Air Resupply And Communications Service: Difference between revisions

This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please help improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (January 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Air Resupply And Communications Service
Boeing B-29A Superfortress 44-61669 assigned to the 581st Air Resupply Group, Kadena AB, Japan, 1953. Note its underside and tail painted black for night operations. A downed crew from one such B-29 was the last group of Americans released by the Chinese communists after the Korean War.
Active	1951–1956
Country	United States
Allegiance	United States
Role	Special Operations
Part of	Military Air Transport Service
Garrison/HQ	Andrews AFB, Maryland
Insignia
Air Resupply And Communications Service

The Air Resupply And Communications Service (ARCS) is an inactive United States Air Force organization. It was assigned to Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland.

The mission of ARCS was:

• Introducing, evacuating and supplying guerrilla-type units in enemy occupied territory.
• Storing and packaging psychological warfare propaganda materials and storing and packing supplies used by guerilla-type personnel.
• Housing, supplying, administering, training and briefing guerilla-type personnel.
• Composing and reproducing psychological warfare propaganda.
• Composing and transmitting by radio, psychological warfare propaganda.
• Providing and maintaining communications circuits and communications security for the transmission and reception of intelligence material and for the analysis of such intelligence material.
• Perform such other functions as may be assigned.

By 1948, it became apparent to US leadership that the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin could not be appeased, persuaded, or otherwise convinced to respect the territorial rights of its neighbor nations. The United States Air Force (USAF) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had been created by the National Security Act of 1947 and activated a short time later.

Visionaries in the Pentagon reasoned that the next war would be fought and won (or lost) in the minds of those fighting it. Subsequently, the Psychological Warfare Division was established at the Air Staff in February 1948. By definition psychological warfare in 1948 was synonymous with special operations as defined during World War II. The new Psychological Warfare Division (also known as PW) division immediately set about to develop plans to fight this "new" type of warfare, which came to be known as psychological warfare, or PSYWAR for short.

In 1950 Air Staff/PW created two special operaions wings devoted to the PSYWAR mission and scheduled them to be activated in 1952. The plan called for three additional wings to be activated in 1953, with future growth programmed to seven wings. On 5 January 1951 the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) was tasked to organize, train, and equip these new wings. For security purposes, the special operations wings were designated "Air Resupply and Communications wings". A new service was established to provide oversight for this new capability and was designated the Air Resupply and Communications Service (ARCS).

Activated on 23 February 1951 at Andrews AFB, Maryland, the ARCS represented the most ambitious commitment to special operations since World War II and was responsible for oversight of the PSYWAR mission of the US Air Force. The catalyst for this new capability was the requirement by the CIA for long-range air transport of guerrilla warfare agents and supplies into Soviet occupied Europe and Northwest Asia. ARCS was responsible for USAF unconventional warfare (guerrilla warfare), direct action (commando-type raids), strategic reconnaissance (intelligence gathering), and PSYWAR operations.^{[citation needed]}

Assigned to an Air Resupply Wing were 12 specially modified B-29 heavy bombers, four C-119 heavy transports, four SA-16 amphibians, and four H-19A helicopters. All aircraft were new, except for the B-29s, which had been pulled from USAF storage at Warner Robins AFB, Georgia.

Five other non-flying squadrons were assigned to support the wing's operations by providing maintenance, cargo airdrop rigging, long-range communications, and PSYWAR/leaflet production. One unique squadron was devoted to preparing guerrilla-type personnel for insertion into enemy occupied territory.

Extensive modifications were required for the B-29 Superfortress to enable it to perform the special operations mission. All turrets, except the tail turret, were removed from the aircraft, leaving the aircraft unarmed and incapable of self-defense. A parachutist’s exit was made where the belly gun turret was originally located. Resupply bundles were mounted on bomb racks inside the bomb bay, thus allowing the bundles to be dropped like bombs over the drop zone. Aircraft were painted black, and a crude HTR-13 obstruction-warning radar was installed to warn the crew of approaching terrain. The major flaw in the B-29 employed in the special operations role, however, was that it had been designed for high-altitude precision bombing, not low-level airdrop. Over the drop zone at drop airspeed, the aircraft was near its stall speed and was difficult to maneuver.

A B-29 was assigned to the 580th ARCW conducted trials at Eglin AFB, Florida, during the summer of 1951 to determine if the aircraft could be used to extract personnel utilizing the prototype Personnel Pickup Ground Station extraction system. The test aircraft was modified with a 48-inch-diameter (1,200 mm) opening in place of the aft-belly turret and with an elongated tailhook at the rear of the aircraft. The system was similar to the one adopted in 1952 by Fifth Air Force for the C-47s of the Special Air Missions detachment in South Korea. The tests proved technically feasible, but the project was dropped for the B-29 aircraft due to aircraft size and safety considerations of flying it so close to the ground.

• Headquarters, Air Resupply and Communications Service

Andrews AFB, Maryland

• 580th Air Resupply and Communications Wing
  Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, 16 Apr 1951 – 17 Sep 1952
  Wheelus Air Base, Libya, 22 Sep 1952 – 8 Sep 1953

580th Air Resupply Group
Wheelus Air Base, Libya, 8 Sep 1953 – 12 Oct 1956

• 581st Air Resupply and Communications Wing
  Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, 23 Jul 1951 – 18 Jul 1952
  Clark Air Base, Philippines, 18 Jul 1952 – 8 Sep 1953

581st Air Resupply Group
Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, 8 Sep 1953 – 1 Sep 1956

• 582nd Air Resupply and Communications Wing
  Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, 24 Sep 1952 – 1 May 1953
  Great Falls AFB, Montana, 1 May – 14 Aug 53

582nd Air Resupply Group
RAF Molesworth, England, 21 Feb 1954 – 25 Oct 1956

• 1300th Air Base Wing (Training)

Mountain Home AFB, Idaho

• C-119 Flying Boxcar (1950–1953)
• B-29 Superfortress (1951–1953)
• SA-16 Albatross (1951–1953)
• Sikorsky H-19 (1952–1953)
• C-54 Skymaster (1952)
• C-118 (1952–1953)

By 1953 USAF interest in the unconventional warfare mission had run its course. The primary reason for this reduction was funding. The Air Force was essentially operating a national-level special operations program for an agency outside the Department of Defense—the CIA—with dollars needed for higher priority strategic forces. With the rapid buildup of the Strategic Air Command to counter Soviet Cold War aggression and the resulting funding requirements, the lesser priority PSYWAR mission was curtailed.

In April 1953 the Air Staff directed ARCS to limit operations to Air Force only projects, thus ending support for such outside agencies as the CIA. Nine months later Department of the Air Force Letter 322 and Military Air Transport Service General Order 174 inactivated ARCS, effective 1 January 1954.

In September 1953, after the Korean Armistice was signed that ended active conflict on the Korean peninsula and three months before inactivation of the ARCS, the three active wings were reduced to air resupply groups. The downsized groups were approximately one-half the size of the former wings and consisted of two squadrons—one flying squadron and one support squadron, as compared to six squadrons in each wing before the reorganization

General Order 37, Headquarters Seventeenth Air Force, dated 12 October 1956, inactivated the 580th ARG in place in Libya. Third Air Force General Order 86, dated 18 October 1956, inactivated the 582d ARS, effective 25 October 1956. With the inactivation of the 581st at Kadena AB in September 1956, the USAF closed the book on the long-range unconventional warfare mission around which the ARCS and its associated wings were based.

The Air National Guard's introduction to the world of special operations began when MATS began phasing out its Air Resupply units. Despite the decision, there was still a need to maintain a limited number of crews and aircraft to support unconventional warfare missions. After lengthy deliberations, the Air Force decided in 1955 to establish four special air warfare units within the Air National Guard:

• California Air National Guard 129th Air Resupply Group
• West Virginia Air National Guard 130th Air Resupply Squadron
• Rhode Island Air National Guard 143d Air Resupply Squadron
• Maryland Air National Guard 135th Air Resupply Group

During the 1960s, these units were re-designated first as Air Commando units, then as Special Operations in 1968. After the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, these units were converted to other missions.

Eight years later, the United States found itself in the Vietnam War, and the formation of the active-duty Air Commando, later renamed Special Operations Wings both in Pacific Air Forces and later under Tactical Air Command. In 1990, the Air Force formed the Air Force Special Operations Command, elevating Air Force special operations to the Major Command level.

• 6007th Reconnaissance Group
• 7499th Support Group
• 1st Special Operations Wing

• Air Resupply and Communications Association
• Thigpen, Jerry L. (2001). The Praetorian STARShip: The Untold Story of the Combat Talon. Maxwell AFB, Ala.: Air University Press.