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1st Air Commando Group
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The 1st Air Commando Group was a U.S. Army Air Force group of fighters, bombers, transports, military gliders and small planes operating in the South-East Asian Theatre of World War II. They were part of the U.S. Tenth Air Force providing air support for the British Fourteenth Army in the Burma Campaign.
ident Franklin D. Roosevelt, amidst the Quebec Conference in August 1943, was impressed by Brigadier Orde Wingate's account of what could be accomplished in Burma with proper air support. To comply with Roosevelt's proposed air support for British long range penetration operations in Burma, the United States Army Air Forces created the 5318th Air Unit to support the Chindits.
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The 1st Air Commando Group was a U.S. Army Air Force group of fighters, bombers, transports, military gliders and small planes operating in the South-East Asian Theatre of World War II. They were part of the U.S. Tenth Air Force providing air support for the British Fourteenth Army in the Burma Campaign.
Organization
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, amidst the Quebec Conference in August 1943, was impressed by Brigadier Orde Wingate's account of what could be accomplished in Burma with proper air support. To comply with Roosevelt's proposed air support for British long range penetration operations in Burma, the United States Army Air Forces created the 5318th Air Unit to support the Chindits. In March 1944, they were designated the 1st Air Commando Group by USAF Commander General Hap Arnold. Arnold chose Colonel John R. Alison and Colonel Philip Cochran as co-commanders of the unit.
Alison was a veteran flight instructor of P-40 aircraft, and gained renown as a pilot with Major David Lee "Tex" Hill's 75th Fighter Squadron, part of Col Robert Lee Scott, Jr.'s 23rd Fighter Group, the USAF successor of the AVG's famed Flying Tigers in the China-Burma-India Theatre. General Claire Lee Chennault lobbied to Arnold, who knew Alison from service at Langley Field, suggesting Alison be given the new command. Cochran was a decorated P-40 veteran pilot from the North Africa Campaign, noted for his unconventional aeriel tactics.
The group consisted of 13 C-47 air transports, 225 Waco CG-4A military gliders, a squadron of 30 P-51 Mustangs, a squadron of 12 B-25H bombers and 100 L-1 and L-5 Sentinel liaison aircraft. The group tested the United States' first use of a helicopter in combat, six Sikorsky R-4s, in May 1944.
Operations
John Masters' Chindit memoirs The Road Past Mandalay stated the Chindits' relationship with the Royal Air Force was problematic: "Whatever we asked them to do they declared to be difficult, impossible or against Air Force policy. Whatever they offered to do, we didn't need" Cochran earned their respect by allowing the Chindits to call in their own air support and evacuating a Chindit injured in a training accident by landing an L-5 in a field 400 feet long when 600 feet was the minimum.
Later in the campaign, they supported other units of the British Fourteenth Army during their drive to Rangoon. One of the glider pilots participating in landing the Chindits was actor Jackie Coogan.
After a glider training accident, the Commander of the Chindits, General Orde Wingate, sent the 1st Air Commando a message:
"Please be assured that we will go with your boys, any place, any time, any where." It was adopted by the 1st Air Commando as their motto, and it is still used as an abbreviated form as the motto of the USAF Special Operations Command.
The unit was deactivated on November 3, 1945.
Other Air Commando Groups
The 2nd Air Commando Group was formed in Lakeland, Florida on April 22, 1944 and sent to India under Colonel Arthur DeBolt. The unit served in the China Burma India Theatre of operations with the fighter units flying missions over Bangkok, Thailand. Following the collapse of the Japanese in Burma, the 2nd Air Commando Group was sent to Okinawa to prepare for the invasion of Japan, but the war ended. The unit was sent to the United States and disbanded on November 12, 1945.
The 3rd Air Commando Group was formed in Lakeland Florida on May 1, 1944 under Colonel Arvid Olson. The unit was sent to New Guinea, then the Philippines, where it served as part of the 5th Air Force. The unit was disbanded on March 25, 1946.
Post World War II
In April 1961, the Air Commandos were regrouped at Hurlburt Field, Florida in response to Soviet-supported insurgencies in Third World countries at the insistence of General Curtis LeMay. The unit had a two-fold purpose: counterinsurgency training and combat operations in Third World countries. It was the first unit of its kind in the Air Force. The 4400th Combat Crew Training Squadron (CCTS) was the official designation of the initial and parent unit; the designation was later changed to the 1st Air Commando Group with the name air commando applying to individuals as well as wings, squadrons or detachments.
"Jungle Jim" was a code name and nickname of the original 4400th CCTS and Air Commandos. Members wore an Australian-type green fatigue bush hat in the style Johnny Weissmueller wore in the Jungle Jim films. The Air Commandos deployed to Laos and South Vietnam in October 1961, as part of Operation Farm Gate in the Vietnam War. The unit was redesignated the 1st Air Commando Wing on June 1, 1963, the 1st Special Operations Wing on July 8, 1968, the 834th Tactical Composite Wing on July 1, 1974 and the 1st Special Operations Wing on July 1, 1975.
See also
Bibliography
- Latimer, Jon. Burma: The Forgotten War, London: John Murray, 2004. ISBN 0-7195-6576-6.
- van Wagner, R.D. Any Place, Any Time, Any Where: The 1st Air Commandos in World War II. Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing, 1998. ISBN 0-76430-447-X.
External links
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