I only came here to see if any reviewers commented about the types of jets shown in this short, but after reading some very opinionated (and some way too long) reviews of this short film I decided to add some input. The film is about the Air Force Reserve not the Air National Guard, they do different missions so thats an important point since it was mentioned by another as the Air Guard, it's not. So anyway, I can kind of tell after glancing at the reviews who has some military background and who loathes the military and never served. It would have been funny if the haters lived back then and got drafted! I will say this, if you served back then you often had better luck with the ladies (more macho, and not a screw up to a woman). As time went on a sub culture grew that didn't like that arraignment and over time more and more men disparaged those who served. I honestly think thats the way the whole deal started, guys who didn't serve being jealous they were not scoring with the ladies and wanting revenge. Now that there is no draft, not many men serve anymore so it's a lot easier to get away with smearing the service members, but take it from me, women are still very attracted to service men over regular civilians who are bitter about America.
As far as the short goes, a couple of observations. It's in 1956 Georgia, around the time Ike was sending in the Army National Guard to open up colleges in Alabama to black students. This short has a black reservist sitting in the class, you only see him a few seconds so don't blink, he has a few stripes also, not many, but a few. He was equal on that base but after leaving would have been subject to Jim Crow. There are also several pilots with Confederate flag helmets, I doubt you see that today. I was surprised that the film made them seem they were on alert status whenever there was a civil defense alarm going off, talk about being on edge. I have to hand it to all those guys if thats the case but hopefully for their sanity they were warned when a drill was coming up. It looks like the Colonel is in a bar when the siren happens, anyone else notice that? LOL.
This short went by very fast for me, it did not drag out, I guess I was entertained. To start the thing out we witness the start of WW3 so that was interesting, oh don't worry folks it was only a drill showing stock footage from the Nevada Testing Grounds. Robert Preston's narration is decent to me and the types of jets were close to first generation types like Shooting Stars (don't quote me for fact on that) so that was interesting. All in all, a worthwhile piece of 1956 Americana to watch. 7 of 10. BTW, I've served (Navy) and also served in the reserves (was activated and went to war as a reservist) and proud of both times of service.
As far as the short goes, a couple of observations. It's in 1956 Georgia, around the time Ike was sending in the Army National Guard to open up colleges in Alabama to black students. This short has a black reservist sitting in the class, you only see him a few seconds so don't blink, he has a few stripes also, not many, but a few. He was equal on that base but after leaving would have been subject to Jim Crow. There are also several pilots with Confederate flag helmets, I doubt you see that today. I was surprised that the film made them seem they were on alert status whenever there was a civil defense alarm going off, talk about being on edge. I have to hand it to all those guys if thats the case but hopefully for their sanity they were warned when a drill was coming up. It looks like the Colonel is in a bar when the siren happens, anyone else notice that? LOL.
This short went by very fast for me, it did not drag out, I guess I was entertained. To start the thing out we witness the start of WW3 so that was interesting, oh don't worry folks it was only a drill showing stock footage from the Nevada Testing Grounds. Robert Preston's narration is decent to me and the types of jets were close to first generation types like Shooting Stars (don't quote me for fact on that) so that was interesting. All in all, a worthwhile piece of 1956 Americana to watch. 7 of 10. BTW, I've served (Navy) and also served in the reserves (was activated and went to war as a reservist) and proud of both times of service.