Air Force Now (342 afn 62 , 1974)

ladies and gentlemen the outstanding enlisted men and women for [Music] 1974 60 years after thousands of Americans died at for dun American troops are still in Europe why [Music] I got a call alerting us that we were suddenly going to be pronged against this trip into the Soviet [Music] Union if we can't go in by Parachute or by boat or Walkin or airl we'll go by [Music] scuba the outstanding Airmen of 1974 were chosen from thousands of Air Force people all over the world since being selected some have moved on to new assignments others have been promoted each one has done special things in and out of the Air Force all kinds of things they are all kinds of people all kinds of people should get together with small kind of people should get together and talk to each other all kinds of people should reach out and help one another [Music] all kind of people to reach out and help [Music] be [Music] berdon France predates the birth of Christ today it's a peaceful provintial town on the MS noted for its monuments and its Kish Len but Verdon has always been in the path of Wars between the French and the Germans 60 years ago the berdun area was the side of the longest bloodiest battle of World War I about 400,000 French and about 300,000 Germans died in one 10-month period some 70,000 Americans lost their lives in the area on the outskirts of the city cows grazed among trench works of another time while stationed in Germany Lieutenant Colonel Carl lren visited Verdun many times studying the battlefields of the war that was supposed to end all wars it didn't Air Force now Camas followed Colonel lren as he trapped the battlefields of another era as he discovered how men fought 60 years ago why they'll never fight that kind of War again why Americans are still stationed in Europe in World War I indiv idual battles sometimes lasted years French and Germans fought for the town of Micon for almost 4 years shortly before the Armistice two American units joined forces and took the town with tanks a monument to the American victory was built among the ruins of the [Music] town before 1915 a village and a cathedral nestled on the top of the beautiful qua after a year of war in trenches French and German sappers began tunneling under each other's trench Works packing in 60 to 70 tons of high explosives one such explosion completely obliterated the town and split the hill in two if trench warfare ended aerial Warfare began during World War I one of its earliest exponents was Frank Luke second ranking American World War I Ace with 21 victories in less than 30 hours flying time Luke became the war's first medal of honor winner if there was one lesson Colonel lren learned walking the Verdon battlefields it was in his words that the tremendous sacrifice of life in World War I did not guarantee the peace the only approach to peace he feels is Readiness and that's why American forces are still in Europe today as part of NATO [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] as the role of the Air Force Reserves expands they found themselves flying some pretty unusual missions like a life-saving rescue flight to Siberia I got a call uh from from ACP to my room alerting us that we were suddenly going to be pronged against this trip into the Soviet Union it was kind of difficult of course to convince some of the guys that I was really telling the truth since uh this is uh extremely odd I was in on in ryin M Germany pulling alert and we got a call about a patient that we had to go to pick up in Russia was rather interesting they they told us that we had to go into Siberia and I had been there for 5 weeks and only had one week to go and was out on a hiking trip with three Americans and two Soviet friends and I became ill in the process of becoming ill uh I ruptured my uh esophagus and began to bleed internally we did not know a great deal of his condition the only thing that we the only information that we had on him was that he had some gastrointestinal bleeding uh they did finally operate and stop the bleeding and uh then they began to try and transfuse me with blood to bring my blood level back up and this is where the problem went from bad to worse for some unknown reason I did not take kindly to the Soviet blood and my system rejected it the seventh day in the hospital was about Rock Bottom I had resigned myself to the inevitable and was just kind of preparing myself for that the weather was such that it made it quite a touchy operation to get the aircraft in into the field and there were many times when I thought we'd have to divert and go to our alternate we were of course motivated by the fact that Mr Torrance was there and really needed us to get in morning came and about shortly after noon while they took me in an ambulance out to the hercus airport and uh here was this large 4 engine jet waiting with the back end open looked pretty good we started a blood transfusion on him as soon as we got up to altitude and continued that also throughout the whole flight it was kind of dramatic watching the change that the blood made he had been he had received about a half a unit of blood and his color started to improve he started to become a little more alert from rumors I've heard since then that this this impressed the Russians quite a bit that this uh great big aircraft and a full crew would be deployed in there just to pick out this one uh one American that was in trouble and I think that speaks rather highly of our system of government to do a thing like that after flying across the country uh we landed at Andrews Air Force Base outside of Washington DC where I was uh reunited with my wife and that more or less brought the unbelievable episode to a happy conclusion [Music] what [Music] our old Gray Eagle Chief Hall he's just fantastic his number of jumps is up in that uh thousands and he I don't even know if he keeps track anymore chief Master Sergeant Jim Howell in June 1961 he ejected from the f106 a beat that earned him the distinguished flying cross and membership in the American rocket Society in December 1963 Sergeant how and 13 others jumped from over 43,000 ft still a world record Chief how has made over 3,000 jumps in nearly 30 years of service from the beginning he is Led in the development of combat control today he leads the highly trained team at Herber field Florida we just completed 20 grander a free fell for about 90 seconds open at 2500 ft and most of our jumps are at night reason we do uh most of the jumps at night because it's the most difficult jump this is Sergeant Weller he's a Halo uh student he should have his feet together heads up here we have bar Commander guy spiraling down uh he shouldn't be doing that close to the ground because uh your rated descent increases quite uh quite a lot if we can't go in by Parachute or by boat or Walkin or airl we'll go by scuba we're going to go somewhere better be ready we're selfcontained I don't care where we go we can survive we can take care of ourselves we got the talent in the team team that can do everything first you go to jump school and then go to combat control school for 6 weeks Mountain survival School jungle survival School water survival school and we got the Artic for school in Alaska Halo School Medical School repelling School infiltration exfiltration amphibious and mapping Compass being properly trained and doing it all the time you know you usually want to do better and better and you're more confident Spector two com Spector two go Roger Spector 2ed approach Roger we're on station at this time and ready to go work I have an enemy Patrol approaching my location next to please this [Music] time 21 it's a good strike uh your own Target we're simulating a small Patrol south of the river here the gunship is attempting to knock out the uh and suppress the uh Patrol insector two I think you suppress the troops at time just uh hold high and dry and I'll give you a BDA okay uh we're all safe this time getting airplanes people supplies and equipment into remote areas is the job of the combat controller in peace time they set up runways bring Medical Aid and food to people starving from famine or suffering from earthquakes or floods wherever there's a need for tactical airlift there's a need for people like Jim how I think the comeback control team members are so dedicated to the Air Force Mission because they like it nobody have the capabilities that we have or the equipment that we have and the education I had gotten not formal nobody could get an education like that I don't care if you had a PhD and whatever [Music]