Formed at the start of the 'Cold War' era, the Military Air Transport Service sprung out of the newly-created USAF to serve the US Military around the world. From the Berlin Airlift to Vietnam, MATS crews and aircraft were found in every global 'hot spot'. This book not only provides the history of the Service, it also delivers an in-depth look at each type of aircraft MATS operated. From the C-47 to the C-133, the OA-10 to the U-2, this superb volume contains a dynamic collection of high quality, large format photographs of MATS global air power.
Without the support of airlift, the modern American military machine would be brought to a standstill. Since World War II--beginning with the Cold War and continuing up to the present day--the U.S. armed forces have come increasingly to rely upon airlift for mobility. The power to rapidly move and thereafter support a military operation--anywhere in the world, at any time--has become a foundational element of American defense policy. This work provides the reader with a comprehensive historical survey--including technical specifications, drawings, and photographs--of each type of fixed-wing aircraft used by U.S. military forces over a nearly 90-year period to carry out the airlift mission.
Except in a few instances, since World War II no American soldier or sailor has been attacked by enemy air power. Conversely, no enemy soldier orsailor has acted in combat without being attacked or at least threatened by American air power. Aviators have brought the air weapon to bear against enemies while denying them the same prerogative. This is the legacy of the U.S. AirForce, purchased at great cost in both human and material resources.More often than not, aerial pioneers had to fight technological ignorance, bureaucratic opposition, public apathy, and disagreement over purpose.Every step in the evolution of air power led into new and untrodden territory, driven by humanitarian impulses; by the search for higher, faster, and farther flight; or by the conviction that the air way was the best way. Warriors have always coveted the high ground. If technology permitted them to reach it, men, women andan air force held and exploited it-from Thomas Selfridge, first among so many who gave that "last full measure of devotion"; to Women's Airforce Service Pilot Ann Baumgartner, who broke social barriers to become the first Americanwoman to pilot a jet; to Benjamin Davis, who broke racial barriers to become the first African American to command a flying group; to Chuck Yeager, a one-time non-commissioned flight officer who was the first to exceed the speed of sound; to John Levitow, who earned the Medal of Honor by throwing himself over a live flare to save his gunship crew; to John Warden, who began a revolution in air power thought and strategy that was put to spectacular use in the Gulf War.Industrialization has brought total war and air power has brought the means to overfly an enemy's defenses and attack its sources of power directly. Americans have perceived air power from the start as a more efficient means of waging war and as a symbol of the nation's commitment to technology to master challenges, minimize casualties, and defeat adversaries.
This bibliography lists published and printed unit histories for the United States Air Force and Its Antecedents, including Air Divisions, Wings, Groups, Squadrons, Aviation Engineers, and the Women's Army Corps.
n this extremely comprehensive overview of airlift and air mobility, Colonel Miller shows how the worldwide orientation of American foreign policy, the numerous threats to free-world interests, and the speed and complexity of modern warfare have combined with political and resource constraints to produce today's airlift doctrine and force structure. Airlift is the movement of goods and people to where they are needed, when they are needed there. Since the 1920s there has been an evolving awareness and articulation of how to best organize, train, and equip airlift forces for that mission. The worldwide orientation of American foreign policy, the numerous threats to free world interests, and the speed and complexity of modern warfare have combined with political and resource constraints to produce today's airlift doctrine and force structure. Colonel Miller's study traces these many interrelationships to discover what critical airlift decisions were made, why they were made, and what they may mean in the future. Airlift is the backbone of deterrence. A properly structured and equipped airlift force is critical to the successful execution of the national military strategy. How we think about airlift and how we translate those thoughts into a meaningful expression of how to develop, deploy, and employ airlift forces is vital to the national defense. Colonel Miller's study is a definitive step in that important process.
When the western Allies moved to consolidate their areas of control in occupied Germany, the USSR responded by cutting off land access to West Berlin, holding over two million residents of that city hostage in an aggressive act of brinkmanship. General William Henry Tunner was given a task that seemed doomed to failure--to supply a major city by air with everything it needed to survive from food to a winter's supply of coal--and made it a brilliant success, astonishing the world in a major public relations defeat for the Soviets, and demonstrating the unexpected capacity of air fleets in a postwar world.
This is the story of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) from its inception to 1991. In suggesting such a reserve airlift fleet in 1947, Admiral E. S. Land, President of the Air Transport Association, drew on the organization's experience with mobilization planning in the mid- to late-1930s and on the airlines' experience in the early months of World War II. "As I see it," he said, "we would have to face it along the same general lines as we did then, omitting as many of the mistakes as possible, of course. At the beginning of the last war, the air transport system had a detailed war plan. Given the necessary information from the military services as to their needs, we can develop this one." The Civil Reserve Air Fleet concept was formally approved on December 15, 1951-by a memorandum of understanding between the Departments of Commerce and Defense. It began to take shape in 1952, when it was allocated some 300 four-engine, airline aircraft for use in case of war or a national emergency. Planning for the use of these assets began almost immediately and interim arrangements were in place by mid-1953. Still, it was not until 1958 that a formal wartime organization was agreed to, and not until 1959 that the first major carrier signed the standby contract that obligated it to provide crews and aircraft in case of a major war or national emergency. Two factors clearly shape the Civil Reserve Air Fleet. The first, the nation's military strategies, dictated the airlift resources CRAF was asked to supply. As it happened, evolving strategies entailed an ever growing requirement for CRAF airlift. By the late 1950s, U.S. military strategy promised the ability to respond across the spectrum of aggression, and then, two decades later, it committed the nation to an increasingly rapid deployment of forces to NATO. The second factor was economic, the economics of the air transportation marketplace. Despite the efforts of the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) and, its successor, the Military Airlift Command (MAC) to influence the make-up of airline fleets-in particular attempts to encourage the airlines to increase their cargo capability-it was the circumstances of the commercial marketplace that drove the decisions. When the air freight business failed to grow as expected, and when the lower-lobe capacity of the airlines' widebody jets proved capable of handling what air freight there was, the scheduled airlines began to divest themselves of their freighter aircraft. MAC's efforts to halt or even to slow this process proved ineffectual. It was not until the development of the air express parcel business, that the industry began once again to add cargo aircraft. Again, it was the economic forces that intervened, not MAC. This is the story of the evolution of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet-from its roots in the pre-World War II planning of the ATA and the Army Air Corps Staff, through its creation in 1951 and its evolution over the years, to a seemingly troubled existence in 1987.
