This U.S. Navy newsreel shows the U.S. Marine Corps landing in Laos, and U.S. Navy advisors working in Vietnam as part of the Military Assistance and Advisory Group. The SEATO exercise Sea Devil is seen at the 2:30 mark. At the 3:20 mark, the USS Wasp is seen visiting Kiel in West Germany as part of the People to People program. At the 4:40 mark, a U.S. Navy WAVE is seen retiring after 20 years of active duty. The new Pearl Harbor Memorial at the USS Arizona is seen at the 5:00 mark. Annapolis, U.S. Naval Academy athletic competitions with the Army are seen at the 6:30 mark. Norfolk’s Amphibious Training Base is seen at the 6:45 mark. PLAT, Pilot Landing Aid Television, television systems used to bring aircraft aboard aircraft carriers, is seen making its debut at the 8 minute mark aboard USS Bon Homme Richard. The Secretary of the Navy Fred Cort is seen boarding the Highlander, a new U.S. Navy hydrofoil designed by Gordon Baker. At the 9:20 mark, the Airoll is seen, a unique experimental vehicle intended to traverse marginal terrain. Guided missile cruiser USS Galveston is shown firing the Talos missile at the 10:30 mark.
Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) is a designation for United States military advisers sent to other countries to assist in the training of conventional armed forces and facilitate military aid. Although numerous MAAGs operated around the world throughout the 1940s–1970s, the most famous MAAGs were those active in Southeast Asia before and during the Vietnam War. Typically, the personnel of MAAGs were considered to be technical staff attached to, and enjoying the privileges of, the US diplomatic missionin a country. Newly elected President John F. Kennedy agreed with MAAG Vietnam’s calls for increases in ARVN troop levels and the U.S. military commitment in both equipment and men. In response, Kennedy provided $28.4 million in funding for ARVN, and overall military aid increased from $50 million per year to $144 million in 1961. In the first year of the Kennedy administration, MAAG Vietnam worked closely with administration officials, USOM, and the US Information Service to develop a counterinsurgency plan (CIP). The CIP’s main initiatives included the strengthening of ARVN to combat the Communist insurgency, which had the corollary effect of strengthening Diem’s political position.[8] At the same time President Diem agreed to the assignment of advisers to battalion level, significantly increasing the number of advisers; from 746 in 1961 to over 3,400 before MAAG Vietnam was placed under U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) and renamed the Field Advisory Element, Vietnam. At the peak of the war in 1968, 9,430 Army personnel acted as advisors down to the district and battalion level to train, advise and mentor the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), Republic of Vietnam Marine Corps, Republic of Vietnam Navy and the Vietnam Air Force.
MAAG Indochina had three commanders: BG Francis G. Brink, October 1950 – August 1952; MG Thomas J. H. Trapnell, August 1952 – April 1954; and LTG John W. O’Daniel, April 1954 – November 1955. MAAG Vietnam was commanded by LTG Samuel T. Williams, November 1955 – September 1960; LTG Lionel C. McGarr, September 1960 – July 1962; and MG Charles J. Timmes, July 1962 – May 1964.
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