Airmen of a troop carrier squadron in the Pacific region load a jeep into a C-47 in the mid to late 1940s. Loadmaster Evolution The loadmaster specialty has evolved from ad hoc beginnings to a central job in modern . By Sam McGowan

hough practically indispens- Transport Command by 1944, install glider tow equipment. Shortly able today for mobility mis- it wasn’t until after the Korean War after the US entered the war, the Army sions around the world, aircraft that USAF established the loadmaster Air Forces reorganized and ACMC’s loadmasterT duties have not always been career field. transport squadrons transferred into the part of military air transportation. Before the US entered World War new Air Transport Command. No such crew position existed in the II, Air Corps Maintenance Command In 1942, Gen. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold, troop carrier and air transport squadrons activated the 50th Transport Wing to haul AAF commanding general, elevated of World War II. Aerial engineers had from depots to combat squadrons Army Air Forces Ferrying Command responsibility for the cargo compartment in the US, Alaska, and the Panama Canal to form Air Transport Command. The and, with help from the radio operator, Zone. The crew member responsible former command was redesignated as dispensed air-drop bundles. Sometimes, for ensuring the airplane was properly the I Troop Carrier Command and given ground personnel flew along to help loaded and cargo secured was the aerial responsibility for training troop carrier handle cargo. engineer (commonly called the crew units for overseas service. In July all Air cargo officers planned the loads chief)—a sort of jack-of-all-trades on existing air transport units were redes- while ground personnel, usually from multiengine aircraft. ignated as “troop carrier.” the unit that owned the cargo, performed In 1941, the 50th Transport Wing By the time of I Troop Carrier Com- loading and unloading. Quartermasters had the responsibility of providing mand’s redesignation, transport squad- took on responsibility for rigging bundles airplanes to support new airborne regi- rons were heavily involved in combat for air-drop and although a passen- ments, and engineers had to monitor operations in the Pacific. Far East Air ger handling specialist had joined Air jumps, dispense air-drop bundles, and Force established an Air Transport Com- 60 AIR FORCE Magazine / December 2011 In 1944 ATC established scheduled flights from the US to Europe and the Pacific and between India and China. Flight traffic clerks ensured safety and provided passenger comfort items such as coffee, blankets, USAF photo by Maj. Dale Greer magazines, and newspapers. Cargo missions continued operating with only an engineer and radio operator. Cargo loading and securing of ATC transports was conducted by ground personnel under the supervision of air transportation technicians assigned to Army Air Forces base units. In 1947, when the Air Force became a separate service, troop carrier op- erations became part of Tactical Air Command. The quartermaster rigger function remained with the Army and aerial delivery duties were an Army Kentucky ANG loadmasters guide a pallet of cargo onto a C-130 Hercules. By 1964, responsibility through the Korean War. scanner duties on C-130s belonging to TAC were combined with loadmaster duties, and the loadmaster became part of the flight crew. Army quartermaster riggers installed and operated C-119 aerial delivery mand on Feb. 2, 1942. It became part By May 1944, as the Allies prepared equipment, and Army kickers flew on of its Directorate of Air Transport. To to invade Normandy, IX Troop Carrier C-46 and C-47 drops. facilitate load planning, the DAT estab- Command saw a need to formalize cargo Initially, Air Transport Command lished “station control teams” made up drops. Since quartermasters processed had uncertain status, as no plans were of Americans and Australians, trained on and handled cargo, IX Air Force Service made for such an organization in the payload capacities and weight limits of Command’s 2nd Quartermaster Depot new service. Military Air Transport aircraft used as transports—from worn- Supply Company put its quartermasters Service was established in 1948 as a out bombers and civilian transports to through a two-week training course and Department of Defense-wide speci- C-47s and C-53s. To staff the teams, the placed them on flying status as “drop- fied command, with USAF as the lead Army established Military Occupational masters.” Their duties included rigging service. The flight traffic clerk func- Specialty 967—air transportation techni- cargo bundles and flying on drops to tion continued on passenger-carrying cian—for airmen whose duties included assist the crew chief and radio operator aircraft but the term was changed to manifesting of cargo and supervising with dispensing the loads. But fewer flight traffic specialist, then to flight aircraft loading. Personnel from units than 100 had been trained by D-Day, steward for a time. that owned the cargo performed the so more than half the C-47s assigned to In 1950 the Air Force took delivery actual loading, under the supervision of supply drops flew without one. of the Douglas C-124 for MATS, TAC, a station control officer. In 1943 Fifth and Strategic Air Command, and for Air Force combined the station control Jettison Masters the first time cargo handlers were teams into the 1st Air Cargo Control Interestingly, although Air Transport assigned to flight crews and called Squadron. Similar units soon followed. Command was originally established loadmasters. In July 1942, Japanese troops were to issue contracts to national , The assignments were due as much advancing in New Guinea toward Port it also had responsibility for operating to the possibility of cargo jettisoning Moresby. They were met by Australians airplanes appropriated for noncombat as to any particular need for a cargo supplied by air and overland porters. transport operations. In fall 1942, ATC specialist to fly on missions. The C-124 Aircrews from the 21st and 22nd began taking delivery of a fleet of crew included a second flight engi- Troop Carrier Squadrons flew to Mo- Consolidated C-87 and Douglas C-54 neer—a scanner—but the airplane’s resby from Australia to pick up loads then transports for transoceanic missions. large size and payload capacity dictated continue northward into the mountains In December, ATC gained control of the need for additional personnel in to deliver their cargo. A team of three the India-China ferry operation, which the event a load had to be jettisoned. enlisted men and an NCO supervised had been set up to deliver supplies to The aircraft also had cargo handling by a station control officer would load China. To maintain the India-China features requiring special training to the cargo by hand, secure it with straps Wing’s transport fleet, ATC established operate. Initially, air freight personnel and ropes, and then take up stations. Fireball missions using C-87s to trans- received training for the equipment One man sat on the floor by the open port aircraft parts from a depot in Ohio and reported to transport and troop cargo door, in position to kick out each to bases in India. To keep track of the carrier units for duty. bundle when the pilot activated the green high-value cargo, enlisted men accom- Immediately after the Korean War a light. Similar methods were used in panied the cargo to destination. Since major reorganization of troop carrier Burma and adopted worldwide as the they primarily kept track of manifests, functions occurred. The dropmaster war continued. If no ground personnel they were referred to as flight clerks— role transferred to the Air Force and accompanied flights, the crew chief and and this led to the creation of the flight became part of the aerial delivery sec- radio operator dispensed bundles. traffic clerk billet. tions of new aerial port squadrons that AIR FORCE Magazine / December 2011 61 were established at troop carrier bases in the US and overseas. An aircraft loadmaster specialty code first appeared in 1953 as a shred-out of the air transportation career field. TAC and Far East Air Forces’ C-124 squadrons took on tactical responsibili- USAF photo by MSgt. Jeffrey Allen ties including airdrop, and loadmasters rigged and inspected cargo and oper- ated aerial delivery equipment. MATS and SAC assigned loadmas- ters to transport crews to supervise loading, operate loading equipment, and handle jettisoning of cargo. In the early 1960s, loadmaster classes were told that their primary purpose on logistical flights was for jettison- ing; otherwise they were not needed on nontactical flights. The Lockheed C-130 entered service with TAC in 1956. Initially, C-130 crews SSgt. Peter Jensen watches airdrop bundles just released from the back of a C-17 did not include a loadmaster except for over Afghanistan. airdrop, and loadmasters were assigned to aerial port squadrons. Flight crews loadmasters often worked at forward loadmasters had a special suffix on their included a scanner, who worked on the airfields. AFSC. In the mid-1970s the loadmaster flight line when not flying. Vietnam saw the only award of a career field moved from air transporta- By 1964 scanner duties on TAC C- Medal of Honor to an enlisted Air Force tion to a new operations career field made 130s were combined with loadmaster aircrew member when A1C John L. up entirely of aircrew skills. duties and the loadmaster became part Levitow received it for actions as an At the end of the Vietnam War the of the flight crew. This was not true in AC-47 gunship loadmaster in 1969. tactical airlift mission was removed MATS, however, where loadmasters from tactical commands and assigned to were considered cabin crew and flight Integral Role MAC, which advocated deployment as crews included a second engineer who The highest award to an airlift load- its primary role. MAC leaders pressed performed scanner duties. In the spring master was the Air Force Cross awarded for a new generation airlifter, calling of 1964 an Air Force-wide call went to SSgt. Charles L. Shaub, one of two for an airplane that would combine out for airmen to cross-train to become loadmasters carrying out a C-130 airdrop tactical as well as outsize load carrying loadmasters and the field opened up over the besieged town of An Loc, South capabilities. The solution was the Mc- to basic trainees. Vietnam, in 1972. Donnell Douglas C-17, which requires The Vietnam War was the first con- The exact number of loadmasters a three-man flight crew, one of them a flict to see loadmasters in a combat who lost their lives in Southeast Asia is loadmaster. With the C-17, loadmasters role and showed the importance of not known due to the Air Force practice assumed responsibilities previously this crew position. of sometimes using previous specialty belonging to flight engineers. Tactical transports flew into forward codes for cross-trainees in casualty re- Lockheed continued development of airfields, frequently under artillery at- cords. The USAF tactical airlift history the C-130 based on lessons learned in tack, necessitating rapid off-loading. relates that 229 transport crewmen died Vietnam, ultimately leading to the C- The speed of loadmasters’ efforts in Southeast Asia. Given that air-drop 130J, which like the C-17, is designed often determined whether the aircraft and special missions carried two or for a crew of two pilots and a loadmaster. became a target on the ground. Air- more loadmasters, at least 30 percent Today’s loadmasters are an integral drops were frequent for C-123 crews of those were likely loadmasters, not part of the airlift aircrew. They receive and less frequent for C-130s, until the including men assigned to gunships or basic training at the aircrew training 1968 communist Tet Offensive when ground duty. school at Lackland’s Medina annex in they became routine. In 1970 Lockheed’s gigantic C-5A Texas, prior to aircraft-specific training Troop carrier wings were given entered operational service with Mili- at Altus AFB, Okla., or Little Rock AFB, “special missions,” particularly C-130 tary Airlift Command, the successor Ark. Aircraft, organizations, locations, and C-123 sorties over Laos and North to MATS. The revolutionary Galaxy and equipment have evolved consider- Vietnam, leaflet missions, and the increased responsibilities for loadmas- ably since the term loadmaster first Commando Vault C-130 mission deliv- ters. Its complicated forward and aft appeared in 1950, and the loadmasters ering 10,000-pound and 15,000-pound cargo door and kneeling systems were themselves continue to evolve with the M121 and BLU-82 bombs, including so technologically advanced that C-5 mission. n sorties to destroy the infamous Thanh Hoa Bridge in North Vietnam. Sam McGowan served 12 years in aircraft maintenance and as an aircraft loadmas- Loadmasters served on other aircraft ter in Military Airlift Command, Pacific Air Forces, and Tactical Air Command. He in Vietnam, particularly AC-47 gun- is a Vietnam veteran, a retired corporate pilot, and freelance writer who resides in ships and rescue HC-130s. Mobility Missouri City, Tex. 62 AIR FORCE Magazine / December 2011