Views of the Submarine tender USS Antaeus (AS-21) of Atlantic convoy, at anchor in Iceland, during World War 2, with about nine submarines tied up alongside. Scene shifts to a convoy underway in the Atlantic ocean. Various kinds of transport ships seen from time to time in the convoy. The U.S. New Mexico class battleship, USS Idaho (BB-42) passes to starboard of the camera ship. Scout planes are visible on her aft section. Scene shifts to camera ship, looking aft. A gun; a lifeboat on a davit; and a Curtiss SOC-1 scout-observation airplane are visible. A sailor watches as the USS Idaho passes to starboard. More transport ships are seen, low in the water. Camera pans aft, again, showing more of the camera ship, including covered guns in barbettes; two SOC-1 scout planes; the American flag; and behind that an anti-aircraft height finder. Scene shifts forward where officers are seen on upper deck with a gun barrel above their heads.Sailors on main deck prepare to deploy a float to recover a scout plane. Sailor stands on platform using semaphore flags to transmit a message. Barrel of a large gun in the foreground.View aft of a U.S. New Orleans class cruiser underway. Feet and legs of the semaphore signalman as he stands above the platform, on rungs of the circular railing at the signal station.
USS Honolulu (CL-48) in the South West Pacific Theater of World War II. A CL (Light Cruiser) underway at sea. Curtiss SOC Seagull aircraft on the deck of a ship. CL fires guns in background. 5 inch AA guns fired. The USS Helena & St. Louis underway. SOC on a catapult. Two CLs in a column. Stern of a ship in foreground. Men lounge aboard a ship.
USS Honolulu (CL-48) and other Light Cruisers fire at Kolombangara Island in the Pacific. Baker's flag on the USS Honolulu CL-48. SOC Seagull aircraft catapulted from it. CL (Light Cruiser) underway in background. A sailor looks out of the turret. The sailor looks through binoculars. Signal flags on the CL. The SOC approaches. Sailors on deck of the USS Honolulu. View of the nearby USS Helena (CL-50) underway as part of the task force. Sailors on the deck of the USS Honolulu. One sailor gets a hair cut. A sailor operating a film movie camera on a tripod, positioned above the gun turret. (World War II period).
A U.S. Navy Catalina flying boat in flight overhead. Two U.S aircraft carriers low on horizon. Several carrier-based aircraft flying around one carrier. Carrier-based planes fly overhead. Two Curtiss SOC Seagull Scout planes in formation overhead. Ship's crew firing practice rounds at sea. A Curtiss SOC Seagull airplane being launched by catapult. Sailors relaxing on fantail of ship. Views of ship's wake. An airplane lands on deck of aircraft carrier seen low on horizon. Sunset views of sea and wake and ships.
African American men and women carry signs and demonstrate for equal rights outside a restaurant or store in the United States for civil rights. Jesse Jackson leads crowd in his "I am somebody" chant. A sign in the gathered crowd reads, "Jesse Jackson Black Jesus". Views of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28 1963, highlighting civil rights issues for African Americans. Next scene is during the Selma to Montgomery march and shows Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife Coretta Scott King marching next to James Michael Letherer (Jim Letherer) of Saginaw, Michigan. (Letherer, who lost his right leg to cancer as a child, did the entire march on crutches.) Next scene shows African American people as they riot and flip over a car during racial riots. A building burns during race riots. Ernest Green talks to others at the headquarters for the Apprenticeship Program of the Workers Defense League, funded by the A. Philip Randolph Education Fund. A white man enters a voting booth. White and black people at a polling place. Narrator says that African American voting is increasing in America. Images of of Mayor Carl Stokes,a black political leader in Cleveland, Ohio; Jesse Jackson, Preacher; and Ernest Green (Ernie Green), Youth Organizer and Executive. View of grounds of the Washington and Lincoln Memorial teeming with protestors against inequality and segregation during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. View of United States Supreme Court building and point of view shot as camera approaches interior chamber of the Supreme Court. Black students outside a school. Exterior view of John Philip Sousa Junior High School in Washington DC shows integrated student body. View of white students demonstrating against integration at Little Rock. Interior view of integrated elementary school classroom with both white and black children. Curb side sit-in demonstration in a southern city. Picketing demonstrators outside the S&W Cafeteria hold signs that read, "Christian Morality Condemns Segregation" and "All Men are Created Equal." African American demonstrators at the lunch counter of the S&W Cafeteria are served a meal by the waitress, along side white patrons at the lunch counter. View of a swimming pool that has been closed by a municipality rather than allow integration.
Scene of the White House. Various scenes of President John F Kennedy working in his office in the White House in Washington DC. President Kennedy at his desk, and with advisors. President arrives at Cape Canaveral on November 16, 1963 for a tour and to witness a Polaris missile launch. Scenes of John F. Kennedy talking with NASA personnel and watching a rocket launch. Wernher Von Braun is seen with Kennedy. Audio includes Kennedy's statement from 1962 at Rice University when he said "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon, and returning him safely to the earth." President Kennedy views models of spacecraft and listens to NASA engineers. View of President Kennedy at the White House presenting the NASA Distinguished Service Medal to astronaut John Glenn on February 23, 1962, after Glenn's successful Friendship 7 mission. A helicopter carrying President John Kennedy lands on a ship on November 16, 1963. A sailor blows a whistle. President meets officers on the ship and is seen on the bridge. President Kennedy observes the under water launch of a Polaris missile through binoculars. President Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B Johnson with a Navy officer looking at a system used to operate and launch rockets. Audio overlay includes a speech by Kennedy reflecting on the threat of nuclear war.