580th Air Resupply and Communications Wing

Infobox Military Unit
unit_name= 580th Air Resupply and Communications Wing


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dates= 1951 - 1956
country= United States
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branch= United States Air Force
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role= Psychological Warfare
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command_structure= Military Air Transport Service
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anniversaries=The 580th Air Resupply and Communications Wing (580th ARCS) is an inactive United States Air Force wing. It's last duty assignment was at Wheelus Air Base, Libya.

Units

* 580th Air Resupply and Communications Group, 16 Apr 1951 - 12 Oct 1956: Not Operational, 8 Apr 1952 - 8 Sep 1953
* 580th Air Resupply Squadron, 8 Apr 1952 - 12 Oct 1956: Other non-flying support squadrons

History

Lineage

* Established as the 580th Air Resupply and Communications wing on 15 Mar 1951. : Activated on 16 Apr 1951. : Inactivated on 8 Sep 1953.
* Redesignated 580th Air Resupply Group on 8 Sep 1953: Activated 8 Sep 1953: Inactivated 12 Oct 1956

Assignments

* Air Resupply And Communications Service, 16 Apr 1951 - 1 Oct 1952
* United States Air Forces in Europe, 1 Oct 1952 - 12 Oct 1956

Bases Assigned

* Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, 16 Apr 1951 - 17 Sep 1952
* Wheelus Air Base, Libya, 22 Sep - 1952 - 12 Oct 1956

Major Aircraft Assigned

* C-119 Flying Boxcar 1951 - 1956
* B-29 Superfortress 1951 - 1956
* SA-16 Albatross 1951 - 1956

Operational History

The 580th Air Resupply and Communications Wing (ARCW) was activated at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, in April 1951.

First-year activities for the 580th was devoted to training aircrew and support personnel in their new PSYWAR mission and in rebuilding Mountain Home AFB, which had fallen into disrepair since the end of World War II.

In July and September 1952 the 580th ARCW, which had been stationed at Mountain Home AFB since its activation, embarked its support personnel by way of ship to North Africa for its initial deployment overseas. Assigned B-29s flew out of Westover AFB, Massachusetts, with a planned refueling and overnight crew rest stop in the Azores en route to Wheelus AB, Libya. The C-119s and SA-16s, with a much shorter range than the B-29s, took a northern route through Iceland, England, and Italy before arriving in Libya.

Life at Wheelus AB for the 580th was Spartan, at best, for the first six months of operations. Personnel lived and worked in tents enduring the sweltering summer heat of North Africa. Low-level training was emphasized for the aircrews. The B-29s and C-119s flew low over the Mediterranean Sea, and flew 500 feet above the Libyan desert. In January 1954 a B-29 was lost during a low-level training mission when it failed to clear a ridgeline.

A primary customer for the 580th was the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) (10th SFG) (A) which was garrisoned at Bad Tölz, West Germany, in the Bavarian Alps. Tenth Group personnel would deploy to Libya for parachute and desert survivaltraining. Dropping at 1,000 feet above the ground, B-29 navigators utilized the Nordon bombsight developed during World War II to determine the release point. The bombsight proved to be equally as accurate at 1,000 feet as it had been dropping bombs at high altitude during WWII

Assigned SA-16s were tasked to fly classified courier missions throughout the Mediterranean, Middle East, and southern Europe. The amphibian aircraft proved to be versatile and on several occasions was tasked to fly extremely sensitive missions, including ones into the Balkans behind the so-called iron curtain and into southern Russia. Operating out of Tehran, Iran, in March 1956, an SA-16 penetrated Soviet airspace at low-level altitude en route to a night amphibious exfiltration from the Caspian Sea. The mission went as planned, resulting in the successful exfiltration of a man, woman, and two children. The family was flown directly to a water rendezvous in the Mediterranean Sea and from there transferred to an awaiting ship.

In September 1953, after the Korean Armistice was signed that ended active conflict on the Korean peninsula and three months before deactivation of the ARCS, the three active wings were reduced to air resupply groups. The downsized 580th ARG was approximately one-half the size of the former wing and consisted of two squadrons — one flying squadron and one support squadron.

Headquarters Seventeenth Air Force, dated 12 October 1956, deactivated the 580th ARG in place in Libya.

See Also

* Air Force Special Operations Command

References

* [http://www.arcassn.org/index.html Air Resupply and Communications Association]
* Thigpen, Jerry L. (2001). The Praetorian STARShip: The untold story of the Combat Talon. Air University Press , Maxwell AFB, Alabama. ASIN: B000116LSI

External links

* [http://www.arcassn.org/index.html Air Resupply and Communications Association]