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The USAF Story: The Beginning
Recreation of 1910s. MS/CU Military Aviator pin being placed on soldier s uniform.
The USAF Story: The Beginning
DO NOT USE Still photograph Lt. HENRY ARNOLD
The USAF Story: The Beginning
MSs Glenn Curtiss sitting in glider on airfield, the propeller being turned, glider taking off. LSs gliders taking off, flying over camera. TLSs members of the famed Lafayette Escadrille suiting up at airfield, getting into planes, taking off. LS battleship being hit by torpedo, Washington Post headline hurtling towards cam: US AND GERMANY AT WAR.
The USAF Story: The Beginning
America prepares to enter World War One: TLS/MSs recruits, cadets, enlisted men of United States Army arriving at boot camp, running drill with wooden rifles, marching about post; excellent MSs soldiers molding plastic bombs at base; MS soldier firing Lewis machine gun; MS Signal Corps airmen being issued leather flying jackets & helmets; MSs airmen inspecting planes, boarding them, taking off; nice CU pilot; LSs practice bombing run; MSs soldiers at small graduation ceremony, sergeant handing out rolled papers; TLSs formal graduation exercises.
The USAF Story: The Beginning
MS Secretary of War Newton Baker giving speech. MS President Woodrow Wilson working in office.
The USAF Story: The Beginning
World War One. MSs Red Cross girls dispensing food & drink to Signal Corps airmen awaiting overseas deployment; MSs US airmen on dock, boarding vessel w/ assistance from sailor; great LS camouflaged luxury liner, here used as troop ship. Panning LS AEF Army barracks in France. MSs airmen practicing manning gunner ports at camp. MSs airmen working wooden model planes in classroom setting. TLSs airmen taxiing on airfield. MS crash-landed Jenny, pilot clamoring out, shaking hands w/ fellow airmen.
The USAF Story: The Beginning
Panning MS 1st AEF aero squadron, aka Lafayette Escadrille, led by Major Ralph Royce, posing for camera on field. MS paper Iron Cross emblem being placed over bullethole on wing of plane; MS airman being awarded by officer.
The USAF Story: The Beginning
MS Brig. General Billy Mitchell getting out of pilot seat. MS Brig. General Benjamin Foulois shaking hands with airmen outside command bunker. MS Col. Thomas De Witt Milling, head of Air Service Units, 1st Army.
The USAF Story: The Beginning
MSs 103rd Aero Squadron, led by Major William Thaw (Bill Thaw), posing for cam; Thaw, Lt. Lawner (sp), Lt. Merrick & Lt. Tobin separately walk to cam, stop & salute; MSs Capt. Phelps Collins (?), Major Raoul Lufbery; MS Capt. Elliot White Springs (Elliot Springs); MS Eddie Rickenbacker posing at plane, illustration [nose art?] of Uncle Sam s colorful stovepipe hat there.
The USAF Story: The Beginning
MS & TLS male & female American war workers building military airplanes in auto factories converted for such a task. Exterior & inerior of factories, carpenters sawing wings, seamstresses working, wings being varnished. DH-4 fuselages & Liberty engines being built, propellers & wings being installed; war work, manufacturing). MSs workers disassembling planes for overseas shipping under watch of armed guard, parts being crated & labeled, AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES.
The USAF Story: The Beginning
MSs French women & AEF soldiers putting disassembled DH-4 planes together, rolling them onto airfield. MSs airmen unloading bombs from Army truck, positioning bombs on planes. TLS DH-4 rolling from hangar.
The USAF Story: The Beginning
CU map of St. Mihiel.
The USAF Story: The Beginning
Nighttime MSs burning flares on wingtips of flying planes; TLS/MSs AEF 1st Army Air Corps on airfield, suiting up, boarding planes, taking off.
The USAF Story: The Beginning
Great but grainy MS German airmen loading & arming a Fokker fighter, Iron Cross on side. LSs battlefield, (British?) soldiers racing into trench; MSs German pilot & bombardier in flight, the latter holding & dropping a bomb.
The USAF Story: The Beginning
Excellent LSs air battle between German & AEF forces, Fokker getting hit & spiraling to ground; MSs pilots & gunners in aerial action. LS Germans bombing an unfriendly observation balloon (planes buzz by, shooting, balloon catches fire, deflates, falls to ground in smoldering fury). More aerial battles.
The USAF Story: The Beginning
Montage, early American biplanes, pre & post World War Two bombers, prop & jet fighters in tight flight formation during military exercises.
The USAF Story: The Beginning
Closing Credits.
White Battalions: Serving All Mankind - PT2
Hospital Interior: MS mother & father visiting their daughter in hospital room. CU girl's face as she sleeps. MS tearful mother by their daughter's bedside, stroking the child's face. MS hallway as man steps out of room and talks to nurse seated at reception.
White Battalions: Serving All Mankind - PT2
Hospital Interior: CU numbered lights blinking. MS slick looking man in suit (doctor) walking down hallway toward camera. MCU man walking through "emergency" door. MCU couple seated in lobby anxiously waiting to hear news regarding their daughter's condition, man tries to console his distraught wife after distinguishing a cigarette in ashtray (yes-the days when smoking was permitted almost anywhere, hospitals included). MS couple standing as doctor in white coat & holding a stethoscope enters the room, they talk about the girl's condition, uniformed nurse enters the scene & asks the parent to follow her.
White Battalions: Serving All Mankind - PT2
Hospital Interior: MCU two male doctor's reviewing x-rays on light-board. CU x-ray of thigh with fractured bone. MCU two male doctor's reviewing x-rays on light-board.
Biography: Billy Mitchell
MITCHELL, BILLY, popular name of WILLIAM MITCHELL (1879-1936): Aviation pioneer, born in Nice, France. Beginning his army career in the USA in the signal service, he became an early enthusiast for flying, and commanded the US air force in World War One. He foresaw the importance development of air power in warfare, but his outspoken criticism of those who did not share his convictions resulted in a court martial which suspended him from duty.
Biography: Billy Mitchell
DO NOT USE Recreation of WW I (World War One, WWI) era British, American & German biplanes in flight; great shot of two planes colliding; "great" shots planes going down.
Biography: Billy Mitchell
MS/CUs Billy Mitchell in uniform & in civvies.
Biography: Billy Mitchell
DO NOT USE Opening credits