Salute to Military Air Transport Service (MATS) 1963 US Army, The Big Picture TV-581

Published on January 13, 2018

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‘Air Transport has accomplished a great deal to solve the problems of our military forces attempting to be everywhere at once with everything. MATS–Military Air Transport Service–maintains a mobile aerial task force that can move huge numbers of men and vast amounts of supplies to distant frontiers rapidly and efficiently. This week’s THE BIG PICTURE covers four current emergency airlifts to four parts of the globe and goes back in time to show in historical perspective some of the famous airlifts of the past.’

“The Big Picture” episode TV-581

The Big Picture TV Series playlist:

Public domain film from the US National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied.
The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

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 Naval Air Transport Service (NATS) and the United States Air Force Air Transport Command (ATC) into a single joint command. It was inactivated and discontinued on 8 January 1966 when the Air Force and Navy set up separate strategic airlift commands.

In 1982, the World War II Air Transport Command (ATC) (1942-1948) and the Military Air Transport Service were consolidated with Military Airlift Command (MAC) (1966-1992)…

With the end of World War II, the United States Army Air Forces Air Transport Command found itself in limbo…

The DOD believed it should have its own air transport service and decided that ATC should become the Military Air Transport Service (MATS), supported by the Air Force…

Although MATS was under the operational control of the United States Air Force, the United States Navy was a full partner in the command and operational components of the organization…

Air Force pilots flew Navy MATS planes, just as naval aviators could be found piloting Air Force MATS transport aircraft…

Korean War (1950–1953)…

The MATS role was purely logistical, and operated from the United States to Japan…

Suez, Lebanon and Taiwan Straits Crisis (1956–1958)

During the 1956 Suez Crisis, MATS MATS airlifted 1,300 Colombian and Indian troops from Bogotá and Agra to the United Nations staging area in Naples, Italy, to supplement the UN police force in the Suez area…

Operation Deep Freeze (1957–1963)

In December 1962, MATS Douglas C-124 Globemasters ended six years of seasonal flying as members of the Air Force-Navy team resupplying scientific stations in the Antarctic. During that time the aircraft, operated by the 63d Troop Carrier Wing stationed at Donaldson Air Force Base, South Carolina, air-dropped about 4,000 tons of supplies from the main Antarctic base at McMurdo Sound to remote stations near and at the South Pole. Beginning in 1963, Lockheed C-130E Hercules, newer, faster, and longer range, picked up the MATS portion of the mission…

Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)…

Between 16 October and the end of the month, MATS airlifted thousands of troops and thousands of tons in hundreds of sorties from bases throughout the country into Florida and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba…

Vietnam War

Beginning in 1948, MATS flew airlift missions into French Indochina, providing airlifts of military equipment and supplies to the French government and colonial Vietnamese forces fighting the Viet Minh. In 1954, at the request of the French, wounded Legionnaires from Dien Bien Phu were transported from Tan Son Nhut Airport to either Algeria or France…

Military Airlift Command

On 1 January 1966, as a result of the Navy announcing the withdraw of its components, MATS was rededignated Military Airlift Command…

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