| 1st Air Commando Group |
Article Index for 1st Air |
Shopping Commando |
Website Links For 1st |
Information About1st Air Commando Group |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT 1ST AIR COMMANDO GROUP | |
| groups of the united states air force | |
| air 001 | |
| special forces of the united states | |
|
After the Quebec Conference in August 1943 , the 5318th Air Unit was redesignated "Provisional Composite No. 1 Air Commandos" and tasked with supporting the Chindits . Eventually they were designated the ''1st Air Commando Group''. The group consisted primarily of C-47 air transports but it also contained Military Gliders , fighter, fighter bomber, bomber and liaison aircraft. Later in the campaign under the designation of the ''1st Air Commando Force'', they supported other units of the British Fourteenth Army during their victorious drive to Rangoon . The commander of the Air Commandos was Colonel Philip 'Flip' Cochran (1910-1979). One of the glider pilots was actor Jackie Coogan . After a glider training accident, the Commander of the Chindits General Orde Wingate sent the 1st Air Commando a message: :"Please be assured that we will go with your boys, any place, any time, any where." It was adopted by the 1st Air Commando as their motto, and in an abbreviated form this is still used as the motto of the USAF Special Operations Command . The unit was inactivated on November 3, 1945. In April 1961 the Air Commandos were reformed at Hurlburt Field, Florida in response to Soviet-supported insurgencies springing up in Third World countries as an idea of General Curtis LeMay . The unit had a two-fold purpose: counterinsurgency training and combat operations in Third World countries. It was the first unit of its kind in the Air Force. The 4400th Combat Crew Training Squadron (CCTS) was the official designation of the initial and parent unit; the designation was later changed to the 1st Air Commando Group with the name air commando applying to individuals as well as wings, squadrons, or detachments. "Jungle Jim" was first a code name and later a nickname of the original 4400th CCTS and Air Commandos. Members of the unit wore an Australian type green fatigue Bush Hat . The Air Commandos soon deployed to Laos and South Vietnam in October 1961 as part of Operation Farm Gate in the Vietnam War . The unit was reesignated the 1st Air Commando Wing on June 1, 1963, the 1st Special Operations Wing on July 8, 1968 the 834th Tactical Composite Wing on July 1, 1974 and the 1st Special Operations Wing on July 1, 1975. EXTERNAL LINKS FURTHER READING
|
|
|