Military Airlift Command


The Military Airlift Command is an inactive United States Air Force major command that was headquartered at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois. Established on 1 January 1966, MAC was the primary strategic airlift organization of the Air Force until 1974, when Air Force tactical airlift units in the Tactical Air Command were merged into MAC to create a unified airlift organization.
In 1982, the heritage of the World War II Air Transport Command and the postwar Military Air Transport Service were consolidated with MAC, providing a continuous history of long range airlift.
Inactivated on 1 June 1992, most of MAC's personnel and equipment were reassigned to the new Air Mobility Command, with a smaller portion divided between U.S. Air Forces in Europe, Pacific Air Forces and the newly created Air Education and Training Command. The heritage of MAC was officially consolidated into AMC in 2016.

Military Air Transport Service

MAC was the USAF successor organization to the Department of Defense's Military Air Transport Service, with MATS having been disestablished on 8 January 1966. MAC's emblem reflected its predecessor's history by incorporating the globe-wings-arrows emblem of MATS into its shield.
Although MATS was under the operational control of the United States Air Force, the 4-digit USAF Military Air Transport Service units at all levels were considered major command provisional units by USAF due to MATS being a Department of Defense Unified Command. Under the USAF lineage system, they did not possess a permanent lineage or history and were discontinued upon inactivation. AFCON units were activated under MAC, to which USAF personnel and equipment formerly assigned to MATS MAJCOM units were reassigned effective 8 January 1966. No formal lineage or history between former MATS MAJCOM units and MAC AFCON units was ever made.
With the establishment of MAC by the USAF, plans were also made to discontinue the role of the United States Navy within the new command. MATS' shore-based naval air transport squadrons were assigned back to the Navy upon its inaction, most being converted to organic Operational Support Airlift roles for the Navy and renamed as fleet logistics support squadrons, primarily residing in the Naval Air Reserve. However, some naval aircrews formerly assigned to MATS continued to fly USAF C-130Es for MAC until 1968, when all MAC C-130s were transferred to Tactical Air Command as part of the theater troop carrier mission being reassigned.
In addition, MAC continued the missions of several other activities formerly under MATS: the Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service ; Air Weather Service ; Special Air Mission ; Air Photographic and Charting Service , and Aeromedical Transport Wing.
In addition to these organizations, MAC supported select USAF Special Operations forces originally organized under MATS on an as-required basis until 1984, when all USAF Special Operations under Tactical Air Command were transferred to MAC's 23rd Air Force. USAF Special Operations forces remained part of MAC until the establishment of the Air Force Special Operations Command in 1990.

History

Vietnam era (1966–1975)

Established at the height of the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War, MAC provided long-range strategic airlift from bases in the United States to Military Airlift Support Squadrons located on Pacific Air Forces bases in the Pacific AOR. These were:
In addition, MAC operated MASS Squadrons on Non-CONUS bases in both Alaska and Hawaii:
By 1968, MAC military and contract transports were hauling 150,000 passengers and 45,000 tons of cargo monthly to and from Southeast Asia. At first, MAC transports to Vietnam landed regularly only at Tan Son Nhut AB, necessitating considerable transshipment within Vietnam by the Common Service Airlift System. New air bases opened at Da Nang AB and Cam Ranh AB in January 1966, and later at Pleiku, Bien Hoa and Phu Cat Air Bases, reducing the need for redistribution.
Major unit movements by MAC aircraft from the United States usually required further airlifts to operating areas by in-country transports. Introduction of the C-5 Galaxy transport in the summer of 1970 created new problems of in-country distribution, since C-5 deliveries were massive, and, initially the planes could land only at Cam Ranh Bay. Eventually, however, C-5s could unload at Tan Son Nhut and elsewhere. Primarily, MAC transports carried high-value cargo such as aircraft and equipment parts, while MAC civilian-contract flights transported passengers to and from the combat zone.
In the winter of 1965–66, MAC conducted Operation "Blue Light," the deployment of elements of the 25th Infantry Division from Hickam AFB, Hawaii to Pleiku, South Vietnam.
During the 1968 Tet Offensive, MAC transports airlifted additional troops from the 101st Airborne Division from Fort Campbell, Kentucky to South Vietnam, supporting a buildup of forces in South Korea in response to the seizure of the United States Navy intelligence-gathering ship USS Pueblo by North Korea in January 1968.
Undoubtedly the most important development of MAC during the Vietnam War was the use of the Lockheed C-141 Starlifter as an airborne ambulance evacuating casualties out of South Vietnam to hospitals in Japan, the Philippines and the United States. Generally, patients requiring hospitalization for thirty days or more were moved to offshore hospitals; others were sometimes evacuated to keep an empty-bed reserve of fifty percent in Vietnam. Military Airlift Command transports carried the more serious cases from Clark AB to the United States, and, in 1966, began making patient pickups in Vietnam.

1972 Easter Offensive

On 30 March 1972, North Vietnam launched an all-out invasion of South Vietnam, which came to be known as the Easter Offensive. The "Vietnamization" policy of the United States had resulted in the vast majority of US ground combat forces been withdrawn from South Vietnam with PACAF's tactical air units also being reduced. Military Airlift Command's C-141 force, accustomed to operating in and out of Vietnam from offshore were utilized for movement of large numbers of men and amounts of materiel to oppose the invasion. Beginning on 21 April, MAC C-141s began shuttling passengers and cargo between Tan Son Nhut AB and the other main in-country bases, principally Da Nang AB, Bien Hoa AB, and Pleiku AB. Planes and crews were based for one or more nights at Tan Son Nhut and performed two or more days of in-country work before departing for offshore destinations. This C-141 effort permitted the Vietnam Air Force and PACAF C-130s to concentrate on drops, unit hauls, and deliveries to forward locations. The rapid American response to the invasion allowed the South Vietnamese forces to defeat the invaders for the moment.

Operation Homecoming

By the terms of the 1973 Paris Peace Accords, the cease-fire was to become effective in Vietnam the morning of 28 January 1973, Saigon time. American prisoners in North Vietnam were to be released and the last 23,700 American troops withdrawn from Vietnam within sixty days. Planning for Operation Homecoming, the mission for the return of Americans held by North Vietnam, was given to the Military Airlift Command. C-141s of the 63d Military Airlift Wing, stationed at Norton AFB, California were given responsibility for bringing out the men. On 11 February, two C-130s of TAC's 374th Tactical Airlift Wing flew from Ching Chuan Kang Air Base, Taiwan to Clark AB as primary and spare ships for the movement of the support team to Hanoi the next day. A second C-130 left Tan Son Nhut AB carrying members of the international commission to Hanoi to oversee the repatriations. This C-130 arrived at Gia Lam Airport about one hour before the C-130 from Ching Chuan Kang arrived.
On the ground at Gia Lam, the C-130 crew met the airport manager and went indoors for tea offered by the North Vietnamese. The first of three C-141s flown in from Clark landed soon after and repatriation began. As the first returnee moved from the release desk, one of the C-130 flight engineers quickly moved to clear the way, leading the former prisoner by the arm. Taking the cue, the other C-130 crewmen in the same way escorted each man to the waiting C-141. Over and over, returnees expressed their deepest appreciation at having been greeted by a "brother-in-arms" and, in those first few moments of freedom, welcomed home by their own countrymen. A total of 116 Americans were released at Gia Lam that day and all were flown to Clark by the C-141s. Further releases of Americans in Hanoi followed the pattern of the first day. Releases took place on 18 February and on seven dates in March, ending with the final repatriation of the last sixty-seven men on 29 March 1973.

Fall of South Vietnam

With the impending Fall of Saigon and the evacuation of American nationals from South Vietnam in April 1975, the Air Force started evacuation flights out of Tan Son Nhut AB. Operation Babylift, the airlift of some two thousand mixed-blood orphans and children of American servicemen and Vietnamese women, most of them destined for homes in the United States, was initiated. Unfortunately, the Babylift missions were marred by the crash of a MAC C-5A shortly after takeoff on 4 April, killing 155 persons, most of them children.
Most of the American and some Vietnamese refugees departed openly aboard military or contract-jet transports, but a few individuals formerly associated with intelligence activities came out semi-covertly through the Air America terminal. On two days, 21 and 22 April, sixty-four hundred persons left Tan Son Nhut for Clark AB aboard thirty-three C-141s and forty-one C-130s. Operations were around-the-clock, the C-141s landing by day and the C-130s generally by night. Other C-141s and the contract carriers meanwhile moved those refugees already at Clark eastward to Guam and Wake Island. Nearly all aircrews reported tracer fire and airbursts with some bursts reaching to eighteen-thousand feet. On 26 and 27 April, twelve-thousand persons left Tan Son Nhut for Clark AB aboard forty-six C-130 and twenty-eight C-141 flights. The intensifying enemy fire forced the decision to stop C-141 landings at Saigon at nightfall on the twenty-seventh, while C-130 flights continued. On 29 April all US fixed-wing evacuation flights from Tan Son Nhut were stopped due to North Vietnamese artillery fire.
MAC subsequently supported Operation New Life, the transport to Guam of Vietnamese refugees and their subsequent resettlement.