The USAF of the 1950's and early 60's

[Cowboy1968]

I know i Posted this about MATS (Military Air Transport Service) in another post, but I thought I would open this dialoge by moving it here. And correcting somethings I had left out.

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I was thinking of my comments from above and thought I would point out just how versatile MATS was in the 1950's and early 60's

IT should be pointed out that MATS was formed from the US Air Force's Air Transport Command in 1948. The Navy's Naval Air Transport Service was combined into MATS in 1950 under "the single manager concept".

From its outset the main MATS mission was movement of ammunition (bullets), munitions (guns and equipment), Consumables (food, water and butt wipe), and personal (dead and alive) by air. When first put into commission MATS was devised into three divisions. Atlantic, Pacific and Continental. These divisions were unified on July 1, 1958. The main mission was handled well by MATS. In peacetime they handled the movement of military personal quite well. Though when Korea broke out, MATS had to supplement its own service by contracting with commercial airlines. After the unification of air assets occurred in 1955, they were controlled by two commands, Eastern Transport Air Force (EasTAF) that covered flights between the US and Europe, down in the Caribbean and across Asia to Dhahran, Saudi Areabia, and the Western Transport Air Force (WesTAF) that flew the Pacific and South East Asia routes that ended in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The Continental Division was eliminated in the reorganization and its duties of flights to Alaska, South America, Canada, interior U.S. between Military fields and Civil aiprorts, and flights between the Air Force Material Command depots in the United States was divided between EASTAF and WESTAF.

In peacetime MATS worked with SAC in training exercises. they conducted movements between Europe and Asia from the Continental U.S. several times a month. These exercise could be anywhere from a half a dozen personal with a just a few tons of cargo or movements that included hundreds of personal and thousands of tons of cargo. This was practice for MATS "D-Day" type operations, and for operations like the Berlin Airlift.

From 1955 to 1966, they also took over the mission of tactical transport as well. they assumed the mission of Troop Carrying and forward air supply by air. This mission was later returned to TAC. When MATS became MAC, it was decided they needed to concentrate on strategic airlift and not tactical airlift.

MATS also conducted the "Special Air Missions" operations. These meant they handled the VIP flights for the US Government and military. These are the guys that fly the President.

That mentioned. MATS had several subordinate commands that have to be looked at.

Airways and Air Communications Service
This was the USAF's main air control system. they provided personal for Air traffic Control, Control Tower personal, Ground Traffic Control, Radar maintenance personal for air traffic control purposes. Point to point radio communications, Air Nav Aids were maintained and monitored for military use. This service was the prototype for what would become the FAA's system for Air Traffic Control in the United States, and therefor the prototype for most of the world.

Air Weather Service
The air weather service provided the Air Force with its meteorological information for its air routes, bases and operations. Another mission of the AWS was to monitor Soviet nuclear tests by taking atmospheric test and high altitude reconnaissance with aircraft.

Air Rescue Service
As its name suggest, this outfit under MATS was to provide Search and Rescue. They did this by air and by land. In this mission they provided helicopter, amphibious aircraft, and long range search operations using machines like the SB-17, SB-29 and SB-50 bombers. The service would eventually switch to using HC-130 transports. They also provided the "crash service" at air bases. ARS also was responsible for the Medical Air Evacuation mission that moved wounded from the combat areas back to the Continental U.S.

Flight Service
This was MATS clearing house for Military flight operations. Their mission was to receive and plan schedules for MATS routes. They informed the civil aviation authorities of Military traffic, received and processed request for Air Rescue Service missions for civil operations. They also informed ARS when military traffic was missing or overdue. They conducted accident investigations. Basically the Flight Service was the military's FAA. In 1958, the accident investigation and filing of flight plans were turned over to the FAA.

Air Resupply and Communications Service
This organization only lasted three years under MATS control, but its name was only a cover for PhsyOps in the Korean War. enough said about that. They are the ones that did the leaflet drops, and well other dirty tricks.

Air Photographic and Charting Service
This force had the responsibility of making aerial maps, geographic survey from the air, and they are the one's that scouted the routes for MATS to use for its primary mission.

Air Ferrying Wing
This force was responsible for ferrying Air Force aircraft to operating units around the world. Even though a lot of planes were moved as cargo on ships, the most needed and eventually the majority of planes were moved by the seven squadrons that made up this wing. This force was over worked and understaffed, but they really came through in both Korea and Vietnam.

While most of MATS forces were involved in support operations, they did have one combat outfit. They were responsible for the Iceland Air Defense Force that used F-89 fighters for the Air Defense of Iceland, but in 1961 this operations was turned over to ADC (Air Defense Command).

Another mission of MATS was the multiengine training conversion for the US Air Force. Pilots being assigned to both MATS, SAC and TAC from Air Training Command would go to Orlando AFB in Florida and learn to fly large two and four engine aircraft on TB-25 Mitchell, C-131, C-54 Skymaster and TB-50 Superfortress planes.

That's just some thoughts on why MATS was a force that made history time and time again.

 

[SSI01]

Our property manager in HI was a retired USAF LtCol pilot. He and I passed many enjoyable hours reminiscing about his flying experiences, in training and in service as well. He completed his training during WWII and started on C-47s, eventually flying virtually everything MATS/MAC fielded that had a prop on it, had supported the Korean and Viet Nam wars, and had flown in the Berlin Airlift as a C-47 and C-54 pilot. He also had a little time in jets, the last thing I remember him saying he flew was a C-141. I asked him once why he went to MATS when the "fun" was in fighters and the "crucial mission" was in bombers. He said those things were fine as they were, but if you wanted to fly, rack up hours and get around and see things, and if you just loved to be aloft, you went to MATS. They routinely piled up many more hours of flying time than TAC or SAC pilots did, whether on scheduled runs or special exercises as this post describes. The toll was heavier on your home life, however.

I did get a cheap thrill courtesy of MATS's Aerial Cartographic and Geodetic Service (ACGS) one time, however; riding in one of their C-130As as a passenger when it caught fire in flight. I'm sure it was mildly interesting for the crew, too.

 

[philmoberg]

My dad was in the Coast Guard from '51 through '76, as a result of which I saw a lot of MATS bases and aircraft in the '50s and '60s. While a kid's perspective can be somewhat limited, I found the whole thing fascinating, and had the sense that these guys were the ones making the rest of it happen. I guess my impressions weren't that far off. Thanks kindly for the capsule history, Cowboy.

 

[Cowboy1968]

I was looking back over this thread in thinking of which Air Force Command I was going to cover next in this history, and I realize I talked about the things MATS did for the aviation world in developing air traffic and ground traffic control. How they developed NavAids and so on. We owe a lot of our VOR systems to what MATS developed in the early 1950's.

Well that has already been covered. What I failed to cover is that MATS played an important part in developing the modern logistics system that most of the allied nations use. and as well Federal Express used MATS as its model when it opened up its Air Service in the 1970's.

In the late 1950's, MATS started to develop palletization of cargo. This was done as part of the Douglas C-133 project and the Lockheed C-130 project. Both companies had developed pallets for use in their planes, but MATS took this one step further. They wanted a standard system that could be used with all its planes. They developed a system that first used wood pallets that could be carried by truck, moved by forklift, and loaded into planes. They developed combat and priority loading of planes, by using this method.

MATS also developed a comprehensive method of keeping accurate track of its consigned loads. This was done by a lot of paper in the pre-computer management world, but that system is still used in refined detail today. MATS developed a method of rapidly unloading an aircraft into a sorting house (hanger) that would then gather and plan the next load to be shipped out on the next aircraft that was being loaded. By 1964, MATS had developed a highly tuned operating system that had Sorting hangers at every major Air Force, Army and even Navy depot in the US force structure. Once a load was consigned to MATS (and later MAC) it was moved to the Sorting house, organized onto pallets, by priority, and then loaded onto the plane that was to fly that route. (Eventually the depots learned to use the pallet system themselves and that saved even more time.) As MATS neared to getting its "Holy Grail" they had taken this one step farther, now an airplane could come up to a sorting hanger, open its doors and with in minutes MATS personal could have it unloaded by pushing the pallets onto a conveyer system that would move the load deep into the sorting area. While at the same time unloading was happening another load (if planned) was gathered and then moved onto the conveyer to the awaiting bird. A C-124 or a C-135 could be turned around in less then two hours. This also included refueling and resupplying the crew comforts.

Even at advance area bases the pallet system paid off in faster off loading by using forklifts and with some aircraft types lift trucks.

I will eventally talk about that "holy Grail". Heck I will go ahead and tell you what that was. It was an airplane that could move heavy loads over long distance at high speed. They were seeking a true "strategic airlifter" They got this in the form of the Lockheed C-141A Starlifter.

 

[SSI01]

Your description of an efficient cargo handling system is most interesting. I think the most efficient aircraft cargo handling system I ever heard of was that developed by Gen William Tunner in re: the Berlin Airlift. The efficiency extended all the way to flight scheduling, spacing, aircraft enroute speeds, approach and departure speeds and routes, and the all-important aircraft unloading and turnaround. This was accomplished primarily through a great deal of muscular effort on the part of German civilians who unloaded the aircraft using a minimum of power equipment but a lot of manual labor. I seem to recall a record being set with a C-54 load of coal being unloaded in something like 15 minutes. There wasn't much crew rest allowed in Berlin as the ramp was so confined and throughput of cargo was all-important. Not much attention is paid at all by the public to cargo handling on the ground but as your article pointed out it is so vitally important to the system functioning as it should. A great deal of thought and careful planning go into the cargo handling equipment the AF buys for AMC. Truly an unsung and unheralded field of activity by the USAF and AMC!

 

[Cowboy1968]

Your description of an efficient cargo handling system is most interesting. I think the most efficient aircraft cargo handling system I ever heard of was that developed by Gen William Tunner in re: the Berlin Airlift. The efficiency extended all the way to flight scheduling, spacing, aircraft enroute speeds, approach and departure speeds and routes, and the all-important aircraft unloading and turnaround. This was accomplished primarily through a great deal of muscular effort on the part of German civilians who unloaded the aircraft using a minimum of power equipment but a lot of manual labor. I seem to recall a record being set with a C-54 load of coal being unloaded in something like 15 minutes. There wasn't much crew rest allowed in Berlin as the ramp was so confined and throughput of cargo was all-important. Not much attention is paid at all by the public to cargo handling on the ground but as your article pointed out it is so vitally important to the system functioning as it should. A great deal of thought and careful planning go into the cargo handling equipment the AF buys for AMC. Truly an unsung and unheralded field of activity by the USAF and AMC!

Operation Vittles was truly an outstanding event in the area of strategic airlift. Yes, Every 3 minutes a plane was coming into to west Berlin. Both Tempelhuf and Gatow were constantly overcrowded with supply birds. While all this reliefs flights were going on there, at the same time MATS also started to provide airlift to assist the French in finishing Tegel, so it could be used in taking the overflow to the other two fields.

And yes it was a 24 hour around the clock operation. It also helped define the mission of strategic airlift. and it also changed the thought of strategic airlift from a support operation to being a "combat" mission. The Berlin Airlift brought strategic airlift to the for front and vindicated the original mission as seen by Army Chief of Staff Dwight D. Eisenhower when he and Carl Spatz set up the post war USAAF and the Air Transport Command in 1946.

In the end, even though on paper the newly formed USAF in 1947 had the tools, it took the Berlin Airlift to teach them that it was needed and that strategic airlift was just as important as strategic bombing. The USAF and its allies won that very important battle in the Cold War without firing a shot....its ammunition was coal and beans.

And yes USAFE and the RAF were ready to use combat aircraft to keep the air corridor open. USAF fighters did fly the corridor forcing Soviet fighters away that started to harass the relief flights.

 

[SSI01]

I also seem to recall the RAF using Sunderlands to help with the airlift, as they had a lake in their sector large enough to take Sunderlands converted to transports. They lightered the relief supplies from the aircraft to the shore. Is that lake duplicated in FS9?

 

[Cowboy1968]

I also seem to recall the RAF using Sunderlands to help with the airlift, as they had a lake in their sector large enough to take Sunderlands converted to transports. They lightered the relief supplies from the aircraft to the shore. Is that lake duplicated in FS9?

Well we would have to look around, because I really don't know? Remember we are talking that this is the 21st Century layouts that Microsoft has used. but it could be added if a scenery maker would be willing if it isn't there.