 Okay, move out. The symbol for the United States can come from many places. Below the Congo River, the time November 1964. Being airlifted aboard American Air Force transport planes are these Belgian paratroops. Men bent on a remarkable mission of mercy. Armed and dangerous rebels surround the airfield here at Stanleyville. At stake are the lives of thousands of non-congolese hostages. Many men, women and children have already been killed by the rebels. A massacre is halted with the arrival of our Air Force planes. Some of the victims will die before they can be airlifted to adequate medical facilities at the Congo's capital, Laopoldville. The American airlift and the operation has been directed by a small United States joint task force already on hand. This humanitarian effort is a success. Nearly 2,000 innocent civilians are carried to safety during the operation. Months earlier, President Johnson ordered airstrikes against the aggressor's bases when ships of the United States Navy were attacked for a second time in the international waters of the Gulf of Tongan. Charters from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, tactical aircraft are sent from the United States to reinforce the air power of the Commander in Chief Pacific. In 1962, more than 100,000 soldiers and airmen, deadly accurate anti-aircraft Hawk missiles and a thousand of our planes were positioned in the Georgia-Florida area when Soviet freighters were carrying ballistic missiles to Cuba and President Kennedy called for a showdown. With a giant crisis in the making, our forces were able to move swiftly to reinforce this country's defense perimeter. Our ground and air forces were assigned as reinforcements in the area under the control of the United States Commander in Chief Atlantic. Another crisis in the Caribbean confronted the nation in the spring of 1965. Paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division were sent to the Dominican Republic and of the 101st Airborne Division. The 1st Infantry and the 1st Cavalry Divisions were needed in Vietnam. For most of the men, this was their first encounter with a foreign scene and would be their first genuine combat experience. The role they would play were once again in support of the forces under the control of the Commander in Chief Pacific just as it was months earlier when the torpedo boats of the North Vietnamese attacked American ships on the high seas. The Congo, Vietnam, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and again Vietnam. America's responses to all these crises illustrates the vital role played in the nation's defenses by the United States Strike Command. Headquarters for Strike Command is at MacDill Air Force Base on the west coast of Florida. Its Commander-in-Chief is General Paul D. Adams. The United States Operation in Lebanon in 1958 where I had the honor of commanding the ground forces ashore. It demonstrated the effectiveness of highly mobile rapid reaction forces for meeting military situations. The United States Strike Command is such a force and we're prepared to meet the scope of military operations from a show of force to general nuclear war. We accomplish our operations by forming, maintaining and training highly mobile joint task forces comprised of Army and Air Force units to move rapidly to objective areas and accomplish the mission. By the skillful use of sea, land and air mobility, we move these forces directly to the objective area and there seek a decision rather than by fighting long drawn-out campaigns costly in blood and treasure just to reach the area of decision. This type of operation best of all proves that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Our role in America's defense scheme is important and is one that affects every American and every citizen of the free world and therefore is a story that should be told. Strike Command is the nation's newest means of focusing United States military power in a hurry in just the right amount to deal successfully with specific emergencies wherever and whenever they occur. Its Commander-in-Chief has operational command over our strategic reserve of highly mobile ground and tactical air forces based within this country. This strategic reserve of general purpose forces includes the combat units of the Continental Army Command and the combat squadrons of the Tactical Air Command. Air units of this power package represent a balanced mix of air power including reconnaissance aircraft, supersonic jet fighters and assault airlift aircraft. Important to the mission is the fact that these planes can fly to most parts of the world in a matter of hours. Equally important, the size of the mix can be tailored to any particular situation to meet a minor emergency or a major crisis. Just as the Air Force contributes a variety of aircraft and men with special skills, so does the Army have troops and specialists ready for any duty required. Available for instant deployment are infantry, armor, mechanized cavalry, the airborne division. On orders of the President, this mixture of highly mobile power can be sent into battle in just the right amount required to meet the military problem confronting the United States in any part of the world. By the Joint Chiefs of Staff to reinforce our unified commanders overseas or to conduct independent emergency actions in those large parts of the world where no United States forces are based. To be ready constantly for its worldwide responsibilities, Strike Command regularly conducts realistic combat maneuvers to keep all its forces in top fighting trim. In 1964 alone, Strike Comm's large-scale field training exercises included Joint Combined Exercise Deloar in Far-Off Iran, once called Persia. Another was Joint Training Exercise Desert Strike in the rugged areas of the Southwestern United States. A joint test and evaluation exercise was Gold Fire 1 in the Missouri Ozarks where new concepts in air and ground coordination were put to practice for close study and later analysis by military experts in different fields. There is constant practice in the large-scale long-range deployment of men and equipment. Born in 1961, the United States Strike Command was designed to be a mobile, flexible, rapid reaction force which along with other forces available would provide the President with a wider choice than humiliation or nuclear action when faced with threat or aggression. With all our military services represented in the headquarters staff with its own highly efficient and unique communications element which is air-transportable to any part of the world at a moment's notice with the built-in capability to field two small headquarters to command these powerful forces thousands of miles from home bases. The United States Strike Command has in its brief existence become the air-mobile, fast-moving, versatile joint force demanded by the President in 1961. Strike Command has two major assigned missions. First, to provide a general reserve of combat-ready forces to reinforce other unified commands and to perform such other tasks as directed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Exercise big lift when an entire division was airlifted by the military airlift command to Germany and the beefing up operations in Southeast Asia illustrate this role. Second, to plan for and conduct normal operations in the Middle East, Southern Asia and Africa south of the Sahara. Prime examples of this second mission are providing defensive arms and training to friendly nations in this area under the military assistance program and rescue operations in the Congo. To fulfill its missions, the Joint Chiefs of Staff have assigned powerful ground and air forces to the operational command of Strike Command. Commander-in-Chief has under his control two major component forces. Army Forces Strike Command called R-Strike and Air Force Strike Command called Aft Strike. This joint force is composed of all combat divisions of the Continental Army Command and at squadrons of the Tactical Air Command. These units are all based in the United States and represent the nation's quick reaction reserve of military strength. They are stationed from coast to coast, making the total force less vulnerable should there be a direct attack on this country. This wide dispersion makes for quicker reaction time, enabling soldiers and airmen to move more rapidly toward trouble spots at any point of the compass. When ground forces are combined in the single package with air power, the joint force becomes more powerful than if two forces were working independently. As the situation requires, the Commander-in-Chief can employ infantry, paratroops, or armor. Even special forces or air commandos may be called upon. And in most cases, a finely tailored composite air strike force of tactical fighters, tactical reconnaissance, and airlift aircraft will accompany the ground forces. Today, a single C-130 may be needed to airlift men and supplies. Tomorrow, a fleet of enormous military airlift command cargo planes, formerly called MAT, supply fighting men to some trouble spots in the remote corner of the world. With this wide variety of elements instantly at hand, strike command achieves enormous flexibility and versatility. The command center at headquarters is manned around the clock every day of the year. And the Commander-in-Chief is never more than two minutes away from communication with the center, every minute of the day, every day of the year. To be ready for whatever the President may direct, strike command plans in advance for hundreds of possible emergencies. In these secured files are current battle plans for independent operations or reinforcement roles worldwide, governing everything from counter-insurgency actions to global warfare. Every battle plan is worked out to the limits of human knowledge, covering everything from troop dispositions to air routes, landing fields and climatic conditions. The hundreds, the thousands of up-to-date facts on assigned forces are fed into electronic data processing machines for filing and for instant recall for battle staff use when needed. A machine can't think and plan, but it can certainly help to speed up the thinking and planning processes. A good part of the human thinking is done by a sort of board of directors the Strike Command Council, composed of senior Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine officers. This group advises the Commander-in-Chief on all major issues. Within the all-service strike command staff are what might be called instant headquarters, two specialized groups of officers and men who are organized into two joint task forces staff. Each of the 72 men headquarters teams can command a joint force of up to two Army divisions or they can be split into packages to command smaller forces. Whatever the size of the deployed joint force, Strike's communications support element will send mobile, radio and teletype equipment to provide the essential communications for commanding the forces and for receiving orders from headquarters. Strike, in effect, represents a shelf of command and force packages which can be selected by size and type. To meet a regional emergency, a small group or large numbers of men to face a global crisis. If a rapidly deployed initial force proves insufficient for the job, additional joint forces can be sent to the trouble spot in a steady stream on a building block concept as military operations require. At all times, Strike Command depends upon Strategic Air Command's jet tankers and the ever-ready Global Airlift Force of the Military Airlift Command for large-scale long-range movements of men and equipment. If large air-mobile Strike Command forces were deployed in overseas areas, it would be necessary to move heavy, large volume items by sea to provide long-range staying power. To have an effective fighting force ready for combat anywhere in the world, it takes not only top equipment and supplies, but more important are the men, trained men with the skills to use the goods and hardware to best advantage. Throughout the year and throughout the United States, joint field exercises are conducted to sharpen the skills of troops and commanders. Yesterday, close air support and air-landed reinforcement techniques a reconnaissance and intelligence operation of armor and tactical missiles. Although called exercises, these training programs are as realistic as possible. Here, opposing teams fight with gun cameras using film instead of ammunition. Hundreds of aircraft are involved, both supersonic jets and versatile, hard-hitting helicopters, which can come and go in areas where no fixed-wing aircraft can operate. Thousands of trucks and armored vehicles may be required. In a single exercise, more than 100,000 men may take part. The practice maneuvers are on such a vast scale that frequently military reservations, even the largest, are not big enough and public land must be leased. Sometimes the general public must be called upon for support and cooperation. Two or three or more states of the Union may be involved. No American government reservation is large enough to accommodate today's massive maneuver requirements. So private property owners are frequently asked to provide maneuver rights for exercises. Through an efficient claim system, any damage to property of these patriotic citizens is promptly compensated. Fortunately, the majority of the people approached are glad to cooperate. Massive describes one kind of strength command exercise. One shot is what the men call another smaller exercise, which is a test of rapid reaction capabilities. No prior notice is given. Simultaneously, an airborne battalion, a fighter squadron and a reconnaissance element are given the order to move. While Air Force tactical planes are flying to support bases, Army troops may be flown several hundred miles to an advanced staging base or they may be flown directly to an objective area where they make an airborne assault. Practical reconnaissance jets will already have taken complete photos of the objective area for the Joint Task Force Commander. Now tactical fighters soften up the objective area and provide close air support during the airborne assault. Often the go order is given during darkness to make the test rough and realistic. The forces will have had to gear up, fly to the objective with no alert and make their practice assault by daybreak. One shot to the troops, no notice exercises to commanders. These are tests which reflect clearly strength command philosophy. We go anytime, fight anywhere. Joint exercises are not confined to the United States. Periodically, our strike command tests its ability to move composite air strike forces and troops from one continent to another. Elements of the strike forces must be ready to fight within hours with their air-transported weapons and tactical aircraft or in some cases with heavier equipment which has been stockpiled strategically for use in a genuine emergency. For strikes officers and men, it's not just a matter of getting there. It's both getting there and being able to fight anywhere, alone or with an ally. When the orders come, these men are prepared to lead a rescue mission in a metropical jungle or match wets with a gorilla band. They are ready and able to trek for days through the snow or wage a war in one of the deserts of the world. Max Commander-in-Chief has additional reason to be interested in vertical forces because he has also been designated as Commander-in-Chief for United States military activity in Africa south of the Sahara, in the Middle East and in southern Asia. This is called the Miasa area, a big word representing large responsibilities. Take the phrase normal operation. These range from maintaining a small naval force, the United States Middle East force sailing in the Persian Gulf in the Red Sea area, to planning and operating the United States military assistance self-help program. The Commander-in-Chief must also keep in close liaison with the government, their armed forces and other U.S. agencies in the area. He must see to it that arms from America are delivered as needed and that the military services of friendly nations receive instruction in how to use them in their own defense and how to maintain internal stability according to their particular needs. These military assistance programs are designed to help our friends to help themselves. Wherever possible, U.S. Sink Miasa conducts training exercises with forces of our allies in this area. These practice operations are a natural outgrowth of the work of American military advisory groups and military missions in these areas of the world. The phrase joint combined exercise is being employed to its fullest more and more today. Here in the Middle East recently, for example, under a strike command joint task force, and allies' military forces combine to test their combat effectiveness under an allied command. Command Joint Task Force Commanders work with members of the Iranian High Command. American and Iranian paratroops make an airdrop together. American and Iranian Air Force pilots fly together. Joint airlifted and seaborn troops stage a mock invasion on Iranian soil. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps units all are coordinated under a joint American command then melded with the armed forces of an ally. Here men of different languages and different backgrounds are united in working together in a cause of common purpose, securing the chains of the free world's defense perimeter. An exercise such as Delaware reflects a clear picture of strike comms' basic nature. It also shows good cause for the creation of this command. It is an answer to the need that we be able to respond quickly with reasonable force, as President Johnson has said. Strike command today represents a welding of mighty air and ground forces unprecedented in American military history. A highly trained and highly skilled joint force unparalleled anywhere in the free world. The demand was for an American military force which could bring our military might to bear in a hurry in just the right amount, in dealing successfully with specific emergencies wherever and whenever they might occur. Strike command today is fully ready to fulfill this vital mission. It's a highly mobile force which can fight in the air or on the ground, in combating brushfire wars anywhere in the world or in meeting the challenge of all-out global warfare. Today strike command represents a vital force in our total defense structure. A force of unmatched flexibility and reliability, combining great mobility with unrivaled versatility. Unquestionably one of the strongest new additions to America's policy of peace through deterrent strength is the United States strike command.