Big Picture: One Army

National Archives and Records Administration

ARC Identifier 2569721 / Local Identifier 111-TV-464

Big Picture: One Army

DVD Copied by Timothy Vollmer. In America's wars of the past, this nation has achieved "One Army" unity without giving it particular thought. The combined thinking and efforts of all branches and all components, working as a team under the stress of wartime demands, has been the key to our victories in battle. As dramatically presented on film, it is during the actual months of combat when men shared the rigors, dangers, and accomplishments of war together, that there has been a unity of spirit, purpose, and action. On the front line--in the heat of battle--no one stopped to ask whether a man was a "Regular," "a Guardsman," or a "Reservist." Yet, this unity was never achieved until after the battle began. Unfortunately, however, each time a wartime Army was demobilized following victory, its soldiers tended once more to think of themselves as Regulars, or National Guardsmen, or Reservists, rather than simply as soldiers of the United States Army. As brought forth in this documentary film, today all the Army's components have essential, indispensable roles all the time. No component can perform its mission without the support and cooperation of the other two. Like the Three Musketeers of Dumas' famous novel, they are "All for one and one for all."