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53-686: Continental Air Command ( ConAC ) (1948–1968) was a Major Command of the United States Air Force (USAF) responsible primarily for administering the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve . During the Korean War , ConAC provided the necessary augmentation to the regular Air Force while it rebuilt itself under wartime conditions. Later, during the 1950s, it was a training force for reservists with no prior military service. ConAC provided peacetime airlift missions for

106-520: A D-Day requirement for fifty-one Air Reserve Forces wings. This was approved on 4 January 1955 by General Nathan Farragut Twining , USAF Chief of Staff. The contemporary Air Force Reserve of today began with General Twining's resultant statement: The new mobilization requirement was for twenty-seven Air National Guard and twenty-four Air Force Reserve tactical wings. The latter included nine fighter-bomber, two tactical bombardment, and thirteen troop carrier units. In addition to providing units to augment

159-404: A balanced reserve force by 1958. The plan provided for 27 Air National Guard and 24 Air Force Reserve tactical wings, 6 Air Force Reserve flying training wings, and almost 1,300 Air Force Reserve nonflying units. This structure would accommodate 250,000 members and provide flying and combat crew training for 38,000 in wing and squadron aircraft. The plan was approved on 9 August. However, due to

212-495: A base unit located in their area. The base unit furnished the personnel to operate the detachment and provided essential base services. ADC programmed to have AT-6 Texans , AT-11 Kansans and P-51 Mustangs available for reserve pilots to fly four hours per month to train and maintain proficiency. ADC intended to activate forty base units operational by 1 July. The 468th Army Air Forces Base Unit (Reserve Training) at Memphis Municipal Airport (MAP), Tennessee, reservists conducted

265-805: A conflict in Europe, and the Air Force hesitated to withdraw manpower from the organized units of the Air Force Reserve and the Air National Guard, the only trained augmentation resource available. Therefore, discounting a handful of volunteers, the Air Force's individual replacements to satisfy the demands of the first phase of the Korean War as well as the expansion requirements came from reserve units by using them as "filler" augmentees along with their equipment and aircraft. For nearly

318-472: A consolidated recall requirement for almost 50,000 reservists. They included 2,000 pilots, 1,900 specialized observers, 4,326 nonrated officers, and 41,536 airmen. By this time, it was obvious that the need for men could not be satisfied by the voluntary recall which had produced only rated officers. Therefore, by 19 July, President Truman had authorized involuntary recall of reservists for one year. ConAC directed its numbered air forces to select individuals from

371-404: A first concrete step in curing the ills of the national reserve program. It codified many existing laws, regulations, and practices; it gave the combat veteran some protection against being mobilized before others who had not served; and it removed several inequities of treatment of reservists. It was the first legislation ever passed that pertained exclusively to the reserve forces. At its center,

424-541: A month after American troops went into Korea, the Air Force strove to meet burgeoning personnel requirements with volunteers, offering its reservists and guardsmen opportunities for either enlistment or voluntary recall to active duty. The Air Force's first voluntary recall on 30 June 1950, sought communications and electronic officers, radar officers and specialists, telephone and radio operators and maintenance men, cryptographer operators and technicians, and wiremen and cablemen. Additional calls followed, and by 20 July ConAC had

477-827: A requirement to train navigators to meet not only the Air Force's day-to-day needs, but also those of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet. Starting in January 1955, a ConAC program offered refresher and continuation academic and flying training to the navigators. As enrollment in the program reached 5,000 annually, ConAC established navigator replacement training squadrons at the site of each Air Force Reserve wing. Reservists took their monthly inactive duty training at these sites. The program initially employed TC-45 Expeditor and TC-47 Skytrain aircraft until T-29 Flying Classrooms became available. The Air Force Reserve unit program had never been restricted to flying units, and in

530-696: A secondary status in the postwar years, received much more attention as Cold War tensions heightened. Following the explosion of a Soviet nuclear weapon in August 1949, the Air Force issued requirements for an operational air defense system by 1952. The perceived threat of an airborne atomic attack by the Soviet Union with its Tu-4 copy of the B-29 or Tu-95 strategic bomber led to the separation of Air Defense Command from ConAC, and its reestablishment as an Air Force major command, effective 1 January 1951 to counter

583-690: A state militia. Second, the legally prescribed nature and organization of the National Guard does not provide for service as individuals; the guard consists of units only. In 1944, the National Guard Association of the United States compelled the Army Air Forces to plan for a significant separate Air National Guard reserve force separate from the observation units of the prewar National Guard units controlled by

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636-469: The 434th Troop Carrier Wing at Atterbury AFB Indiana, the 514th Troop Carrier Wing at Mitchel AFB , New York, and the 443d Troop Carrier Wing at Hensley Field , Texas, all came onto active service on 1 May. Eighteenth Air Force was established and activated in March 1951 to discharge Tactical Air Command 's troop carrier responsibilities. With the partial mobilization of the Air Force Reserve during

689-668: The Eighteenth Air Force at Donaldson AFB, South Carolina, immediately assigning to it the Reserve 314th and 375th Troop Carrier Wings. As the reserve wings came on active duty, they too joined the Eighteenth Air Force. The 435th Troop Carrier Wing at Miami IAP , Florida, the 403d Troop Carrier Wing at Portland MAP , Oregon, and the 516th Troop Carrier Wing at Memphis MAP , Tennessee, were mobilized on 1 March 1 April, and 16 April, respectively, while

742-510: The Air Force Reserve flying unit program expanded to include air rescue squadrons equipped with the fixed-wing amphibious Grumman HU-16 Albatross aircraft. ConAC activated the following squadrons between 1956 and 1958. The 301st Air Rescue Squadron at Miami conducted the first reserve rescue in January 1957, recovering three airmen from the sea when two B-47 Stratojets collided off the coast of Cuba . The Air Force Reserve's aircrew training activities expanded when Headquarters USAF identified

795-446: The Air Force Reserve training centers now would support reserve combat wings, individual mobilization assignments, a new program of corollary units integrated with active force units, and a Volunteer Air Reserve training program to accommodate all reservists not fitted into one of the other three programs. Headquarters USAF and the major commands were to conduct the corollary unit and mobilization assignment programs while ConAC would handle

848-888: The Air Force Reserve's General Smith to examine the Air Reserve programs. General Smith was a reservist who had been associated with the Air Training Command during World War TI, had served on several of the Air Defense Command's early reserve boards, and had been the first chairman of the Air Staff Committee on Reserve. Submitting a long-range plan for the Reserve Forces of the United States Air Force on 27 July. General Smith asserted that its adoption would provide

901-647: The Air Force retained partial jurisdiction after turning over the facility to the civil community after the end of World War II. ADC was given the air reserve mission as the fundamental mission of the command was the air defense of the Continental United States, and the reservists were considered as reinforcements for that mission; however the reserve program was a national endeavor and the Army Air Forces required both Strategic Air Command and Tactical Air Command to conduct some form of reserve training on their bases. The reservists were to report to

954-606: The Air Force. It was mobilized twice in 1961 and 1962 by president Kennedy for the Berlin and Cuban Missile Crisis. Lastly, it was used by president Lyndon B. Johnson for airlift operations into the Dominican Republic and South Vietnam. It was inactivated in 1968 and replaced by Headquarters, Air Force Reserve (AFRES). After the end of World War II , the Truman Administration was determined to bring

1007-510: The Air Reserve was to be a federally controlled reserve component of the Air Forces, ready for mobilization and active duty at the time, places, and in the numbers indicated by the needs of national security. Planning for reserve forces took second place, in any event, to the officials' efforts to win the separation of the air forces from the Army. Their single firm conviction about the nature of

1060-678: The Army and Air Force Authorization Act of 1949 which became law on 10 July 1950. The law stipulated that the Air Force of the United States would consist of the U.S. Air Force (the Regular Air Force), the Air National Guard of the United States, the Air National Guard when it was in the service of the United States, and the U.S. Air Force Reserve. The Air Force of the United States was to have an authorized strength of not more than seventy groups with separate Air Force squadrons, reserve groups, and whatever supporting and auxiliary and reserve units as might be required. The Air Force established

1113-697: The Army. As the Army Air Forces demobilized in 1945 and 1946, inactivated unit designations were allotted and transferred to various State Air National Guard bureaus. As individual units were organized, they began obtaining federal recognition, and the state Air National Guard units were established. The Army Air Forces Air Reserve program was approved by the War Department in July 1946. Army Air Forces Base Units (reserve training) were organized by Air Defense Command (ADC) at each training location. They were located at both Army Airfields and civil airports where

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1166-550: The Department of Defense were dissatisfied with the disorder and inequities that had marked the recall of reservists to active military service as a result of the Korean War. Incomplete and outdated records of individual reservists had made administration of the recall difficult. Moreover, unable to call upon younger men who had never served, the nation had to send World War I1 veterans back to war. The Department of Defense requested universal military training legislation to provide

1219-590: The Federal budget back into balance. An enormous deficit had built up, so expenditure was cut, resulting in relatively little money for the new United States Air Force to modernize its forces. Officials of the Army Air Forces were convinced that the service required some kind of a reserve force in peacetime, although they had no clear concept of what the size and scope of such an effort should be. Consisting of duly appointed officers and enlisted personnel

1272-424: The Korean War, Eighteenth Air Force assumed control of the reserve wings mobilized in 1951-the 435th, 516th, 434th, 514th, and 443d for their active duty tours. The reservists routinely trained in the troop carrier role, participated in several joint training exercises, and discharged the bulk of Tactical Air Command's troop-carrying responsibilities to other agencies. Among the major joint training exercises in which

1325-733: The Office of the Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff for Reserve Forces in Headquarters USAF. It also reorganized its field structure for reserve matters, establishing the Continental Air Command (ConAC) on 1 December 1948, with headquarters at Mitchel AFB, New York. ConAC had responsibility for both Air Force Reserve as well as coordination with the state-controlled Air National Guard organizations. At

1378-583: The Reserve program with training being conducted in World War II training aircraft, which cost much less to operate than single-seat fighter planes. On 21 February 1947, Headquarters Army Air Forces informed ADC to eliminate twenty-nine reserve training detachments as quickly as possible. The program's contractions caused by the fiscal year 1947 budget reductions made it even more evident that there would never be enough units to accommodate all Air Force Reservists who wished to be trained. The Air Force Reserve

1431-662: The Volunteer Air Reserve could be recalled to fill a ConAC vacancy when Organized Air Reserve sources were unavailable, but no member of an organized reserve unit at a flying center was to be individually recalled. The entry of the Chinese into the war in November 1950, the resultant proclamation of a national emergency, and the accompanying military buildup early in 1951 required the Air Force to turn to its individual reserve resources again. Still desiring to preserve

1484-442: The Volunteer Air Reserve training program for assignment outside the command. Members of the command's corollary units and its mobilization augmentees and designees could be called up to fill the command's authorized vacancies. The mobilization augmentees of other commands could be recalled to fill any other vacancy in the Air Force. When feasible, corollary unit members were to be used to fill vacancies in their parent units. Members of

1537-683: The acronym MAJCOM is used. There are several types of Major Commands in the United States Armed Forces : Memphis Municipal Airport Memphis Municipal Airport ( FAA LID : F21 ) is a city-owned public use airport located one nautical mile (1.85 km) northeast of the central business district of Memphis , a city in Hall County , Texas , United States . Memphis Municipal Airport covers an area of 231 acres (93  ha ) at an elevation of 2,102 feet (641 m) above mean sea level . It has two runways : 17/35

1590-444: The active force for limited or full-scale war, by mid- 1955 the Air Force Reserve had a requirement to provide the Air Force with trained individuals in wartime to augment and replace the attrition in the active force. These personnel were to be recruited, matched against specific wartime requirements, and trained in specific skills. Thus provided with an adequate framework of national policy and Department of Defense guidance, ConAC and

1643-525: The air defense mission. Units assigned to ConAC were dual-trained and in case of war, were expected to revert to their primary roles after the North American air defense battle was won. With the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, it was necessary to deploy large numbers of tactical aircraft to Japan and South Korea . The Korean War gave a new emphasis to tactical air operations and resulted in

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1696-444: The best interests of national defense. Moreover, he noted that Public Law 599, under whose authority all mobilization during the Korean War took place, specifically authorized the president to order reservists to active duty as individuals or as members of units, with or without their consent. In the fall of 1951, the Air Force began releasing reservists from active duty. Reflecting the attitude of most reservists, by 1951 Congress and

1749-471: The command of one individual. Also called CMD. See also area command; combatant command ; combatant command (command authority). Major Command or Major Commands are large formations of the United States Armed Forces . Historically, a Major Command is the highest level of command. Within the United States Army , the acronym MACOM is used for Major Command. Within the United States Air Force ,

1802-651: The effectiveness of existing units while rapidly expanding its manpower base, the Air Force needed the reservists to fill critical skill shortages and provide cadre for new units in the expanding force. Even though restricted to the Organized Air Reserve, the involuntary recall of individuals in February and March 1951 was the heaviest of the war. ConAC recalled slightly more than 7,000 reservists in both February and March. About 4,000 were recalled in April, and

1855-416: The first postwar Air Reserve training flight in an airplane, probably a C-47, borrowed from the 4th Ferrying Group. By the end of 1946, the command had organized Air Reserve training detachments at seventy bases and airfields. However, limited budgets for the active Army Air Corps meant even less for Reserve Training and a lack of available aircraft (especially the single-seat P-51) led to severe constraints on

1908-415: The law established Ready, Standby, and Retired Reserve categories within each reserve component to define liability for call to active duty. Influenced by the difficulties being created by the concurrent mobilization, the policies required that each service publish priorities for recall. As military conditions permitted, a reservist ordered to active federal service was to be allowed at least thirty days from

1961-638: The major air commands which would gain the Air Reserve Forces units and individuals upon mobilization began to develop the force into a combat-ready mobilization asset. For the first time, the Air Force Reserve possessed no trainer aircraft, and the units did all their flying in tactical aircraft: B-26 Invader , F-80 Shooting Star , F-84 Thunderjet , C-46 Commando , and C-119 Flying Boxcar . Fighter-Bomber Wings were aligned to Air Defense Command . Tactical Bombardment and Troop Carrier Wings were aligned to Tactical Air Command . Beginning in 1956

2014-562: The mid-1950s nonflying support units proliferated. July 1956 saw nine aerial port operations squadrons in existence. ConAC activated thirteen air terminal squadrons in October 1956 and organized ten Air Force hospitals in April 1957. Major Command The relevant definition of "command" according to the United States Department of Defense is as follows: (DOD) 3. A unit or units, an organization, or an area under

2067-490: The military services with a source of nonveterans. Thus motivated, Congress passed a series of laws in the first half of the 1950s to strengthen the reserve programs. President Truman approved H.R. 5426 as the Armed Forces Reserve Act of 1952 on 9 July 1952. In its final form, the new law appeared to most persons and organizations interested in reserve matters, the National Guard Association excepted, as

2120-404: The number leveled off thereafter at a slightly lower figure. Fifteen reserve wings were recalled on various dates between 10 March and 1 May and were inactivated at home stations after their personnel had been reassigned, the units being used as "Fillers" for active duty unit personnel and aircraft requirements. The breaking up of the reserve units upon mobilization evoked a flurry of protest from

2173-680: The perceived Soviet threat. One of the immediate needs of the Active Duty Air Force was to assemble a tactical airlift force. In June 1950, the United States could count three troop carrier wings: the Regular Air Force's 314th Troop Carrier Wing at Sewart AFB , Tennessee, and the mobilized 375th and 433d reserve wings at Donaldson AFB , South Carolina. To fill the airlift void, six Air Force Reserve C-46 Commando wings were identified for mobilization in January 1951. On 28 March 1951, Tactical Air Command activated

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2226-488: The recalls caused by Korea, the Air Force Reserve had no aircraft, and none would be available until July 1952. Upon mobilization in 1950 and 1951, Air Force Reserve units remaining intact had kept their aircraft, while aircraft belonging to the mobilized "filler" units had been redistributed. With the post-Korean War expansion of the Air Force, on 24 November 1954, the Joint Mid-Range War Plan identified

2279-592: The reserve program was that it must provide opportunities for pilots to fly. This was fundamentally different from the National Guard concept. The National Guard is the designated state militia by the Constitution of the United States. Although the Air National Guard fulfills state and some federal needs, it fails to satisfy others. In the first place, not every person in the United States with an obligation or desire for military service wants to serve in

2332-594: The reservists and from congressmen representing the states in which the units were located. Reserve unit members believed the Air Force had promised that they would serve together upon mobilization-indeed recruiters of the period had at least implied if not actually asserted as much. In response, the Secretary of the Air Force Thomas K. Finletter, stated that the Chief of Staff had to have absolute flexibility to employ Air Reserve Forces units and individuals in

2385-413: The rest. ConAC was to operate 23 centers to train 25 combat wings. The Air Force Reserve program was to become effective on 1 July 1949 would include twenty troop carrier wings equipped with C-47s or C-46s and five light bombardment wings flying B-26s. With regards to Air Defense Command and Tactical Air Command, ConAC faced severe issues as the tactical air support mission was fundamentally different from

2438-577: The restoration of Tactical Air Command as a major air command on 1 December 1950 and relieved it from assignment to ConAC. TAC's mission would be to supply these tactical forces to FEAF and USAFE, and also be able to deploy its CONUS forces worldwide in response to Cold War threats by Communist China and the Soviet Union . In addition, the need to support the new NATO alliance meant that entire wings of aircraft would be deployed to Europe for tactical air defense. The air defense mission, relegated to

2491-602: The same time, the Air Defense Command and the Tactical Air Command were subordinated as operational air commands of the new organization. ConAC controlled the First , Fourth , Tenth and Fourteenth Air Forces . The Ninth and Twelfth Air Forces remained under TAC control, although they were assigned to ConAC. The Air Force Reserve program for fiscal year 1950 consisted of four distinct parts:

2544-439: The southernmost of the reserve wings, the 435th of Miami, drew the assignment to airlift the materials to the north country. On 14 July 1952, the 375th Troop Carrier Wing was relieved from active military service, and the other five were relieved at various times between 1 December 1952, and 1 February 1953. The necessity of a partial mobilization in July 1950 raised a number of perplexing problems which became more difficult as

2597-467: The tendency of the Army Air Forces to orient the Reserve program as an individual augmentation force, it was decided that the Air Force's mobilization requirements called for organized units, both for training and combat. It recommended that all Air Force Reservists be organized into tactical or training units to facilitate administration and training. To clarify the situation and provide both services sounder legal bases from which to operate, Congress passed

2650-473: The time he was alerted until he had to report for duty. When units or persons from the reserve forces were ordered to active military service during a partial mobilization, military departments were to assure the continued organization and training of reserve forces not yet mobilized. On 4 June 1951, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force Eugene M. Zuckert formed a committee under the chairmanship of

2703-564: The units participated were Exercise SOUTHERN PINE in August 1951, Operation SNOWFALL in January–February 1952, and Exercise LONG HORN in March 1952. For one six-month period of its active duty tour, one of the reserve wings became something of a cold-weather outfit. In April 1952 the United States agreed to construct a weather station for Denmark a few hundred miles from the North Pole , a location inaccessible except by air. Ironically,

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2756-487: The war progressed through its first year. The fundamental problem centered around the fact that the Air Force, requiring a substantial augmentation of reserve manpower in a circumstance no planner had ever envisioned, needed individual replacements and augmentees, not entire organized units. When the Korean War broke out, the Air Force's immediate need was for individuals to raise active force units to their authorized wartime strengths. National policy required preparedness for

2809-490: Was affected by fundamental legislation pertaining to the parent Air Force. Even after the Unification Act of September 1947 established the United States Air Force , much of the statutory authority upon which it operated still stemmed from various laws pertaining to the U.S. Army. Under criticism for the inadequacy of its Air Force Reserve program, the new United States Air Force began to revise it in 1948. Contrary to

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