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Show Page HILL TOP TIMES 18 Logmir ffioites.2 By Allen Storm first round robin was Kelly to Tinker to Hill to Sacramento to Travis to Norton, then back (Editor's note: Hill AFB joins the Air Force in observing the 20th anniversary of Logair (logistics airlift.) Hill was part of the first Logair round robin over 20 years With pardonable pride, the Air Force is acknowledging the 20th anniversary this month of logistics airlift (Logair), the unique military air cargo system which has virtually revised classic military strategy. Historically, transportation had been the bottleneck in keeping combat forces in to Kelly. "We had given the system the name of Mercury. Then we heard this was in conflict with another flight operation, so we scrounged around for another name. There must have been hundreds of suggestions. The one that stuck was Logair. No one seems to remember whose ago and now processes 10 Logair flights daily. Clyde Terminal Slade, Air Distribution manager, Directorate, is in charge of Logair operations at Hill AFB.) supply. Logair has played a major role for the Air Force in Kelly transferred to Air Materiel Travis AFB, Calif. Command (predecessor of Air He wagged his now e Force Logistics Command) at of hair, saying. crop AFB, Ohio, "The big hang-u- p in those to snow-whit- n ..long with authority and later to operate an system. study days was comairlift early munications. We had a couple of machines from beat-u- p teletype pattern from which we had acquired logair was designed was a somewhere, then airlift created to The were "war baby" assigned a couple of green fly over the "hump" in Bur- kids to run them. They would ma, linking India with hunt and peck around for Nationalist China during hours getting out the simplest World War II. More than half the message. For more than three years time the cargo would land at every weapon, every round of Travis before the message got ammunition, every vehicle, there." every gallon of gasoline went Barnhart recalled that when in by air. Again with the the Air Force signed its first Russian blockade of Berlin in charter with a civilian airline, 1948. the airlift concept was with a payload of 13,000 effectively brought into play. pounds apiece were used. Toward the end of WWII, Today a fleet of jets and prop-jeteach toting a minimum of Jack Barnhart reputed to be the "Father of Logair" -- 35,000 pounds, logs in enough while serving as a civilian flight time every month to transportation expert at equal three round trips to the Olmsted AFB, Pa., was moon. "Don't really know where assigned to AFB for 30 days. His job was the name Logair came from," to explore the possibility of Barnhart reflected. "It was establishing an air freight during the Korean conflict terminal. The "temporary" that we really got going. The C-4- 6s s, - Wright-Patterso- y' Jjlv- idea it was." breaking that bottleneck, assignment was to last for establishing a "pipeline" that lore than 28 years. crisscrosses the United States, Recently retired after 30 interconnecting air bases with years of federal service, overseas air terminals. Barnhart fondly recalled In September 1952, the Air some of tne problems in Force headquarters; air establishing the first air run transportation office was from AFB, Tex., to Wright-Patterso- ye.ir$ service n The United States had. virtually no air transport capability when Pearl Harbor was attacked Dec. 7, 1941. Fortunately, the United States Congress - by the Air Commerce Act of 1925 and the Civil Aeronautics Act .W1ac:... of 1938 -- the encouraged development of America's commercial airlines. Before World War II they were flying more miles than all the rest of the world's airlines put together. Ten days after Pearl Harbor President Roosevelt commandeered the commercial air fleet by executive order and 386 aircraft - mostly passenger types, complete with crews and technical support - were turned over to the Army Air Force. had "The big hassle then," Barnhart said, "was con- verting the passenger planes to carry freight. When we first got going with Logair, the equipment wasn't really designed for cargo handling. Today the aircraft are especially designed for the job they're doing. Cargo is waiting, palletized, when the g planes come in. The a is . breeze process Inventory control is computerized." He added with a grin, "And now. we've got banks of teletype equipment with highly skilled operators and our own private phone lines. Haven't had a shipment beat a message to a destination in loading-unloadin- LOGISTICS AIRLIFT Hill AFB, discusses a j J , - Earl Riggs. (pointing) assistant I ' , manager of the Air Terml Logair shipment with other Distribution SDecialkt flights pass through Hill AFB each day. Hill AFB was one of the stops on the Will UVgail lllgllt fcW J V.CB1 , Zz) HgUi capability of the system. puterized , Within 45 minutes after the its own communications . . . alert had been signaled, a sysiem, palletized cargo, plus Logair carrier was on its way to pick up cargo in support of facilities. The Logair network of the military buildup in Florida. Ultimately there civilian contract aircraft -were 198 flights, traveling managed and controlled by 600,000 miles, delivering 2,000 AFLC annually moves more tons of cargo and all without than 170,000 tons of cargo disrupting Logair's regular approximately 17.5 million schedule. plane miles, a distance equal Palletization, which came to 36 round trips to the moon. The daily route pattern into its own in 1962 proved to the United States crisscrosses be a boon to Logair, east-weonwith eight drastically reducing the d time and thus trunklines and eight feeder load greatly decreasing the total lines, linking AFLC depots, flight time of each individual Military Airlift Command overseas aerial ports, conshipment. tractor sites and high priority 1970 evolved had By Logair into a thoroughly modern operating bases into a network - down from a airlift system with turbine- powered aircraft, com- - peak of 89 stations in 1962. It mm - - oviviica two i stations loratPH inui PW;J I There are 16 LoeairS w lul daily, plus special "on flights which move irf neeaea items. Barnhart held dd lingers, saying. '"M three very sound reasori can't fectiveness you refute U of the Li pipeline concept "One: it definitely Scl great deal of time and a deal of money. st off-loa- iwo: it is comp'i responsive to any na'J emergency. because cfl "Three: nuicuty, it is conp:a eliminating the need for stockpiles materiel." ol mi..! (AFLCNS) years." "The real strength of the Barnhart system," ex- plained, "is the concept. We not only have total control of the carriers but total control of the cargo. point-to-poi- nt "Our transit average is 1.7 days. The commercial carrier average is 2.6 days. Parcel post is 3.1 days. The regular carriers just can't cut it on a basis." point-to-poi- point-to-poi- P i - COMPUTERS HELP Data Automation personnel at Hill AFB operate a 301 computer for manifesting Logair cargo. Logair's nt performance during the Cuban missile crisis proved in 1962 the K :1f8 nt graphically Lj .-- - J FILL ER UP Lee Morgan, (right) loading foreman. Hill Wright use a 10.000 pound forklift and pallet dolly to load a"AFB eacn month Logair. nrnimailv in mill inn rwiunHs ftf rareo are orocessed at Hill i responsive rl 1 i v mm i r - OPERATE AROUND THE CLOCK a night time operation. Its a daily flights moving. - ilttt - Air Terminal personnel seven-days-- a load a wM o M f |