The 834th Airlift Division is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with Military Airlift Command, assigned to Twenty-Second Air Force at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, where it was inactivated on 1 April 1992.
The division was first activated in September 1957 at England Air Force Base, Louisiana to command the two fighter-bomber wings stationed there and act as the host organization for England, providing support for all units on the station. It was inactivated in April 1959 when the 366th Tactical Fighter Wing was also inactivated, leaving only a single wing at England. Its support organizations were replaced by organizations assigned to the 401st Tactical Fighter Wing.
The division was activated again in 1964, when England once again supported two fighter wings. However, by 1966, the division's units had deployed overseas, primarily to support the War in Vietnam. By the summer of 1966, the division was stripped of its manning. In October, the 834th transferred on paper to Tan Son Nhut Airport, where it assumed responsibility for controlling all airlift in South Viet Nam.
The 834th was assigned two wings flying Fairchild C-123 Providers and de Havilland Canada C-7 Caribous and controlled Lockheed C-130 Hercules rotated to Vietnam from wings stationed elsewhere. The division earned two Presidential Unit Citations and an Air Force Outstanding Unit Award with Combat "V" Device for its actions, as well as being decorated by the Government of the Republic of Viet Nam. One member of the division, Lt Col Joe M. Jackson, was awarded the Medal of Honor for rescuing a combat control team left behind when an airfield being overrun by the Viet Cong was evacuated.
As American forces were being withdrawn from Vietnam, the division moved to Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas and assumed command of tactical airlift wings located in the western portion of the United States. In December 1974, the division was transferred to Military Airlift Command (MAC) along with other theater airlift units. One month later, it was inactivated and its units transferred to Twenty-Second Air Force.
The division returned to the Pacific in 1978 as the 834th Airlift Division when it assumed responsibility for MAC assets in the Pacific and acted as the airlift adviser for Pacific Air Forces (PACAF). During Desert Storm its commander acted as the commander of airlift forces in Saudi Arabia. The 834th was inactivated when PACAF assumed responsibility for airlift in the Pacific from MAC.
History England Air Force Base
The division was first activated in September 1957 at England Air Force Base, Louisiana and assumed command over the 366th Fighter-Bomber Wing and the newly activated 401st Fighter-Bomber Wing. Both wings were converting from the Republic F-84 Thunderstreak to the North American F-100 Super Sabre when they were assigned to the 834th. The 366th Wing also had an air refueling squadron flying Boeing KB-50 Superfortress tankers attached to it.Ravenstein, pp. 194–195Ravenstein, pp. 214–215 The 834th also assumed host responsibility for England through its 834th Air Base Group, which assumed the personnel and equipment of the inactivating 366th Air Base Group to support all units at England.See Mueller, pp. 168–169 (list of units at England Air Force Base.) The division supervised operations and training, exercises, firepower demonstrations, and insured the combat readiness of aircrews and equipment. It initially emphasized attaining a capability to deliver nuclear weapons, while also maintaining a secondary air defense capability.
The division was only active at England for a little more than eighteen months, inactivating in April 1959 when the 366th Wing inactivated, leaving only a single wing at England. However, as Tactical Air Command (TAC) reorganized its Numbered Air Forces from a functional basis to a regional commands, the division saw its higher headquarters shift from Ninth Air Force to Eighteenth Air Force to Twelfth Air Force within its first three months as an active unit. In July 1958, the 27th Tactical Fighter Wing, flying McDonnell F-101 Voodoos from Bergstrom Air Force Base, Texas was attached to the division. The 27th was winding up operations as the tactical fighter version of the Voodoo was leaving TAC's inventory and TAC was transferring Bergstrom to the control of Strategic Air Command. In February 1959, the 27th was relieved from this attachment when it ceased operations at Bergstrom and transferred on paper to Cannon Air Force Base, New Mexico.Ravenstein, pp. 49–52Mueller, p. 30
In 1965, TAC began forming the 3d Tactical Fighter Wing with F-100 aircraft at England.Ravenstein, pp. 9–12 With two wings again assigned to the base, the 834th was reactivated and resumed host responsibility for the base. The 31st Tactical Fighter Wing at Homestead Air Force Base, Florida was also assigned to the division. However, the focus of the division and its component wings focused more and more on the War in Vietnam. All three wings deployed squadrons to Vietnam, and in November, the 3d Wing moved to Bien Hoa Air Base to conduct combat operations.Ravenstein, pp. 54–57
In late April 1966, the remaining fighter wing at England, the 401st, was transferred to Torrejon Air Base, Spain and in August, the 31st Tactical Fighter Wing at Homestead was reassigned to the 836th Air Division, while all support activities at England were reassigned to the 1st Air Commando Wing, which had moved to England in January, leaving the 834th without a mission.Ravenstein, pp. 2–5
Vietnam War
On 15 October 1966 the 834th moved without personnel or equipment to Tan Son Nhut Air Base, South Vietnam, to become the controlling agency for theater airlift operations in South Vietnam. It served as a single manager for all tactical airlift operations in South Vietnam, using air transport to haul cargo and troops, which were air-landed or air-dropped, as combat needs dictated. The division included the 315th Air Commando Wing, which operated Fairchild C-123 Providers, and the 483rd Troop Carrier Wing, which activated the same date the division moved in October 1966 as the parent unit for former US Army de Havilland Canada C-7 Caribous which had transferred to the Air Force. The division also included the 2nd Aerial Port Group, which moved to Tan Son Nhut from Tachikawa Air Base, Japan.
In addition, 834th had operational control over 315th Air Division Lockheed C-130 Hercules assigned on temporary duty in South Vietnam. PACAF was reluctant to permanently station C-130s in Vietnam because of the additional support personnel required in an area with a mandated troop ceiling and crowded bases and the flexibility that would be lost in scheduling the planes, which provided airlift throughout the western Pacific.Nalty, p. 12 Detachment 1 of the 834th Division controlled C-130s operating from Tan Son Nhut while Detachment 2 controlled operations from Cam Ranh Bay Air Base. These replaced Detachments 4 and 5 of the 315th Air Division and were joined by Detachment 3 at Tuy Hoa Air Base by 1968. In addition, the 834th supervised transport operations (primarily Douglas C-47 Skytrains) of the Vietnamese Air Force and a squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force (No. 35 Squadron RAAF). The 834th's 315th Wing also performed defoliation missions.
About one third of the division's strength was in the 2d Aerial Port Group, which had three subordinate squadrons with cargo handling detachments at 42 locations in VietnamNalty, p. 42 The 2d Aerial Port Group also contained combat control teams and mobility teams that could be deployed to remote locations as needed.Nalty, pp. 53–55 Prior to the movement of the 834th to Vietnam, the 315th Wing had been performing the aerial port mission.Ravenstein, pp. 163–165
In early 1967, C-130s under the division's control participated in the largest American airborne assault of the war, Operation Junction City, an assault on Viet Cong forces in War Zone C. On 22 February 1967, C-130s massed at Bien Hoa Air BaseLorenz, et al., pp. 19–20 onloaded troopers and equipment of the 173rd Airborne Brigade and parachuted them into drop zones near Ca Tum, close to the Cambodian border.Wilbanks, p. 104
The division's C-130s participated in Operation Banish Beach in 1967. In this operation, the transports performed free-fall airdrops of drums of diesel fuel or JP-4 The fuel was then ignited by fighters dropping napalm or by the C-130s dropping smoke grenades on the fuel to clear large forested areas. The Banish Beach technique was practiced operationally at the request of the Marine Corps to support Operation Allen Brook.
Siege of Khe Sanh
The division earned a Presidential Unit Citation for its support to besieged Marines during the Siege of Khe Sanh. Army special forces established a Civilian Irregular Defense Group camp at Khe Sanh approximately 10 miles from the border between South and North Viet Nam in 1962. In 1967 this base was taken over by the Marines.Nalty, pp. 5–6 During the summer of 1967, Navy Seabees improved the runway at Khe Sanh with aluminum planking dropped by division C-130s using the Low Altitude Parachute Extraction System (LAPES). The improved field was suitable for use by the division's C-7s, C-123s and C-130s.Nalty, p. 8-9 When the attack began, the division had 240 transports available to it to meet airlift demands.
The initial attack by the North Vietnam Army on 21 January 1968 gouged holes in the runway, but Seabees began to repair the runway damage. However, airlift aircraft landing or taking off at Khe Sanh could now routinely expect to encounter enemy fire and, once landed, attempts by the enemy to destroy them by mortar fire. Additionally, the lighting system for night landings had been destroyed.Nalty, p. 25
The most critical initial need was replenishment of the base's stored munitions, 98% of which had been destroyed in the initial attack. The division diverted C-123s (the largest airlift aircraft capable of using the damaged runway) to meet this need. On return flights, division planes flew out refugees and casualties. In the first two days, the division was able to replenish 120 tons of munitions, conducting night operations by the light of flares. By the end of the month, runway repairs permitted C-130 operations to resume.Nalty, pp. 25–26 Division aircraft landing at Khe Sanh were referred to as "mortar magnets" because of their attractiveness as targets for enemy fire. The transports used a technique called "speed offloading" to deliver their cargo. Runners were fixed to the planes' rear ramps and onboard pallets, and as the planes taxied, the pallets were released and rolled off the planes impelled by the planes' motion and "vigorous kicks" by their loadmasters.Nalty, pp. 43–44 Even adding in additional time to onload passengers, a typical C-123K sortie was on the ground for only three minutes.Nalty, p. 46
On 5 February, a division-controlled C-130 from the 345th Tactical Airlift Squadron transporting ammunition and a medical evacuation team to Khe Sanh was hit by a shell that ignited ammunition boxes in the cargo compartment. The crew fought the fire while the pilot Lt. Col. Howard Dallman, backed up the plane to an area at the far end of the runway, where, if the ammunition exploded, it would not destroy the runway and support facilities nearby. The crew extinguished the fire and helped offload the ammo boxes without further damage. Lt. Col Dallman, received the Air Force Cross for his actions.