| Unit Name: | 483rd Tactical Airlift Wing |
| Dates: | 1953–1960, 1966–1972 |
| Role: | Airlift |
| Motto: | Efficient Airlift Support |
| Decorations: | Presidential Unit Citation Air Force Outstanding Unit Award with Combat "V" Device Air Force Outstanding Unit Award Korean Presidential Unit Citation Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm |
| Battles: | Korean Service Vietnam Service |
| Identification Symbol Label: | Patch with 483rd Tactical Airlift Wing emblem[1] |
The 483rd Tactical Airlift Wing was a tactical airlift and composite wing assigned to Pacific Air Forces during the Vietnam War. It was the host organization at Cam Ranh Bay Air Base South Vietnam from 1970 to 1972.
The Wing was first organized as the 483rd Troop Carrier Wing during the Korean War, as an airlift organization assigned to Far East Air Forces (later Pacific Air Forces).
The wing was activated at Ashiya Air Base, Japan as the 483rd Troop Carrier Wing on 1 January 1953 and replaced the 403rd Troop Carrier Wing, Medium and absorbed the 403rd's mission, personnel and equipment.[1] It was assigned to the 315th Air Division of Far East Air Forces for duty in the Korean War.
The wing was equipped with Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcars and performed troop carrier and air transport operations in the Far East, including landing of troops and cargo in forward areas of the combat zone, air transportation of airborne troops and equipment, and air evacuation of casualties.[1] In June 1953, as the Korean war neared an armistice, all wing C-119s airlifted the entire 187th Regimental Combat Team (Airborne) from Kyushu, Japan to Seoul and Chunch'on, South Korea, to preclude enemy breakthroughs.[2] This was the largest mass movement of personnel in the history of combat cargo to that time.[1] For is actions in the Korean War, the wing received the Korean Presidential Unit Citation.
Between April 1953 and September 1954, the wing aided the French Air Force in Indochina by training aircrews, evacuating wounded, and maintaining aircraft.[1] For these actions, the wing became one of the first units in the Air Force to receive the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award. In 1958, the wing began to reequip with Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft.[3] Its transition was complete by 1959. It performed theater transport duties and participated in joint exercises with Army units[2] until inactivated in Japan on 23 June 1960. Its squadrons were transferred to the direct control of the 315th Air Division and relocated to Naha Air Base and Tachikawa Air Base, Japan as Ashiya closed.[4] [5]
In August 1966, the Air Force and the Army began implementing Project Red Leaf, which would transfer responsibility for the de Havilland Canada C-7 Caribou from the Army to the Air Force following the Johnson-McConnell agreement of 1966. Air Force personnel began being assigned to the Army aviation companies flying the Caribou. Starting in late October personnel to form the cadre for the 483rd Troop Carrier Wing began to arrive at Cam Ranh Bay Air Base, South Viet Nam. The cadre began planning to move squadron level operations from the small Army camps they were operating from to permanent sites when the Air Force units were activated. Although removal of Caribous from the Mekong Delta and An Khe was particularly controversial, the Department of Defense ordered that the wing's squadrons be located on Air Force installations, not Army posts. On 1 January 1967, the wing was organized and took over Caribou operations. Two squadrons each were located at Cam Ranh Bay, Vung Tau Air Base, and Phu Cat Air Base,[1] [6] [7] although detachments were maintained at an additional six locations. In December 1967, a Viet Cong mortar attack on Can Tho Airfield damaged two wing C-7s. As a result wing planes were no longer stationed at Can Tho, Nha Trang Air Base, or Pleiku Air Base.[8]
The 483rd was assigned the mission of providing intra-theater airlift in support of United States military civic actions, combat support and civic assistance throughout the Republic of Vietnam.[9] [1] The wing's Caribou proved especially valuable in resupplying special forces camps, and largely supplanted the Fairchild C-123 Providers in performing this mission.[10] Initially, the wing's 537th Troop Carrier Squadron was dedicated to supporting the 1st Cavalry Division. This arrangement continued until late 1968, when the division moved to the southern provinces and was more efficiently supported by the squadrons at Cam Ranh Bay and Vung Tau.[11]
The C-7s provided the light load-short haul transport to rough landing strips in South Vietnam. The unique capabilities of the C-7 for short landing and takeoff made Caribou transports vital to the war effort. On many occasions the C-7A's flew emergency airlift missions to airstrips and combat areas that no other aircraft could reach. Most notable were those in support of special forces camps in the Central Highlands.
In June 1968 the wing flew a record 2,420 combat troops in three days between Dak Pek, Ben Het and Dak To. In August 1968 pinpoint night airdrops were accomplished at Duc Lap, Ha Thanh and Tonle Cham special forces camps. Ammunition and medical supplies were parachuted into 75-foot-square drop zones while the camps were under attack. In June 1969 during the siege of Ben Het more than 200 tons of ammunition, POL, rations, water and medical supplies were airdropped into a 100 x 200-foot zone with every load on target and 100 per cent recovered.
In March 1969, a provisional group was established at Vung Tau Airfield to exercise command and control over the wing's units located there.[12] In June 1970, the group was discontinued[1] when the Caribou squadrons at Vung Tau moved to Cam Ranh Bay.[13] With the inactivation of the 459th Tactical Airlift Squadron that month, all but one C-7 squadron was located with the wing.
In March 1970, when the 12th Tactical Fighter Wing moved to Phu Cat Air Base,[14] the 483rd Wing became the host wing at Cam Ranh Bay. As a corollary to assuming the support mission for the base, support organizations assigned to the wing carried out a number of civic actions, including construction of housing, providing support for orphanages and educational institutions and improvement of water supply systems.[15]
In April 1970, the wing, designated the 483rd Tactical Airlift Wing since August 1967,[1] helped break the siege of Dak Seang Special Forces Camp.[15] North Vietnamese forces had surrounded the camp, and learning from the success of air resupply during their 1969 attack on the Ben Het Camp, also established anti-aircraft artillery positions along likely air resupply corridors. On the first day of the siege, two wing C-7s were diverted from their scheduled missions and staged out of Pleiku to make the first airdrops to the camp. The following day, a C-7 was lost shortly after releasing its load. Resupply of the camp was so urgent that all drop-qualified crews of the wing were ordered to Pleiku to support the operation and eleven sorties were flown that day with cover from Douglas A-1 Skyraiders. Crews approached the camp from the north or south to use terrain to mask their approaches from enemy flak. Loss of the third Caribou in five days prompted a move to resupply the camp with night drops, with cover and illumination provided by Fairchild AC-119 Stinger gunships. The majority of the missions were flown by the 537th Squadron, although all wing squadrons participated[16] The wing flew 100 air-drop sorties under heavy hostile fire in ten days delivering some 400,000 pounds of vital supplies.[15] The wing earned a second Presidential Unit Citation for this action, evacuation of over 2000 refugees from Cambodia, and transportation of the Presidential Southeast Asia Investigation Team to various remote locations in South Vietnam.[17]
On 31 August 1971 the remaining unit at Phu Cat Air Base, the 537th Tactical Airlift Squadron, inactivated, followed shortly thereafter by the 536th Tactical Airlift Squadron. During their five years' flying for the 483rd, the C-7A Caribous carried more than 4.7 million passengers, averaging more than one million a year during 1967–1969. At the same time the wing averaged more than 100,000 tons of cargo each year.
On 31 August 1971, three electronic warfare squadrons from the inactivating 460th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, stationed at various bases in Viet Nam, were assigned to the 483rd TAW. The following day, two special operations squadrons were transferred from the inactivating 14th Special Operations Wing. The electronic warfare squadrons were inactivated or assigned to other wings within six months.
The three remaining C-7 squadrons inactivated in early 1972 (535th Tactical Airlift Squadron on 24 January, 458th Tactical Airlift Squadron on 1 March, and 457th Tactical Airlift Squadron on 30 April). Most of the C-7 Caribous were transferred to the VNAF. No. 35 Squadron RAAF at Vung Tau flew its last mission on 13 February 1972 and departed South Vietnam for RAAF Base Richmond in Australia on 19 February 1972; it was the last RAAF unit to leave following the decision to withdraw.[18] The mixture of reassigned squadrons from other wings were all inactivated or reassigned by the end of May. The 483rd Tactical Airlift Wing was inactivated on 31 May 1972.[1] For its service in Vietnam, the 483rd was awarded two Presidential Unit Citations, three Air Force Outstanding Unit Awards with Combat "V" Device and three Republic of Viet Nam Gallantry Crosses with Palm.[1]
483rd Tactical Airlift Wing
Activated on 1 January 1953
Discontinued and inactivated, on 25 June 1960
Organized on 15 October 1966
Redesignated 483rd Tactical Airlift Wing on 1 August 1967
Inactivated on 31 May 1972[1]
Located at Vung Tau Airfield, Viet Nam[15]
Stationed at Nha Trang Air Base, Viet Nam
Southeast Asia 21 January 1968 – 12 May 1968[33]
Southeast Asia 1 April 1970 – 30 June 1970[34]
1 January 1967 – 30 April 1967[33]
1 May 1967 – 30 April 1968[33]
1 July 1970 – 31 December 1971[34]
6 May 1953 – 10 September 1954[33]
1 January 1953 – 27 July 1953[33]
15 October 1966 – 31 March 1968[34]
1 August 1967 – 30 October 1971[34]
1 May 1967 – 31 May 1972[34]
Third Korean Winter
Korea Summer-Fall 1953
Vietnam Air Offensive
Vietnam Air Offensive, Phase II
Vietnam Air Offensive, Phase III
Vietnam Air/Ground
Vietnam Air Offensive, Phase IV
TET69/Counteroffensive
Vietnam Summer-Fall 1969
Vietnam Winter-Spring 1970
Sanctuary Counteroffensive
Southwest Monsoon
Commando Hunt V
Commando Hunt VI
Commando Hunt VII
Vietnam Ceasefire
Further Reading