REHEARSAL FOR DISASTER

a good many folks think of civil defense in terms of men and women and white helmets and armbands watching this guys for bombers that haven't come rolling bandages for an enemy attack that hasn't happened and that we hope won't happen but civil defense is much more than that civil defense is all of us as individuals and as members of already organized groups working together right now thousands of us without realizing it engage in civil defense activities of many kinds this is not something in the remote future civil defense is an investment of time and dollars on which we are receiving dividends today it's a living and growing Force which in some manner touches all of our Lives whether we know it or not here was the story of two truck drivers named Joe and slim hardworking boys who are not very different from the millions of others who pilot these big rigs on the highways all over this great country of ours it's the story of what civil defense means to them and to all America right now [Music] la [Music] hi you slim hi Sue well what do you know Slim Boy looked like he' been out in the town last night but you get those satchels under the eyes [Music] have you been the last couple of days slim we missed you I've been down the valley Sue hauling people out of the flood zone 36 hours at the wheel man I'm shot well the ICC suspended all the rules for the emergency so we didn't have to take any rest yeah they should have been pushing those trucks yeah we've been getting it all day on TV must have been really rough here let me turn it up a little in three states are slowly going back to normal now we can begin to count the tragic toll 53 have lost their lives more than 100 missing property damage of more than a billion dollar but there is a brighter side to the picture the 3600 families who got out in time it will be a long time before they forget the truckers who moved them to High Ground just as the floodwaters were lapping at their doorsteps it was a gigantic operation involving more than 600 trucks [Music] the Red Cross as usual was right on the job [Music] too gee we've got a real live hero with us oh skip the hero stuff turn it off so William sure slim gosh I'll bet After all you've been through you don't want to see any more of it oh it's not so much that Sue as a matter of fact there are a lot of things I want to remember things that kind of get you like uh like those kids at the emergency feeding station the Red Cross setup just outside the flood zone They piled into that grub as though they hadn't eaten in a Month of Sundays and there were funny things too like like the crazy things people take with them in an emergency things that give you a pretty good idea of what each of those people was like well the kids of course brought the things they loved best their pets which didn't always get along together and some of the men left everything home but their Securities it was pretty amusing sometimes but it was plenty tough Sue and I just as soon forget about it he hasn't seen anything yet what if the bomb drops down on us the bomb what's that got to do with us um I'll take the pork chop soup not so good today huh uh make it corn beef haven't you heard of how they're mobilizing trucks for civil defense in my town we have a plan that'll put all of our 1,400 trucks to work as soon as we get the first warning of an attack [Music] some will evacuate people from the probable damage areas to safer [Music] places after attacks some will carry the injured and the helpless to hospitals and [Music] shelters but civil defense traffic won't be All in One Direction after a bombing there will be trucks carrying medical supplies food clothing water extra fire hose and other necessities toward the disaster area yeah that's right I guess they'll be cooperating with all the other Transportation agencies too some of the relief supplies probably will come by water and the trains will have to unload some distance away from the disaster area and so will airplanes but each of them will have its job too and we'll have to help all of them deliver the goods our civil defense director has told us that every truck in our area has been inventoried and a job assigned to it even specialized carriers like tank trucks they can be steam cleaned in a few minutes so they can be used to haul water automobile carriers can haul all sorts of special kinds of equipment even small boats local delivery trucks the ones that survive have been assigned assembly points from where they'll be sent on other missions like hauling auxiliary police to areas of heavy traffic or auxiliary firemen to help man the hoses others will be turned into ambulances to carry the injured to Aid stations and hospitals [Music] there's water service and gas and telephone Communications to be [Music] restored and that's not all either under our disaster plan whole fleets of trucks have been assigned the job of helping to keep the factory is going the bomb can't knock out trucks as long as we have roads to travel on we don't even need roads I could take that rig of mine across the fields if I had to big as it [Music] is yeah that's right and we may have to do that because after a bombing a lot of bridges are going to be out and a lot of roads will be impassible we may have to do that to keep materials moving into our industrial plants after the bombing to carry away the finished products and maybe after an attack we'll even have to move whole factories to new locations after the first emergency is over the trucking industry's real job will just be beginning for no matter what happens we have to keep producing well that sounds like a lot of organization but I know we don't have anything like that in my town they'll get to you slim civil defense and the trucking industry are planning now an emergency uses for all of our 10 million trucks spotted in every city and town the country that's right nearly everybody's doing something for civil defense now why even my kid brother who's really just a baby will fly Courier missions for the Civil Air Patrol and Tom back in the kitchen is in the emergency feeding unit and I even broke down myself and became a Red Cross nurse's aid all kinds of people are working in this together and they would have overlooked their best bet if they hadn't planned on using the trucks too overlooked a bet why it would have been criminal we showed him what we could do with trucks and some full dress rehearsals for disaster there were the Missouri river floods that covered parts of three states and Texas city where 500 people were killed when a phosphate ship blew up and the Hurricanes that seem to hit us worse every year we did the job then and if we're organized all over the country as we will be do you think bombs are going to stop us [Music] not on your life sure they could set his back and they might flatten your city or mind could be pretty awful but we can lick him we can lick him with 10 million [Music] traps yes Joe is pretty impressed with the responsibility of his industry in time of disaster and rightly so the trucking people have shown us they could do the job by doing it in the past when civil disaster struck but of course if the bombs Begin to Fall it's going to take more than those 10 million trucks it's a job for all of us for me and you and you and it's a job particularly for trade and Industry groups of All Sorts the trucking industry is showing the way all over the country they're organizing against the day we hope will never come and if that day does come they'll be ready and come what may whe roll forward [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]