OUA 1964 - Page 12
	airlift reached climax. This extended the flying day into late afternoon and simply meant 18 hour days and often around-the-clock operation for the maintenance personnel. Snatching a brief rest or respite of sleep as the situation allowed, the mission commander followed an even more intense schedule.
	w. Maximum advantage was taken of the available flying weather in sche- duling the ice cap sorties. In order to do this, the mission commander, who stayed in constant contact, with all facets of his complicated operation, used aircraft departure notices from the ice cap as automatic signals to sche- dule another flight, weather and time of day permitting. Even the “good arctic" weather prevailing during this period was a far cry from the condi- tions normally associated with this term in kinder climes. Consequently, when a returning empty C-130 touched down at Sondrestrom, loading personnel were standing by to reload. In the same manner, personnel were on the spot to refuel or perform any required minor maintenance. In the meantime, the mission commander had filed flight plans and made block altitude flight re- servations for the following trip. This procedure reduced down-time at Sondrestrom to the bare minimum consistent with aircraft reloading and re- fueling. In few cases did this exceed one and one-half hours. Only by such economy of motion were the flight crews able to consistently fly four (many times reaching five and six) deliveries per day whereas the rule under normal operations was one or two. As the airlift hit full tempo, even this proce- dure was revised for greater effectiveness. Under this procedure, a schedule of the following days operation was prepared by 1500 hours each day. This schedule listed itinerary, take-off time of the first mission, aircraft num- ber, flying crews and standby crew. The itinerary listed the sites in order of the missions to be flown. A record of the missions as they were flown was maintained to control the constant flow of aircraft to each site, to expedite loading and refueling for turn-around, and to maintain a time interval into the sites that would not overload the off-load operation. A tight schedule of this nature demanded precise flying and the most skilled airmanship.
	x. The inevitable variables that always enter into such operations had to be met in full by aircrew ingenuity. But meet it they did, to turn in a magnificent performance. Each crew filed one AF Form 175 for each day s operation listing the sites in the order established by the planned itinerary. This materially lessened turn-around time lost at Sondrestrom. Prior to de- parture of each flight after the first, the aircraft commander had but to call weather and base operations to give them the next part of the mission to be flown and estimated time enroute. Here again only skilled airmanship and complete dedication could make such a system workable. Perfect aircrew coordination and discipline prevailed throughout. Each crew member pulled his weight and more to produce optimum results. The air combat crews, to a man, pitched-in to assist with the arduous and bone-crushing unloading on the ice cap. Even with tractors and sledges, no small amount of human muscle power was required. This was reduced to such an exact procedure that many unloading operations were completed in less than 15 minutes. Each Dye Site landing is made with airborne radar which is a difficult test of air naviga- tion under normal and routine resupply operations. Despite the pressure of their accelerated tempo during the airlift, each of the participating navigators came in dead center to split the assault ice strips consistently.
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