“This Is US Eucom” is a circa 1967 Defense Department film that visits the United States European Command, or EUCOM. EUCOM is one of nine Unified Combatant Commands of the United States military. The film opens by telling us how Europe has grown past the atrocities of World War II to once again become a thriving place to live and visit, while still able to link “the vibrant present to the picturesque past” (mark 01:00). There’s a look back on WW2 and how most nations of the world set aside their weapons and worked toward rebuilding a peacetime world. The exception — the Soviet Union — which we’re told starting at mark 02:15 continued warlike and aggressive ways. Despite a blockade of Berlin in 1948, as shown starting at mark 02:50, the Allied forces devoted themselves to assisting the German people via the Berlin airlift, which carried supplies to the people of West Berlin. Even so, the Soviet Union “still threatens an unarmed Europe” (mark 04:04). As a result, several countries unite to create North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the development of EUCOM, headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, as well as Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), the headquarters of NATO’s Allied Command Operations.
The film continues with a discussion of the various duties and responsibilities of EUCON and watch as troops participate in various training exercises. Among the responsibilities is border surveillance (mark 08:40) including spots “along the line of Communist barbed wire … (that) keep an imprisoned people in.” There are scenes from an industrious and prosperous West Berlin and the Berlin Wall that splits the city in half (mark 09:25) and we see Soviet troops march in unison. There’s also a look at Southern European Task Force headquarters in Italy (mark 10:52) and some of the pageantry and responsibility involved with that assignment, and United States Naval Forces Headquarters in London (mark 12:05). There are numerous scenes of naval operations before returning to Germany at mark 14:12 and United States Air Forces Headquarters. The film reminds the viewer that Allied forces also provide humanitarian aid whenever necessary around the world, in addition to defense against any type of military aggression.
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