463rd Troop Carrier/Tactical Airlift
Wing
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463rd Troop Carrier/Tactical Airlift Wing
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29th TCS/TAS Email group -
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463rd Tactical Airlift Wing, 29th Tactical Airlift Squadron C-130B at
Khe
Sanh, 1967. This is a prize-winning photograph taken by USAF journalist
Airman First Class Marion L. Ray. (Note, this photograph was NOT taken
during the siege and the smoke rising in the background is not from
incoming. It is often captioned as smoke from airstrikes, but is
believed to have acutally been smoke from burning garbage. The Marines
burned garbage in a ravine next to the runway. The photograph was
selected as one of PACAF's photos of the month for January 1968. The
siege began at the end of the month.)
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The 463rd Troop Carrier Wing was one of the most historic units in the
United States Air Force. Assuming the designation and lineage of the World War II
463rd Bombardment Group,which operated B-17s
from Italy, the 463rd Troop Carrier Wing was activated at Memphis Municipal
Airport, Memphis, Tennessee in 1953 and equipped with C-119 "Flying
Boxcar" transports. When the USAF installation at Memphis closed, the 463rd
transferred to Ardmore AFB, Oklahoma. In 1955
the wing's 309th Troop Carrier Squadron became the first squadron in the
US
Air Force to operate the new Fairchild C-123 Provider. The 463rd was also
selected to be the first unit to equip with the new turboprop Lockheed
C-130 Hercules. Several wing pilots and mechanics were
chosen as "initial cadre" for the new airlifter. The first operational airplanes
were delivered to the wing in December 1956. Shortly after the conversion,
four pilots from the 774th Troop Carrier Squadron became The Four Horsemen, an aerial
demonstration team that performed intricate maneuvers in the large transports.
Ardmore was placed on the list of bases to be closed and the
463rd transferred to Sewart AFB, Tennessee where it joined the 314th Troop
Carrier Wing, which had also converted to the C-130, and the two wings
made up the 839th Air Division. The 839th supported Tactical Air Command and US
Strike Command deployments throughout the world, including back-to-back deployments to
Lebanon and Formosa in response to crisis
situations on opposite sides of the world in the summer of 1958. Wing crews
would be involved in numerous operations all over the world until the 463rd
transferred to Pacific Air Forces to support the Vietnam War.
The 1960s saw an increase in Tactical Air Command troop carrier forces,
which led to the conversion of the 463rd and 314th to the new C-130B while
their A-models went to other units. A further increase
in troop carrier strength led to the transfer of the 463rd from Sewart to
Langley AFB, Virginia in 1962. From Langley the 463rd supported United
States requirements all over the world. Rising tension in Southeast Asia led to
the deployment of 463rd squadrons to the Pacific, with
TDY squadrons initially at Naha, Okinawa, then at Clark AB, Philippine
Islands. When the United States began assigning C-130s for airlift duty in South
Vietnam to support the buildup of troops in the rapidly esclating war, 463rd
aircraft and crews on temporary duty in the Philippines began
operations out of Saigon. In the spring of 1965 trouble in the Dominican
Republic saw 463rd crews join other TAC and Military Air Transport
Service C-130s in an airlift of the 82nd
Airborne Division to San Isidro Airfield.
In late 1965 the Air Force decided to increase airlift strength in the
Pacific and the 463rd transferred from TAC to PACAF along with other TAC C-130
units; the 463rd became part of the 315th Air
Division, with its new headquarters located on Mactan Island in the Philippines,
along
with the 772nd and 774th Troop Carrier Squadrons, while the 773rd TCS operated
from Clark Field on Luzon where it was joined by the 29th TCS, which
transferred to PACAF from its base at Forbes AFB, Kansas. The 463rd was one of three
wings of C-130s from which aircraft and crews were drawn to supplement existing PACAF
C-130 units for Vietnam operations.
On July 1, 1967 all USAF troop carrier units were redesignated as
"tactical airlift" and the 463rd became the 463rd
Tactical Airlift Wing, while its squadrons became tactical airlift squadrons.
The change, which was a simple matter of paperwork, was due to a realignment
of airlift forces and the new title was selected because it allegedly better
described the mission.
Because of the superior short-field capabilities of the B-models, the
463rd was assigned to support forward field operations in III Corps, thus leading
to the most difficult of airlift assignments in the
1966-67 time period. Wing crews operated from an advance base at Tan Son
Nhut
Air Base outside Saigon. The Tet Offensive of 1968 and the simultaneous siege of
the Marine Combat Base at Khe Sanh placed 463rd crews in the most dangerous
conditions faced by airlifters during the period of US involvement of ground
troops of the war. Crews from the 463rd joined other
C-130 crews in the vital - and dangerous - resupply missions over the
besieged base. 463rd crews airdropped supplies to units of the First
Cavalry Division when they went into the A Shau Valley in the spring of 1968. A wing
airplane and crew were lost to enemy fire. Kham Duc is a name that
will forever live in C-130 history - one 463rd crew was shot down during the
evacuation of the camp. All told, the 463rd lost nine C-130s to enemy action in
Vietnam, of which five were shot down and four were destroyed on the
ground. Eight others were lost to operational causes. At least 45 463rd
personnel lost their lives in crashes and several suffered wounds.
Two 463rd maintenance personnel were killed by hostile fire while on the
ground at a forward base where they had been sent to repair a broken
airplane.
The 463rd headquarters remained at Mactan until mid-1968, when the wing
and the 772nd and 774th squadrons transferred to Clark Air Base to join the
29th and 773rd. Although the 463rd was part of the
315th Air Division, the wing's airplanes and crews were under the operational
control of the 834th Air Division, a unit that was established in Saigon
to control all US Air Force airlift in South Vietnam. Wing crews rotated initially to
Tan Son Nhut until the spring of 1969, when the rotation
moved to Cam Ranh Bay. Rotations were of 16-day duration, during which
the crew would fly missions as scheduled by the 834th Airlift Center in
Saigon. Maintenance and other personnel served in South Vietnam for periods ranging
from two weeks to six months at a time. In the
spring of 1969 the Air Force deactivated the 315th Air Division, at which time
the 463rd became part of the Clark-based Thirteenth Air Force, the
controlling agency for Pacific Air Forces units
in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines. The 20th Operations Squadron also
became part of the 463rd at this time. The 20th, previously another 315th
AD unit, operated an assortment of transport aircraft, including C-118s used for
air evacuation of patients from hospitals in
Vietnam to Clark and a quartet of large Douglas C-124s that transferred to Clark
when
the Military Airlift Command phased out its fleet of Globemasters. The C-124s
operated into and within Southeast Asia carrying "outsize" cargo that was too
large for C-130 lift.
In early 1969 the 463rd began COMMANDO VAULT, a special
project involving the delivery of 10,000-pound
M-121 bombs to create "instant" helicopter landing zones. The 10,000-pound
bombs
were replaced by more powerful 15,000 Blu-82 bombs when the supply of M-121s was
used
up. The huge weapons were detonated all over South Vietnam to create LZs and
sometimes against communist troop concentrations. The invasion of Cambodia in the
spring of 1970 began with the detonation of a pair of Blu-82 bombs. Blu-82s were
also used in Laos for Operation Lam Son
719.
In 1970, after the Cambodian Incursion, in which 463rd crews played a
large role, President Richard Nixon began withdrawing troops from South Vietnam
as he had promised during the 1968 presidential
campaign. Several C-130 units were slated for deactivation, including the
463rd. The 29th TAS was the first to go; it deactivated in August 1970
and its personnel transferred to the other squadrons. The 463rd Wing survived
for another year. The wing inactivated on December 31, 1971. The 774th Tactical
Airlift Squadron remained active at Clark until mid-1972.
With the inactivation of the 463rd, the wing's history came to a close.
Subsequently, the unit designation and lineage was given to a Tactical Air Command
C-130 wing at Dyess AFB, Texas, (the 516th TAW)
where it remained into the 1990s. The designation then passed to an Air
Mobility Command mobility group at Little Rock AFB, Arkansas which
inherited the lineage of the old 463rd. It has since been inactivated and the 463rd is no longer part of the active Air Force.
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