In the spring of 1972, except for a single squadron at Clark Field in the Philippines, a single C-130 wing, the 374th Tactical Airlift Wing at Ching Chuan Kang (CCK) Air Base, Taiwan, was the only airlift unit still operating regularly in Southeast Asia. In 1968, at the height of American involvement in the war, the airlift organization had consisted of a full air division controlling three in-country airlift wings and supported by three C-130 wings from elsewhere. At the same time, the Air Force presence had been equally reduced, as Vietnamization saw the transfer of many former American responsibilities to the Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF). Nearly all American ground combat units had been withdrawn from the combat zone over the preceding two years. Air Force airlifters suddenly found themselves the sole salvation of the defenders of a besieged South Vietnamese city.īy the spring of 1972, the once huge American presence in South Vietnam had been reduced to but a shadow of its former self. In the official history of the Air Force airlift mission in Southeast Asia, author Ray Bowers describes the battle for An Loc during the 1972 Eastertide (or Easter) Offensive as ‘the most trying times of the war for Air Force C-130 crews.’ Historian Bowers’ statement is well founded, because it was at An Loc that a relative handful of U.S. Air Force Airlifts in the 1972 Eastertide Offensive Close
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