Operation New Life and Operation New Arrival in the United States at the end of the Vietnam War. A building in a receiving area of Fort Indiantown Gap (FIG) near Jonestown, Pennsylvania. A sign board near the building reads: 'US Army Task Force New Arrivals Receiving Station'. Members of the 401st Personnel Service Company lining up in formation. Troops and Women's Army Corps (WACs) enter the building to prepare for the arrival of Vietnamese refugees. Members being briefed by an officer. Officer explains the use of paper forms. Soldiers and WACs listen. Officer addresses them. Members look at the forms. I believe the date this was shot was in late April we were there to stock all of the building before the refugees arrived. These solders and WACs were flown in from Ft. Carson. That day the fort was nearly a banded maybe 25 regular stationed there until our plane landed. We stocked every barracks with everything from tooth brushes, toilet paper to sheet and blankets. In a couple weeks we changed a ghost town into a town of about 30,000 people. I was in the second platoon front line next to the shortest WACs in the army.
Legislators entering a hall in Czechoslovakia, in 1948. Inside,an image of the Small Coat of Arms of the Republic of Czechoslovakia (1920) dominates the scene. New scene shows Gustav Husak, acting Prime Minister, delivering an address urging support for the Communist Party. The next sequence shows violent Communist-led demonstrations, as armed trade unionists riot in the Prague streets, attacking the offices of the political opposition. Police attempt to restore order. On February 25, 1948, the communists achieve a Czechoslovak coup d'état. On February 27th, Czech President, Edvard Benes, receives a delegation including communist Premier Klement Gottwald and the 12 new members of the cabinet, at the Presidential Palace. He is seen signing documents accepting the communist cabinet. Change of scene shows Czech Foreign Minister, Jan Masaryk, giving a speech rejecting the change. (He remained in office, but died under suspicious circumstances on On March 10, 1948.) View of Masaryk in his casket. Mourners at his funeral.The Czech Parliament Building with flag at half staff. President Benes seen strolling, using a cane, accompanied by his wife, Hana Benes, in the garden of their summer home, Benesova vila, in Sezimovo Usti. Narrator notes that he refused to sign a new constitution drawn up by the communists. He died of natural causes at his villa on September 3, 1948. Scenes of his funeral and of him in his casket. Views of Benes' state funeral, with mourners lining the streets. View of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Narrator describes circumstances using Churchill's term "Iron Curtain." A communist parade in an Eastern European city. A person who was roughed up on the street. View of East German uprising in 1953, being suppressed with Soviet tanks. Uprising in Poland in 1955 being put down by local police and Russian soldiers. Polish musicians playing and examples of Polish political cartoons permitted under relaxed communist rule.
Many Polish refugees are seen in the final phase of their monumental trek of three years and three thousand miles from Poland, during World War 2. Scene shifts to Poland in 1939, where polish refugees crowd roads carrying their belongings in wooden carts and other conveyances. They are seen at a rest stop where they obtain food. Animated map shows path of refugees fleeing East into the Soviet Union, following the German invasion in August, 1939. The path continues Southeast in 1941, as they flee from the German campaign, Operation Barbarossa, into the Soviet Union. Their journey continues along the west coast of the Caspian Sea, through the Caucasus, to Persia (Iran). Views of refugees arriving at the Persian border, where they are seen near many tents, and being provided with articles of clothing from British and American Red Cross Stations. Refugees donning new shoes and other items. Young girls having their hair styled. Refugees sit at long tables where they receive hot meals. A teacher conducts an outdoor class for Polish refugee children. Closeup of children at their desks. Refugee women are seen tilling soil to plant crops, while fathers and grown sons and daughters leave to join the new armies of the Polish Government in Exile. Views of Polish women, in uniforms marching and of uniformed armed Polish soldiers, as well becoming part of the Allied war against the Axis powers. Polish refugees at an outdoor shrine, offering prayers for the safety of their members in the military. New polish refugee arrivals at the Persian border being greeted by others, many of whom are family members.
Opening scene shows the Boghra diversion dam and associated irrigation canal built by Morrison-Knudsen Construction Company (MK) along the Helmand River in Afghanistan. Three MKA (Morrison-Knudsen-Afghanistan) engineers stand on the bank of the new irrigation canal of this project. Glimpse of a small power plant built on the canal. A man turns a large wheel releasing water from lateral canals into the main canal which would irrigate an experimental farming area. An MKA yellow truck,carrying three Afghans in the back, drives through an ancient gate to the headquarters for this experimental farm at an ancient caravan fortress named Nad-e Ali. Next, an Afghan is seen driving a tractor pulling a set of harrows to till the soil. A field where seed was planted. Scene shifts to later when the seeds have grown and an Afghan farmers are seen harvesting the new grain by hand. The next year, fields of alfalfa are seen from the first year's seeding. Another tractor is seen working at the edge of a field of crop. Afghan farmers use hand cultivators to tend the crops. View of large fields of crops. An Afghan boy stands on the bank of the Boghra canal. View of camels grazing in sparse desert area. Scene shifts to Afghan and MKA officials negotiating another contract. View of brass sign on the Export Import Bank in Washington, DC. Inside, officials of the Bank are seated around a table. (Narrator states the Bank provided a 22 million dollar loan for the new extended construction contract.) View of the Helmand River (and its deep canyon Northwest of Kandahar) and the Arghandab River, where large dams were to be constructed. Dump trucks are next seen commencing work at the Arghandab site, building a work road atop a dike along the side of the river. Camera pans across the broad sweep of the project underway. Construction equipment of all types seen moving along the work road and at work atop the dam. Afghan workers operating power shovels. Earth and stones moving on a conveyor belt. Wooden forms being built and steel reinforcing bars being installed. Afghans clearing areas for drilling operations. Afghan powder men ram charges into areas to be blasted. View of man pushing handle to ignite the charges. Explosion raises smoke, debris and dust. More views of construction equipment in operation Views of the dam at about the 200 foot height.
Many commercial barges tied up next to one another along banks of a river blocked by a destroyed bridge in France during World War 2. Numerous tug boats also tied up along the river bank. View from one bank of the remains of the bridge completely blocking river traffic. A man rows a small boat from the near shore. Camera pans over the wreckage. Next workers are seen repairing the bridge. Water flows rapidly through an open section of new substructure. A barge loaded with men and steam driven equipment is on the up-river side of the bridge. Black smoke issues from burning coal or oil powering the barge. A single new walkway spans above the bridge opening. Next is a closeup of the work barge with steam rising from it. A different section of the bridge structure is seen next, with a gang of workmen on new bridge decking and others working from below on a barge. Closeup of workers installing the bridge decking. One is cutting excess length of a board, with a hand saw. Several men looking over the edge of the bridge deck at water flowing through spillways underneath it. Closeup of a diver in complete diving gear, including a metal helmet, working at the base of the bridge. Man climbing a ladder from a steel section of bridge. Worker using an Oxy-Acetylene Cutting Torch to remove a damaged section of steel. Tugboats plying the river. Local citizens watching the tugboats from atop a downstream bridge. as boat traffic resumes with the upstream bridge repaired. Closeup of tugboat passing under the bridge. Glimpse of tugboat under a graceful undamaged bridge. Closeup of a bulk carrier powered barge passing a bridge filled with spectators. A clamshell bucket grabbing material from the barge and raising it to load it somewhere.
The Grohar brothers, grocers, induce workers to build a new store in Joliet, Illinois, during the Great Depression. Unemployed debtors including carpenters,brick layers,plasterers,grocers and other artisans work on building of a new store to pay off their due debts. The new store known as 'the store that friendship built'. A cement trolley on ground. Two men note. Workers paint roof. Workers eat food.
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