Historic Film - Big Picture Army Divers School

Big Picture: Army Drivers' School - National Archives and Records Administration - ARC Identifier 2569634 / Local Identifier 111-TV-365 - DVD Copied by Katie Filbert. Soldiers with an unusual occupation shown on "THE BIG Picture" -- THE BIG PICTURE has come up with a neat little documentary in "Army Divers' School," filmed on location at Fort Eustis, Virginia.

Director of Photography is SP-3 Gerald Finnerman of the Army Pictorial Center in Long Island City, and experienced and qualified cameraman from Warner Brothers Studio in Hollywood. Through his eyes and the lens of THE BIG PICTURE camera, TV viewers will follow the training and actual underwater operations assigned to enlisted divers of the Army Transportation Corps.

The diving student learns and becomes a jack-of-all-trades: welder, carpenter, mechanic all rolled into one. He must also be an explosives expert; at home with such items as blasting machines, plastic explosives gelatin dynamite and TNT. Playing down the dramatics usually seen in underwater work, the skillful photography by Finnerman results in a documentary featuring generous use of all camera angles.

It takes 17 weeks in the Divers' School for young soldiers who had never been under the water to become qualified salvage divers and fledgling members of one of the highest paid trades in the world.