Collection search - NORAD: Defence of a Continent

Record information – Brief

1

NORAD: Defence of a Continent

Item number (ISN):

134965

Hierarchical level:

Item (Accession level)

Date:

1959-06-18

Item number (ISN):

134965

Type of material:

Sound recordings

Found in:

Archives / Film, Video and Sound

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Record information – Details

Fonds/collection:

CANADA. TRANSPORT CANADA / TRANSPORTS CANADA

Accession:

1975-0067

Media:

Sound

Part:

1 of 1

Production date:

1959-06-18

Production company:

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Production credit:

producer, Tony Thomas; executive director, Harry J. Boyle; script/narrator, Peter Stursberg; technician, Ken Frost; narrator, Jim Barron; Ivor Barry; announcer, Harry Mannis

Description:

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Radio program about the use of missiles to defend Canadian territory. It begins with a speech by Air Marshal Roy Slemon who talks about such subjects as Canadian-American cooperation in NORAD and NORAD's primary aim to help deter war. A narrator uses a map to explain the elements of NORAD defences, including the 70 fighter squadrons, 9 of them Royal Canadian Air Force Squadrons. Another narrator explains NORAD's aim to provide an instantaneous defence of the continent. Its component parts must be on constant alert, with good communications. The program visits NORAD headquarters in Colorado Springs and shows General Earl Partridge using his red telephone to contact Ottawa, the Distant Early Warning (DEW) line and Newfoundland, in a communications check to demonstrate the efficiency of NORAD's communications system. NORAD has its own long-distance lines. Other subjects discussed by various narrators are: the threat of nuclear weapons; the use of computers to operate weapons; the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) computer system used by NORAD; an interview of Captain Drake at Stewart Air Base in New York State about how SAGE works; the collection and processing of information from radar sites and produces a composite picture of the entire area; SAGE's role to control and guide fighter aircraft and missiles to their targets; staff salaries and equipment costs; the hardship of working on the DEW line; fighter jet bombers taking off; NORAD as the shield for the Strategic Air Command (SAC); interview of Captain Don Roberts at the underground headquarters of the Strategic Air Command near Omaha, Nebraska, about the goal of having SAC aircraft ready with 15 minutes' warning; the need to replace weapons and fighter jets with newer equipment; NORAD's capital and operating costs; Canada's share of the operating costs; intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs); dramatization of missile operators going through a missile launch sequence; the difficulty of defending against ballistic missiles; the need for a warning system against ICBMs; comments by General Partridge about the construction of ballistic missile early warning system stations in Alaska and Thule, Greenland; interview of General Thomas S. Power, SAC Commander, in which he speculates about what he would do in the case of a warning from the intercontinental ballistic missile detection system; General Partridge commenting on the Nike Zeus missile system; the expense of rocketry; and General Partridge commenting on the problem of whether it is possible to develop an adequate defence to use missiles against missiles. <33mn>

Language:

English

Detailed holdings information:

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Vault ISN:

114853

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

1975-0067/005

Vault code:

GAT

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

R/R

Technical description:

ACETATE

Made from:

DEPOSIT

Status:

ORIG

Vault ISN:

599900

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

134965-1975-0067-005.WAV

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

BWF

Made from:

1975-0067/005

Status:

MASTER

Vault ISN:

599906

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

134965-1975-0067-005.MP3

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

MP3

Made from:

1975-0067/005

Status:

REF
Ordering and viewing options

Conditions of access:

Open

GENCAT identity number:

GAD 0FD045

Restrictions on consultation:

~No Restrictions / Pas de restrictions

Reproduction access:

With written permission of Copyright Owner / Avec la permission écrite du détenteur des droits d'auteur

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