page_title: Air Resupply And Communications Service
section_title: Cold War
hierarchical_section_title: Air Resupply And Communications Service / History / Cold War
caption_attribution_description: English: Grumman SA-16A Albatross 51-017, assigned to the 581st Air Resupply Group shown in the Philippines
context_page_description: The Air Resupply And Communications Service is an inactive United States Air Force organization. It was assigned to Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. Established during the Korean War, the mission of ARCS was providing the Air Force an unconventional warfare capability during the 1950s. It was inactivated in 1954, but elements continued to operate until the reactivation of air commando units by the Kennedy Administration in 1962.
context_section_description: From its base in Libya, the 580th AR&CW operated in Southern and Southeastern Europe as well as the Middle East, frequently working with United States Army Special Forces in the Alps. The 580th also had extensive ground-based printing facilities to produce propaganda leaflets to be dropped from its B-29s.
  Between 1953 and 1956, the 580th's SA-16 Flight supported CIA Lockheed U-2 overflights of Eastern Europe.  On two different occasions, SA-16 crews recovered U-2 pilots after their all-black, single engine spy jets crashed, one in the Caspian Sea north of Iran and the second in the Black Sea. The SA-16 Flight was also particularly suited to support Special Forces teams. This mission required an SA-16 to fly across the Mediterranean at night from Wheelus AB and land on a lake in West Germany at dawn, pick up a team from the 10th Special Forces Group and transport them to RAF Molesworth, England.   The SA-16 crew was briefed that their "customers" would be in a boat on the lake, disguised as fishermen.   As dawn broke over the lake, the plane settled down on the water promptly on schedule and taxied over to the only boat on the lake.
  Loading their passengers aboard quickly, the crew took off for England, surprised to find that the three passengers consisted of two men and a woman. The crew remarked among themselves that they were surprised to learn that Army special forces now included women.   The plane landed at Molesworth without incident.  Only there did they learn that the crew had picked up three West German citizens who were out on a morning fishing trip.    After apologies were made, the crew flew the civilians back to West Germany, and the passengers thanked the airmen for the surprise trip.
caption: ARCS Grumman SA-16A Albatross 51-017m in the Philippines
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