THE OPENING OF WHEELUS

The Military Air Transport (MATS) Years

Although Wheelus was first established as an American military installation in 1953 following the grant of ‘base rights’ to the United States by the Kingdom of Libya, Americans first commenced using Wheelus five years prior.

The first regular use of Wheelus by the United States was the Military Air Transport Services (MATS), which began operating out of Wheelus Air Base on 1 June 1948, with the 1603rd Air Transport Wing brought into action¹.

the 58th rescue squadron

During this period, the headquarters of the 58th Air Rescue Squadron of the 7th Air Rescue Group were also transferred to Wheelus. The 7th Air Rescue Group performed search and rescue missions to the US combat aviation forces and civilian aviation lines and provided area and route surveillance and searches². They initially flew SA-16s, later redesignated to HU-16Bs,, amphibian aircraft colloquially known as the “Flying Boat”, and the Sikorsky H-19 Chickasaw, a multi-purpose helicopter. The 56th, 57th and 59th Air Rescue Squadron, stationed respectively at Morocco, Azores and Saudi Arabia were also a part of the 7th Air Rescue Group³.

MATS Activity

The 1603rd Air Transport Wing flew both the Douglas C-47 Skytrain/Dakota which had been in operation since the end of December 1941 and had been developed from the designs for the civilian airliner the Douglas DC3⁴ and the Douglas C-54 Skymaster: both planes were used for transportation of troops and equipment to Cyprus, Saudi Arabia and Egypt⁵.

Operation Hajji Baba

Between 24 to 29 August 1952, the MATS aircraft crew and personnel from Wheelus engaged in Operation Hajji Baba, which airlifted 3,763 stranded Muslim pilgrims and successfully delivered them to their destination of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. Due to the high level of demand for flights into Jeddah for the pilgrimage to Mecca, many national airlines were overwhelmed, leaving passengers stranded and unable to continue their pilgrimage. The majority of the passengers were stranded at Beirut Airport, but others were also airlifted from Baghdad and Jordan. The rescue was completed in just 75 trips, over a total of six days ⁶.

In the same year as Operation Hajji Baba the MATS 580th Air Resupply and Communications Wing was assigned to Wheelus, having been previously based in Idaho, U.S.A. The squadron flew special missions throughout the Middle East, the Mediterranean region and the outh westerns areas of Asia.

Although basing MATS at Wheelus was advantageous due to Libya’s central location along the Mediterranean, the primary drawback was the severe heat which plagued the transport initiatives, challenging both the preservation of goods and the ability of aircraft to operate optimally. According to retired Lt. Col. Harry Heist, a veteran of the MATS era at Wheelus, when runway temperatures ran high, his C-124 would take-off, but then be forced to “fly at rooftop level for several miles before being able to start the climb to altitude”⁷.

In January 1953, after 5 years at Wheelus Air Base, most of MATS was relocated to the Rhein-Main Air Base in Frankfurt, West Germany ⁸.. The MATS 580th Air Resupply and Communications Wing was deactivated in 1956, having spent 4 years at Wheelus ⁹.

Footnotes

1. Wikimedia Foundation. (2021, November 29). Wheelus Air Base. Wikipedia. Retrieved March 6, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheelus_Air_Base
2. Seventh Emergency Rescue Squadron. WW35.USAFUNITHISTORY.COM. (n.d.). Retrieved March 6, 2022, from https://ww35.usafunithistory.com/PDF/5-9/7%20EMERGENCY%20RESCUE%20SQ.pdf
3. Ibid
4. Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, February 23). Douglas C-47 Skytrain. Wikipedia. Retrieved March 6, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_C-47_Skytrain#Postwar_era
5. Wikimedia Foundation. (2021, November 29). Wheelus Air Base. Wikipedia. Retrieved March 6, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheelus_Air_Base
6. Operation hajji Baba. Air Mobility Command Museum. (2015, March 24). Retrieved March 6, 2022, from https://amcmuseum.org/history/operation-hajji-baba/
7. The Years of Wheelus. Air Force Magazine. (2022, March 5). Retrieved March 7, 2022, from https://www.airforcemag.com/article/0108wheelus/
8. Ibid.
9. Wikimedia Foundation. (2021, November 29). Wheelus Air Base. Wikipedia. Retrieved March 6, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheelus_Air_Base