Hq, Air Resupply and Communications Service (ARCS) was activated, organized and assigned to the Military Air Trasport Service (MATS) at Andrews AFB on 23 Feb 51. The mission of organizing and training personnel for the air support of resupply and communications activities had been assigned to MATS on 5 Jan 51, and the new headquarters represented the beginnings of an organization for this purpose. In general terms this responsibility involved developing a wartime capability of introducing, supplying and evacuating Ranger-type personnel behind enemy lines and of preparing, reproducing and disseminating psychological warfare materials. What these capabilities meant in specific terms as well as what they meant in terms of the Hq, ARCS mission as compared with that of a tactical Air Resupply and Communications (ARC) Wing involved definitions which were constantly under review during 1951.
Hq, MATS was provided with a generalized mission statement for ARCS units by Hq, USAF on 22 Jan 51, and it was forwarded to Hq, ARCS on 28 May. Prior to 10 Aug 51, however, Hq, ARCS had not been the direct recipient of a detailed, firm statement of the ARCS mission, nor of its own specific responsibilities. It was apparent that its primary mission for the immediate future was organizing, manning, equipping and training the ARC Wings.
A conference at Hq, MATS on 16 Mar 51 had made it clear that training was the peacetime mission of all ARCS units, but this still left Hq, ARCS with the task of formulating a specific mission for training purposes.
Tables of Organization (TO's) were published 14 May 51, and they indicated the make-up of the mission squadrons and provided a limited definition of their missions. With these as a guide, HQ, ARCS drew up a tentative mission for an ARC Wing and forwarded it to the first Wing on 23 May 51. Indirectly this statement provided a working guide to the Hq, ARCS mission, for the headquarters would have to supervise and assist in the accomplishment of the tasks which were allotted to the Wing.
The Hq, ARCS directive stated the mission of an ARC Wing as that of activating, manning, equipping, training and operating Air Force units capable of:
a. - Introducing, evacuating and supplying guerrilla-type units in enemy occupied territory.
b. - Storing and packaging psychological warfare propaganda materials and storing and packing supplies used by guerilla-type personnel.
c. - Housing, supplying, administering, training and briefing guerilla-type personnel.
d. - Composing and reproducing psychological warfare propaganda.
e. - Composing and transmitting by radio, psychological warfare propaganda.
f. - Providing and maintaining communications circuits and communications security for the transmission and reception of intelligence material and for the analysis of such intelligence material.
g. - Perform such other functions as may be assigned.
This letter provided a basis for training the first Wing, but it was still no substitute for a complete, detailed mission statement from higher headquarters. In a letter to the Commander of MATS on 8 Aug 51, Col. Millard C. Young the Commander of ARCS, pointed this out. As he put it:
"This headquarters is experiencing difficulty in planning certain aspects of ARC Wing operations and requirements for associated equipment due to incomplete definition of the ARCS mission. It is felt that decisions involving overlapping functions of participating units cannot adequately be made until a clarification is received of the exact scope of operations of this service is expected to perform."
Clarification of the ARCS mission was not an easy matter. Although ARCS was comparable to the other "Services" in MATS as far as its status within the command was concerned, its Wings were actually operational arms of the Psychological Warfare Division, Directorate of Plans, Hq, USAF. This Division, under Col. Orrin L. Grover, a wartime fighter commander, was charged with "planning Air Force Psychological Warfare, Conventional Warfare and Special Operations." These activities were new to the Air Force and consequently the framing of a precise ARCS mission was more difficult than would have been the case for a more conventional Air Force organization.
A number of factors were involved. General uncertainty about the role the Air Force was to play in psychological warfare activities, the shifting international situation and the need for definition of the operational concepts to be employed in Special Operations were among the factors which delayed a precise mission definition. Without adequate precedent to serve as a guide the solution of these problems depended on policy decisions at many levels, experimentation, and experience. While Hq, ARCs could to some extent contribute the experimentation and experience, it had need of a working directives on which to proceed. This was provided by Hq, MATS in a letter of 10 Aug 51.
The mission directive of 10 August stated definitely that the primary peacetime mission of ARCS was training and that Hq, ARCS would be responsible for neither strategic plans nor basic operational matters. In addition, the Wings' wartime mission was spelled out in some detail.
This still left plenty of scope for Hq, ARCS activity. Training, in one respect or another, involved determination of the aircraft, equipment, personnel and techniques to be used in accomplishing the wartime mission. Since Tables of Organization and Equipment (T/O&E's) were incomplete and there was no adequate precedent for the training and operational techniques best suited to the accomplishment of the mission, Hq, ARCS was forced to supplement directives from higher headquarters by experimentation and experience. In the process a valuable reservoir of specialized knowledge and facilities was bound to be created. This raised the problem of the relationship between Hq, ARCS and the deployed Wings.
Accompanying the 10 August letter from MATS was a proposed Air Force Regulation (AFR) governing ARCS. It had originated in April, prior to the activation of the first Wing, and in late June and early July it had been coordinated, in a slightly changed version, between Hq, USAF and MATS. As 1951 ended, however, it still had not been published since the relationship of Hq, ARCS to the deployed Wings was still under consideration.
As far as the mission was concerned, the proposed regulation was very general, stating that ARCS would provide world-wide air resupply and communications service for all U.S. military activities requiring such service, maintain facilities in operational readiness and monitor the training of ARCS organizations under ARCS control, and perform such other missions as might be directed by the Chief of Staff, USAF.
The August mission letter to ARCS stated the the appropriate parts of this proposed regulation would be considered an additional mission directive to the organization. In October, Lt. Gen. Laurence S. Kuter, the MATS Commander, again specified that these two documents were the governing mission directives for ARCS and in addition he made the ARCS Commander "responsible for the establishment, command, operation and maintenance of such bases and other facilities assigned to MATS in the continental United States which are or may be made the responsibility of ARCS".
The proposed AFR supported the assumption that Hq, ARCS would retain administrative and technical control over its deployed Wings. This assumption had been based on the uniqueness of the ARCS mission; the need for specialized personnel, equipment, and techniques; the fact that ARCS units would be tenants on bases controlled by other Commands; and the world-wide coverage it was anticipated they would give. From this point of view it seemed that HQ, ARCS would logically be the centralizing agency required to assimilate and disseminate the information gained from practical experience in the fields of warfare for which it had trained the Wings.
General Kuter himself expressed these feelings in a letter to Major General T.H. Landon, Deputy Commander in Chief, Hq, USAFE, on 23 Aug 51. In part he said:
"I feel that the overseas commanders must have the greatest latitude in developing and expressing the requirements for an organizational structure and operational use of these units with centralized supervision of mobilization, personnel assignments, training, overall technical matters and continuing support including the provision of training replacements resting with Hq, ARCS."
The tentative operating instructions drawn up for the deployment of the 580th AR&C Wing on 25 Sep 51, embodied this concept of overseas operation. They stated that the Commander, ARCS would retain command jurisdiction over ARCS units, though they would be attached to the overseas commands for logistical support, and operational control was to be in accordance with theater policies. Operational control was defined to include designation of the Wing operating base, forward deployment areas, target areas of operation, assignment of operational missions and radio operating frequencies.
Under this concept, technical and administrative control was to remain with ARCS. Technical control, as defined in the proposed AFR, consisted of the development and application of ARCS procedures, policies, methods, standards, techniques and training programs. Administrative control involved such functions as the analysis and determination of organization and manning requirements; procurement, assignment, promotion and replacement of personnel; comptroller activities, including logistics and operational reporting, budgeting and finance, and management analysis; and, finally, administrative inspections. However, this concept was not to prevail.
Official confirmation of the decision to relieve ARCS administrative and technical control of overseas Wings was contained in the 580th Wing's Movement Order, dated 1 Nov 51. It stated: "This movement constitutes a permanent change of station. After arrival of all units at the overseas destination, they will be relieved from assignment to MATS and will be assigned to United States Air Force in Europe (USAFE) and attached to MATS for logistic support. This decision was also to be applied to the 581st AR&C Wing upon deployment. In a message from Hq, USAF to Hq, MATS, on 21 Nov 51, it was stated that "both operational and administrative control" of the 581st AR&C Wing would go to FEAF on deployment.
As 1951 ended the exact relationship of Hq, ARCS to the overseas units had not been finally clarified, although it seemed likely that liaison visits on technical matters would be permitted. Since no Wing had yet been deployed, the matter remained an academic but nevertheless, from a planning standpoint, important one.
An additional mission was assigned to Hq, ARCS as the result of a directive from the Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations, Hq, USAF, to the MATS Commander, dated 26 Jul 51. It directed MATS to develop the capability of balloon flying by 1 Jan 52. This responsibility was delegated to ARCS, which was to develop a Provisional Unit pending the approval of a Balloon Launching Squadron T/O&E. The operational mission of this squadron was to be "the employment of balloons as an efficient and inexpensive aerial delivery of material to potential enemy target areas." Here again all the problems of translating a mission statement into an operational organization faced Hq, ARCS.
On 1 Jul 51 Col. Earle W. Hockenberry commanded ARCS and Col. John R. Kane was Chief of Staff. In April it had been planned that Col. Hockenberry would be made Director of Plans and Col. Millard C. Young, who was slated to arrive in July, would be Chief of Staff. On 23 Jul 51, however, Col. Young assumed command, Hockenberry was made Chief of Staff and Kane became Director of Plans.
Col. Young came to his new assignment fresh from the National War College where he had been a student since Aug 50. A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, he had been detailed to the Air Corps for flying training in 1931 and held many varied assignments in the intervening years. After the usual Pre-war tours, he spent over three years in the Southwest Pacific during World War II, chiefly with the Air Service Command. In 1946 he became Chief of Staff, Task Force 1.5, Operation Crossroads, and later went to Kwajalein as Chief of Staff and Commander of the Advanced Echelon.
Upon his return from this project, he was assigned in Oct 46 to the Guided Missiles Branch, Research and Development Directorate, Hq, USAF. In Jul 47 he became Chief of the Branch and remained in that position until he entered the War College. This experience proved valuable for the barriers confronting the psychological warfare program of the Air Force were much the as those connected with the guided missiles program in 1946. As the following pages will show, Col. Young had need for all the experience gained from his many and varied assignments to direct the expansion of ARCS in the face of Many obstacles.
The impact of ARCS expansion was felt most strongly in the Directorate of Operations, whose task was to determine and satisfy operational and training requirements for the ARCS mission. The Director of Operations, Col. Robert W. Fish, had had experience with ARCS- type operations as Commander of the 492nd Bomb Group during World War II. Under his supervision the Directorate proliferated as the training program gathered momentum.
In Jul 51, there were only two Divisions in the Operations Directorate--Training and Communications. Under Major (later Lt. Col.) James L. Atkins the Training Division was expanded into four branches, Flying Training, Technical Training, Special; Training and Psychological Warfare. It was their job to produce and implement an overall ARCS training program, one of the major tasks with which the headquarters was concerned.
The Communications Division under Lt. Col. Everet C. Wogstad was organized with three branches--Airborne Communications, Ground Communications and Communications Security. The airborne and ground communications activities of ARCS units naturally fell in their province, providing many problems which will be discussed later.
The Operations Division, of which Major Andrew B. Creo and then Lt. Col. Robert O. Fricks was Chief, handled the operational problems incident to ARCS training. Its two branches, Materials Assembly and Reproduction, monitored and assisted the development of the squadrons devoted to these activities.
On 29 Nov 51 a new Requirements and Development Division was established under Lt. Col. Norman D. Vaughan. This Division had one of the most interesting missions in the headquarters, for it was charged with the testing and development of aircraft, allied equipment and techniques which could be effectively employed in fulfilling the ARCS mission. In addition, it handled such specialized projects as the development of a new Balloon Launching Squadron.
Of necessity there was a close coordination between the Directorate of Operations and the Intelligence Directorate, for both were concerned with the development of the ARCS psychological warfare training program. Under Col. Robert L. Wright four Divisions were established in the Directorate--Operational Intelligence, Psychological Warfare, Analysis and Evaluation and Historical. Three Divisions, with the exception of Psychological Warfare, performed normal intelligence functions, though naturally conditioned by the psychological warfare mission of the organization.
The Psychological Warfare Division, whose chief was Major Leslie C. Tinany, had a more unique task since its field of operation was new in the Air Force. In conjunction with the Training Division, Directorate of Operations, it had to pioneer a PW training program and provide the materials to execute it. The difficulties which were encountered in this operation bulk large in the ARCS story during the latter part of 1951.
The Plans Directorate performed the functions normally associated with such a section, but with ARCS' rapid development and many problems these functions assumed more than normal importance.
When Col. Hockenberry became Chief of Staff in Jul 51, Col. Kane was made Director of Plans. In Nov 51, however, he replaced Col. William O. Eareckson as commander or the 580th ARC Wing and his position in Plans went to Lt. Col. Earl J. Livesay, formerly Deputy Director of Operations.
Under him were three Divisions--Operational Plans, Equipment and Facilities, and Manpower and Organization. Their activities included plans for the deployment of the 580th ARC Wing; a study of the activation and deployment of ARCS tactical wings and the training of replacement personnel; the preparation of a mission statement for the 1300th Air Base Wing; determination of ARCS needs for area and language specialists; and the revision of the headquarters and 1300th Wing Table of Distribution.
A major task of HQ, ARCS during the second half of 1951 was securing the supplies and equipment needed for the training base at Mountain Home, Idaho and for the deployment of the two activated Wings. The accomplishment of this task was the business of the Directorate of Material, of which Major James P. Carey was Acting Director on 1 Jul 51. He continued in this position until the arrival of Col. William R. Johnson, who took over the Directorate on 15 Sep 51.
With only two officers and one airman assigned in July, the Directorate grew to a strength of eight officers and one airman by Jan 52. In the interim, Col. Haven Nichols, whose special interest was Reproduction Squadron equipment, was assigned from the Operations Directorate as Special Projects Officer. The other functions of the Directorate were performed by four Divisions--Services, Maintenance, Supply and Transportation.
In addition to procuring normal supply items, which as the following pages will indicate was a job of major proportions, the Directorate had to develop a TA for the 1300th Training Squadron and secure changes in existing T/O&E's. Following the organization of the 1300th Air Base Wing, Air Installations became an additional responsibility.
On 1 Jul 51 Lt. Col. Kenneth B. Falcooner was serving as head of the Personnel Directorate pending the arrival of Lt. Col. Rudolph A. Parker, who took over the Directorate on 25 Jul 51. The latter had extensive experience with difficult personnel problems, first as Personnel Officer, India Division of the "China-Burma-India Hump Operation" of World War II, and later as Chief of Personnel for the Berlin Airlift Task Force on "Operation Vittles." He came to ARCS from the Far East where he had assisted in the establishment of the Combat Cargo Command.
Like the other Directorates, Personnel expanded during the last part of 1951, its functions being discharged by four Divisions--Officer Personnel, Enlisted Personnel, Special Projects, and classification. In addition to handling routine personnel matters, the Directorate had the difficult problem of arranging the return of the 580th Wing personnel from Camp Kilmer, N.J. to Mountain Home when the Wing's deployment was canceled, and it assisted other Directorates in solving specialized personnel problems such as the procurement of language specialists for the psychological warfare program.
On 2 Jul 51, Lt. Col. Robert D. Banker was announced as Comptroller. Unlike other offices in the headquarters, this one had not been organized by 1 Jul since its functions were being handled by HQ, MATS. Once established, however, it grew rapidly and by the year's end consisted of four Divisions--Accounting, Budget, Management Analysis, and Statistical Services.
Besides establishing the Comptroller function in subordinate headquarters and performing normal functions, this section placed emphasis on the development of an integrated management program designed to fully and effectively utilize ARCS resources. Due to the newness of the ARCS-type mission and operations, the need for such a program was particularly acute.
In addition to the offices already mentioned and a Headquarters Squadron, ARCS included the following sections -- Adjutant General, Inspector General, Command Staff Surgeon, and a Public Information Office. Major Mark W. Magnam remained as Headquarters Commandant. Lt. Col. Lynwood P. Grady continued as the Adjutant General, Col. John O. Neal remained Inspector General, and Lt. Col. Courand H. Bothe was assigned as Command Surgeon on 10 Aug 51. When funds for public relations work were cut throughout the Air Force, Capt. Kenneth C. Coberly, the Public Information Officer, continued his work in a newly formed Personnel Services Division.
Reprinted from the "HISTORY OF THE AIR RESUPPLY AND COMMUNICATIONS SERVICE"
1 July to 31 December 1951
Revised: 20 May 08