Continental Air Command
The program's contractions caused by the fiscal year 1947 budget reductions made it even more evident that there would never be enough units to accommodate all Air Force Reservists who wished to be trained.[2] To clarify the situation and provide both services sounder legal bases from which to operate, Congress passed the Army and Air Force Authorization Act of 1949 which became law on 10 July 1950.Units assigned to ConAC were dual-trained and in case of war, were expected to revert to their primary roles after the North American air defense battle was won.In April 1952 the United States agreed to construct a weather station for Denmark a few hundred miles from the North Pole, a location inaccessible except by air.The fundamental problem centered around the fact that the Air Force, requiring a substantial augmentation of reserve manpower in a circumstance no planner had ever envisioned, needed individual replacements and augmentees, not entire organized units.Therefore, discounting a handful of volunteers, the Air Force's individual replacements to satisfy the demands of the first phase of the Korean War as well as the expansion requirements came from reserve units by using them as "filler" augmentees along with their equipment and aircraft.[6] For nearly a month after American troops went into Korea, the Air Force strove to meet burgeoning personnel requirements with volunteers, offering its reservists and guardsmen opportunities for either enlistment or voluntary recall to active duty.[6] The entry of the Chinese into the war in November 1950, the resultant proclamation of a national emergency, and the accompanying military buildup early in 1951 required the Air Force to turn to its individual reserve resources again.In Operation SIXTEEN TON twelve Air Force Reserve troop carrier wings used their annual active duty training time to move U.S. Coast Guard equipment to the Caribbean.[8] During April 1957, Operation SWIFT LIFT reserve troop carrier units used inactive duty training periods to airlift personnel and cargo for the Tactical Air Command.In addition to providing training for the reserve crews, SWIFT LIFT moved considerable high-priority cargo for the Air Force, saving significant amounts in transportation and procurement dollars.[8] In the summer of 1958, reserve units initiated Operation READY SWAP, an open-ended airlift in which they transported aircraft engines between Air Materiel Command depots.Congress gave the president the requested powers on 1 August 1961, authorizing him to order reserve units and individual reservists involuntarily to active duty for not more than twelve consecutive months.[9] On 25 August with the Wall acquiring greater permanence as each day passed and amid rumors that the Soviets were about to resume atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons which had been halted in 1958, President Kennedy approved Defense Department plans to order Army, Navy, and Air Force Reserve and National Guard units to active duty with 76,542 men.The Air Force Reserve 77th Troop Carrier Squadron received its first C-124A at Donaldson AFB, South Carolina, about the time that president Kennedy took office in January 1961.Thereafter, the wing participated in a wide variety of missions and exercises directed by the Tactical Air Command, and it conducted extensive overwater training on flights to Hawaii, Newfoundland, Bermuda, and the Azores.On 3 January 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower broke off diplomatic relations with the Castro government of Cuba, protesting against "a long series of harassments, baseless accusations, and vilification".On the night of 17 April, a force of about 1,500 Cuban exiles supported by the United States landed at the Bay of Pigs on the southern coast of Cuba in the fruitless expectation of inspiring an uprising against Castro.With a large segment of the U.S. press and many congressmen urging the administration to act, President John F. Kennedy accepted renewed standby mobilization authority from Congress.[9] In the end, 80 C-119 Flying Boxcar aircraft flew 1,232 hours that weekend carrying materiel from across the United States into Key West Naval Air Station and Homestead AFB, Florida.Ordering daily reconnaissance flights over the island, President Kennedy and his advisers met regularly to consider military options while he mustered diplomatic support around the world.On the evening of 22 October, Kennedy went on television explaining to the nation and the world that U.S. policy demanded the withdrawal of the missiles, the president declared that he would quarantine all offensive military equipment under shipment to Cuba.Having watched the president's telecast the night before, reserve troop carrier wing officials were not surprised on 16:00 23 October when Headquarters ConAC directed them to activate their command posts and operate them around the clock, seven days a week.The message ordered one C-123 Provider and seven C-119 Flying Boxcar troop carrier wings along with six aerial port squadrons to extended active duty at 09:00 28 October 1962 for no more than twelve consecutive months.To sustain some degree of its normal transpacific cargo capability while it was thus engaged, MATS arranged through ConAC for the Air Force Reserve's C-124 Globemaster II units to begin flying missions on the intercontinental Trans-Pacific transport routes in September 1963.With each unit flying about one trip per month, by April 1964 the five reserve groups had completed 22 missions to Tachikawa AB, Japan and 19 to Hickam AFB, Hawaii, for the airlift command.Twenty days later a C-124 of the 935th Troop Carrier Group was en route to Tan Son Nhut AB from Richards-Gebaur AFB, Missouri, initiating the Air Force Reserve's Southeast Asia commitment.[14] In April 1965, when a political crisis in the Dominican Republic boiled over into active revolution, President Lyndon B. Johnson dispatched United States Marines and Army soldiers to the island to protect American citizens.Participating voluntarily between 30 April and 5 July, Air Force Reserve aircrews flew approximately 1,850 missions and 16,900 hours in Operation POWER PACK, as the emergency airlift was called.[9] After the POWER PACK operations confirmed the capability of the Air Force Reserve C-119 units, MATS immediately requested their use on missions along the coasts of North and Central America.
United States Air ForceMajor CommandAir National GuardAir Force ReserveKorean WarWorld War IITruman AdministrationdeficitArmy Air ForcesNational GuardAir Defense CommandStrategic Air CommandTactical Air CommandAT-6 TexansAT-11 KansansP-51 MustangsMemphis Municipal AirportFourthFourteenth Air ForcesTwelfth Air ForcesSouth KoreaCommunist ChinaSoviet Union94th Bombardment Wing319th Bombardment Wing323d Bombardment Wing448th Bombardment Wing452d Bombardment Wing63d Troop Carrier Wing89th Troop Carrier Wing349th Troop Carrier Wing375th Troop Carrier Wing403d Troop Carrier Wing419th Troop Carrier Wing433d Troop Carrier Wing434th Troop Carrier Wing435th Troop Carrier Wing436th Troop Carrier Wing437th Troop Carrier Wing438th Troop Carrier Wing439th Troop Carrier Wing440th Troop Carrier Wing441st Troop Carrier Wing442d Troop Carrier Wing443d Troop Carrier Wing512th Troop Carrier Wing514th Troop Carrier Wing516th Troop Carrier Wing314th Troop Carrier WingSewart AFBDonaldson AFBC-46 CommandoEighteenth Air ForceMiami IAPPortland MAPAtterbury AFBMitchel AFBHensley FieldDenmarkNorth PoleAir Training CommandNathan Farragut TwiningDobbins AFBScott AFB89th Fighter-Bomber WingHanscom Field319th Fighter-Bomber Wing349th Fighter-Bomber WingHamilton AFB438th Fighter-Bomber Wing439th Fighter-Bomber WingSelfridge AFB440th Fighter-Bomber Wing445th Fighter-Bomber Wing448th Fighter-Bomber WingNAS Dallas482d Fighter-Bomber Wing302d Troop Carrier WingClinton County AFBBrooks AFB446th Troop Carrier WingEllington AFB459th Troop Carrier WingAndrews AFBB-26 InvaderF-80 Shooting StarF-84 ThunderjetC-119 Flying BoxcarGrumman HU-16 Albatross301st Air Rescue Squadron302d Air Rescue Squadron303d Air Rescue Squadron304th Air Rescue Squadron305th Air Rescue SquadronB-47 StratojetsTC-45 ExpeditorTC-47 SkytrainT-29 Flying ClassroomsNew EnglandTampico, MexicoHurricane JaniceHurricane BetsyAir Materiel CommandC-119 Flying Boxcars82d Airborne DivisionFort Bragg20th Air DivisionByrd FieldPortland IAPOrlando AFBNumbered Air ForcesBerlin Crisis of 1961BerlinEast GermanSovietWest BerlinNikita KhrushchevJohn F. KennedyVienna, AustriaC-124 Globemaster II77th Troop Carrier SquadronNewfoundlandBermudaAzoresGoose AFBPrestwick Airport