page_title: 834th Airlift Division
section_title: Pacific airlift
hierarchical_section_title: 834th Airlift Division / History / Pacific airlift
caption_attribution_description: English: This image was a personal photo shot by C-141 Flight Engineer SMSgt Bob Pederson in October of 1997. It was a rare moment that the penguins would come so close to the aircraft on the ice runway at McMurdo.
context_page_description: 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.
context_section_description: The division was renamed the 834th Airlift Division and reactivated at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii in October 1978.  It assumed responsibility for managing all MAC resources in the Pacific area. The 834th provided a single commander for MAC airlift units in the Pacific theater and its commander also served Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) as the special assistant for airlift. It commanded theater airlift forces for PACAF; performed airlift war planning and exercise planning and operated aerial ports for the air movement of personnel, cargo, equipment, patients, and mail.
  The division's Douglas HC-9A Nightingales performed aeromedical evacuation missions to locations as far away as Guam and Diego Garcia.  It controlled attached aircraft participating in Operation Deep Freeze, the seasonal resupply of outposts in Antarctica. 1989 saw the first air drops by Lockheed C-141 Starlifters and the first landings of Lockheed C-5 Galaxys in Antarctica to support Deep Freeze.
  The division originally exercised its airlift management function through the Pacific Airlift Center, while its airlift support units spread throughout the Pacific were controlled by the 61st Military Airlift Support Wing.  However, reorganizations in 1980 and 1981 eliminated this intermediate level of command and airlift support units were assigned directly to the division, as were airlift managers.
  The division's C-130 fleet was reduced in 1989 by the removal of aircraft from Clark Air Base in the Philippines.  In conjunction with this reduction, the division's 374th Tactical Airlift Wing moved its flag to Yokota Air Base, Japan, where it assumed the personnel and equipment of the 316th Tactical Airlift Group, which was inactivated. In 1990 the division's area of responsibility was further expanded when MAC units in Alaska were assigned to it.
  During Operation Desert Storm, the division commander, Brig Gen James F. Hinkel, served as the commander of airlift forces in Saudi Arabia.  Shortly after the end of that operation, in June 1991, the eruption of Mount Pinatubo required the evacuation of military and dependents from Clark Air Base.  The division directed the evacuation in what was termed Operation Fiery Vigil.  The commander of the division's 374th Wing acted as the commander, Airlift Forces, Joint Task Force Fiery Vigil.  Operations were conducted from Naval Air Station Cubi Point and continued through July.
  When the decision was made not to return forces to Clark, the division's 624th Military Airlift Support Group was inactivated in November 1991. The division was inactivated in April 1992 and its remaining units were inactivated or transferred as PACAF assumed responsibility for theater airlift in the Pacific area.
caption: C-141 Starlifter at McMurdo Station, Antarctica
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