Television Journal Volume 2, Number 6, 1970

This is "Television Journal" a presentation of armed forces activities throughout the world. Here is staff sergeant Bob Nealy. On this edition of Television Journal we feature in-service training for civilian jobs under project transition a new high-speed utility boat for the Navy the world's largest x-ray machine in use by the Air Force and combat tactics in the Republic of Vietnam Defense Secretary Melvin Laird announced in late February details on the modified phase 2 safeguard ballistic missile defense system. He stressed the president is asking for $100,000,000 to add one additional safeguard ABM site at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri Two other safeguard sites have been authorized around miles from Airport Space, Montana and Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota And these, in the phase 2 build-up, will receive additional sprint short-range missiles The safeguards system is, of course, a phase 2 missile system, rather a 2 missile system incorporating long-range Spartans to knock down the ICBM before it reaches the top of it's trajectory and short-range sprints to provide thermal offensive incoming warheads Secretary Lairds said that the modification of our ABM system is the the minimum we can and must do both and cost and systems development to fulfill President Nixon's national security objectives He said it is the only viable course available in fiscal 1971 because of President Nixon's determination to postpone additional actions of the US offensive systems The president wants to advance prospects for success at the strategic arms limitation stocks with the Soviets Mr Lairds said that the improved ABM system would do three things: first, it would respond to the Soviet threat to our minutemen deterrent force second, it would respond to the Chinese threat to our population and finally, to guard against the threat of an accidental launch The Defense Secretary also said he was recommending long lead time construction work for five other ABM sights. These will include the Northeast; the Northwest; the nation's capital; Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming; and the Michigan Ohio area During WWII, members of an army unit known as "Meryl's Marauders" became famous for their intelligent work behind enemy lines in Burma Today in Vietnam, a direct descendant of that Ranger unit is fulfilling the same kind of mission for allied forces. Soldiers from the 75th infantry infiltrate Viet Cong in North Vietnamese positions and troop concentrations together information on troop movements and concentrations Elements known to be in an area are the *** Nai regiment. They're suspected to be moving through your area through waterways and trails We have no knowledge of any hard installation However, people in the complexes have been spotted along the trail Okay, let's pack up These men from H company of the 75th infantry have just been briefed on a simulated patrol mission. They will be carried by helicopter to a landing zone near a known enemy position. Their job is long-range reconnaissance and they're to avoid engaging the enemy in combat at all costs. Often, several other helicopters will accompany the mission chopper flying empty and making fake landings to confuse enemy troops in the operations area. Once on the ground, the patrol makes a final communications check then moves into the dense jungle establish recon positions. The soldiers can remain in the field for several days They will gather and report information on enemy activity in their area of responsibility while at the same time pinpointing as buffer complexes and other facilities When their mission is completed, troops are picked up by helicopter to a prearranged evacuation point and the way out can be as dangerous as the time spent living next to the enemy On the Vam Co *** River, northwest of Saigon, US Army artillery men have borrowed a page from the Navy manuals and taken to the water Soldiers on the 24th Infantry Division's 1st Brigade have knotted their 500-ml howitzers on large barges to provide quick fire support in difficult-to-reach areas. Greg Hoodley has the story of these floating artillery bases. The barge battleships, as they are called, are part of a force whose mission is to block Vietcong in North Vietnamese infiltration attempts in this river region-obtaining province The enemy consistently tries to move troops and supplies into the Saigon area on the Vam Co *** and other waterways running from the northwest The artillery barges and accompanying troops provide a fast reaction to any detected enemy activity the floating bases are resupplied regularly by army helicopters each barge carries two howitzers along with an arsenal of fifty-caliber and M-sixty machine guns and forty millimeter grenade launchers Navy boats told the barges to their firing positions and they're then secured to the shore While the big guns are being readied for their firing missions an infantry patrol pans out to clear the surrounding area and provide security during the operation within minutes targets are pinpointed by former area observers and related to the howitzer batteries by radio This is AFRTS (Armed Forces Radio and Television Service) correspondent Greg Hodley A 225th aviation company based at Phu Hep Army Airfield in Vietnam's Phu Hien province employs the OV-1 Mohawk for observation and reconnaissance missions Army pilots flying the Mohawk say consistent success.. say they have consistent success in locating enemy bunker complex's staging areas and troop concentrations with the aircraft's sophisticated detection equipment. AFVN correspondent Bob Young stationed at Channel 11 Tuy Hoa Airbase, Vietnam has the story One of the most versatile aircraft in use in the Republic of Vietnam by the army is the OV-1 Mohawk. 18 of these aircraft are used by the 225th aviation company at Phu Hep Army Airfield to locate enemy troop base camps, staging areas and campsites in the vast to core area. Primarily a surveillance aircraft, the Mohawk can spot enemy activity by using infrared detectors In addition to supplying information on ground activity, the infrared detector produces a film record for plotting coordinates and locations. The Mohawk also uses airborne radar to detect moving targets and the OV-1 is adapted to aerial photography at low level with nose- and belly-mounted cameras. Information received by the aircraft is simultaneously radioed to ground receivers and in turn, to units in the field. Chief warrant officer Bill Nolan Santa Maria, California, a chief of imagery interpretation for the 225th, talks about the mission of the organization: The primary mission of the 225th is surveillance of enemy activities in the entire 2 core The Mohawk, with its crew pilot and observer, is especially adept to this type of recon because of it's quiet twin turbine engines. They can be across a target before the enemy can hear it and weather is no obstacle. A majority of our tactical missions flown by the unit are during hours of darkness Thereby our motto is, "I Fly Nights." In a day, the 225th may fly as many as 10 missions Missions lasting about 3 and a half hours and covering about 30 targets per mission This is certainly not easy work, but the men pride themselves in the fact that they have flown 26,000 accident-free hours since coming to the Republic a little over two years ago. Now, that's tops for the first Aviation Brigade You might not hear it, but he's there when you need him. The OV-1 Mohawk -- the army's silent stalker. This is airman first-class Bob Young reporting. A new high-speed utility boat was recently demonstrated by the Navy in waters of Long Beach, California The boat, currently operational with the fleet, went into production in mid- 1969 it can effectively be used for coastal patrol, search-and-rescue, cargo or personal transport, and medical evacuation missions. With details of the new craft capabilities, here's Gene Smith. The US Navy recently put into operational status a new utility boat which combines the advantages of speed maneuverability and simplicity The 36 foot long craft can travel faster than 30 knots with a high speed range of more than 300 miles. It can operate in the open sea or an extremely shallow water and by raising its propellers, it can be beached for personnel or cargo uploading and pick up The new boat is powered by two 427 cubic inch Chevrolet engines and features a twin-screw control which allows it to turn 360 degrees in its own way. The coxswain station was designed to provide comfort, convenience, and efficiency. All controls are within easy reach and all instruments, including the radio radar scope, and pedometer, are in plain view. Operating characteristics demonstrate that as a utility craft the boat can be employed for inshore and offshore search-and-rescue, coastal patrol operations, and as a logistics carrier in this latter configuration, the vessel can carry troops, med-evac patients, or more than 12,000 pounds of cargo the new navy boat, which requires very little maintenance, was put into full production last year. This is AFRTS correspondent Gene Smith. Our feature this week deals with project transition a program designed to enhance the individual's marketability for employment in the competitive job market Once he's released from active duty, the project transition operates at the centralized basis more than 200 Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps installations Project transition is primarily for those individuals in most need a vocational skill training or education in order to make a proper readjustment to civilian life course offerings depend upon the resources which become available to the cooperative efforts of federal, state, and local government schools and colleges and the private sector, business and industry labor and management, and private educational institution Representative for the training courses which are being conducted include truck and trailer driving, auto mechanic, service station, management, office machine repair, warehousing, grafting, welding, various types of office machine operations, small appliance repair, and computer operations The program emphasizes counseling, skill training, education, and placement All men and women with one to six months service time complete a questionnaire containing information about preferences A counseling session is established to discuss the serviceman's qualifications in Outlook including the Preferences stated on the questionnaire and to display to the member an array of alternatives open to him Skill training through the military consists of existing formal school courses, on-the-job training programs and military specialties, which are civilian-related, and programmed learning courses which can be individually pursued Local state and federal courses were established on- or off-base through the facilities of local governments, Department of Labor, health education and welfare, and Office of Education, appropriate state agencies and agencies at the federal government which have large employment demands There are courses provided by private industry to meet specific employment requirements Companies are given the opportunity to train serviceman prior to their release on or near a military base in skills for which they have a specific requirement In addition to skill training needs, some men require further education The project identifies those in need educational upgrading and assists in placing those who desire it in programs which will upgrade their educational status to the completion of an eighth grade or high school equivalency as needed or provide them specific academic subjects needed in a particular occupation such as mathematics. Through the facilities of the Departments of Labor, State, and other local agencies, the local and regional national job opportunities are made known to the counselors at each military installation where transition training is conducted In addition, the local, regional, or national industrial community augments the employment requirements information provided through the Department of Labor sources. The internal replacement program is to make the job opportunities in the area, in which the servicemen intends to reside, known to him prior to his release from active duty The Defense Department is now in the process of taking a large-scale cut in money and people In February, deputy defense secretary David Packard, sent a letter to the service secretaries saying that no matter what they cut don't cut human programs, including transition Don't let them go out of the services unsatisfied and not looked after. Cut other things but don't cut transition and don't cut the sort of things that help people. In 1968, the Department of Defense established Project Transition, a program to provide civilian skills for men and women leaving the service Since then, more than half a million men and women have taken advantage of the program The director of Project Transition is Frank McKernan who, like many in the Department of Defense, will face in fiscal year 1971 a smaller defense budget. Mr. McKernan the Defense Department has proposed a budget that is about ten million dollars less than last fiscal year. Now, how is this going to affect Project Transition? Well, currently we expect about $4,000,000 less than we had last year And while most the monies for transition go for counseling, we would expect we're going to have to tighten our belts a bit on the number of counselors who will be available to the troops to get across the message and also to assist them working themselves toward training prior to discharge. Part of employment in the United States is on the rise; what are the prospects of a former enlisted man or woman getting the job when they leave the service and after Project Transition training? This is one of the reasons why the transition program was designed in the first place: to insure that many of the men, particularly those who were in combat, would have a skill prior to the time they left service. And what we're looking at now is the the fact that we want to make sure that those men who have received military training that that training is maximized out in the civilian economy In other words, to make sure that both industry and labor make use to those skills to the best they can and secondly to provide the kind of training that transition does for those who do not have a skill because we're extremely concerned about the fact that that we want to make sure that all men who have served have an opportunity to make a good transition Mr. McKernan, many of the larger DOD defense contractors are involved in Project Transition How has reduced budget going to affect them? Well, I would say that the businesses were involved in transition that most of the skills for which they're providing training are those that would be of use in the civilian economy In other words, the big motor car companies for example, are training automobile mechanics; so this is a direct relationship for their use in a civilian kind of training anyhow So I don't see where any of the transition training that they are now performing really would be too much affected by the departmental defense cuts affecting the defense industry Well, are there any new programs now with all these other things? Anything new for Project Transition? I would like to emphasize one, and that is a new program dealing with those men who've received training during military service in the medical field. There are about 30,000 come out each year and we want to make sure that those skills they have retained and have been trained in during military service are utilized to the fullest in the critical help occupations in the civilian economy So we're working with a 80-W and state agencies for the purpose of getting men who have the skills wind up with jobs in civilian health agencies throughout the country. And this, I think, is one of our most important new efforts in transition for this year Even with a lower defense budget, Frank McKernan predicts continued success for Project Transition This is chief journalist Tommy Thompson at the Pentagon The Project Transition Program term "medic" has been designated to attract enlisted individuals trained in the medical and health occupations into civilian health pursuits once they've decided to leave the service the Department of Health Education and Welfare in cooperation with defense officials has established a pilot program in the state of Texas which will supply the pattern for operations of the programs in all states by mid-1971. Medic will focus on medically skill servicemen or women within three months of separation. Personnel and transition officials will encourage him to examine the possibilities of seeking employment and educational opportunities in the health professions in the area where he plans to reside. The transition office will provide initial counseling and assistance for those who are interested in completing a medic qualification referral card. The completed form will be mailed to and health education and welfare designated medic coordinator. There, the individual's interest and qualifications will be matched with the job or educational opportunities available in that particular specialty copies of the qualification referral card will be supplied to interested employers and/or educators who may then contact the servicemen directly on details of particular job openings and further training opportunities. The potential employee student will make final negotiations based on his personal choice. Assistant defense secretary Roger Kelly, late January announced that servicemen may now apply for 3 months early up to attend and recognize vocational and technical training schools the proviso been added to policies providing for early out to attend accredited colleges and universities. To be eligible for early release to attend vocational or technical schools, the servicemen must show that he has been accepted for enrollment in a full-time resident course of no less than three months duration He must not be essential to the mission of his assigned command and he must have completed at least 21 months of active duty on his current service obligation. Mr. Kelly said that this early release policy particularly helps those eligible enlisted members would be unduly penalized if they had to complete the term enlistment or induction The question of whether electronic systems are affected by extremes in radiation is being studied by an Air Force Systems Command contingent at Kirkland Air Force Base, New Mexico Under scientifically controlled conditions, the technicians are blasting a computer with radiation simulating that of a nuclear explosion With a report on that project and its objectives, here's Tom DeCastro This is the largest x-ray machine in the world. It is capable of releasing as much radiation as a nuclear explosion But in this Air Force laboratory, it serves another more peaceful purpose Technicians here are preparing to bombard a computer with a large amount of radiation and then determine its reactions during and after the detonation period. The results will be studied later to determine how well this type electronic system withstands extremes in gamma radiation, how well it performs after being exposed over varying periods of time. There are two giant x-ray machines at the curtain research facility a larger being used for this test is aimed at a small concrete room called "the testing cell" Anything in the cell absorbs the maximum dosage of the radiation blast. Since the same electronic system guide aircraft and missiles are affected by extreme gamma radiation. It is the goal of this facility to come up with guidelines on how to make such systems less vulnerable to nuclear attack. This is AFRTS correspondent Tom DeCastro The United States airlift of relief supplies to Nigeria was initiated on January 27 when a military airlift command C-141 took off from Charleston Air Force Base, South Carolina It was bound for the Nigerian capital of Lagos. During the week-long airlift, the jet transports carried tons of supplies to the Western African country at the rate of 2 sorties per day. Charleston was the staging location for the provisions, which arrived each day from sources in Texas, Wisconsin, Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania. Coordination in Nigeria was handled jointly by the United States aid mission there and the Nigerian Red Cross Military airlift command crews involved in the mercy flights were from Dover Air Force Base, Delaware; McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey; Robins Air Force Base, Georgia; and Charleston Air Force Base. The first airlift flight on January 27 carried more than 41,000 pounds of cargo including blankets, lanterns, and other equipment. Later flights transported necessary items as food, clothing, electrical generators, and building materials Most of the cargo was pretty packed in trucks which made both the loading and off-loading operations easier The trucks were also used in Nigeria to aid in the distribution of the supplies 6 sorties were flown by the military airlift command starlet during the first three days for the relief operation These six flights carried more than 130 tons of supplies and equipment to the Nigerian capital. SeaBees and Marines assigned to the Gulfport Center in Mississippi had been awarded the Navy Unit Commendation for the rescue and recovery work following Hurricane Camille last August 82 members were also presented individual medals during the recent ceremony held at the Seabee Center. The center was honored for it's around-the-clock contribution to the relief effort during and after the Camille disaster The Seabees and Marines cleared debris, set up emergency power stations, evacuated some 1,400 refugees, and maintained continuous communications watches. For this work, the men received individual awards ranging from the Legion of Merit to the Navy Achievement Medal. A number of civilians were also honored The areas people expressed their gratitude to the Gulfport Center in the form of many awards were presented by Mississippi Governor John Bill Williams to Captain James Hill, Jr. the facility's commanding officer Governor, on behalf of the Seabee, I will accept these with a great deal of pride, humility, and we appreciate this very much. Thank you, Captain. Once more to all crews and men of the Naval Construction Battalion of Gulfport, on behalf of the people of the state of Mississippi, I would like to say from the bottom of my heart, and I know they agree with me in this, humbly, but proudly, gentlemen thank you. The principle active duty Freedoms Foundation Letter-Writing contest winner feels that the American public should take a more active role in solving internal problems Specialist 5 Peter Westover's the second winning entry was based on the subject "My Hopes for America's Future" He wrote the letter while assigned as an instructor in weather and communications procedures at the Army Aviation School at Fort Rucker, Alabama. Westover was on temporary duty from Vietnam and in Washington en route to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania to receive these awards While there, Air Force Master Sergeant Irvin H Lee asked him about his Vietnam assignment, what inspired him to create the winning contest entry, and his views in regards to solving domestic problems Specialist Westover, what are your duties in Vietnam? Arm and Operations specialist with upcoming 158 assault helicopter battalion we're working for the 101st Airborne. We're located at Camp Evans, which is about twelve miles across the mountains from the Valley What inspired you to write the letter which earned the top award of Freedoms Foundation contest this year? I'll be honest with you. What got me started on writing this thing was a general dissatisfaction with the state of things in the states as far as I was concerned, the States is getting itself in rather a bad mess and I like the States too much to see it happen. Do you have any proposed solutions? The major problem is that everybody is passing the buck to the government; the responsibility for everything to the government and telling the government that it's their job to correct it when it's not. It's the individual's responsibility to correct it. Consequently, everybody is doing just what they please and saying, Well, the government's responsible for correcting the mess we're making We're reporting the fact everything that's going wrong in the States right now could be limited by the people who're actually doing the messing up. Specialist Westover in late February was presented $1,000 savings bond and the Defender of Freedom Award during the Freedoms Foundation Award Ceremonies at Valley Forge. Another top award winner was Air Force Reserve Lieutenant Colonel Earnest B Henderson. He received a $1,000 savings bond and an encased George Washington Honor Medal. The Freedoms Foundation Awards program is established to honor individuals and organizations for outstanding work in helping bring about a better understanding of the American way of life. And that's it for this edition of Television Journal. I'm Marine Staff Sergeant Bob Nealy. This has been Television Journal a presentation of the Armed Forces Information Service Department of Defense This is the American Forces Radio and Television Service