History
Following the mobilizations in 1961 and 1962 for the Berlin Crisis and the Cuban Missile Crisis, Continental Air Command (ConAC) realized that it was unwieldy to mobilize an entire wing unless absolutely necessary. Their original Table of Organization for each Wing was a wing headquarters, a troop carrier group, an Air Base Group, a maintenance and supply group, and a medical group. In 1957, the troop carrier group and maintenance and supply groups were inactivated, with their squadrons reassigned directly to the wing headquarters - despite the fact that many wings had squadrons spread out over several bases due to the Detached Squadron Concept dispersing Reserve units over centers of population.
To resolve this, in late 1962 and early 1963, ConAC reorganized the structure of its reserve Troop Carrier Wings by establishing fully deployable Troop Carrier Groups and inserting them into the chain of command between the Wing and its squadrons at every base that held a ConAC troop carrier squadron. At each base, the group was composed of a material squadron, a troop carrier squadron, a tactical hospital or dispensary, and a combat support squadron. Each troop carrier wing consisted of 3 or 4 of these groups. By doing so, ConAC could facilitate the mobilization of either aircraft and aircrews alone, aircraft and minimum support personnel (one troop carrier group), or the entire troop carrier wing. This also gave ConAC the flexibility to expand each Wing by attaching additional squadrons, if necessary from other Reserve wings to the deployable groups for deployments.
As a result, the 914th Troop Carrier Group was established with a mission to organize, recruit and train Air Force Reserve personnel in the tactical airlift of airborne forces, their equipment and supplies and delivery of these forces and materials by airdrop, landing or cargo extraction systems. The group was equipped with C-119 Flying Boxcars for Tactical Air Command airlift operations.
The 914th TCG was one of three C-119 groups assigned to the 512th TCW in 1963, the others being the 912th and 913th Troop Carrier Group at Willow Grove NAS, Pennsylvania.
The group trained for and participated in air transport of airborne forces, equipment and supplies with delivery by airdrop, extraction, and airlanding, as well as air evacuation within a theater of operations.
It provided airlift to Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War and for other contingency operations, as well as numerous humanitarian missions. Beginning in 1978 the 914th supported the U.S. Southern Command by periodically fulfilling airlift requirements throughout Latin America. Between September 1990 and April 1991 the group deployed all aircraft and numerous aircrews and support personnel to Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, to provide airlift in support of the war in Southwest Asia, including a tactical resupply airdrop to troops of the XVIII Airborne Corps. A 314th crew provided the first medevac mission of the war. Other personnel deployed to Saudi Arabia and backfilled positions in the U.S. and Europe. Since the early 1990s the wing has frequently deployed personnel in support of contingency operations in Southwest Asia and the Balkans.
Following recommendations out the Base Realignment and Closure progamm, the wing's Lockheed C-130H Hercules aircraft are pooled with the 107th Airlift Wing of the New York Air National Guard, also stationed at Niagara Falls, since 2008.
Read more about this topic: 914th Airlift Wing
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“When the coherence of the parts of a stone, or even that composition of parts which renders it extended; when these familiar objects, I say, are so inexplicable, and contain circumstances so repugnant and contradictory; with what assurance can we decide concerning the origin of worlds, or trace their history from eternity to eternity?”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
“The myth of independence from the mother is abandoned in mid- life as women learn new routes around the mother—both the mother without and the mother within. A mid-life daughter may reengage with a mother or put new controls on care and set limits to love. But whatever she does, her child’s history is never finished.”
—Terri Apter (20th century)
“There is no example in history of a revolutionary movement involving such gigantic masses being so bloodless.”
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940)