Pilot of the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron (Hurricane Hunters) getting last minute briefing at Squadron operations, in Bermuda. A WB-29A of the Squadron, with unit logo and "Hurricane Hunters,"painted on its fuselage. The logo depicts a pilot on a flying carpet, with weather instruments, holding a crystal ball and an umbrella. It also includes a Lightning flash and clouds and rain drops. As the aircraft taxis slowly past the camera, the seal of the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) can be seen below its tail. Scene shifts to Dade County, Florida, where a uniformed Red Cross woman helps two women into her station wagon.
Film opens with camera panning across Kindley Field, Bermuda, where WB-50 and WB-29 aircraft of the U.S. Air Force 59th Weather Reconnaissance Flight (Hurricane Hunters) are parked. Cluster of buildings and checkered tanks are seen behind them. Scene shifts to crew of a WB-29, in flight gear, including back pack parachutes, posing in front of their aircraft. The Aircraft Commander checks their chutes and they board the aircraft.
A U.S. Air Force soldier and an British man walk through the abandoned RAF Molesworth in England, 1954, ten years post-WW2. The two men walk through a grassy field toward old buildings, pointing occasionally. The two men approach a ruined building and the American inspects through a window before the two step inside. Close up of the American airman as he opens the old window and looks in. Various angles.
United States Army soldiers of 196th Light Infantry Brigade attend religious service led by a U.S. Army chaplain in Que Son Valley area of Vietnam, near Fire Support Base West. Protestant chaplain preaches to American Army soldiers. Chaplain reads from the bible. Soldiers pray and follow along with the service. Portable altar and Chaplain's helmet on ground beside him. (Vietnam War period).
UH-1D helicopter arrives at landing zone of U.S. Fire Support Base Nancy in Vietnam. It lands in the fenced area. United States Army soldiers board the helicopters. Wire fence is seen. UH-1D takes off. Some soldiers still wait for pickup. (Vietnam War period).
President Lyndon B Johnson gives a speech at the John Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD 21218, United States) in Baltimore. He talks about U.S. relations with South Vietnam, peace talks and proposes an aid program. He offers to hold diplomatic discussions to end the war in Vietnam. He states the need for an independent South Vietnam. “Such peace demands an independent South Viet-Nam—securely guaranteed and able to shape its own relationships to all others—free from outside interference—tied to no alliance—a military base for no other country.” President Johnson said. The President calls upon South East Asia nations for a co-operative economic drive, and asks the United Nations and nations like the Soviet Union to join in. “For our part I will ask the Congress to join in a billion-dollar American investment in this effort as soon as it is underway. And I would hope that all other industrialized countries, including the Soviet Union, will join in this effort to replace despair with hope, and terror with progress.” President Johnson said. Men working with heavy machinery in a South East Asian industrial plant. View of working men constructing a modern bridge in Vietnam. Vietnamese farmer threshing harvested rice. A doctor examines a Vietnamese man. The crowd applauds the President's speech. Views of Vietnamese people working on farms, in technical and scientific laboratories, and industrialization in Vietnam. A European or American professor teaches a Vietnamese student inside a laboratory. Vietnamese women working inside a textile factory. Vietnamese farmers carrying produce. President Johnson quotes from the book of Deuteronomy in the Bible. “We may well be living in the time foretold many years ago when it was said: “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.” Well, we will choose life. In so doing we will prevail over the enemies within man, and over the natural enemies of all mankind.” President Johnson concludes his speech.
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