Between 14 October and 14 November of that year, the Military Airlift Command of the United States Air Force shipped approximately 22,325 tons of supplies, including tanks, artillery, and ammunition, in multiple flights of C-141 Starlifters and C-5 Galaxys.

[1][2]: 88  This initiative was undertaken to help improve the position of the Israeli military in the face of a large-scale joint offensive by Egypt and Syria, both of which had been receiving extensive support from the Soviet Union.

[1] On 19 October, nearly two weeks after Egypt's Operation Badr, the United States pledged to support Israel's fight against the Arab countries.

Following the outbreak of hostilities, OAPEC's members, led by Faisal of Saudi Arabia, proclaimed the implementation of a total oil embargo against the United States and other countries that had provided any form of support to Israel to defend against the Arab military offensive.

[1] The Soviet Union had supplied Egypt and Syria over 600 advanced surface-to-air missiles, 300 MiG-21 fighters, 1,200 tanks and hundreds of thousands of tons of war material.

[1] Seeing Israel's vulnerable position, Henry Kissinger, the United States Secretary of State and President Richard Nixon's National Security Adviser, made arrangements for the Israeli national airline, El Al to pick up some items, including ammunition, "high technology products" and AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles at a U.S. naval base in Virginia.

[8] Author Seymour Hersh claimed in 1991 that there was "anecdotal evidence" that Kissinger had told Anwar Sadat that the reason for the U.S. airlift was that the Israelis were close to "going nuclear.

"[5] In subsequent interviews, however, Kissinger, James Schlesinger and William Quandt, stated that the ongoing Soviet re-supply effort and Sadat's early rejection of a ceasefire were the primary motivators, not fears of Israeli use of nuclear weapons.

[1] The political maneuvering was not immediately solved by the USAF's participation however: traditional European allies refused to allow re-supply aircraft to land for refueling or even overfly their territory.

The KC-135s had left Pease AFB, New Hampshire, the night of Saturday, 13 October (one of the bases El Al was using to re-supply the war effort); the tankers were ferrying factory-fresh Douglas A-4 Skyhawk and F-4 Phantom II aircraft flying non-stop from the factory in St. Louis, Missouri to Ben Gurion Airport.

In the opening days of the war, Arab forces destroyed significant numbers of IAF aircraft, surprising the Israelis with aggressive use of the new Soviet SA-6 Gainful SAMs.

Further flights were made to rebuild Israeli forces to their pre-war strength and Operation Nickel Grass was ended on 14 November.

The A models were sent back to Georgia where they were cut fore and aft of the wing, extended in length by three pallet positions, and refitted for in-flight refueling.

[1] General George Brown, Chairman of the American Joint Chiefs of Staff, was reprimanded by President Gerald Ford after criticizing the resupply effort.

According to Time magazine, Brown's criticisms included the opinion that the airlift was driven in part by Jews controlling the American banking system.