A public television program by the U.S. Army entitled 'The Big Picture.' U.S. troops are seen hunkered down and looking through binoculars in a defensive position in Korea, during the Korean War. American soldiers riding atop a Sherman tank on a city street in Germany, during World War II. Ski troops moving across snowy hill in Alaska. U.S. Army amphibious assault training on a beach in Puerto Rico. Army Master Sergeant Stuart Queen, narrator, speaks about America's defense against threat of atomic attack in these times of lukewarm peace. View of mountainous region in Alaska. A cluster of Cup'it Eskimo dwellings is seen on Nunivak Island, in the Bering Sea. Several of the local inhabitants are fishing through holes cut in the ice. Vapor trails are seen from Soviet aircraft flying at high altitude. A sign on a tarpaulin displaying logo of the Army Signal Corps, reads,"Alaska Communication System, Long Distance Commercial Telephone-Telegraph." A tracked vehicle carries a soldier to a facility posting a sign reading, "Alaska Communications System Receiver Station." Several tall antennas loom above the site. The soldier, dressed in arctic gear, steps from the tracked vehicle and walks past several snow shoes, standing upright in the snow, to enter a white wooden building. Inside, a man in civilian clothes works at a battery of telecomunications equipment. He transmits a message about the aircraft sighting, to the Alaska Communication System facility in Fairbanks Alaska (briefly shown) by means of a telegraph key. From there it is relayed to a Signal Corps facility, shown, in Washington, DC. A soldier is seen Inside that facility, in a room filled with computers and telecommunications equipment. A Sergeant handles paper tape messages being sent and received by teletype. Another soldier plugs connections into a communications switchboard. Next, the camera pans over the entrance to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, in the Pentagon. More views of soldiers attending banks of teletype machines. Animated map displays paths of orders being transmitted to U.S. Air Defense Centers in San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, New York, and Atlanta. View from control room, of several U.S. Air Force F-94 Fighter Interceptor aircraft on an airfield ramp. A controller activates a Klaxon horn and pilots on alert, in the Fighter Interceptor Squadron ready room, jump up and scramble to their aircraft. A pair of F-94s taking off. One is number 51-5385. Next, a U.S. Navy F-9 fighter plane is seen taking off from an airfield. It displays tail code AE. It is followed by another F-9 aircraft.
Ten Martin B-10 bombers taxi and take off from Bolling Field, Washington, DC, for mapping flight to Alaska, and back. View of Army Air Corps Lieutenant Colonel Henry H. Arnold, who commands the operation. The ten Martin B-10 bombers in formation, flying overhead. Scene changes to their return, as B-10 bombers are seen flying over the Potomac River at Washington, DC. Colonel Arnold, standing with some of his pilots, accepts the MacKay Trophy from Secretary of War George Dern for their accomplishment.
Designed and inventor Richard Buckminster Fuller (Bucky Fuller) walks through woods and gets aboard a boat. Architectural design of his Geodesic dome. Children get out of his futuristic Dymaxion car invention. Architects reject the Dymaxion houses. Bucky Fuller gives lecture to students in Alaska about his designs and theories. Students take pictures.
A sign reads 'Border Operations'. Other signs on area roads read: "Ronshausen; Kreis Rotenburg; Zonen- Grenzbezirk." U.S. Army soldiers seen guarding key installations and supply lines in Germany. American troops keeping ready with training, crawling under live machine gun fire. U.S.Army Arctic Training Center in Big Delta, Alaska. Army troops training in snow on skis. U.S. Army Reserve and National Guard units being trained to increase their readiness. Army troops in routine activities, eating, etc. stop everything, and respond to battle stations when an alarm sounds.
American General William D Mitchell (aka Billy Mitchell) at a desk in his office in Middleburg, Virginia. General Mitchell points out the loopholes in air support at Long Island for New York. He urges that America must build up its strength in building more bomber aircraft. General Mitchell says that air power is the prime strength of any nation for directly attacking the enemy's key installations. The General demands the construction of an air base in Alaska.
Aircraft are used for different purposes in the United States. A U.S. Navy Loening amphibian aircraft in flight over a water body during tests performed prior to a U.S. Navy three year expedition to Alaska. The aircraft lowers its landing gear. By folding the wheels the ship is converted into a hydroplane. The Loening aircraft in flight. It raises its landing gear. It lands on water, taxis and rolls out of the water onto a beach.
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