Continental Air Command - History - Inactivation

Inactivation

For about a year beginning in January 1964, the Air Staff discussed the issue of merging the Air Force’s two reserve components. Its considerations were stimulated in part by its own Chief of Staff and in part by related developments in the U.S. Army. For one thing, General Curtis LeMay, who as Vice Chief of Staff in 1959 had advocated eliminating one of the two Air Reserve Forces and as Chief of Staff he revived the issue.

It made no sense to him to have two different reserve systems duplicating recruiting, pay, training, and other activities. He wanted to change the system, but because of the political uproar that erupted every time the active force talked about merger, LeMay asked the Air Reserve Forces Policy Committee to consider it because he did not believe that merger could occur unless reservists themselves advocated it. Thus, while still failing to accept the inadvisability of raising the issue of merging the two air reserve components, General LeMay had at least become wise enough to realize that there could be no merger without the cooperation of reserve leaders.

On the morning of 28 October 1964, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara asked Secretary of the Air Force Eugene M. Zuckert for a plan to phase the Air Force Reserve into the Air National Guard. One of the criteria posited for the study of options to achieve a single Air Reserve was that the ultimate management structure provide the Chief of Staff of the Air Force with undisputed control over all Air Reserve Forces. However, this was not possible as Air National Guard forces in peacetime were under the control of the Fifty State Governors. Congressional hearings throughout the 1960s on merging the Army National Guard and reserve forces put this issue into the political spotlight and a battle began between McNamara and congressional leaders who opposed the necessary legislation.

In 1967, Public Law 90-168 was passed by Congress on 20 February. The purpose of the legislation was to guarantee in law a structure for each of the reserve components. With respect to the Air Force (and containing comparable provisions applicable to the Army), the law provided that there would be a fourth assistant secretary of Defense, for manpower and reserve affairs; that the role of the Air Reserve Forces Policy Committee would be expanded to enable it to comment upon major policy matters directly affecting the reserve components of the Air Force; that an Office of Air Force Reserve would be created, led by the Chief of Air Force Reserve, a reservist nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate; that the Secretary of the Air Force was responsible to provide the personnel, equipment, facilities, and other general logistic support necessary to enable Air Force Reserve units and individuals to satisfy their training and mobilization requirements; and that there be a Selected Reserve, that is, a Ready Reserve consisting of units and individuals, whose strength would be mandated annually by Congress. Addressing the issue that had started it all, the law mandated that there be units in both components, thereby precluding any merger of the Air Force Reserve and the Air National Guard.

Brigadier General Tomas E. Marchbanks, Jr became the first Chief of Air Force Reserve. The Senate confirmed his nomination as Chief and promotion to Major General on 16 February 1968. On 23 February, Marchbanks briefed Air Force Chief of Staff General John P. McConnell and several Air Staff personnel and manpower officials on his proposal for organizing his office and the Air Force Reserve. The essential features of the option he recommended were that Headquarters Continental Air Command would be replaced at Robins AFB, Georgia, by Headquarters, Air Force Reserve (AFRES). The new organization would be a separate operating agency established as a field extension of the Office of Air Force Reserve and would be commanded by another reserve major general recalled to active duty for the purpose. General Marchbanks and his reserve advisers did not want to retain the large Regular Air Force Continental Air Command as a link in the new Air Force Reserve chain of command. McConnell accepted the recommendation, and the proposal was endorsed by the Air Reserve Forces Policy Committee on March 18 and approved shortly thereafter by Secretary of the Air Force Harold Brown.

On 1 August 1968, the reorganization of the field management structure of the Air Force Reserve became effective. Headquarters Continental Air Command was discontinued at Robins AFB, Georgia. Replacing it was Headquarters AFRES, constituted and activated as a separate operating agency with the procedural functions and responsibilities of a major command. The Air Reserve Personnel Center ceased functioning as an organizational element of Continental Air Command and became a separate operating agency.

Jurisdiction of the Air National Guard was reassigned on 10 May 1979 to the Air National Guard Support Center, which was constituted as a direct reporting unit, and activated on 1 June 1979 at Andrews AFB, Maryland, with assignment directly to the USAF.

Continental Air Command was later disestablished on 21 September 1984. AFRES was later redesignated the Air Force Reserve Command on 17 February 1997 and status changed from a field operating agency to a major command of the United States Air Force.