CHAPTER XV

POST-WAR MILITARY AVIATION PROGESS

After World War II, American industry joined the Army and Navy in programs to develop an effective airpower capability for the nation.  It was the resumption of intensive research and development, both for aircraft and guided missiles.  Cooperating for scientific research was the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA).

            In remarkably short order, magnificent aviation marks were unfolded. Concurrently, military aircraft in service were tested for greater performance and versatility.  Included was extensive over-water flying.  And once again the Hawaiian Islands were to prove useful to flyers striving for aviation achievements.

            On August 6, 1946, two radio-controlled B-17s made a 2,174-mile flight from Hickam to Ruroc (now Edwards Air Force Base), California.

            Two months later, the B-29 PACUSAN DREAMBOAT, piloted by Colonel Clarence S. Irvine, made a 9,444-mile non-stop flight from Hickam to Cairo via the North Pole.  The bomber followed an approximate great circle route from Hawaii to Alaska, then to Iceland, and finally to Cairo, passing over London, Paris and Foggia (Italy).  Flight time was 39 hours and 36 minutes.

 A magnificent aviation mark was made on October 14, 1947.  Combat veteran Captain Charles E. Yeager, flying a Bell XS-1 research airplane, broke the so-called sound barrier in flight through California skies above Muroc Dry Lake.  Called the most notable achievement since the first powered flight, it was the beginning of man’s breaking away from the bonds of earth.  Other experimental flight test pilots went on to speed and altitude records in the early X-series craft, including Frank K. Everest, Arthur Murray, Ivan Kincheloe; more sophisticated versions were to follow.

            The United States made progress in another direction.  The mid-Pacific islands were to be relied upon for a vital function. On June 1, 1948, the Air Force and Navy transport services were combined to form the Military Air Transport Service (MATS). Under the single-manager concept, the cost-saving operation was to economically and efficiently implement a globe-circling function to air transport people, materiel, mail, strategic materials, and other cargo.  MATS became a separate command of the Air Force commanded by Major General Laurence S. Kuter, Vice Commander being Rear Admiral John P. Whitney.  In command of the Pacific Division was Rear Admiral Mathias B. Gardner.  By June 21, the first MATS passenger service was initiated when a Navy transport aircraft flew from Hickam to Fairfield-Suisun (now Travis AFB), California.

            The CAROLINE MARS (Navy JRM-2 Flying Boat) landed in Chicago with 42 persons on board and a 14,000 pound payload, after a record non-stop flight from Honolulu of 4,748 miles in 24 hours and 12 minutes (August 28, 1948).

            On December 8, 1948, a six-engine B-26 completed a 9,400 mile non-stop flight from Fort Worth, Texas, to Hawaii and back without refueling.

            Between February 26 and March 2, 1949, B-50 LUCKY LADY II completed the first non-stop, round-the-world flight in history.  The pilot was Air Force Captain James Gallagher.  He covered 23,451 miles in 94 hours and one minute.  Aerial refueling was provided by B-29 tankers over the Azores, Arabia, the Philippines, and Hawaii—which served as a communications and emergency facility, much as had been done by guard ships for John Rodgers in 1925.

            On June 19, 1950, the CAROLINE MARS completed a 2,609 mile flight from Honolulu to San Diego with 144 men aboard for the largest passenger lift over the Pacific on record.

            These peacetime aviation advances were suddenly interrupted on June 25, 1950, when hostilities erupted in Korea.  Hickam and other military bases in Hawaii became the key point for troops and material passing through and in supporting the war effort. By July, MATS had begun the Pacific Airlift, the mass movement by air of men and materials The Pacific Division of MATS served island bases in the Pacific from Hawaii to Japan, Okinawa, the Philippines, as well as Saigon, Bangkok, New Delhi, and Karachi.  At Dhahran, the Pacific and Atlantic Divisions joined hands.  Augmenting the two were MATS planes from the Continental Division, flying in both the Atlantic and Pacific areas.  Hawaii had become a major stop on the global route.

            Augmented by chartered commercial aircraft and a Canadian Transport Squadron, MATS carried 559,000 passengers, including 62,000 air evacuation patients; 67,000 tons of cargo and 30,050 tons of mail in 35,000 Pacific crossings by way of Hickam.

            Combat requirements for naval aviation in Korea were quite different from those of the island-hopping campaign of World War II.  The United Nations intention was to confine the battle area to the peninsula, limiting air operations to support of troops.  Carrier forces flew deep support missions, attacked enemy supply lines, roamed over enemy territory looking for targets of opportunity, bombed enemy bridges, interdicted highways and railroads; attacked refineries, railroad yards and hydroelectric plants; and escorted land based bombers on special missions.  In comparison to the forces engaged in World War II, Korea was a small war.  At no time were more than four large carriers in action at the same time.  Yet in the three years of war, Navy and Marine aircraft flew 276,000 offensive sorties, dropped 177,000 tons of bombs and expended 272,000 rockets.  This was within 7,000 sorties of the World War II totals in all theaters and bettered the bomb tonnage by 74,000 tons and the number of rockets by 60,000.       

            One of many units to serve with distinction in the Korean Conflict was Marine Aircraft Group 13.  It had been reactivated in April of 1951 and moved to Kaneohe Bay Marine Corps Air Station, on Oahu, in early 1952.  The unit was commanded by Colonel E. R. West.  MAG-13 was rounded out with two Corsair squadrons, along with maintenance and base squadrons, and Marine Air Control Squadron 2.

            Aviation units based in MCAS, El Toro (California) were rotated to Hawaii every six months for training until April, 1954, including Marine Fighter Squadrons 232 and 214  HMR-161 from MAG-13 inked new pages in Marine aviation history during the Korean war, as the first Marine Helicopter transport unit came into existence  Headlines were made with such combat operations as the lift of an infantry command to the front line, the landing of an infantry company at night, and the relief of a battalion with full equipment on the main line of resistance.

            The Korean War had a great impact on Honolulu International Airport, with rapid increases in aircraft landings.  In March, 1951, 104 acres of the Hickam reservation were leased, enabling an extension of the facilities and the use of a runway 200 feet wide and 13,104 feet long.  Honolulu International Airport, during this period, was in third place for the entire nation in aircraft operations.  Aviation marks of world significance continued to be made by use of the Hawaiian Islands.

            In July 1952, a flight of 58 F-84 Thunderjet fighters, led by Colonel David C. Schilling, stopped at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, on their way from Turner Air Force Base, Georgia, to Yokota Air Base, Japan.  Their 10,985 mile flight with only seven stops enroute and with aerial refueling by tanker aircraft, came early in the jet age and was a forerunner of one of the major facets of American airpower today . . . the maintenance of tactical forces through a system of rotations.  (Every few months a USAF unit crosses the Pacific via Hawaii and the relieved unit returns to its home base in the United States.)  Rotations provide continuing tactical forces at various locations, and are a dramatic demonstration of the Tactical Air Command’s (USAF) ability to fly its fighters to any point in the world.

            In January, 1957, three B-52 Stratofortresses landed at March AFB, California, completing a 24,325 mile round-the-world non-stop flight in the record time of 45 hours and 19 minutes.  This was the first globe-circling non-stop flight by jet aircraft.

            With Navy Lieutenant Commander James M. Pruitt as pilot, a twin-jet A3D Skywarrior flew from Hawaii to California (2,438 miles) in four hours and 12 minutes on August 1, 1957.  This was a record for the eastward trip.

            Air Force Colonel Archie Blood led 16 F-100D Supersabres from Tokyo to Honolulu (3,850 miles) on December 3, 1957. This was an unofficial record for the flight.

            A KC-135 Stratotanker made the first non-stop flight from Washington, D.C. to Honolulu on July 11, 1958.  The 5,000 miles were covered in 11 hours and eight minutes.

            On December 16, 1958, a new type of air vehicle was flown over the Pacific Ocean.  It was a Thor ballistic missile launched from California, the first Free World firing of a ballistic missile under simulated combat conditions.

            On September 20, 1959, Peter Gluckman set a round-the-world solo flight record when he landed at San Francisco, completing a 29-day trip in a Meyers “200” airplane.

 A NEW USEFULNESS

            Air travel through Hawaii became more commonplace with time, as had previously occurred with improved ships. Though significant marks were still being made in the air, the excitement of aviation had simmered to placid acceptance.  Pioneering days over, Hawaii’s usefulness to airplanes fully justified the efforts and sacrifices of those who made it possible.  For it, Hawaii benefited in many ways, not the least of which was the gaining of millions of friends from far-off lands, tourists and the military men and families of the mid-Pacific outpost.  What new lay in the horizon?

            The saga of flight began to take a revolutionary turn in the 1950s.  Missiles and space craft were introduced then developed as strangers (as with early aircraft) in a known environment.  They managed to survive after a lonesome struggle, and then improve to unbelievable performance thanks to an external influence. Government support and appropriate public interest was increased when, on October 4, 1957, the Soviets injected into orbit around the earth their “Sputnik” satellite.  Doctor Goddard’s flight to 184 feet of the first liquid-propelled rocket in 1926 was viewed with new interest when, on January 31, 1958, the United States’ first earth satellite was launched, the Army’s JUPITER, followed on March 17, 1959, by the Navy’s VANGUARD.  The worlds’ eyes looked with anticipation to the Hawaiian Islands and adjacent waters, as once again the world’s largest ocean would become a vital proving ground for flight vehicles.

            The Islands were made ready to function in this new role, so was the entire Pacific—one portion of the world’s space network. First to be equipped was Oahu.  A large dish-like antenna 60 feet in diameter was perched on its western tip where, tilting and rotating, it could command a sweeping view of the Pacific.  Overlooking the Kaena Point lighthouse, the parabolic tracking antenna became a living part of the Kaena Point Tracking Station.  The station, along with other such installations in California, New Hampshire and Alaska, functioned to track man-made satellites in orbital flight about the earth  It was given the ability to pick up signals from the vehicle and “pinpoint” its course, hear its transmissions, give commands to the satellite, and reckon its range.

            Assisting this and the other tracking stations during launch operations are telemetry ships operating in the Pacific.  They function to receive transmissions from orbiting vehicles and record them on tape (later flown to control centers for analysis).  An organization was placed at Hickam to assist in recovering the vehicles.  For this purpose, Pacific waters became one large splash net for vehicles and manned capsules re-entering the earth’s atmosphere.  They became alive with ships, over flying aircraft, and frogmen.

            On August 11, 1960, the world saw the first recovery of an object ejected by an orbiting satellite, a 300-pound capsule from the Air Force’s Discoverer XIII launch.  It was recovered by Navy frogmen from the sea about 330 miles northwest of Honolulu. Eight days later (August 19), Air Force Captain Harold F. Mitchell (stationed at Hickam) piloted a C-119 aircraft and made the first successful aerial retrieval of an orbiting capsule, ejected by Discoverer XIV which had been launched the previous day.  Recovery was made over the Pacific.

            Navy Commander Alan B. Shepard Jr., became the first Project Mercury astronaut to cross the space frontier, in a 14.8 minute flight to an altitude of 115 miles over the Atlantic, flying about 5,100 mph.  Two and a half months later, Air Force Captain Virgil I. Grissom was launched to an altitude of 118 miles, in a 393-mile suborbital space flight over the Atlantic.  Prior to the next space achievement, the airplane boasted its increasing capabilities and usefulness to man. On February 9, 1962, a MATS Boeing 707 set a new record for commercial-type airplanes by flying from Hawaii to California in three hours and 49 minutes, with 159 passengers.

            Eleven days later, Astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. successfully completed a three-orbit flight around the earth, becoming the first United States orbital flyer in the time of four hours and 56 minutes.  Glenn landed in the Atlantic.

Commander M. Scott Carpenter became the second to orbit the earth on May 24, 1962, also landing in the Atlantic.

            On July 19, 1962, an Army Nike-Zeus anti-missile missile fired from Kwajalein Island made the first known interception of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICMB).  High above the Pacific it intercepted a nose cone of an Atlas missile launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

            Astronaut Walter M. Shirra Jr., a Navy commander, became the third American to orbit the earth on October 3, 1962. He made five complete orbits and settled into the Pacific near the end of the sixth orbit after nine hours and 14 minutes of flight.

            Attention was taken away from space progress momentarily as another spectacular aviation event was recorded in history. On April 30, 1963, America’s Betty Miller took off from Oakland for Brisbane, Australia, 74,000 miles away.  In 51:38 hours flying time, averaging 140 mph in her twin-engine Apache One-Five Yankee, the aviatrix completed the journey by way of Honolulu, Gilbert Islands, Fiji Islands and New Caledonia.

            Hawaii was intricately involved in the tenth and final launch in the Mercury program, the sixth United States manned space fight with Astronaut Leroy Gordon Cooper—an Air Force major—at the controls.

            Monitoring the flight of Mercury Spacecraft “Faith 7” was a worldwide tracking network consisting of 19 land stations and four ships at sea.  Those in the Pacific were Kano, Nigeria; Zanzibar; Muchea and Woomera, Australia; Canton Island; Hawaii; and Guaymas, Mexico.  Lying in wait 800 miles west of Midway Island was USNS RANGE TRACKER to handle orbits 5, 6, 7, 20, 21, and 22.  In the South Pacific was the ROSE KNOT VICTOR, 3,000 miles off the coast of Chile.

            Impact set for a position some 900 miles northwest of Honolulu, 125 miles southeast of Midway, the Pacific was dotted with a flotilla of nine destroyers and one carrier, assisted by a good share of more than 100 aircraft around the world.

            Set with medical support, if needed, was a bioastronautic group consisting of 129 people at various points. Included in the Pacific contingent were carriers and ships containing, among others, medical specialists.    Honolulu’s Tripler General Hospital (U.S. Army) had ready a specialty team consisting of a general surgeon and anesthesiologist, surgical technicians and nurses, a thoracic surgeon, orthopedic surgeon, neurosurgeon, internist, radiologist, neurosurgical technician, orthopedic technician, medical equipment technician, pathologist, urologist, and plastic surgeon.  An Air Force C-130 aircraft stood available at Hickam to transport part or all of the medical team plus up to 1,000 pounds of equipment.  At each of the tracking stations were included aero medical monitors.

            For recovery operations, the Department of Defense assigned 28 ships, 172 aircraft, and more than 19,000 people in direct operational support of the MA-9 mission. Thirteen planned recovery areas were designated in the Pacific, and eight in the Atlantic Ocean.  Task Force 130, commanded by Rear Admiral Charles A. Buchannon, consisted of the carrier KEARSARGE, 10 destroyers and some 20 aircraft.  Covering an area south of Japan in the Western Pacific were four destroyers and six search and rescue aircraft belonging to the Western Pacific Recovery Group under Rear Admiral H. L. Reiter Jr.  Captain T. S. King covered 10 areas around Midway Island, including the primary landing area, with the KEARSARGE, six destroyers and 14 aircraft.

            For quick recovery, DOD strategically positioned 100 search and rescue aircraft in 28 staging bases around the world, including pararescue men, SCUBA divers, survival experts and medical technicians, for on-scene assistance to the astronaut.  One of the more important areas was Hawaii. Rescue coordination centers included one at Kunia adjacent to Wheeler Air Force Base on Oahu.

            The Pacific Missile Range’s air, sea and land based facilities, commanded by Rear Admiral John E. Clark, were directed from Point Mugu, California.  The facilities at Kaneohe Bay, Oahu (main downrange PMR site) tied downrange facilities into the world-wide Mercury communications network.  Kaneohe specialists also helped determine the MA-9’s point of entry into the Pacific after the orbital flight.

             Kauai provided to the mission Kokee Park, site of a tracking station. Three EC121s served as communications relay centers, relaying voice transmissions from capsule to communications facilities in Hawaii and to the nearest surface ship, and recording telemetered capsule reentry data.

            At 8:09 a.m., May 15, 1963, Faith 7 was inserted into orbit flying at a maximum speed of 17,546.6 mph.  On the 22^nd orbit around the globe, at 170 miles southeast of Kyushu, Japan, near the Pacific Command Ship COASTAL SENTRY QUEBEC, Cooper’s retro-rockets were fired sending him towards a Pacific landing.  The main chute deployed at 11,000 feet and Faith 7 landed 7,000 yards from the prime recovery ship, the aircraft carrier USS KEARSARGE, after 34 hours, 19 minutes a and 49 seconds.

 NEW MARKS BY SMALL AIRCRAFT

Coming back into headlines the following year was an amazing aviation achievement, in a way reminiscent of several previous attempts at conquering the globe’s airspace.  On April 13, 1964, Mrs. Geraldine Mock from Columbus, Ohio, brought her single-engine Cessna 180 to a landing at Honolulu International Airport on the penultimate over water leg of a solo, round-the-world flight.  Four days later, after becoming the first woman to fly the Pacific alone from west to east and the first woman to fly a single engine plane in either direction across the world’s largest ocean, the diminutive aviatrix landed in Columbus.  She was the first woman to fly solo around the world, flawlessly covering 22,858.8 statute miles in her SPIRIT OF COLUMBUS.  Following on her heels was aviatrix Joan Merriam on a round-the-world course identical to that of Amelia Earhart in 1937, also in a two-engine airplane.  She succeeded splendidly.

            On June 22, 1964, a 54-year-old Japanese-American took off from Oakland in his single engine Piper Comanche on a four-stop solo flight to Japan.  Henry Ohys carried messages to 17 Japanese cities from sister cities in California.  Sponsored by the Japanese-American Aeronautics Association, which he founded in 1932, and backed by the Los Angeles branch of the Bank of Tokyo, Ohys landed in Honolulu 13 hours and 50 minutes later.  On July 6, the pilot landed in Tokyo after stops in Midway, Wake and Iwo Jima.