Winning Your Wings

Wonderful curio for WWII buffs, aviation buffs, and Jimmy Stewart fans. It's a recruitment film for the U.S. Army Air Forces. There are various young men presented who want to serve but have questions. Stewart answers their questions and provides info about the Air Forces. And yes, it was called Air Forces back then before the 's' was dropped in 1947. There's a lot of interesting information here about the process in joining the AAF and learning to fly. Also of interest to film buffs, this marks the one time that John Huston and Jimmy Stewart worked together. Very cool.

One final note over a comment I read that got under my skin. There is nothing about this that needs to be "excused." No one needs to explain, justify, rationalize, and certainly not apologize for serving their country and encouraging others to do the same. Not in peacetime and definitely not in wartime.

This is a very fascinating curio from WWII starring Jimmy Stewart. This is an Army Air Corps recruitment short in which Stewart, after a year in the service, addresses the public to sell them on joining. The film is briskly paced, interesting to watch and has a lot of great footage of aircraft (particularly interesting to airplane aficionados are the early B-17 A and B versions--pretty rare to see this footage). While I doubt if this film would excite most kids, it is a great film historically. Plus, it is one of the few films Stewart made exploiting his service, as he tended to downplay this and few people actually knew that he eventually retired a Brigadeer General after many years of service.

By the way, one of the young guys in the film that was thrilled about joining up had a girlfriend that looks like Judy Garland. It's not--I checked and it's Juanita Stark. They could have been sisters!

Newly-minted LT Jimmy Stewart gives a folksy appeal to guys from 18 to 26 to join up and fight the axis!

Jimmy would go on to make an admirable career in the Air Force Reserve and become the recognizable face of the Strategic Air Command in the 1950's--- here you can get a first glimpse of this enthusiasm. Winning Your Wings is aimed at recruiting officers--- more specifically at what must have been hordes of guys with the qualities but not necessarily the educational credentials to make the cut. Don ("Hazel") Defore does a bit as a 26-year old married gas station jockey who's not sure he's qualified. There's a run down of what must have been virtually unknown commissioned positions (navigators, meteorologists) and a run down of the 9-man crew of a B-17, all framed within Stewart's likable homespun drawl. Look for a nearly unrecognizable Peter Graves in the Flying Fortress. And go for Captain, they knock down $450 a month!

During World War 2, the US government was responsible for producing many films that would be categorized as propaganda in order to inspire people from all over America to answer the call of their homeland. While the term "propaganda" is typically used to describe rousing posters or films utilized by less reputable regimes (such as the Nazis), this film can't really be construed as anything but. It even has a few lies in it to make america look more powerful than it really was back then. The film starts with a trainer aircraft piloted by Jimmy Stewart landing at an airbase. He climbs out and starts explaining how the Army Air Forces (formerly the Army Air Corps) has been busy recruiting americans so that they can put this extremely destructive war to an end as fast as possible. He says how people in his time period are living through the greatest mobilization of people in the entire history of the world. Men and women from all occupations, from every corner of the US leave their old lives behind and sign up for a new one in the armed forces. Stewart says how even those currently in college are technically allowed to drop out and join the military, even if they don't have a degree yet. The military on the other hand actually wants students to earn degrees as various skills will come in handy depending on what your job in the army is going to be. Not just this, but people can also join the Air Force Reserve, allowing them to work towards their diplomas (and upon completing the term) enter the air force as the first rank of commissioned officer (Second Lieutenant). The film then goes on to say how in large planes such as the workhorse Boeing B-17, each person inside has a specific role, and they all need to work together in order to accomplish their objectives and make sure they're brought home safely. Obviously the pilot and copilot don't need an introduction for what they do, but the navigator, an often overlooked position, is just as critical. The navigator is responsible for plotting the course of the plane while it's in flight and making sure it doesn't get lost. The bombardier is essentially the sniper of the air, and is responsible for dropping high explosive ordinance from miles up onto targets with unerring precision. The plane also has engineers who are working tirelessly to ensure every mechanical device in the aircraft is not going out of order. The plane has men on the ground working to keep it airborne as well. Back at base, the plane's bomb load is supervised by a guy (who has most likely taken a class on engineering) called an armaments officer. His job is to make sure all the bombs are loaded into the plane correctly, as well as the belts of ammo for each one of its machine guns. The air force even has a need for meteorologists. The film ends with an inspiring monologue from Stewart, saying how america's factories are going into overdrive and building about 100 thousand planes a year so we can beat the Axis (which is just plain nonsense). Given that John Huston directed this, I'm tempted to give it a high rating since he was actually involved in ww2 (as was Stewart). However, like most other second world war shorts, this one feels done to death for me. It's decent for what it is, but if you're like me and have dozens of books on this particular conflict, you won't find much here that's unknown to you. I mostly watched this to acquaint myself with an important moment in film history, as Stewart got upwards of 150 thousand people to enlist because of this film.

I was lucky enough to get to see this recruiting film on TCM this morning with James Stewart this morning. Before going off to Europe and flying several bombing missions over Axis territory in the next four years, Stewart stopped by Warner Brothers long enough to make this recruitment film.

What's ironic here is that those who didn't take to the skies and became infantrymen would have nothing, but derision for films like these. Despite the contributions of the Army Air Corps which were certainly real enough, those who weren't in that service felt these guys got all the glamor. You can see that idea running through any number of war films.

Still it was interesting to see such folks as Charles Drake, Peter Graves, Don DeFore and Ray Montgomery before they became recognizable civilian actors.

James Stewart had three loves in his life, Gloria, acting, and flying and this was I'm sure a labor of love for him.