knowledge which enabled them to live comfortably where an ignorant man would perish. They knew, as these men are learning that the soldier in Arctic warfare faces two opponents the enemy who must be defeated and nature who must be made an ally. The last war, the United States did no actual campaigning under true Arctic conditions. We learn from the experiences of others however that lack of proper training and equipment can cause many needless casualties such as those suffered by the German forces in Russia in the winter of 1941-1942. The existence of the mountain and cold weather training command is the army's way of assuring that it will never happen to us. Now this is Sergeant Stuart Queen inviting you to be with us again next week for another look at your army and 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.