USS Preble (DLG-15) underway in the Pacific Ocean. Starboard of USS Preble in view with number 15 clearly visible on her bow. Smoke rises up from her stack. Aircraft on the flight deck of U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63). The flight deck personnel walk past the aircraft. The aircraft scattered on the flight deck. (Note: The USS Preble (DLG-15) was decommissioned 31 January 1969, and recommissioned again, as DDG-46, on 23 May 1970.)
The December 1, 1969 Draft Lottery for the year 1970 is held at the United States Selective Service headquarters in Washington, D.C. The draft lottery is led by General Lewis B. Hershey, Selective Service Director. The ceremony begins with a benediction, and then an official pours slips of paper containing birth dates into a glass bowl. Congressman Alexander Pirnie of New York draws the first birth date. He declares the date, September 14, and another man pastes the birth date next to a number on a board. Members of the Selective Service Youth Advisory Committee draw additional birth dates and the board is filled out with the draft sequence.
The Selective Service System (SSS) holds a draft lottery in 1969. The Lottery selection system chooses soldiers for induction into the Vietnam War. Members of the Selective Service Youth Advisory Committee participate in the draft, choosing birth dates from a glass bowl. The dates are read aloud and posted on the draft board. One young man protests by flashing a Peace sign with his fingers every time he chooses a draft number.
Explosion of an unknown/unidentified atomic bomb or nuclear bomb device during a nuclear weapon test. Bright flash illuminates clouds with orange and red. Ball of fire erupting upward in night sky. Entire sky is illuminated. Explosion fading and sky growing darker around orange and red area at center of explosion. Part of a 1969 U.S. Air Force film reel, but the year and location of the test is unknown.
Former U.S. war correspondents in Normandy, France to mark the 25th anniversary of Allied invasion of France during World War II. Correspondents outside a cafe near Normandy as they prepare to leave a luncheon. Retired General J. Lawton Collins is escorted by a uniformed U.S. Army officer to a waiting car. View of the Normandy coastline from a moving car. American flag on the bonnet of a car as it drives along the road. Graves at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. Wife of a correspondent walks amidst graves at the cemetery. Grave of Wesley J. Rubenstein with a Star of David Jewish headstone. An F-4E Phantom aircraft in flight overhead. American and French flags hoisted at the cemetery. Correspondents tour the cemetery. View of a plaque ad time capsule unveiled by the correspondents and presented that day. It says, "In memory of General Dwight D. Eisenhower and the forces under his command, this sealed capsule containing news reports of the June 6, 1944 Normandy Landings is placed here - by the newsmen who were there. June 6, 1969." A man with a baby tied to his back. Correspondents speak during the ceremony. A photographer clicks pictures.
A helicopter is seen in flight, high overhead. Scene shifts to an OH-6 helicopter of the U.S. Army 54th Field Artillery Group, parked on the ground at a Base Camp, during the Vietnam War. Camera focuses on a 155mm M109 howitzer in a dugout position. U.S. troops standing atop the M109 and others look over their location, where mounds of earth are piled up from excavated defensive positions. Closeup of soldiers taking measurements for the defenses. another view of two persons strapping in an OH-6 helicopter. Soldiers working on the defense preparations, nearby. The helicopter takes of raising lots of dust. Camera follows it as it climbs and passes over the U.S. base, showing various buildings and other features of the base. (Note: Reportedly, the 54th Artillery Group was deactivated in November 1969 and all aircraft were given to other units.)