page_title: Military Air Transport Service
section_title: Organization
hierarchical_section_title: Military Air Transport Service / History / Organization
caption_attribution_description: A U.S. Air Force Douglas C-124C Globemaster II (s/n 52-1035) in flight. Golden Gate Bridge and Marin County, CA in background. Original caption: "The Douglas C-124C Globemaster II was an airlift workhorse well into the Vietnam War."
context_page_description: The Military Air Transport Service is an inactive Department of Defense Unified Command. Activated on 1 June 1948, MATS was a consolidation of the United States Navy's Naval Air Transport Service and the United States Air Force's Air Transport Command into a single joint command. It was inactivated and discontinued on 8 January 1966 when the Air Force and Military Airlift Command as a separate strategic airlift command and returned shore-based Navy cargo aircraft to Navy control as operational support airlift aircraft.
  In 1966, the World War II Air Transport Command and the Military Air Transport Service were consolidated with Military Airlift Command.
context_section_description: During World War II, the USAAF Air Transport Command provided worldwide transport service to every continent on the globe.   Inheriting that legacy, MATS continued that service and organized it into three major transport divisions;
  Atlantic Division (after 1 July 1958: EASTAF) - From McGuire AFB, New Jersey, provided service across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe; to the Caribbean and South America;  to North Africa and the Middle East to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
  Pacific Division (after 1 July 1958: WESTAF) - From Travis AFB, California, provided service to Hawaii and on to locations in the Pacific, including Japan and the Philippines; across Southeast Asia; India; Pakistan and on to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
  Continental Division - From McGuire to points in Northern Canada; along the North Atlantic coast north to Thule AB, Greenland.  From Travis north to McChord AFB, Washington, then north to Alaska and Aleutian Islands, then a connection into Tachikawa AB, Japan from Shemya AFS.  Also provided coast to coast aeromedical evacuation flights within the United States and cargo service between major Air Force Air Materiel Command depots. The division was disbanded on 1 July 1958, with mission divided between Eastern Transport Air Force (EASTAF)  and Western Transport Air Force (WESTAF).
  When MATS was established, it also took responsibility for several other missions:
  Special Air Mission (SAM)
  The Special Air Mission was the transport of the President of the United States; Vice-President; Cabinet Members; Member of Congress; Senators, and designated other individuals, such as Foreign Heads of State.
  Air Rescue Service (ARS)
  Provided rescue of downed military service members in enemy occupied areas; humanitarian relief to civilians in emergency conditions (floods, hurricanes, earthquakes)
  Air Weather Service (ARS)
  Weather forecasting for military airfields; hurricane hunters.
  Air Photographic and Charting Service (APCS)
  Mapping the world providing accurate aerial charts to military aviators wherever they need to be.  Also producing all Air Force training films; public relations films; monthly newsreels, and coordinating with private filmmakers with regards to use of Air Force equipment and facilities.
  Aeromedical Transport Wing (AMTW)
  Evacuation of wounded military personnel from combat zones; transport of critically ill military personnel (and dependents) to military medical facilities for treatment.
  Air Resupply And Communications Service (ARCS)
  Performed unconventional warfare missions during the Korean War and early years of the Cold War (1950–1956).
caption: Douglas C-124C Globemaster II, AF Ser. No. 52-1036
exif: {}