I personally want to thank Periscope Films for availing to all of us these gems of times past. Without their hard work and dedication to the saving and cataloging these films would be lost forever. 👍
Mr Jimmy Stewart is an American Hero! My favorite actor and an example for every US Citizen. He left a safe Hollywood lifestyle to serve and fly bombers in WW2. Which was one of THE MOST DANGEROUS duties during the war. Here he's doing PR for the DoD, because he truly believed it was his duty as a veteran, famous actor, and US Citizen to help the Air Force out. One True Class Act!!! God bless em, and salute Jimmy, thank you for everything! 🇺🇲
General Stewart was a SAC officer in the 50s and 60s. He flew numerous bombers including the B58, B47, B52 and others. He retired in 1968. There's a photo of him on wikipedia as a brigadier general. The look on his face tells you that he will deliver destruction to an enemy if asked to do so. Who would guess that underneath that steely gaze, was a man who would portray some of the most beloved characters in film history. RIP.
Gen Jimmy Stewart...One of a kind, a truly decent, honorable man, an extraordinary patriot, and all round great guy. They don't make them like him anymore.
I hope people understand just what a wonderful, historic, and important collection of archival footage that PeriscopeFilms shares with us all free of charge. Many of these would have been lost to time, never to be seen again. Thank you,PF.
@Spontainousteve We shall be eternally grateful and indebted to agencies (such as PeriscopeFilms) who continue to collect, archive and preserve historical films such as these.
An amazing program introduced and shown by an equally amazing man, we miss you Mr. (BG) Stewart!!! He even brought to light the old PACCS system, the predecessor to the modern airborne alert system. I was actually able to visit 2 of the old command posts.
Dig that crazy B-grade cartoon at the start. Apparently General Stewart had a TV set that warmed up about 10 times faster than any other cold-war era TV set in existence.
Jimmy Stewart was my hero my whole life, John Wayne also, JS lived a 100 lifetime's to our 1, read his biography and you'll see what he accomplished in his one lifetime
Beautiful yes, but not operational. Advances in SAM technology made it obsolete. But it's existence scared the Soviets into developing the Mig 25 to intercept it. The Mig 25 was so dedicated to that purpose that it was a lousy tactical fighter with very poor handling. It was fast as hell in a straight line though.
Jimmy Stewart never forgave Pres Richard M Nixon for his role in the death of his step sons death in vietnam ! ! Great actor and story teller on Johnny Carson's show ! Wish I could have shook this brave man's hand ! ! R.I.P. JAMES STEWART ,LIFE WORTH LIVING ! ! MY ROLE MODEL ! !👍🇺🇸👍🇺🇸👍🇺🇸👍🇺🇸👍🇺🇸👍🇺🇸👍🇺🇸
At around the 22:30 mark is a shot of SAC Hq in Omaha. I was stationed there in the early 70s. Bldg. 500 as it was known had 3 stories above ground, a basement level and 3 stories below ground. I worked in the basement level, just down the hall from the underground entrance they showed the SPs locking down. By the 70s, the Atlas missile out front had been replaced by a Minuteman. In case of a nuclear attack, we were supposed to report to our duty stations for shelter. Good luck with that.
Remember that the average ham guy had a kilowatt at best... these radios were amplified SSB to 50,000 watts+ and had Yagis with 20 elements. If any HF signal is going to cross the globe, it's this stuff.
I’m disinclined to believe humankind can avoid exterminating itself. We’ve completely run out of good ideas- what’s left is wholesale, industrial-scale slaughter. Enjoy the spectacle.
I remember in second grade elementary school getting a civil defense book titled, "surviving a nuclear attack". Later I found out that I lived not far (as H bombs go) from a missile silo in Kansas.
Jimmy Stewart died in 1997. He must have seen some of the changes that developed after SAGE and other systems were retired, but I wonder if he could have foreseen where we are today. I served in the late 1970's with a F-106 fighter squadron, the 48th FIS out of Langley AFB, Hampton Rhodes, Va. The datalink from the SAGE ground systems to the F-106 was pretty revolutionary for it's time, you could send information to the aircraft on exactly where the target is. The very forerunner of the air to air datalink systems today.
He gave my great uncle Mickey a job in his father's music store post ww2 after meeting him in the war. A kind man of principle, God bless you Mr Stewart. Truly the ideal American of the 20th century.
Ya gotta love Periscope films! There are times I just put my feet up and enjoy the history and nostalgia one more time. If I were to hit that lotto, I wouldn't run off to some big box retail store. I'd land an order with Periscope that would be so big they might have to deliver it on a pallet (or two!)
In a couple of scenes, there is a Teletype model 28 ASR (automatic send & receive). About 11 years after this film was made, I started my career in the telecom industry as a bench tech, overhauling those and other Teletype models. Later on, my work included Pinetree line sites and SAGE circuits in Northern Ontario. Anyone remember the movie "Fail Safe"?
I bet the real commander, in the field, said "without communications, the only thing I can command is my dick". At least, I like to imagine my military commanders that way, haha.
What year was this filmed? I'm guessing the late 1960s. The teletypes are the same model I learned on in tech school in 1980. The equipment in our comm center wasn't much more modern. Today I believe they don't even have comm centers. I was with the 2151 Comm Sq LRAFB from 80 to 84. As others have mentioned there are no Stewarts anymore. He was a great actor, and a brave war hero. For those who don't know he flew 20 missions (credited, he flew more uncredited) over Europe. He flew the B-24, not an easy aircraft to fly.
Jamie Eckles I got the date from the seal at 0:13. After your remark, I checked the internet which said the publication date was 1961. The mistake is mine.
+ Michael Hartman "MCMLVII at beginning of the show means 1957." "I got the date from the seal at 0:13." It's actually MCMXLVII; 1947. That is the year the Air Force was created as an independent service branch. Prior to that it was part of the Army.
Memories of a constant feeling doom. No matter what the US used for early warning it wasn't going to stop a Russian ICBM. The only reliable method of defense was a deterrent of 1000 underground ICBM''s. Had the USSR attacked they would have been obliterated. This film was made at the very height of tensions between US and USSR (c.1961).
I watched the film (coincidentally) Strategic Air Command (S.A.C) this morning, 6th March 2024, Starring Jimmy Stewart as the ex B-29 Captain who was playing professional baseball after WWII who then became ex Pro Ball player recalled to the USAF to captain the new (at the time) B-36 and B-47, and despite having seen it dozens of times I loved every second of it, except the end when he……….oops, not saying, don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it (although I doubt that any J Stewart fan hasn’t), not only a consummate actor in any genre he appeared in but an great officer in the United States 🇺🇸 military, the way he just seemed to BE the characters he played, so natural and where necessary an expert in the particular field his character worked. The Hollywood “Stars” of today aren’t a patch on the likes of Jimmy Stewart, Laurence Oliver, Cary Grant, Maureen O’Hara, Bette Davis etc etc etc, they didn’t have special effects and CGI to enhance their roles and storyline, if they didn’t put in the best performances then the film would not be half as good as it should have been, and tbh I have never seen a film starring Jimmy Stewart that was a dud, maybe there is one out there but I have not seen it. RIP all the actors and actresses that entertained me in my youth,working life and now my retirement, there is none better. 😀👍🇬🇧🏴🇺🇸🇺🇦🇮🇱 P.S The aviation industry of the United States 🇺🇸 has turned out some of the finest looking aircraft in the world, but, I have to say that the B-36 was one ugly looking piece of junk that, despite being needed at the time, should have never been in service, but that is just my opinion. P.P.S, Just think, what would we do if all of our advanced digital technologies were no longer operational?, would we have to use the technology from this films era? As @ 7:30, the pneumatic message delivery tubes, teletypewriter, analogue computers? that were so slow and inefficient, radar and radio signals that we had to bounce off the atmosphere for getting messages out to the other side of the world? Or even motorcycle couriers?, because we are so reliant on technology these days that if it was suddenly gone, as it could if world geopolitical events carry on degrading as they are, we would be completely lost, like a explorer without a compass. Anyone that believes modern technologies could not be completely disabled I have to disagree, it doesn’t matter how well they are shielded from an EMP or Nuclear blast, it doesn’t matter how many “firewalls” that protect them, it doesn’t matter how well vetted the people who operate them are, there is someone somewhere else in the world trying to devise weapons that will overcome shielding, hackers infiltrating systems to find weaknesses and people who are willing to sabotage systems in the name of peace or just working for the enemy, if they succeed in their missions it would be a catastrophe for our alliance against the old Cold War adversary’s, we would be instantly struck deaf,dumb, and blind, end of story. @ 16:50 the missiles are either the RAF or CRAF as determined by the roundel painted on the missile body just below the warhead, I think 💭, but not sure, that they are “Nike Hercules” missiles that we bought from or were given by the USA, and the vapour coming from them is an indication that they were being fuelled for launch, again I am not sure about that, would loved to be able to ask my dad, he was a armament technician in the RAF and worked on the missiles shown and our own bloodhound system. Not wanting to burst any of the American viewers or veteran military personnel who served during this time period but, and there is always a but, the system that this documentary is showing was not impervious to “enemy” infiltration, the RAF V-bombers, namely the AVRO Vulcan carried out a simulated attack on NY and would have destroyed it with nukes, not once, but TWICE, and that led to a huge investment in new technology and equipment that was (apparently) full proof, but I guess we will never know now.
I think a more realistic response to the incoming attack would be the Jimmy Stewart of It's a Wonderful Life when he discovers that Uncle Billy lost all the money: "Do you realize what this means? It means we're all gonna die! That's what it means!"
When I was a weekend warrior (ANG), we used the Collins KWM-2A. The intent was that in an nuke exchange, only HF would be able to cut through the ionized atmosphere. The ADC unit in Fresno (144 FIW) had quite a few KWM-2As in their "war room".
Wow, impressive seeing what they were thinking the AF would actually get. B-70 at 2:31, the Skybolt ALBM at 2:37, BOMARCs that actually *worked* at 2:42... none of those actually showed up. Meanwhile, they missed Titan and Minuteman entirely, and the ABM at 2:45 looks more like an AGM-12 Bullpup than Nike-Zeus or Spartan, much less Sprint...
Do you realize that the phones we have in our hands every day have more storage, output and memory than those huge car sized computers shown in this film.
They cancel the civilian alert upon realizing it's only an exercise, but that poor woman and her kids are still hiding in the fallout shelter scared shitless...
Jimmy Stewart was a true American Patriot. In Feb 1941, Stewart left the fame of Hollywood and enlisted in the the Army Air Force. Since he was already a licensed private pilot, he soon received a direct commission. After spending a year at Kirtland AFB as an Instructor Pilot training aircrews, Stewart was transferred to England and flew 20 combat missions over Germany in B-24s. Stewart was awarded two Distinguished Flying Cross decorations and four Air Medals during his time with the 703rd Bomb Squadron and 2nd Bombardment Wing. Stewart was promoted to full Colonel in March 1945. After WWII's end, Stewart transferred to the Air Force Reserve where he continued to serve his country. Stewart served for 27 years and retired with the rank of Brigadier General.
For those of you who didn't grow up in the 50's /60's, I'll mention here these kind of films were also used as filler pieces for television channels. While you can tell the intent is to re-assure the public that sophisticated communications systems already existed to protect from atomic attack, when in fact satellite communications were quite primitive at this point and not global. Jimmy doesn't mention the fact that 15 - 30 minutes is long enough for a launched ICBM missile to reach a target. You notice that it takes at least 20 minutes to get assets to the air, and 40 plus minutes to be at full effect. Note that we see Thor missiles at launch pads, not Atlas, not Titan. We also see a Nike anti-missile, though it is a very short momentary view. It was a pretty scary time to grow up in. The Cuban Missile Crisis was no joke. It is the one and only time I have ever heard nuclear air raid warning sirens go off ( for an area wide drill ) which is a sound I hope to never hear again.
Why is it General Stewart is wearing a uniform with such a long coat (covers his belt buckle line). Was a longer coat an option for some officers? I always thought that the super short waist coat was so impractical.
Dan R, he was wearing the standard Class A Blues which was (and still is) the authorized uniform. The, short "Eisenhower jacket" was deprecated in the 1950s.
Hello "Planner". Since we are seeing a "spot" by General Stewart my conclusion was that we were "dealing with the 50's". These short waist jackets/coats so easily ride up and show a creased sweaty section of your shirt, ug,and uncomfortable. For some reason some commercial providers of uniforms for the automotive repair industry have these short coats in their inventories, same with the "flight suit" type overall. I have worked on civilian "biz jets" and I never got comfortable in a jump suit for full day use. My biggest complaint is the crotch riding up when you reach with an arm.
By the late 70's we used just a few big ones based on minuteman. They could be used to say "yes, for realz nuke everything" in case of loss of NORAD and SAC HQ, or "Sike, turn around and come home" in case of exercise or false alert. Look for video called SAC the Global Shield to see one issuing bomber recall orders in a 1980 exercise.
This is cool old stuff to watch. Love the animation. I did see it showing a B-70 even though is was already axed by the Kennedy administration a few years earlier.
This film was actually released in 1961, most likely just before the B-70 program was canned in March of that year (The US Archives state 1961 as the date of release of this film, which means it was most likely made in 1960 when the B-70 program was still going strong).
Did my eyes deceive or was General Stewart wearing pilot's wings and not SENIOR pilot's wings (star over the center shield) or COMMAND pilot's wings (star with olive branch wreath and star over shield)? One would have thought he had enough hours for one of the augmented wings. Additionally, doncha just love the Collins SSB rigs using something around the amateur 20 meter band to talk with the B-58? Far out!
Warren- Please figure out how to stop birthing psychopaths, then we Normal Human Beings (NHB’s) wont need all this equipment. Psychopaths rule nearly all organizations of power, be it theological, governmental or business. They refer to us as NHB’s, and they control and harvest us like cattle.
The days of gravy for military aerospace, computer and electronics contractors......The US government was throwing money at 'em quicker than they could grab it.
And that's why we need to transmit plan R...R for Robert to the wing..we need to protect our purity of essence. 15 minutes is just enough time to have a brief panic attack, say your prayers and kiss your ass goodbye.
At the USAF Peterson Base, there's a museum. And there's a model of an old missile monitoring satellite. Quite interesting. They have quite a lot of stuff on display about early warning systems. There's even a model of a missile launch bunker. I can't remember what they called the system. Seen a lot of videos on sage lately, from the computer history museum. If I see the SAC film on cable, I will watch it. Kind of weird movie, as it's 100% propaganda, and not that great on dialog and such, but the planes are fascinating.
No, not in the 60s. It was the early 90s that really saw that technology grow. Meanwhile this threat of mutually assured destruction highlighted in the film was all we had.
All of this was for four missiles and two aircraft groups. Still to this day our only response is full retaliation and I used to not like that but I’ve come to realize that us Americans would rather die than live in a world or nuclear war.
Well, this was the precursor to the Internet, since the Internet, as we know it, didn't exist. However, the teletype was often connected to some kind of computer, a 'mainframe' they called it. However, communications between computers was unknown when this film was made.
MrShobar aren't the companies doing some bullshit with a new copyright on entire films and music albums by 'remastering' or doing some minor reconfiguration to the media?
Beena Plumber "Next they'll try to claim they own the black area around the film" bad behavior tolerated and rewarded begets more bad behavior. The government loves people owning our cultural heritage..you ARE aware of the 'disney law' extention of copyrights in 1999 I suppose.
We don't make the kind of claims that you are claiming we make. Here's the issue: this film and others like it may have been made by taxpayers, but the U.S. Government in its infinite wisdom, *threw it away*. It may be hard for you to believe but tens of thousands of films were *destroyed* as "obsolete material" and many others remain at risk. Our company preserves these precious bits of history one film at a time. How do we afford to do that? By selling them as stock footage to documentary filmmakers and broadcasters. If we did not have a counter, and our burn-in, we could not afford to post films like this on online, and no films would be preserved. It's that simple. So we ask you to bear with the watermark and timecodes. Please stop making aspersions against us, I think we're on the same side on this. ; )
...I thought the MIDAS satellites were pieces of crap that either exploded during launch due to their launch vehicle being made of failures, or failing to work more than 2 weeks in orbit? Also, what's with that little model they're playing around with near the end? Is that supposed to be a model of a lunar radar system? Because if so, holy shit, were they ever hopeful!
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
I personally want to thank Periscope Films for availing to all of us these gems of times past. Without their hard work and dedication to the saving and cataloging these films would be lost forever. 👍
Mr Jimmy Stewart is an American Hero! My favorite actor and an example for every US Citizen. He left a safe Hollywood lifestyle to serve and fly bombers in WW2. Which was one of THE MOST DANGEROUS duties during the war.
Here he's doing PR for the DoD, because he truly believed it was his duty as a veteran, famous actor, and US Citizen to help the Air Force out.
One True Class Act!!! God bless em, and salute Jimmy, thank you for everything! 🇺🇲
General Stewart was a SAC officer in the 50s and 60s. He flew numerous bombers including the B58, B47, B52 and others. He retired in 1968. There's a photo of him on wikipedia as a brigadier general. The look on his face tells you that he will deliver destruction to an enemy if asked to do so. Who would guess that underneath that steely gaze, was a man who would portray some of the most beloved characters in film history. RIP.
GENERAL James Stewart
He also was in the movie "Strategic Air Command" with B-36 & B-47 bombers.
Jimmy Stewart has always been my hero. Flying bombers in World War II and all his great movies.
Rated to fly B-52s if I remember correctly.
Holy smokes! I was NOT expecting Jimmy Stewart in this film!
Gen Jimmy Stewart...One of a kind, a truly decent, honorable man, an extraordinary patriot, and all round great guy. They don't make them like him anymore.
No, they really don't, and that's too bad.
You are a the sort that helps create this hell. Idiot.
@@johnsmith1474 no, you are.
Go look up his poem on Johnny Carson about his dog "Blue"...your eyes won't be dry at the end. Wonderful human being.
@Charlie K "Limousine LEFTISTs", actually.
I hope people understand just what a wonderful, historic, and important collection of archival footage that PeriscopeFilms shares with us all free of charge.
Many of these would have been lost to time, never to be seen again.
Thank you,PF.
@Spontainousteve We shall be eternally grateful and indebted to agencies (such as PeriscopeFilms) who continue to collect, archive and preserve historical films such as these.
Yes. We owe them everything. I'm going to name my first born after them. Periscope Thomas!
Spontainousteve ABSOLUTELY
RIP Jeff Quitney's channel
Man, the animation in this is fantastic. Love these old government educational documentaries.
Thank you Jimmy as an SP in the US Air Force 1970 1974 this brought back memories
Jimmy Stewart the national treasure. 👍❤
Great archived film! My wife's grandfather was Continental Air Defense Commander(4 star) at Ent AFB in Co Springs.
An amazing program introduced and shown by an equally amazing man, we miss you Mr. (BG) Stewart!!! He even brought to light the old PACCS system, the predecessor to the modern airborne alert system. I was actually able to visit 2 of the old command posts.
Pretty badass computer network for its time.
Dig that crazy B-grade cartoon at the start. Apparently General Stewart had a TV set that warmed up about 10 times faster than any other cold-war era TV set in existence.
Jimmy Stewart was my hero my whole life, John Wayne also, JS lived a 100 lifetime's to our 1, read his biography and you'll see what he accomplished in his one lifetime
2:30 - beautiful and marvelous B-70 Valkyrie strategic bomber... Operational;-) ;-)
Beautiful yes, but not operational. Advances in SAM technology made it obsolete. But it's existence scared the Soviets into developing the Mig 25 to intercept it. The Mig 25 was so dedicated to that purpose that it was a lousy tactical fighter with very poor handling. It was fast as hell in a straight line though.
@@booklover6753 And the Mig-25 lead to the creation of the F-15 if I recall right.
Very nice explanation by -Lt. Col. Robert "Dutch" Holland- James Stewart indeed.
Really, i really like how he explain things as he did on 1955 SAC's
From Strategic Air Command: "Wha....wha...General....she's.....she's beautiful!" (regarding the B-47)
Jimmy Stewart never forgave Pres Richard M Nixon for his role in the death of his step sons death in vietnam ! ! Great actor and story teller on Johnny Carson's show ! Wish I could have shook this brave man's hand ! ! R.I.P. JAMES STEWART ,LIFE WORTH LIVING ! ! MY ROLE MODEL ! !👍🇺🇸👍🇺🇸👍🇺🇸👍🇺🇸👍🇺🇸👍🇺🇸👍🇺🇸
Remember when holly wood had people in it that actually loved it?
At around the 22:30 mark is a shot of SAC Hq in Omaha. I was stationed there in the early 70s. Bldg. 500 as it was known had 3 stories above ground, a basement level and 3 stories below ground. I worked in the basement level, just down the hall from the underground entrance they showed the SPs locking down. By the 70s, the Atlas missile out front had been replaced by a Minuteman. In case of a nuclear attack, we were supposed to report to our duty stations for shelter. Good luck with that.
HF radio was amazing in those days....
Remember that the average ham guy had a kilowatt at best... these radios were amplified SSB to 50,000 watts+ and had Yagis with 20 elements. If any HF signal is going to cross the globe, it's this stuff.
@@kurtbjorn Yes, also the noise floor was next to nothing. No RF noisy cheap appliances that can be hot across large segments of the spectrum.
Amazed we survived the cold war.
It's not over yet. We just survived the first act and there's more to come...
@@JayWalkerTexasRadio who is going to be the bigger threat though, China or Russia?
Now the meme war.
I’m disinclined to believe humankind can avoid exterminating itself. We’ve completely run out of good ideas- what’s left is wholesale, industrial-scale slaughter. Enjoy the spectacle.
@@gorillaauunfortunately it's the future speaking, it appears to be Russia...
This brings back memories of my ICBM days. Some tense times for sure.
TeleWacker, a Suck for SAC is a blow for peace? You on a missile crew? Where stationed? I was at Offutt AFB, DOCODW.
Yep, Titan II at McConnell 1971-75.
I remember in second grade elementary school getting a civil defense book titled, "surviving a nuclear attack". Later I found out that I lived not far (as H bombs go) from a missile silo in Kansas.
Jimmy Stewart died in 1997. He must have seen some of the changes that developed after SAGE and other systems were retired, but I wonder if he could have foreseen where we are today.
I served in the late 1970's with a F-106 fighter squadron, the 48th FIS out of Langley AFB, Hampton Rhodes, Va. The datalink from the SAGE ground systems to the F-106 was pretty revolutionary for it's time, you could send information to the aircraft on exactly where the target is. The very forerunner of the air to air datalink systems today.
Thanks for your service to our great nation.
When SAGE ran properly.
He gave my great uncle Mickey a job in his father's music store post ww2 after meeting him in the war. A kind man of principle, God bless you Mr Stewart. Truly the ideal American of the 20th century.
Pneumatic tubes are still my favourite form of communication
The banks still use them at the drive thru
I prefer smoke signals 💨
Ya gotta love Periscope films! There are times I just put my feet up and enjoy the history and nostalgia one more time. If I were to hit that lotto, I wouldn't run off to some big box retail store. I'd land an order with Periscope that would be so big they might have to deliver it on a pallet (or two!)
In a couple of scenes, there is a Teletype model 28 ASR (automatic send & receive). About 11 years after this film was made, I started my career in the telecom industry as a bench tech, overhauling those and other Teletype models. Later on, my work included Pinetree line sites and SAGE circuits in Northern Ontario.
Anyone remember the movie "Fail Safe"?
The classic age that I was not born in.
8:00 Collins KWM-2s?? HF SSB? operated one of them for USAFE TACS FACP Command post!! Excellent radios!
"Without communications the only thing I can command is my desk, and that's not a very lethal weapon."
I bet the real commander, in the field, said "without communications, the only thing I can command is my dick".
At least, I like to imagine my military commanders that way, haha.
General Stewart obviously never loaded a desk into a trebuchet...!
Desk jobs are lethal, just not efficient: it takes a good 20 years.
@@user-wi9hv2pb2q lol
What year was this filmed? I'm guessing the late 1960s. The teletypes are the same model I learned on in tech school in 1980. The equipment in our comm center wasn't much more modern. Today I believe they don't even have comm centers. I was with the 2151 Comm Sq LRAFB from 80 to 84. As others have mentioned there are no Stewarts anymore. He was a great actor, and a brave war hero. For those who don't know he flew 20 missions (credited, he flew more uncredited) over Europe. He flew the B-24, not an easy aircraft to fly.
Jamie Eckles
MCMLVII at beginning of the show means 1957.
That doesn't sound right, since we had no working ballistic missiles until 1959 when the Atlas D became operational.
Jamie Eckles
I got the date from the seal at 0:13. After your remark, I checked the internet which said the publication date was 1961. The mistake is mine.
+ Michael Hartman "MCMLVII at beginning of the show means 1957." "I got the date from the seal at 0:13."
It's actually MCMXLVII; 1947. That is the year the Air Force was created as an independent service branch. Prior to that it was part of the Army.
Was early 60s as the atlas f was raised above ground and not the coffin silos, also the b58 was operational 60-70
Memories of a constant feeling doom. No matter what the US used for early warning it wasn't going to stop a Russian ICBM. The only reliable method of defense was a deterrent of 1000 underground ICBM''s. Had the USSR attacked they would have been obliterated. This film was made at the very height of tensions between US and USSR (c.1961).
I watched the film (coincidentally) Strategic Air Command (S.A.C) this morning, 6th March 2024, Starring Jimmy Stewart as the ex B-29 Captain who was playing professional baseball after WWII who then became ex Pro Ball player recalled to the USAF to captain the new (at the time) B-36 and B-47, and despite having seen it dozens of times I loved every second of it, except the end when he……….oops, not saying, don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it (although I doubt that any J Stewart fan hasn’t), not only a consummate actor in any genre he appeared in but an great officer in the United States 🇺🇸 military, the way he just seemed to BE the characters he played, so natural and where necessary an expert in the particular field his character worked. The Hollywood “Stars” of today aren’t a patch on the likes of Jimmy Stewart, Laurence Oliver, Cary Grant, Maureen O’Hara, Bette Davis etc etc etc, they didn’t have special effects and CGI to enhance their roles and storyline, if they didn’t put in the best performances then the film would not be half as good as it should have been, and tbh I have never seen a film starring Jimmy Stewart that was a dud, maybe there is one out there but I have not seen it. RIP all the actors and actresses that entertained me in my youth,working life and now my retirement, there is none better. 😀👍🇬🇧🏴🇺🇸🇺🇦🇮🇱
P.S The aviation industry of the United States 🇺🇸 has turned out some of the finest looking aircraft in the world, but, I have to say that the B-36 was one ugly looking piece of junk that, despite being needed at the time, should have never been in service, but that is just my opinion.
P.P.S, Just think, what would we do if all of our advanced digital technologies were no longer operational?, would we have to use the technology from this films era? As @ 7:30, the pneumatic message delivery tubes, teletypewriter, analogue computers? that were so slow and inefficient, radar and radio signals that we had to bounce off the atmosphere for getting messages out to the other side of the world? Or even motorcycle couriers?, because we are so reliant on technology these days that if it was suddenly gone, as it could if world geopolitical events carry on degrading as they are, we would be completely lost, like a explorer without a compass.
Anyone that believes modern technologies could not be completely disabled I have to disagree, it doesn’t matter how well they are shielded from an EMP or Nuclear blast, it doesn’t matter how many “firewalls” that protect them, it doesn’t matter how well vetted the people who operate them are, there is someone somewhere else in the world trying to devise weapons that will overcome shielding, hackers infiltrating systems to find weaknesses and people who are willing to sabotage systems in the name of peace or just working for the enemy, if they succeed in their missions it would be a catastrophe for our alliance against the old Cold War adversary’s, we would be instantly struck deaf,dumb, and blind, end of story.
@ 16:50 the missiles are either the RAF or CRAF as determined by the roundel painted on the missile body just below the warhead, I think 💭, but not sure, that they are “Nike Hercules” missiles that we bought from or were given by the USA, and the vapour coming from them is an indication that they were being fuelled for launch, again I am not sure about that, would loved to be able to ask my dad, he was a armament technician in the RAF and worked on the missiles shown and our own bloodhound system.
Not wanting to burst any of the American viewers or veteran military personnel who served during this time period but, and there is always a but, the system that this documentary is showing was not impervious to “enemy” infiltration, the RAF V-bombers, namely the AVRO Vulcan carried out a simulated attack on NY and would have destroyed it with nukes, not once, but TWICE, and that led to a huge investment in new technology and equipment that was (apparently) full proof, but I guess we will never know now.
I think a more realistic response to the incoming attack would be the Jimmy Stewart of It's a Wonderful Life when he discovers that Uncle Billy lost all the money: "Do you realize what this means? It means we're all gonna die! That's what it means!"
@Gregory Roeder Hah! That would be quite the response. :)
08:15 HF Radio still used today.
When I was a weekend warrior (ANG), we used the Collins KWM-2A. The intent was that in an nuke exchange, only HF would be able to cut through the ionized atmosphere. The ADC unit in Fresno (144 FIW) had quite a few KWM-2As in their "war room".
Wow, impressive seeing what they were thinking the AF would actually get. B-70 at 2:31, the Skybolt ALBM at 2:37, BOMARCs that actually *worked* at 2:42... none of those actually showed up. Meanwhile, they missed Titan and Minuteman entirely, and the ABM at 2:45 looks more like an AGM-12 Bullpup than Nike-Zeus or Spartan, much less Sprint...
Propreganda. They knew that the Sov was pulling movies and shipping them home via the diplomatic bag. So this essentially is a deterrent, via psyops.
The thing that kept my attention was the background music.
A bit over-dramatic.
@@dukeford Yeah, it was pretty extreme wasn't it?
Love the Siren Sound @ 17:24.
Hope Someone Can Take the Sound of the Siren and Make it a Sound Effect!
Do you realize that the phones we have in our hands every day have more storage, output and memory than those huge car sized computers shown in this film.
"Bob, did SAC say 'launch' or 'lunch'?"
Who else was waiting for AT-AT's to walk in to the screen at 11:55?
LMAO I always wanted the guy from A wonderful Life to tell me about ICBMs.
They cancel the civilian alert upon realizing it's only an exercise, but that poor woman and her kids are still hiding in the fallout shelter scared shitless...
That is the reality we find ourselves in today.
My father moved his family to a major city on the grounds that it was better to get a direct hit if things went that way.
Jimmy Stewart was a true American Patriot. In Feb 1941, Stewart left the fame of Hollywood and enlisted in the the Army Air Force. Since he was already a licensed private pilot, he soon received a direct commission. After spending a year at Kirtland AFB as an Instructor Pilot training aircrews, Stewart was transferred to England and flew 20 combat missions over Germany in B-24s. Stewart was awarded two Distinguished Flying Cross decorations and four Air Medals during his time with the 703rd Bomb Squadron and 2nd Bombardment Wing. Stewart was promoted to full Colonel in March 1945. After WWII's end, Stewart transferred to the Air Force Reserve where he continued to serve his country. Stewart served for 27 years and retired with the rank of Brigadier General.
For those of you who didn't grow up in the 50's /60's, I'll mention here these kind of films were also used as filler pieces for television channels. While you can tell the intent is to re-assure the public that sophisticated communications systems already existed to protect from atomic attack, when in fact satellite communications were quite primitive at this point and not global. Jimmy doesn't mention the fact that 15 - 30 minutes is long enough for a launched ICBM missile to reach a target. You notice that it takes at least 20 minutes to get assets to the air, and 40 plus minutes to be at full effect. Note that we see Thor missiles at launch pads, not Atlas, not Titan. We also see a Nike anti-missile, though it is a very short momentary view. It was a pretty scary time to grow up in. The Cuban Missile Crisis was no joke. It is the one and only time I have ever heard nuclear air raid warning sirens go off ( for an area wide drill ) which is a sound I hope to never hear again.
10:34 How’d the audio synth patch guy get in here?
Year?
Presumably it’s 1961
This is where the internet was born.
Didn't you know that Al Gore invented the internet
Really? That must be why the Internets are like a system of pneumatic tubes!
Why is it General Stewart is wearing a uniform with such a long coat (covers his belt buckle line). Was a longer coat an option for some officers? I always thought that the super short waist coat was so impractical.
Dan R, he was wearing the standard Class A Blues which was (and still is) the authorized uniform. The, short "Eisenhower jacket" was deprecated in the 1950s.
Hello "Planner". Since we are seeing a "spot" by General Stewart my conclusion was that we were "dealing with the 50's". These short waist jackets/coats so easily ride up and show a creased sweaty section of your shirt, ug,and uncomfortable. For some reason some commercial providers of uniforms for the automotive repair industry have these short coats in their inventories, same with the "flight suit" type overall. I have worked on civilian "biz jets" and I never got comfortable in a jump suit for full day use. My biggest complaint is the crotch riding up when you reach with an arm.
Jimmy the DEW line was part of Canada's agreement with the U.S. with regard to the early warning ICBM system.
Back when Canada was an ally of the US. Today most Canadians are anti-American.
@@rapman5363 I'm speaking of an agreement between the two governments - not citizens.
Communication rockets...first time I hear them. Interesting.
By the late 70's we used just a few big ones based on minuteman. They could be used to say "yes, for realz nuke everything" in case of loss of NORAD and SAC HQ, or "Sike, turn around and come home" in case of exercise or false alert. Look for video called SAC the Global Shield to see one issuing bomber recall orders in a 1980 exercise.
The opening animation was shown in the closing credits of one version of "The Atomic Cafe".
Did Jimmy get IMDB credit for this one?
This is cool old stuff to watch. Love the animation. I did see it showing a B-70 even though is was already axed by the Kennedy administration a few years earlier.
So was the ABMs they showed, killed by treaty.
This film was actually released in 1961, most likely just before the B-70 program was canned in March of that year (The US Archives state 1961 as the date of release of this film, which means it was most likely made in 1960 when the B-70 program was still going strong).
4:22 Late 1950's touchscreen display. Cutting edge technology for the day.
Cutting edge Masonite
I lived this as a USAF brat then experienced it on a Polaris Missile Submarine
Did my eyes deceive or was General Stewart wearing pilot's wings and not SENIOR pilot's wings (star over the center shield) or COMMAND pilot's wings (star with olive branch wreath and star over shield)? One would have thought he had enough hours for one of the augmented wings.
Additionally, doncha just love the Collins SSB rigs using something around the amateur 20 meter band to talk with the B-58? Far out!
Funny. I noticed the same pilot's wings...
That may be the case, but I believe that he also flew after WWII for SAC, in both the B-36 and the B-47. Don't hold me to that, though.
@@GaryMCurran Of course he did. I’ve seen video of him flying those planes on late night TV.
O.K. Jimmy, you made your point. What do we do to stop the Insanity????
Warren- Please figure out how to stop birthing psychopaths, then we Normal Human Beings (NHB’s) wont need all this equipment. Psychopaths rule nearly all organizations of power, be it theological, governmental or business. They refer to us as NHB’s, and they control and harvest us like cattle.
This is in the public domain. How can you possibly claim to license it?
We rescued this film from the trash after the U.S. Government threw it away. As far as we know we have the only extant print.
Jimmy Stewart should have had a major part in the movie.....Dr. Strangelove....
Slim Pickens was made for that role.
Gee I wish we had one of them doomsday machines!!
If you have young children check out the NORAD Santa Tracker on Christmas Eve.
I don't have your icbms here! They're in Bill's house, and... Fred's house!
I like that one where he has the broken leg, filmed in one room.. He must have been liked by the Hitch.
notice laaaunch on warning at the beginning. Yeah. We were that nuts.
The days of gravy for military aerospace, computer and electronics contractors......The US government was throwing money at 'em quicker than they could grab it.
This film is no doubt a Lookout Mountain production.
15 minutes of warning! A lot of help that'll be. Thanks just the same Jim, but I'd rather not know.
You’ll be briefly aware that it’s getting very, very bright and then
I'm sure that this all used to be highly classified. just think this was over 60 years ago and how much more advanced it is today.
Brigadier General Stewart of SAC!
Whenever -BANDBOX- calls.. it’s about to get real...
I wish the government/whomever still made videos like this
24:55 um no safety equipment with a laser... His blind yeah
And that's why we need to transmit plan R...R for Robert to the wing..we need to protect our purity of essence. 15 minutes is just enough time to have a brief panic attack, say your prayers and kiss your ass goodbye.
Communist infiltration, communist fluoridation. Mandrake, gimme a hand with this ammo belt!
At the USAF Peterson Base, there's a museum. And there's a model of an old missile monitoring satellite. Quite interesting. They have quite a lot of stuff on display about early warning systems. There's even a model of a missile launch bunker. I can't remember what they called the system. Seen a lot of videos on sage lately, from the computer history museum. If I see the SAC film on cable, I will watch it. Kind of weird movie, as it's 100% propaganda, and not that great on dialog and such, but the planes are fascinating.
This is why big brother watched over mankind. He could destroy himself too easily.
Um 😐
2023 🤷🔥
Not a large white wabbit in sight. Seriously though all cudos to James Stewart....in his military role.
No pookas here!
Portions of this film opening is also seen near the end of "The Atomic Cafe" film from the early 80s.
So much for the XB-70.
That's why it was labeled with an 'X" . . . Experimental!
Fallout, Starring Jimmy Stewart!
I don't think we had anti-missile missiles at that time...did we?
No, not in the 60s. It was the early 90s that really saw that technology grow.
Meanwhile this threat of mutually assured destruction highlighted in the film was all we had.
+1 thanks
All of this was for four missiles and two aircraft groups. Still to this day our only response is full retaliation and I used to not like that but I’ve come to realize that us Americans would rather die than live in a world or nuclear war.
Chinese balloons can elude it all. 😂
doughboy, this is Betty Crocker, the souffle in the oven, return to kitchen, over! [static]
LOL!
Why didn't they just use the internet?
James McLoad LOL!!!!!No such thing until late 70s kid.
Well, this was the precursor to the Internet, since the Internet, as we know it, didn't exist. However, the teletype was often connected to some kind of computer, a 'mainframe' they called it. However, communications between computers was unknown when this film was made.
James McLoad Al Gore hadn’t envented it yet
Al Gore hadn't invented it yet. He was too busy figuring out how to get rich from "climate change".
So glad we didn't have General Jack D. Ripper IRL. Peace on Earth, indeed.
26:20 Edited segment that was cut. Narrator: Nuke their Ass and Take their Gas !
If all that was activated there wouldn't be much of a world left
Thus the deterrent effect: Mutually Assured Destruction.
but but..the copyright date on the film is 1957 and we didn't have icbms yet nor had we orbited any satellites at all.... ?
That's not the copyright date. That's the date the U.S. Air Force was established -- 1947 not 1957.
yeah yeah...some 10 year old used the flag button to remove my post where I responded and agreed.
my mistake.
MrShobar aren't the companies doing some bullshit with a new copyright on entire films and music albums by 'remastering' or doing some minor reconfiguration to the media?
Beena Plumber "Next they'll try to claim they own the black area around the film"
bad behavior tolerated and rewarded begets more bad behavior.
The government loves people owning our cultural heritage..you ARE aware of the 'disney law' extention of copyrights in 1999 I suppose.
We don't make the kind of claims that you are claiming we make. Here's the issue: this film and others like it may have been made by taxpayers, but the U.S. Government in its infinite wisdom, *threw it away*. It may be hard for you to believe but tens of thousands of films were *destroyed* as "obsolete material" and many others remain at risk. Our company preserves these precious bits of history one film at a time. How do we afford to do that? By selling them as stock footage to documentary filmmakers and broadcasters. If we did not have a counter, and our burn-in, we could not afford to post films like this on online, and no films would be preserved. It's that simple. So we ask you to bear with the watermark and timecodes. Please stop making aspersions against us, I think we're on the same side on this. ; )
Thank You! de VE7EBA
7:58 - "14 megacycle band." Good old worldwide 20 meters! (73 de KA3PYL)
300 baud modems
who remembers Hollerith cards? lol
0:20 "The reins of command" - really? What crappy school did the editors go to? surely not a school in an English speaking country.
Correct, I was in AFCS/AFCC too. My last four years was at Cheyenne Mountain AFB supporting NORAD.
Zat is ze nature of deterrents...
Imagine living at this time
brilliant barmer parlet in the are- forsch.
now u can add things like email, skype, text, sms, and fax to the missile alert communication network to the mix
Oh my god their communications were stone-age...
Portions of which were still in use 20 years ago
I don't want to set the world on fire...
This reveals where Dr. Evil of Austin Powers got the name "Midas 21".
...I thought the MIDAS satellites were pieces of crap that either exploded during launch due to their launch vehicle being made of failures, or failing to work more than 2 weeks in orbit?
Also, what's with that little model they're playing around with near the end? Is that supposed to be a model of a lunar radar system?
Because if so, holy shit, were they ever hopeful!