Ready On Arrival (1967)

[Music] amunition Around the Clock flying for weeks on end will consume tons and tons of explosives and Jet fi carriers on the line take brief moments to bring their food and fuel and ammunition reserves to capacity men are still needed to carry the powder these great ships some preparing for Warfare some engaged in combat some representing our national interest in distant places stand ready to carry American power where it is needed when it is needed [Music] there will soon be another mission and then another each one reflecting the ordeal of all who serve upon the ship those who direct the course of the vessel operate the raadar who plot the battle and maintain the equipment those who time after to time rise from the deck to meet the enemy no matter [Music] [Applause] [Applause] where this Windswept Airfield is 200 M at Sea 600 M from targets its aircraft have [Music] just here in a land bordering on the China Sea the peace and stability of a small nation is being threatened a place and a people our country is committed to defend because we are dedicated to the idea that peace is worth preserving tradition has it that bands be playing and flags be flying when fighting men put to Sea that is the framework of farewell but this is the true language of long separation [Music] on the [Music] a community of 4,500 men separates from the mainland moving out upon the oceans that make islands of all our continents but with all that is given by a people to create and sustain this expression of prestige and power some here will give their lives [Music] we have come 12,000 miles the ship has crossed the equator twice Cape Town and Madagascar and Sumatra are far behind other ships join up and we arrive at Yankee station off North Vietnam The Limited War we have come to fight is just over the horizon in rice Patty and rainforest in the weeks to come the carrier will launch a it aircraft against targets that melt into the jungle and take advantage of the weather [Music] this moment is the culmination of all training though it go back through all the years of a man's career back indeed to the Primal education that qualified him to be here now when Ingenuity and courage count for as much as his airplane or its weapons or the odds on survival the [Music] [Applause] E4 sign number [Music] 31 22,500 [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] to now [Applause] [Music] show we are [Music] [Applause] [Music] you're on your own now on your way to Mountain and jungle missile sights and anti-aircraft guns a radar man in the carrier cic tracks you all the way information reaches here from every part of the ship and from the Hawkeye whose radar monitors all aircraft and route to the Target and serves as the carrier's early warning system for these men the war is still in some remote place yet there is anxiety here too sometimes it is tougher to wait than fight nature is a kind of natural enemy to what is proposed here that men can find this moving postage stamp Airfield that other men can plan their approach to the deck that men can land here that this can be done time after time in an environment of wind and wave and weather and human fallibility [Applause] [Music] how the [Music] last over the years the role of the attack carrier has been a changing one in this period of Crisis for once more the force of this weapon has been Unleashed in other instances it has not over the years it has allowed the United states to respond to the unexpected to bring this weapon to the support of friends or to confront potential enemies the attack carrier exists so these men who fly and fight might Beed that this can be done is the miracle of men who regard