1 - The Black Vault

ESTABLISHMENT OF COMBAT TALON
Life at Wheelus AB for the 580th was Spartan, at
best, for the first six months of operations. Personnel
lived and worked in tents enduring the sweltering
summer heat of North Africa. Low-level training
was emphasized for the aircrews. The B-29s and
C-119s flew low over the Mediterranean Sea, and
flew 500 feet above the Libyan desert. In January
1954 a B-29 was lost during a low-level training
mission when it failed to clear a ridgeline. 41
A primary customer for the 580th was the 10th
Special Forces Group (Airborne) [(10th SFG) (A)],
which was garrisoned at Bad Töelz, Germany, in
the Bavarian Alps. Tenth Group personnel would
deploy to Libya for parachute and desert survival
training. Dropping at 1,000 feet above the ground,
B-29 navigators utilized the Nordon bombsight
developed during World War II to determine the
release point. The bombsight proved to be equally
as accurate at 1,000 feet as it had been dropping
bombs at high altitude during WWII. 42
Assigned SA-16s were tasked to fly classified
courier missions throughout the Mediterranean,
Middle East, and southern Europe. The amphibian
aircraft proved to be versatile and on several occa -
sions was tasked to fly extremely sensitive missions,
including ones into the Balkans behind the
so-called iron curtain and into southern Russia.
Operating out of Tehran, Iran, in March 1956, an
SA-16 penetrated Soviet airspace at low-level altitude
en route to a night amphibious exfiltration
from the Caspian Sea. The mission went as
planned, resulting in the successful exfiltration of
a man, woman, and two children. The family was
flown directly to a water rendezvous in the Mediterranean
Sea and from there transferred to an
awaiting ship. 43
During the summer of 1952, while the 580th was
deploying to Wheelus AB, the Air Staff announced
its decision to reduce the number of ARC wings
from seven to four. Only three wings were eventually
activated, however (the 580th, 581st, and
582d). 44 The primary reason for this reduction was
funding. The Air Force was essentially operating a
national-level special operations program for an
agency outside the DOD (the CIA) with dollars
needed for higher priority strategic forces. With the
rapid buildup of the Strategic Air Command to
counter Soviet cold war aggression and the resulting
funding requirements, the lesser priority PSY-
WAR mission was curtailed. In April 1953 the Air
Staff directed ARCS to limit operations to Air Forceonly
projects, thus ending support for such outside
agencies as the CIA. Nine months later Department
of the Air Force Letter 322 and Military Air
Transport Service General Order 174 deactivated
ARCS, effective 1 January 1954. 45
In September 1953, after the Korean Armistice
was signed that ended active conflict on the Korean
peninsula and three months before deactiva -
tion of the ARCS, the three active wings were reduced
to air resupply groups. The downsized
groups were approximately one-half the size of the
former wings and consisted of two squadrons—one
flying squadron and one support squadron—as
compared to six squadrons in each wing before the
reorganization. 46 * * * * * *
The third and last ARC wing, the 582d, was
activated at Mountain Home AFB on 24 September
1952, to coincide with the deployment of the
580th to Libya. As the previous two wings had
done, the 582d spent its first year at Mountain
Home AFB training and preparing assigned personnel
for its PSYWAR mission. Having been
newly redesignated the 582d Air Resupply Group,
it deployed from Mountain Home AFB to RAF
Molesworth, United Kingdom (UK), and set up
operations in Europe in February 1954. 47
The 582d was assigned to Third Air Force and
provided the bulk of its air support to the 10th SFG
(A), which had been transferred in total from Fort
Bragg, North Carolina, to Bad Töelz, Germany, by
this time. For the next two and one-half years, the
582d worked closely with the 10th Group providing
airdrop, resupply, and airland support with its assigned
B-29 and C-119 aircraft. The versatile SA-16
was utilized for amphibious missions, including
night water-infiltration/exfiltration operations. 48
By 1956 USAF interest in the unconventional
warfare mission had run its course. General Order
37, Headquarters Seventeenth Air Force, dated 12
October 1956, deactivated the 580th ARG in place
in Libya. Third Air Force General Order 86, dated
18 October 1956, deactivated the 582d ARS, effective
25 October 1956. With the deactivation of the
581st at Kadena AB in September 1956, the USAF
closed the book on the long-range unconventional
warfare mission around which the ARCS and its
associated wings were based. 49 The book would open
again eight years later when the United States
found itself in a hot war in SEA.
Early American
Assistance to Vietnam
As the tide of battle changed in favor of the
Allies near the end of WWII, agents of the United
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