581st Air Resupply and Communications Wing

Infobox Military Unit
unit_name= 581st 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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colonel_of_the_regiment=
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patron=
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* Korean Service (1952-1953)
notable_commanders=
anniversaries=The 581st Air Resupply and Communications Wing (581st ARCS) is an inactive United States Air Force wing. It's last duty assignment was at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa.

Units

* 581st Air Resupply and Communications Group, 23 Jul 1951 - 12 Oct 1956: Not Operational, 17 Apr 1952 - 8 Sep 1953
* 581st Air Resupply Squadron, 17 Apr 1952 - 12 Oct 1956: Other non-flying support squadrons

History

Lineage

* Established as the 581st Air Resupply and Communications wing on 9 Jul 51: Activated on 23 Jul 51: Inactivated on 8 Sep 53.
* Redesignated 581st Air Resupply Group on 8 Sep 1953: Activated 8 Sep 1953: Inactivated 12 Oct 1956

Assignments

* Air Resupply And Communications Service, 23 Jul 1951 - 12 Jul 1952
* Thirteenth Air Force, 12 Jul 1952 - 12 Oct 1956

Bases Assigned

* Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, 23 Jul 1951 - 18 Jul 1952
* Clark Air Base, Philippines, 18 Jul 1952 - 8 Sep 1953
* Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, 8 Sep 1953 - 1 Sep 1956

Major Aircraft Assigned

* C-119 Flying Boxcar 1951 - 1956
* B-29 Superfortress 1951 - 1956
* SA-16 Albatross 1951 - 1956
* Sikorsky H-19 1952 - 1956
* C-54 Skymaster 19562
* C-118 1952 - 1956

Operational History

In 1951, the USAF created the 581st Air Resupply and Communications Wing (ARCW), which by 1952 had relocated to Clark Air Base in the Philippines. This consisted of three units. The 581st Air Resupply squadron (ARS), the 581st Holding and Briefing Squadron (HBS), and the 581st Reproduction Squadron. The mission of the 581st ARS was the infiltration, resupply, and exfiltration of guerrilla-type personnel, and the aerial delivery of PSYWAR materiel (leaflets and other similar materiels). In early 1952, the 581st ARCW received orders to forward deploy to Clark AB, Philippines, and to be assigned to Thirteenth Air Force. The first to deploy overseas, the composite wing arrived at Clark AB in July 1952 with six squadrons specifically tailored to perform the PSYWAR mission. Of the six squadrons assigned to the wing, the 581st Air Resupply Squadron (ARS) was the lone squadron devoted to flying operations.

Korean War

The 581st ARCW proved to be a very flexible wing, and its initial theater deployment plan, outlined in FECOM Operations Plan (OPLAN) 3-52, capitalized on this flexibility. The OPLAN established a concept of covert operations for theater forward deployment of assigned 581st ARCW assets. A key function of the wing, and a secretive one, was to have the capability to introduce special agents and guerrilla units into Communist countries and Communist-held areas, to supply by air delivery of these personnel and the guerrilla units originally operating there, and to keep in contact with them by radio for the CIA. Conveniently, the mission to maintain the capability to introduce and extract special agents into Communist countries operated under the cover of psychological warfare, and provided the perfect shelter against inquiries into their real clandestine purpose, although in hindsight aspects of the operational capability would prove challenging. Deployment consisted of four of the Wing's 12 B-29s and associated support personnel were placed on a 60-day rotation schedule to Yokota AB, Japan, to be co-located with the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron, which also flew the B-29. The B-29s were retrofitted to allow cargo or human "drops," and were stripped of armament and countermeasures in order to lighten their load and increase altitude and range, with exception of the tailgun. One crew member was trained as a CIA contact, or better known as the "jump master." The identity of these jump masters were kept secret, even from the ARC Wing Commander who did not know of their CIA connection. However, the wing did have a senior officer who was a liaison with the CIA. This was Lt. Colonel George Pittman, the 581st Air Resupply Squadron Commander. His identity was also kept secret from those who did not have a need to know.

The four C-119 and support personnel were placed on a 90-day rotation schedule, with the commander, 315th Air Division (AD), to determine where the aircraft would be deployed. Two SA-16s were sent to K-16 (Seoul Airport) in South Korea to augment B Flight of the 6167th Air Base Group. The four H-19A helicopters were also forward deployed to K-16 in support of the 2157th Air Rescue Squadron (in fact, they were co-located with the 2157th but actually supported B Flight, as did the two SA-16s).34 CCRAK maintained Operational Control (OPCON) of these forces and employed them into North Korea along with B Flight and Special Air Missions detachment aircraft.

The planes were painted solid black after their arrival at Clark AFB, and they flew long-range leaflet drop missions over North Korea. PSYWAR “leaflet bombs” were loaded with various forms of PSYWAR materiel and then airdropped from high altitude. An altitude-sensitive fuse opened the container at a predetermined set altitude, dependent on pre-mission forecast winds and desired dispersal patterns. One of the most sensational missions of the 581st in Korea occurred on 12 January 1953, when a 581st ARC B-29 (tail number 44-62217, call sign "Stardust Four Zero") on its first leaflet drop mission with the 581st ARC Wing Commander, Col. John Arnold (as well as the operations commander of the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron, Major William (Bill) Baumer) on board, was shot down on their last leaflet target just south of the Yalu River in far northern Korea near the Chinese town of Antung. At the time, Russian fighter squadrons, some equipped for night flying, were supporting and supplying the Chinese with airpower, including the Russian-made MiG-15 Faggot. Twelve Russian MiG-15s from the 351st (and perhaps the 535th) Fighter Air Regiments (IAP) intercepted a lone Superfortress (Stardust Four Zero) of the 581st Air Resupply and Communication Wing south of the Yalu River, about 15 miles from the Chinese border. The MiGs were scrambled and vectored to the bomber's location by Russian radar-controlled searchlight units stationed near Antung, China. The searchlights illuminated the unarmed Superfortress, and several MiGs engaged the bomber. Russian MiG pilot Senior Lt. Khabiev of the 351st IAP was credited with the intercept and downing of the B-29. Although US sources believe the B-29 was flying in North Korean airspace at the time of its mayday call, a belief that is strongly disputed by the Chinese and Russian authorities, crew members who bailed and landed believe they were in North Korean territory. Upon capture, the crew was rounded up, blindfolded and put aboard trucks, and were subsequently transported into China and later charged as CIA spies (the Chinese subsequently learned of the CIA connection with the ARCW units). During the highly publicize Chinese trial in Peking in October 1954, the surviving crew members, along with captured CIA agents Fecteau and Downey who were imprisoned two years earlier after they had been shot down while attempting to pick up their Chinese double agent, were given prison sentences ranging from 5 years to life. Not until 4 August 1955, two years after the Korean War Armistice, were the surviving Stardust Four Zero crew members released from Chinese prison. These crew members held the distinction of being the longest held POW USAF captives of the war.

First Indochina War

At the direction of the 315th Air Division commander, the 581st ARS C-119s provided limited airlift support to FECOM’s Korean operations throughout 1952. Beginning in 1953, however, the C-119s were employed in Southeast Asia in support of French operations in Indochina. Supplies, including ammunition, vehicles, and barbed wire, were delivered to Haiphong Airfield in everincreasing quantities. When US presence in Indochina could not be publicly escalated, plans were developed to utilize 581st personnel in a discrete support role. Refurbished C-119s, under French markings, were flown into Indochina by 581st crews, and French C-119s were flown out for depot repair at Clark AB. Instructors from the 581st were also tasked to train CIA-employed Civil Air Transport (CAT) civilian aircrews in the C-119. American support for the French only prolonged the inevitable fall of the former colonial power. In May 1954, the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu, thus ending 100 years of French colonial rule in Indochina.

Inactivation

In September 1953, after the Korean Armistice was signed that ended active conflict on the Korean peninsula the Wing was reduced to an air resupply group. The groups was approximately one-half the size of the former wing and consisted of two squadrons—one flying squadron and one support squadron—as compared to six squadrons before the reorganization

In October 1954, the 581st was relocated from Clark AB, Philippines, to Kadena AB, Japan, where it continued reduced operations out of that location for the next two years.

In September 1956, the group was officially deactivated, thus closing a chapter in special operations history in the Pacific.

See Also

* Air Force Special Operations Command
* 313th Air Division

References

* [http://www.arcassn.org/index.html Air Resupply Communications Association
* Brown, Wallace L. (1961). The Endless Hours. The Vail-Ballou Press, WW Horton & Co. Inc., NY, NY.
* Baumer, William H. (1999). The Extended Mission of Stardust Four Zero, Closson Press. ISBN #0-9704359-1-6.
* Price, Alfred (1989). The History Of US Electronic Warfare, The Resaissance Years, 1946-1964. The Association of Old Crows.
* Hass, Michael E. (2000). In The Devil's Shadow-U.N. Special Operations During The Korean War. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland.).
* Hass, Michael, E. (1997). Apollo's Warriors US Air Force Special Operations During The Korean War. Air University Press, Maxwell AirForce Base, Alabama, Ga.
* [http://www.korean-war.com/Archives/2003/11/msg00006.html The Col. Arnold Story. Burns, Robert. (1998).
* [http://www.kimsoft.com/2001/night.html] Shield of the Night - Little Known Pages of the Korea War 1950-53. Ashgabat, Igor' Seidov, translated from Russian by Cookie Sewell, Mir Aviatsii, January 1993 pp. 29-34.
* http://www.clarkab.com

External links

* [http://www.arcassn.org/index.html Air Resupply and Communications Association]
* * [http://www.marchfield.org/b29a.htm March Field Museum Boeing B-29A Superfortress 44-61669 from the 581st ARW]