Clandestine operations, ranging from leaflet dropping to parachuting OSS agents inside enemy-controlled territory, to "Air Commando" units in the China-Burma-India Theater played an essential role in securing victory against Nazi Germany and the Japanese Empire.

[2] With the outbreak of the Cold War it became apparent to US leadership that the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin could not be appeased, persuaded, or otherwise convinced to respect the territorial rights of its neighbor nations.

The United States Air Force (USAF) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had been created by the National Security Act of 1947 and activated a short time later.

Despite the urgency of the war, it took eight months before the Air Resupply and Communications Service (ARCS) was activated by HQ USAF at Andrews AFB, Maryland on 23 February 1951.

[4] Although MATS was the official parent command of ARCS, operations were directed from the Pentagon Psychological Warfare Division, Directorate of Plans, HQ, USAF.

Five other non-flying squadrons were assigned to support the wing's operations by providing maintenance, cargo airdrop rigging, long-range communications, and PSYWAR/leaflet production.

To ensure maximum communications and operations security for their missions, FECOM Intelligence gave the code-name "Rabbits" to these highly valued HUMINT agents.

The sight of a transport aircraft flying low with impunity was in itself a psychological blow to Chinese Communist and North Korean soldiers, female voices were used for loudspeaker messages announcing that if the troops did not surrender, they would be napalmed.

It supported the Central Intelligence Agency by performing agent drops and extractions, and resupplying South Korean partisans operating behind enemy lines.

581st C-119 Flying Boxcars shuttled cargo and troops back and forth continuously between Clark Air Base and French enclaves in Da Nang, Hanoi and Haiphong, Indochina.

The 581st also trained civilian C-119 pilots for the Civil Air Transport (CAT), a CIA front company that continued to fly combat missions throughout Indochina until 1954.

[2] Other 581st combat operations in Korea included a special H-19 Chickasaw Helicopter Flight co-located and blended in with elements of the 2157th Air Rescue Squadron at Kimpo Airport (K-14).

[2] The helicopter Flight flew blacked-out, single-ship night low-level insertions of United Nations agents and sabotage teams behind North Korean lines.

[2] Two Air Commando H-19 pilots received the Silver Star and Distinguished Flying Crosses from an attempted rescue mission described in their citations as "the deepest helicopter penetration of the Korean War".

[2] From its base in Libya, the 580th AR&CW operated in Southern and Southeastern Europe as well as the Middle East, frequently working with United States Army Special Forces in the Alps.

This mission required an SA-16 to fly across the Mediterranean at night from Wheelus AB and land on a lake in West Germany at dawn, pick up a team from the 10th Special Forces Group and transport them to RAF Molesworth, England.

With the rapid buildup of the Strategic Air Command to counter Soviet Cold War aggression and the resulting funding requirements, the lesser priority PSYWAR mission was curtailed.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower wanted to send aid, however the United States lacked the expertise and equipment to conduct the long-range air commando clandestine logistics mission it needed just to get to Tibet.

It utilized a single C-118 Liftmaster marked as Civil Air Transport (CAT), a CIA aircraft owned by the United States Government.

Secretary of Defense Thomas S. Gates Jr. approved the establishment of "E Flight", 21st Troop Carrier Squadron, which was activated in March, 1959 at Naha Air Base, Okinawa.

[2] E Flight C-130s were flown from their home base at Naha to Kadena for removal of USAF markings and manning by CAT personnel then to Takhli Airfield, Thailand for flying over the Himalayas to Tibet.

To reduce their chance of Chinese detection, the CAT aircrews flew their C-130s to Northern Thailand through inadequately chartered mountainous terrain with no navaids except the navigator's celestial plotting skills.

The Guerrillas were trained secretly at "Camp Hale", a secluded site located above 10,000 feet elevation near Leadville, Colorado and then flown out from Peterson AFB to Asia.

The Cubans executed "Operation Pluto", an amphibious paratroop invasion of Cuba at Bahia de Conchinos, in English, the Bay of Pigs.

In the summer of 1960, the CIA obtained fifteen World War II B-26 Invader medium bombers from storage at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona and had them refurbished.

Specifically, the 106th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron at Birmingham was the last Air National Guard organization to fly the B-26, having retired its old bombers just three years earlier in 1957.

In less than two months, eighty American instructors were transported to a secret CIA air base at Puerto Cabezas Airport, Nicaragua, to begin training the Cuban exiles.

The Alabama ANG instructor pilots were told prior to volunteering that their primary mission was to train Cuban exile aircrews; they were not going to fly in combat unless it was a last resort.

Known as the Mad Dog Flight', Castro's T-33 jets and propeller-driven Hawker Sea Fury fighters were waiting as the Alabama ANG pilots attempted to drive home attacks against the advancing Cuban Army ground forces.

In response to Lemay's directive, on 14 April 1961 Tactical Air Command activated the 4400th Combat Crew Training Squadron (CCTS) at Eglin AFB Auxiliary Field #9, Florida.