Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers (1930-1949)

Incidentally, the Signal Corps is pleased to be able to bring to this convention the Mobile Television System which is being used in our fundamental explorations of television's possible military applications. This equipment embodies much of the engineering skill which you engineers have contributed to the development of the television medium and emphasizes the spirit of scientific cooperation that exists between your industry and the Signal Corps. Needless to say, we in the Army are grateful to you for the splendid assistance we are receiving from you. I should like to point out here that the Army has recognized the need for complementary development and utilization of television and sound motion pictures in order to obtain the maximum effectiveness of both media, just as you engineers have recognized that the two are complementary and compatible, rather than exclusively competitive. Only television can reproduce an event at a distant point instantly, but only motion pictures can record and retain the image of that event. By combining the electronic immediacy of television with the photographic retentiveness of the motion picture, we can have available to us the maximum facility possible in pictorial communication. For this reason, the Army has placed the responsibility for development of both media in the hands of the Signal Corps, thus assuring full coordination in their development. In closing, I should like to appeal to you for continued assistance and cooperation in the research and development field in both sound motion pictures and television. This is essential if we are to provide our combat forces with the best that industry can produce. By that I mean techniques and equipment which will insure complete reliability under field operating conditions, optimum performance characteristics consistent with the state of the art, and reasonable cost under conditions of mass production. Any lesser goal will not be good enough. Excerpts From Address by Gen. Brooke E. Allen .... The Air Force is privileged to have both in uniform and as civilians members of your distinguished Society. The closer our association with you the easier it will be to accomplish our job for the Air Force. Be assured that we fully appreciate the accomplishments of the scientists, the engineers and the technicians in your field, and we gladly join ranks with you and propose to do our full share toward the advancement of the art. When I received my invitation to speak to you, I was in command of the Air Photographic and Charting Service, which constitutes one of the family of operational services under the Military Air Transport Service. Shortly thereafter I was transferred to my present position as Chief of Staff of the Military Air Transport Service. Since it was my responsibility to establish the Photographic Service, it is close to my heart, and I could not possibly forego a chance to explain its missions and aims to you. I should like to go back a bit in order to get the record straight. Photography since its inception has been vitally important to the military. Aerial photog raphy began to have meaning when intelligence photographs were laboriously taken from captive balloons in the war between the states. A century ago, an ingenious Frenchman made a map of Paris on the basis of photographs taken from a balloon. Out of that simple beginning grew the science of military photography. The development of motion picture photography has made it possible to document photographically the live action of the battlefield, on land, on the sea and in the air. The vital military importance of such a photographic record is obvious, just as every football coach insists on a motion picture record of Saturday's game for Monday's critique. Under the Unification Act of 1947, the Department of the Air Force was given complete responsibility for its own photographic functions. This did not, however, result in the automatic establishment of a satisfactory organization to perform those functions. Instead, the photographic responsibility became scattered among the major air commands without overall control, 437