This book supplements previous reference works produced by the Air
Force Historical Research Agency through the Air Force History
Support Office for Air Force and general public use. These works
include publications about Air Force organizations, unit lineage
and honors histories, air bases, campaigns, chronologies,
contingencies, and aerial victory credits. These materials provide
data for those who will make decisions about future Air Force
structures and operations and for service members who need
reference information about the past. The present volume covers an
often overlooked category of Air Force operations: humanitarian
airlift. The USAF has participated in hundreds of major
humanitarian airlift operations since its birth. These airlifts
have saved the lives of thousands of people in the United States
and abroad and have served as tools of U.S. diplomacy,
demonstrating the versatility of air power not only as a weapon of
war but also as an instrument of peace. The future will continue to
demand humanitarian airlift operations, and this book will help
planners to appreciate, in quantitative and qualitative terms, how
these operations were conducted in the past. Historians have
written extensively about the United States Air Force as an
instrument of war, focusing on aerial combat, bombing, strafing,
and the transportation of troops and weapons. They have written
less about the role of the USAF in supporting disaster relief
operations, in helping emerging nations meet the needs of their
citizens, and in feeding the hungry anywhere in the world- missions
which are cumulatively known as humanitarian airlift. One might
even think this is a new role for the U.S. military. This book
attempts to fill a historical gap by addressing humanitarian
airlift missions as an important part of Air Force heritage. Rarely
acting alone in conducting humanitarian relief efforts, the U.S.
Air Force has served with the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and
Coast Guard. It has worked with other federal agencies such as the
Federal Emergency Management Agency, the State Department, and the
Agency for International Development. It has also interacted with
private charitable organizations. Air Force humanitarian airlift
operations include providing assistance at home and abroad. In the
event of a domestic disaster, the federal government follows a
procedure first defined by the Federal Disaster Act of 1950. After
an emergency, a governor requests federal assistance and the
president declares the region a federal disaster area. In recent
decades, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has coordinated
domestic disaster relief, often requesting the support of the
Department of Defense for airlift missions. In the case of an
international disaster, a foreign government requests relief
through the U.S. embassy, permitting the State Department's Agency
for International Development and its Office of Foreign Disaster
Assistance to coordinate the relief effort. Both organizations have
used the USAF for airlift when commercial aircraft were not
available or could not perform the mission. In recent years, the
Department of Defense established its own office of humanitarian
assistance to coordinate congressionally-mandated transport of
privately donated relief supplies and distribution of excess
nonlethal Defense Department cargo. The Military Airlift Command
dominated, but did not monopolize, humanitarian airlifts during the
Cold War. Other Air Force commands, such as U.S. Air Forces in
Europe, Pacific Air Forces, Tactical Air Command, Alaskan Air
Command, Caribbean Air Command, Southern Air Command, and Air
Mobility Command took part in significant relief flights. Air Force
Reserve and Air National Guard crews and aircraft also participated
in many operations, either independently or by complementing active
organizations.
General
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