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Today, the latest weapons, coupled with the fighting skill of the American soldier, stand ready.
On the alert all over the world to defend this country, you, the American people, against aggression.
This is The Big Picture, an official television report to the nation from the United States Army.
Now, to show you part of The Big Picture, here is Sergeant Stuart Queen.
Today, a milestone in the modernization of the United States Army is taking place at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
It is the reorganization day ceremony of the new 101st Airborne Division,
better known as the Screaming Eagles of World War II fame.
Deactivated after World War II and a brilliant combat service record,
the 101st is well on its way toward the new atomic army concept,
with weapons, new equipment, new organization, and tactical employment
to play a key role in the Army's plans for the atomic era.
Here today is being baptized a revolutionary fighting machine,
which may be the prototype for Army divisions of the future.
All-purpose units which can fly at a moment's notice to trouble spots anywhere in the world.
Fittingly, the reorganization ceremonies are opened with a field prayer for world peace.
The division chaplain prays that peace and understanding among the nations of the world be granted.
On hand to unsheath the colors of the reborn 101st are Secretary of the Army Wilbur M. Brucker
and Army Chief of Staff General Maxwell D. Taylor.
Overhead as part of the ceremonies, a mass paratroop demonstration gets underway.
Among the jumpers are many combat veterans of the original 101st Airborne Division.
Courage is the chief characteristic of the paratrooper,
but as well as courage, he's got to have stamina and a driving will to fight.
It's this kind of soldier that makes up the Airborne Division
and gives it the capability of carrying out decisive combat on any portion of the Earth's surface.
He's equipped to move fast and hit hard.
Heavy equipment from howitzers to trucks land with the Airborne infantry of today.
Mobile and flexible, the 101st is prepared to fight in independent actions,
accomplish its mission, sustain itself, then move on to another trouble spot to repeat the cycle.
Here today, too, is the division's mascot, getting a look at some of the new weapons at the division's command.
The Honest John Rocker, capable of carrying an atomic warhead,
is one of the new weapons giving the division added punch.
The assault-type aircraft, like the C-123,
are capable of carrying far greater payloads than their counterparts of World War II.
Moreover, they take off and land in much shorter distances.
Almost any open field may become a landing strip for the 123.
The traditional army mule of the horse-drawn artillery days is fast becoming a vanishing species,
taking its place as the new mechanical mule.
It's built to transport weapons, ammunition, or men.
Of all its many potentialities, the mechanical mule will probably prove most valuable to the foot soldier
by increasing his cross-country mobility.
A real eye-opener on display here today is the Army's newest means of air transportation for troops in the field.
Officially, it's the DeLacquer Aerocycle. Unofficially, the Flying Platform.
The high point in the day's ceremonies is an address by Army Chief of Staff, General Maxwell D. Taylor.
Secretary Bucker, officers and men of the 101st Airborne Division,
this is indeed a wonderful day for me to return to this field in Kentucky
to attend this celebration which marks the rebirth of one of the truly great fighting units of American military history.
I am happy to be here both as Chief of Staff and as a former member and commanding general of this division.
As Chief of Staff, I look upon this unit as a symbol of the new Army being brought into being.
You have the honor to pioneer in a field of great military importance.
This division will have in it greater firepower, greater mobility, increased readiness to respond to aggression
than we've ever found about the world, than any division-sized unit in our past history.
As such, it will act as a prototype for the development of other units with similar characteristics.
You officers and men who participate in this experiment must show bold thought, initiative, readiness to accept change
in order that we may exploit to the maximum the military assets of this new organization.
Now as a former member of the World War II Division, I am happy to be here to see the colors of the old division once more fly proudly in the breeze.
The 101st Airborne Division was a truly great unit in which to have served in time of war.
It was great because of the people who were in it.
For the many veterans of the original 101st who formed the hard core of the new division, strong memories are revived.
For me it goes all the way back to 1940, Fort Benning, Fort Bragg, and other places.
August 42, the old 101st and the 82nd were activated as twin airborne divisions, the country's first.
When General Lee took over the Screaming Eagles, he sure hit it right on the head.
The 101st has no history, he said, but it has a rendezvous with destiny.
And we had a lot to learn, and we learned it the hard way, by trial and error.
There weren't any manuals, and nobody had this kind of combat experience.
In jumps and training problems, we learned how to land and organize, how to seize key targets.
Get tough, we told each other. We're paratroops. We're number one guys.
A year later, we're in England. Everybody's glad to see us, from the Prime Minister down the line.
The big brass is very interested in how our training's been going,
because we're slated to handle a big job in cracking what's been advertised as Fortress Europe.
We're not going through the wall, we're going over it.
And we're going in in the dark, on the night before D-Day.
Target, the Cherbourg Peninsula, facing Utah Beach.
Objective, knock out enemy forces guarding routes inland.
The British have been saying an airborne assault will be too costly.
They urged General Eisenhower to give up the idea,
but his own staff figured it was essential for the rapid development of the overall invasion plan.
Even today, Ike says it was one of the toughest decisions of the war.
So then, on D-Day minus one, we Screaming Eagles are ready for our first combat jump.
Ike tried to hide his own tension, and ease ours,
by kidding us about the taste of the cocoa and linseed oil smeared on our faces.
At midnight, we're heading for the plains. 6,600 Screaming Eagles.
Waiting for us are the C-47s. The payoff of our training is only a few hours off.
The invasion fleet is already in the channel. There's no turning back now.
We're as ready as we'll ever be.
There'll be a few surprises for us, sure, but there'll be more for the enemy waiting down there.
Then we're on our way.
Man, the weather and the flack and the dark. We got trouble.
Some guys are dropping way away from their drop zones.
Even General Taylor, who's running the show, lands all alone.
So we team up in small groups and go after the bridges and causeways the best we can.
We're fighting against time, too.
Daylight's coming, and the invasion fleet is heading for the beaches of Normandy.
The mightiest seaborne invasion of all time is coming in,
and they're counting on our airborne invasion to pick the lock of Fortress Europe.
By the time the first troops are landed by the Anvibs, we've knocked off our key objectives,
with small bunches of men overwhelming large enemy units.
With our D-Day objectives out of the way, we move against a town called Carentan.
It's a railroad and highway center.
We're not taking losses, but taking the high ground, infiltrating and finally pinching off the town
and its diehard defenders.
We beat off counterattacks one after another
and keep the way open between the invasion beaches.
By the time we round up the prisoners, nearly one out of every four Screaming Eagles is a casualty.
After we've seized all our objectives, the 101st takes a well-deserved rest.
At the town of Carentan, many of us receive the Silver Star.
Later, many will receive the Medal of Honor.
The people really take us to heart, which means more than medals to us.
But our job's just begun.
Back in England, we get ready for Operation Market Basket.
This is going to be the biggest airdrop of the war.
Now we're teaming up with the 82nd and a British airborne division.
This time we're going into Holland.
On the continent, the Allies have pushed the Germans north of Ghent and Antwerp
and west of a north-south highway leading to Eindhoven and Veckel.
The plan's for us to grab a highway for a breakthrough to the north.
This will open up the way for a drive across the Rhine right into Germany.
Man, if we were nervous about dropping into Normandy, we're really keyed up for this operation.
We're going in at daylight.
It's just about midway when we cross the Channel and then Belgium toward our drop zones in Holland.
Objective, Eindhoven and its highway bridges.
Over the drop zones, nearly 7,000 Screaming Eagles bail out.
While the landing in Normandy was a mixed-up mess at the start,
the drop into Holland turns out to be a piece of cake.
Weather and daylight are on our side, and at first, there isn't much enemy opposition.
Gliders bring in men, material, and equipment.
By the hundreds, these noiseless aircraft swoop into the flat fields of Holland.
Naturally, it's not a 100 percent easy show.
As the landings continue, a fog moves in on the fields.
This makes it mighty rough on the glider guys.
The Dutch people welcome us warmly.
Their underground rallies to our aid.
This time, our units assemble quickly and move toward their objectives right on schedule.
After years under the Nazi heel, the Dutch farmers and townspeople turn themselves inside out trying to help us.
You might say it went too easy for us at the beginning, but with cheering crowds and smiling faces to greet us.
So we've taken the Germans by surprise.
Right now, they're getting ready to give us their version of a happy welcome.
When they open up, we know we're in for a real fight.
We've got to fight them for every bridge, for every canal.
We fight them for every inch to hold and expand our airhead.
We smash through artillery, machine gun, and mortar and small arms fire and take the town to Wijnhoven,
trying to keep the highway open so our own armor can roll to the north across the Rhine.
But a little rain is able to do what the Wehrmacht couldn't.
The low-lying fields of Holland turn into a quagmire.
Our offensive bogs down, up to its knees in gloomy mud.
We took Wijnhoven all right, but the campaign to strike through Arnheim falls apart.
Lieutenant General Louis Brereton, commanding general of the 1st Airborne Army,
paid this tribute to the 101st and the 82nd Divisions.
Everybody will remember Arnheim, but no one will remember that two American divisions
fought their hearts out in the Dutch Canal country and whipped hell out of the Germans.
For us now, the old saying about no rest for the weary holds true.
We spent three days of combat in Holland, then suddenly from France we're heading for Belgium.
We have to get there and fast.
We load into trucks with whatever equipment we can lay our hands on.
Later, supplies would be dropped to us from the air.
Our column runs all night with blazing lights, ignoring the risk of attack by the Luftwaffe.
In the heat of the fog and bad flying weather, the Wehrmacht launches a desperate counterattack.
They're throwing 25 divisions at us.
Our lines reel back. The battle of the bulge is on.
Our mission is to defend Bastogne, a Belgian road and rail center.
Everybody else is getting out of town. We're going in.
We take positions in the open fields, positions we hope will give us command of the situation at Bastogne.
Even the weather's got an end for us.
Not only is it freezing cold, but it's got a snow on top of that.
Any way you look at it, things can't get much worse.
Germans have cut the main road to the south and now we're surrounded.
We're cold and hungry and short of supplies.
Our ammo has reached a dangerous low.
The enemy figures he's got us just where he wants us.
After all, they've got us in a box.
The weather's so lousy we can't get any supplies by air, which is what we've been counting on.
So they send over the message, surrender or be annihilated.
Our answer, just one word, nuts.
I guess that kind of irritates them.
We really pour it on.
Come morning, though, we're still in business, trying to make every precious round count.
At the slightest break in the battle action, we take time out for religious services.
At this point, about all we can do is pray for some kind of help.
Then, just like an answer to our prayers, the weather lets up on us.
For the first time in what seems like years, allied planes are able to get into the air.
And oh, what a lovely sight they are.
Fighters, bombers and cargo planes.
The enemy throws all the flak he has at the big birds, but the planes come on just the same.
And what looks best of all to us are our fat friends, the C-47s, bringing the guns and ammo we need so bad.
When we talk about manna from heaven, this is it for us.
We rush out to grab the supplies to get shells into our guns.
This is the stuff to put the claws back in the screaming eagles.
And before the fragile, noiseless birds come in to give us a hand.
Bringing more equipment and more men to help us hold the battered city.
Now at last we got the what with to fight back.
Again and again, enemy tanks and infantry smash through our thin line of bazooka and riflemen.
But every time we throw them out again, the German high command is tearing their hair out.
We're forcing them to commit larger and larger forces to knock out Bastogne.
We're breaking the momentum of his whole attack.
Along with American armor and tank destroyers, we're stopping cold everything thrown at us from north, east, south and west.
Finally, after 33 days of fighting, the enemy's had it.
The doom of the last desperate Wehrmacht surge of the war is sealed.
But holding Bastogne cost us a lot too.
3,500 of us have given our blood or our lives.
There have been many, many individual acts of heroism by officers and enlisted men.
They'll be remembered whenever the name Bastogne is mentioned.
For our job, we get a very special honor.
Never before in American history has a full division been cited for gallantry and action.
Another first for the 101st.
Now the Wehrmacht is cracking up so fast we aren't needed as paratroopers anymore.
We become part and parcel of the ground forces that are driving the German war machine deeper and deeper into their homeland.
As the enemy falls back, we roll right up after it, not giving them a chance to catch his breath.
It's been a long, hard road from Fort Benning and Fort Bragg.
So now, after five years of training and fighting, we're coming to the end of the line.
Berchtesgaden, Hitler's mountain retreat.
This had been a playground for Hitler and his cronies.
Now it's under new management, and we're getting our first real break for some sightseeing.
The number one attraction is Hitler's Eagle Nest, a very proper spot for the screaming eagles to finally come to rest.
But a tough fighting bird won't stay grounded, as the ceremonies here today prove.
A division called upon to appear in such roles and in such places could not have failed to be a great division.
And I can assure you, your forebears who preceded you justified the destiny which they were allowed to perform.
Now in closing, I want to congratulate all of you who are today wearing the proud patch of the 101st Airborne Division.
You can see by the former commanders who have returned from all over the world the importance they attach to their former associations here.
To us who were screaming eagles in World War II, it is our proudest boast that we were men of the 101st.
So I charge you all, you who are joining us for the first time, to be worthy of the heritage which you have received from the past.
Following General Taylor's address, another demonstration is held as part of today's ceremonies.
Members of the 502nd Airborne Group of the 101st Airborne Division take part in a simulated combat action
to illustrate the speed and mobility with which these special, highly trained groups can perform.
This 11-man team has been given the mission of attacking and destroying a small bridge held by aggressor forces.
Members of such groups have been trained to fight and defend themselves with both conventional and atomic weapons.
Speed, mobility, and versatility are the key concepts behind the Army's new look.
Fast-moving, highly skilled paratroopers are part of the Army's answer to the pressing military demands of today
when brushfire wars may, without warning, break out anywhere in the world.
[♪dramatic music playing♪♪, gunshots firing, explosions popping, music playing♪♪, gunshots firing, explosions popping, music playing♪♪.]
Fundamental to the thinking behind operations such as this is the demand for foot soldiers
who can fight independent actions in small groups, who can accomplish their mission swiftly
and then move on fast to wherever their presence might be needed next.
You have only to multiply the number of squads such as this one to hit the enemy hard and suddenly in widespread areas.
[♪dramatic music playing♪♪, gunshots firing, explosions popping, music playing♪♪, gunshots firing, explosions popping, music playing♪♪.]
Once the immediate objective has been achieved, the squad pulls out hurriedly.
While formerly the paratrooper would be left as an infantryman to fight his way over the ground,
new techniques employed by the 101st Airborne Division are revolutionizing the paratroopers' combat methods.
Today, small light aircraft come in to pick up the squad and fly them to another area of operation.
Such techniques point toward greater and greater mobility for the foot soldier.
At day's end and the conclusion of today's reorganization ceremonies,
the 101st Airborne Division marches forward to refulfill, if called upon, the prophecy made years ago
that the 101st has a rendezvous with destiny.
[♪orchestra singing meals with angels♪♪].
that will always make them free.
Jump right down through the skies of blue,
keep your eye on the job to be done.
We're the men of the hundred first,
we'll fight till the battles won.
As Secretary of the Army Brooker said in his address
at the Reorganization Day ceremonies,
the 101st Airborne Division is streamlined,
but it's got the power and the punch
and the magnitude and the integrity to go with it,
and it has many times the striking power of divisions of the past.
Now this is Sergeant Stuart Queen
inviting you to be with us again next week
for another look at your Army in action on The Big Picture.
The Big Picture is a weekly television report to the nation
on the activities of the Army at home and overseas.
Produced by the Army Pictorial Center,
presented by the United States Army in cooperation with this station.
You too can be an important part of The Big Picture.
You can proudly serve with the best equipped, the best trained,
the best fighting team in the world today, the United States Army.