This is Sixth Army 1954 US Army; The Big Picture TV-263; Presidio of San Francisco
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‘For the past five programs, THE BIG PICTURE camera has been roaming throughout America, picking out the highlights of the principle units and installations of our continental armies. In this last film presentation from this group of six, the camera swings to a coast of America–the Pacific. This is a conducted tour of Sixth Army. In area, Sixth Army touches our neighbor to the North, Canada, and on the Southern extremity, it borders Mexico.’
The Big PIcture episode TV-263
Originally a public domain film from the US National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied.
The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).
Wikipedia license:
Sixth Army is a field army of the United States Army. The Army service component command of United States Southern Command, its area of responsibility includes 31 countries and 15 areas of special sovereignty in Central and South America and the Caribbean. It is headquartered at Fort Sam Houston.
The Sixth Army saw extensive service in the South Pacific during World War II, including in New Britain, New Guinea, and the Philippines. Postwar it served stateside training army forces till its inactivation during force reduction in 1995. The army was reactivated in 2007…
History
The Sixth United States Army was activated in January 1943… Under the code name Alamo Force, it assumed control of the majority of US Army units involved in Operation Cartwheel, the campaign to isolate and neutralize the Japanese base at Rabaul in New Britain. Following the completion of Cartwheel, Sixth Army joined Australian Army and other US forces on the north coast of New Guinea…
In September 1944, Sixth Army was released from operations in New Guinea by the Eighth United States Army. On 20 October 1944, X Corps and XXIV Corps, under Sixth Army, invaded Leyte in the Philippines. By December, Leyte was secured, and the Sixth Army was relieved again by Eighth Army to prepare for the invasion of Luzon. As a prelude to that invasion, the island of Mindoro was invaded by the Western Visayan Task Force comprising the 19th and 503rd Regimental Combat Teams. Sixth Army took part in the Invasion of Lingayen Gulf on 9 January 1945 with the subordinate units of I and XIV Corps. Sixth Army units fought south until they met up those of Eighth Army advancing from around Manila… Sixth Army was to have provided the ground forces for the first phase of the invasion of Japan, but the surrender changed that.
Occupation duty then followed for a short while until Sixth Army returned to the United States, headquartered at the Presidio of San Francisco. Sixth Army then took responsibility for training of Army forces from part of the continental United States, until it was inactivated as part of force reductions in June 1995.
Reactivation
In 2007 it was decided that US Army South will be redesignated as US Army South (Sixth Army) under the Army modularization program. It is garrisoned at the Old Brooke Army Medical Center building at Fort Sam Houston.
In popular culture
The Sixth U.S. Army is portrayed prominently in the 1953 film War of the Worlds, and is shown defending Los Angeles from an attack by Martians. In the film, the 6th Army Commander (General Mann) is portrayed by actor Les Tremayne…
The Presidio of San Francisco (originally, El Presidio Real de San Francisco or The Royal Fortress of Saint Francis) is a park and former U.S. Army military fort on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Francisco, California, and is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area…
1946: After World War II, the Presidio command was redesignated the Sixth Army. It was responsible, again, for all U.S. Army forces in the Western U.S., to include training, supplies, and deployment…
1991: The Presidio sent its few remaining units to war for the last time in Desert Storm, the First Gulf War. The role of Sixth Army was management of training and coordinating deployment of Army National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve units in the Western U.S. for Operation Desert Storm.
1994: Sixth Army was inactivated and the Presidio closed as an active U.S. Army installation per BRAC. The Presidio was transferred to the National Park Service…
