1600th Air Transport Group

1600th Air Transport Group
	C-124 Globemaster II about 1955
Active	1948–1955
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force
Type	Airlift
Part of	Military Air Transport Service

Last updated March 02, 2019

The 1600th Air Transport Group is a discontinued United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the Atlantic Division, Military Air Transport Service at Westover Air Force Base, Massachusetts. It provided strategic airlift between the United States and Europe until it was discontinued on 19 June 1955.

The United States Air Force (USAF) is the aerial and space warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the five branches of the United States Armed Forces, and one of the seven American uniformed services. Initially formed as a part of the United States Army on 1 August 1907, the USAF was established as a separate branch of the U.S. Armed Forces on 18 September 1947 with the passing of the National Security Act of 1947. It is the youngest branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, and the fourth in order of precedence. The USAF is the largest and most technologically advanced air force in the world. The Air Force articulates its core missions as air and space superiority, global integrated intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, rapid global mobility, global strike, and command and control.

History

The group was formed from the personnel and equipment of the 1st Air Transport Group (Provisional), a C-54 Skymaster unit of Air Transport Command (ATC) at Westover when Military Air Transport Service (MATS) replaced ATC in 1948. The 1st had been organized as the operational element of the 2d Air Transport Wing (Provisional) Under the experimental wing base (Hobson Plan) organization system. When the 1600th was organized it became the operational element of the 520th Air Transport Wing (later the 1600th Air Transport Wing).

A group is a military aviation unit, a component of military organization and a military formation. The terms group and wing differ significantly from one country to another, as well as between different branches of a national defence force.

The Military Air Transport Service (MATS) is an inactive Department of Defense Unified Command. Activated on 1 June 1948, MATS was a consolidation of the United States Navy's Naval Air Transport Service (NATS) and the United States Air Force's Air Transport Command (ATC) into a single joint command. It was inactivated and discontinued on 8 January 1966 when the Air Force and Military Airlift Command (MAC) as a separate strategic airlift command and returned shore-based Navy cargo aircraft to Navy control as operational support airlift (OSA) aircraft.

The Hobson Plan was an organizational structure established by the United States Air Force (USAF) in 1948. Known as the "Wing-Base" plan, it replaced the base plan used by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), the predecessor organization of the USAF.

The group became Atlantic Division, Military Air Transport Service's primary strategic transport airlift provider between the United States and Europe in the late 1940s and early 1950s. In 1953, the group was transferred to the direct control of the Atlantic Division took as the wing was reduced to control of support elements in 1953 in anticipation of transfer of Westover from MATS to Strategic Air Command (SAC). The unit operated large numbers of Douglas C-124 Globemaster II heavy transports, as well as Boeing C-97 Stratofreighters. It provided passenger service on Navy Douglas R6D-1 Liftmasters and supported VIP transportation for Atlantic Division Headquarters at Westover. In the summer of 1948, the group's 16th Air Transport Squadron was reassigned directly to the Atlantic Division and in the fall it became part of Continental Division, MATS and moved to Gravelly Point, Virginia where it became a forerunner of the 89th Airlift Wing.

An airlift is the organized delivery of supplies or personnel primarily via military transport aircraft.

In military aviation, a wing is a unit of command. In most military aviation services, a wing is a relatively large formation of planes. In Commonwealth countries a wing usually comprises three squadrons, with several wings forming a group. Each squadron will contain around 20 planes.

Strategic Air Command (SAC) was both a United States Department of Defense (DoD) Specified Command and a United States Air Force (USAF) Major Command (MAJCOM), responsible for Cold War command and control of two of the three components of the U.S. military's strategic nuclear strike forces, the so-called "nuclear triad," with SAC having control of land-based strategic bomber aircraft and intercontinental ballistic missiles or ICBMs.

In July 1952, MATS replaced its table of distribution (four digit) air transport squadrons, which were controlled by the command with table of organization units whose organization was controlled by Headquarters, United States Air Force (USAF). The USAF controlled units were ferrying and transport squadrons that had been assigned to ATC during World War II. Unlike the MATS controlled squadrons that had been formed in peacetime, these units had histories that included wartime actions and could be continued even after inactivation.^[1] Each of the new squadrons assumed the mission, personnel, and equipment of the squadron it replaced.

World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.

The group was inactivated in 1955 when MATS moved its Atlantic Division headquarters and airlift operations to McGuire AFB, New Jersey and SAC assumed control of Westover AFB.

Lineage

Designated as the 520th Air Transport Group on 14 May 1948

Organized on 1 June 1948

Redesignated 1600th Air Transport Group on 1 October 1948

Discontinued on 25 June 1955

Assignments

520th Air Transport Wing (later 1600th Air Transport Wing), 1 Jun 1948
Atlantic Division, Military Air Transport Service, 1 July 1953 – 25 Jun 1955

Components

11th Air Transport Squadron (later 1250th Air Transport Squadron, Heavy): 1 Jul 1948 – 6 Jun 1949 (C-54)
12th Air Transport Squadron (later 1251st Air Transport Squadron): 1 Jun 1948 – 6 June 1949 (C-54)
14th Air Transport Squadron (later 1252d Air Transport Squadron): 1 Jul 1948 - 20 July 1952
15th Air Transport Squadron: 1 Jun 1948 (later 1253d Air Transport Squadron, Heavy), 1 Jul 1948 - 20 July 1952
15th Air Transport Squadron, Heavy:^[2] 20 Jul 1952 – 20 Apr 1955 (C-124)
16th Air Transport Squadron: 1 Jun 1948 – 1 July 1948 (C-54)
20th Air Transport Squadron, Medium (later 20th Air Transport Squadron, Heavy):^[3] 20 Jul 1952 – 20 May 1955 (C-124)
29th Air Transport Squadron, Medium (later 29th Air Transport Squadron, Heavy):^[4] 20 Jul 1952 – 13 Apr 1955 (C-124)
30th Air Transport Squadron, Heavy (later 30th Air Transport Squadron, Medium): 20 Jul 1952 – 5 May 1955 (C-118)
31st Air Transport Squadron, Heavy: 20 Jul 1952 – 9 May 1955 (C-124)
1257th Air Transport Squadron: 24 May 1950 – 20 Jul 1952 (C-54)
1282d Air Transport Squadron, Medium: 23 Jun 1951 – 1 Sep 1953 (C-97)
Squadron VR-6 (USN), 3 Aug 1949 – 10 Jun 1955 (R6D-1)

The 15th Air Transport Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 1607th Air Transport Wing of Military Air Transport Service at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, where it was inactivated on 1 January 1965.

Stations

Westover AFB, Massachusetts, 1 June 1948 – 19 June 1955^[5]

Aircraft

C-54 Skymaster, 1947–1952
C-97 Stratofreighter, 1951–1953
C-124 Globemaster II, 1952–1955
C-118 Liftmaster, 1949–1955

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References

Notes

↑ Ravenstein, Charles A. (1984). A Guide to Air Force Lineage and Honors (2d, Revised ed.). Maxwell AFB, AL: USAF Historical Research Center. p. 12.
↑ Assumed assets of the second 1251st ATS. This squadron is not related to the 15th Air Transport Squadron that became the 1253d Air Transport Squadron
↑ Assumied assets of 1255th ATS
↑ Assumed assets of 1257th ATS
↑ Mueller, Robert (1989). Air Force Bases, Vol. I, Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982 (PDF). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. pp. 577–582. ISBN 0-912799-53-6.

Bibliography

This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/ .

Mueller, Robert (1989). Air Force Bases, Vol. I, Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982 (PDF). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-912799-53-6.
Ravenstein, Charles A. (1984). A Guide to Air Force Lineage and Honors (2d, Revised ed.). Maxwell AFB, AL: USAF Historical Research Center.

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[1] Ravenstein, Charles A. (1984). A Guide to Air Force Lineage and Honors (2d, Revised ed.). Maxwell AFB, AL: USAF Historical Research Center. p. 12.

[2] Assumed assets of the second 1251st ATS. This squadron is not related to the 15th Air Transport Squadron that became the 1253d Air Transport Squadron

[3] Assumied assets of 1255th ATS

[4] Assumed assets of 1257th ATS

[5] Mueller, Robert (1989). Air Force Bases, Vol. I, Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982 (PDF). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. pp. 577–582. ISBN 0-912799-53-6.