Desron (Destroyer Squadron) 20 returns from Vietnam. Crewmen on the fantail of a DD as it is tied up at a shipyard in Newport, Rhode Island. A stern line seen over in the foreground. A young boy holds a sign which reads 'Welcome Home Johnny'. A port bow view shows USS Brownson (DD-868) being eased up towards the pier for tying up. A silhouetted view of crewmen up on the bow of the ship. A flag on the stern of another DD seen in the foreground. Line handlers, handling lines on the pier for the USS Brownson, in deep silhouette. A navy sentry holds onto the line keeping the crowd back. Crewmen on the fantail of the DD. A woman holding a small boy in her arms waves. A small lad holds a sign 'Welcome home Johnny'. Brow being put in place by one of the dock cranes of the DD. A large group of dependents. One of them holds a large sign reading: 'Welcome Home Don'. A mother and many other dependents wave. Three enlisted men man the rail of the DD during the tying up. Crewmen aboard a DD. One of them waves and talks to someone on the pier. Reunions take place. An officer in the foreground kisses his wife. A man recording the events with his movie camera. The dependents rush towards the brow to go aboard one of the DDs.
Trailer trucks loaded with bombs enters the munitions loading docks at a Strategic Air Command Base in Guam, during the Vietnam War. Armorers assemble tail fins and insert fuses in AN-M113A1 thousand pound bombs. Caps being removed and fuses being screwed into bomb noses. Arming wires fastened to the fuses. 750 pound bombs being unloaded from racks and mounted under wings of B-52. Loaded B-52s taking off from airfield in darkness and climbing to high cruise altitudes from where the setting sun is still visible, as they fly West.
Presidential candidate Richard Nixon appears before a panel of citizens in a program, Michigan, United States. The television program is named 'Man in the arena'. The panel sits in the center of the studio. Audience seated in the studio. Richard Vidmer seated in the panel asks Richard Nixon a question about his idea of forming a Volunteer Army. Richard Nixon talks about the Vietnam War and how a Volunteer Army would help in such wars. His daughters seated in the audience. Audience applauds Richard Nixon as he answers in the arena.
Views of civilian airlines and examples of how they and U.S. Air Force Reserve and National Guard aircraft augment the active U.S. military airlift Command capability in time of emergency. Civilian narrator speaks from inside the U.S. Air Force Military Airlift Command (MAC) Headquarters Command Center, at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois. Next scene shows U.S. commercial airline passenger airplanes parked on a ramp. United Airlines, Delta Airlines, American Airlines, and Pan American aircraft are seen, some taxi, some parked, some taking off. A Boeing 727 jet taxis on the ramp. A Western Airlines 727 taxis behind a set of baggage carts being pulled by a tractor. The Narrator is discussing the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) to which most U.S. airlines belong, and which can be activated by the Secretary of Defense, for airlift support in the event of a national defense emergency. The Western 727 aircraft takes off. A TWA 727 aircraft takes off. U.S. military personnel and dependent women and children are seen descending a stairway from a commercial airliner contracted by the Department of Defense. Military supplies are seen being offloaded by U.S. Airmen, onto a traveling cargo carrier, from a Flying Tigers Boeing 707 aircraft. Refugees from Southeast Asia are gathered and processed at an airport and then board an American Airlines Boeing 747 aircraft. Refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia boarding an Overseas National Airways Boeing 747. An American Airlines 747 taking off. A glimpse of the narrator in MAC headquarters, at Scott Air Force Base, is followed by a mix of private and military aircraft on a parking ramp, including a, presumably privately owned, Japanese Nakajima B5N Navy Type 97 Carrier Attack Bomber (Kate) with Japanese markings. U.S.Air National Guard C-130 and C-123 aircraft are seen taxiing, and taking off from this civilian airfield.
Responsibility of United States Air Force MAC during war time. People carry a wounded on stretcher into a Military Airlift Command (MAC) C-9 aircraft. Trained flight nurses and medical technicians board the plane. Men arrange stretchers inside the plane. MAC planes land and take off. View of Aero-medical evacuation during the Vietnam War in South East Asia. Soldiers carry injured United States Army soldier into a helicopter ambulance in the late 1960s or early 1970s.Medical personnel attend to the wounded on stretchers in a C-9 plane.
A man talks about American MAC medical missions from the MAC command headquarters. A map shows the path taken by a medically equipped C-141 from Irkutsk to Yokota Air Base hospital, Japan. Ground crewmen signal to a United States Air Force Military Airlift Command (MAC) aircraft. MAC planes deliver relief material to people during the floods in Pakistan. Men move towards the helicopter along with supplies. Supplies delivered during the famine and drought in North Central Africa. Men carry sacks of China rice. Destruction caused due to an earthquake in Guatemala. Cartons of clothes and other supplies loaded into a MAC plane. Plane taxis and takes off. Pilots talk on radio. U.S. prisoners of war brought back from Vietnam during Operation Home Coming. U.S. President Jimmy Carter exits a helicopter at Andrews Air Force Base and shakes the hand of a general. President Jimmy Carter climbs steps to Air Force One and enters the aircraft. Air Force One takes off from Andrews Air Force Base.