My highest priorities for USAF in Korea were aircrew parachutes,
aircraft emergency life preservers, aircrew emergency bailout survival
kits (attached to parachute harnesses), oxygen masks, and components
('components,' for instance, took into account that inflatable life
preservers are not much help to an aircrew member floating in the sea if
the CO2 inflation cartridges had not been checked and installed or had
been discharged for an unauthorized purpose. Life vest checklists
directed that inflatable life vests would be examined by the wearer or a
technician before donning to ensure that the neoprene inner bladders,
mouth inflation tube connections, and inflation CO2 cartridges and
levers were intact. It was not unusual to find that the CO2 cartridges
were missing or the cartridge seals pierced and the cartridge empty.
Insofar as parachutes were concerned, 'components' included
replacements for damaged ripcords (pins bent, cable kinked), pilot
chutes, harnesses, canopy containers (packs), attached emergency kits,
etc.
As US-UNCommnd forces in Korea intensified combat operations, the
urgent need for parachutes, aircraft life preservers and other survival and
escape-and-evasion gear increased. The United Nations Command
included the United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, Belgium, Greece,
Canada and Thailand and other nations.
USAF aircraft in the Korean Theater included the P-51, F-80, F-86, B-
29, KC-50, C-46, C-47, C-54, C-82, C-118, C-119 and C-121.
The F-51 (Mustang) role in Korea was ground attack. The F-80
(Shooting Star) was the first operational American jet fighter and a major
weapon system of the Korean War. The F-80 recorded the first USAF
aerial victories in June 1950. The F-80's high accident rate in the early
years of the war was attributed to pilots familiar with propeller-driven
aircraft transitioning to the faster and more powerful jets. The F-80 was
used for ground support after it was replaced by the F-86 in air
superiority tactics. In effect, the USAF was experiencing a major
transition from relatively slow propeller-driven to much higher speed jet
aircraft - in the middle of an intense air war. The transformation
involved upgrade training for jet aircraft air and ground crews, line and
support shops technicians were in practically OJT (on the job training),
revamping test and maintenance facilities, acquiring and shipping
maintenance new tools and equipment, skills, procedures, tech data, etc.
Among these drastic and far-reaching changes, parachute compatibility
with aircraft was one among thousands.
The F-86 jet had entered service in 1949, about one year before the start
of the Korean War. Hundreds of F-86s and other aircraft, as well as
aircraft support and personal equipment were provided to allied nations
under the Mutual Defense Assistance Program (MDAP).
The total additional quantity required for USAF's immediate needs in
Korea and for other developing or programmed USAF operations
worldwide was 50,000 parachutes and maintenance spares. The U S was
well along in its conversion and retooling to a civilian economy that
would concentrate on meeting the pent up needs of the populace. A one-
shot relatively short-duration production program for a distant 'police
action' did not represent a sound investment to industry.
Considering the time required by prime contractors to reactivate (actually
to recreate) product lines, install manufacturing equipment plus
acquisition of materials, parachute hardware, manufacturing tools and
skills; acquire components through outsource or in-house-manufacture,
and lead time to integrate production and assembly, and ship complete
parachutes, etc., was much too long. It got down to how many of each
type parachute (seat, back or chest) was most urgently needed, and how
could we get the right types and number of parachutes to where they had
to be. What was the mix of parachute types to be procured
commercially, checked through the USAF internal quality assurance
process, and shipped (packed or unpacked based on circumstances) to
meet Korean Theater needs in a combat environment and rapid changes
in the Theater's types of aircraft?
A 'complete' parachute, as procured during WW2 consisted of all of its
components assembled and permanently connected to each other, except
for the pilot parachute, ripcord, and 6 bungee/hook assemblies, all of
which were installed by the rigger during the pack-for-service process.
When the shroud lines, canopy and pilot 'chute are folded into the 'pack'
(container) and the flaps brought up from the sides and over to enclose
the canopy, the ripcord pins inserted through holes in the cones are
brought up through grommets in the opposing flaps.
The bungee (elastic) cords are hooked to eyes along the packs frame so
that they snap the flaps back when the ripcord is pulled to clear the way
for the pilot 'chute to eject and draw the main canopy out to full
extension. The ripcord cable is run through a sleeve of which one end
ferrule is fastened to the harness webbing and the other end to the pack
side flap in line with the canopy release cones. When the ripcord is
pulled, the direction of its withdrawal is from the canopy pack across the
wearer's chest.
Based on my experience in parachute maintenance in the Pacific during
WW2 and consultations on this procurement action with Hqs AFMC
maintenance professionals, Wright Air Development Center parachute
engineers and AeroMedical Laboratory survival specialists, I concluded
the best approach would be for several contractors to provide USAF with
canopies, harnesses and packs, separately. Small items such as ripcords,
pilot chutes, bungees, etc., could be procured independently from
qualified sources. The AFMC depot and/or operating wing's Supply
function and Maintenance certified parachute riggers would take it from
there and connect the canopies to the right harnesses and packs for the
job, pack for service, and get the parachutes to where they were needed.
I initiated the Purchase Requests, got coordination on technical accuracy
of procurement data from the parachute engineers and Maintenance
technical services. To my knowledge contracts were awarded.
Not long afterward, I learned that several major contractors were
unhappy with acquisition by major components. I was was criticized by
supervision for what I did and notified (informally) that an 'action' might
be taken. As it turned out, I was 'transferred' to the Hq AFMC
Directorate of Maintenance to analyze deficiencies reported from the
field on aircrew (personal) emergency equipment, and to write
maintenance and inspections manuals and technical orders for that type
of equipment.
About a year or so after my transfer from Supply the individual who
took my job in the Supply Directorate told me, in the presence of my
former unit's employees, that my decision had been 'right.' I didn't ask
for details.
Memoir: Logistics Planning, The Cold War, Nouasseur Air Base,
Morocco 1953-1956
Preface: The 'Cold War' between the U S and the former USSR began in
the mid-1940s and extended over the following half-century until the
Soviet Union dissolved in the early 1990s. The Cold War's cost to the
United States exceeded $8 trillion. More than 110,000 American
military lives were lost on foreign soil in the major military conflicts of
that era: Korea in the early 1950s and Viet Nam from the mid-1960s to
the mid-1970s. Military personnel and civilians of all nations involved
that were killed or wounded on both sides in those two wars and in other
clashes between the US/NATO countries and the USSR have been
estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands.
Introduction:
>From 1953 to 1956 I was a U S Air Force civilian employee at
Nouasseur Air Base, about 20 miles southwest of Casablanca in what
was then French Morocco. My job was in the Logistics Plans Office of
the Nouasseur Air Depot.
The Nouasseur Air Depot was being constructed and staffed to support
one of three major USAF/NATO logistics centers (Air Materiel Forces
European Areas North, Central, and South) in the European-Med-North
African-Middle Eastern Theater in the event of a war with the USSR.
Each AMF and its 'depot' would serve a primary geographic area.
Generally, when AMFEA was fully implemented its mission would
range from acquisition to distribution of materiel and supplies, repair and
maintenance of aircraft and equipment, and support to its constituents by
way of U S Military Assistance Programs and other arrangements.
In addition to the Nouasseur Air Depot (AMFEA South), the
Burtonwood Air Depot (AMFEA North), near Manchester UK, would
support air forces in the UK and European Northern Tier countries. The
Chatereaux Air Depot (AMFEA Central) in Chatereaux, France, about
half way between Paris and Marseilles, would support the Central Tier,
which extended beyond the Northern Tier to the Mediterranean coast
(overlapping somewhat with those of the Nouasseur Air Depot in Spain,
Portugal, Greece, and Turkey). Nouasseur (Casablanca) had the
Southern Tier, which included North Africa on into the Middle East,
countries along and in the Med and areas that were not within the
Northern and Central Tiers.
As a Logistics Planner at Nouasseur, one of my projects was to prepare
an element of U S Air Force Europe (USAFE) logistics plans to support
the U S Strategic Air Command (SAC). The plan would organize, staff,
equip, transport, test and evaluate, and (in the event of war) activate and
deploy Mobile Maintenance Teams consisting of U S civil service
volunteers. The teams would provide on-site emergency repairs
sufficient to continue flights of US/NATO combat-damaged or
otherwise disabled aircraft compelled to land in the Middle East, on Med
islands, or in North Africa on return flights from battle zones.
Strategic Air Command bombers and their direct support aircraft in the
active and -- at that time -- programmed inventory during the early-1950s
included the B-47 Stratojet, a six-engine 4,000 mile range medium
bomber which entered service in 1950; the B-52 Stratofortress, an eight-
engine 8,000+ mile range heavy bomber scheduled to enter operations
about 1955, and the C-97 Stratofreighter cargo and tanker versions with
four piston-driven engines which had been in SAC fleet operations since
about 1950, also late models B-50 and earlier B-29s from WW2.