This black-and-white World War II era United States Navy recruiting film shows the Navy’s physical fitness training process, focusing on different types of strength, balance, suppleness, and endurance exercises. The film begins with a fleet U.S. Navy ships at sea, followed by Navy soldiers marching in formation (0:33). A physician examines a young, shirtless man during a physical; a dentist examines a recruit’s mouth; sailors in white uniforms eat at a canteen, then sleep in bunk beds. During training, rows of soldiers perform calisthenics and march in formations across a field while carrying rifles (1:34). An instructor corrects a student’s posture in front of a class (2:18). Sailors do jumping jacks on a ship’s deck (3:07) and calisthenics and running in a field. A man in a naval singlet does warm-up exercises before running (5:22). Slow motion footage of his running is shown while narration points out areas of good running form. Groups of sailors in white uniforms run up a ship’s stairs, fasten the hatches, and clean the ship (6:25). Exercises to promote suppleness, or ease of movement, are shown: leg bicycling, lunges, side and front bends, and hamstring stretching. Sailors push a military prop plane across an airstrip as narration emphasizes another key quality: strength (7:50). Men in formation perform strength exercises: pushups, chin-ups, rope climbs, headstands, shoulder lifts, two-man stunts, and shoulder carries (9:56). Sailors lift supplies, gear, ammunition, and tackle onboard ships (10:22). A sailor performs a parallel bars gymnastics routine. A group of sailors in a circle throw and pass a medicine ball (10:56). Sailors in lifejackets row, build a human pyramid, and play tug-of-war. Navy men perform agility drills (11:30): jumping over sticks, somersaults, duck walks, tossing medicine balls. Sailors handle ropes while waves crash over the sides of a ship. Balance exercises are shown (13:18): balance beam, single leg stunts, frog stands, and two-man lifting exercises. Men are shown playing sports and games (14:48): boxing in a ring onboard a ship, wrestling, fighting, “cock fighting”, cavalry fighting, push-pull with a giant ball, and rowing as a team in a rowboat. Men perform relay races (17:00) and track and field events: sprinting, javelin, discus, shot-put. Sailors play football, basketball, baseball, and softball while spectators watch. An instructor examines a Navy man lying on a table for relaxation training (18:27); a group of men tread water and float in a pool. Techniques for vertical and horizontal floating and swimming strokes are shown: dog paddle, breaststroke, sidestroke, and underwater swimming. Men go through fitness tests at the end of training. The film ends with a color guard carrying American and Navy flags as narration repeats attributes of “the man the Navy tries to build.”

Motion picture films don’t last forever; many have already been lost or destroyed. For almost two decades, we’ve worked to collect, scan and preserve the world as it was captured on 35mm, 16mm and 8mm movies — including home movies, industrial films, and other non-fiction. If you have endangered films you’d like to have scanned, or wish to donate celluloid to Periscope Film so that we can share them with the world, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us via the weblink below.

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com