page_title: 464th Tactical Airlift Wing
section_title: Assault operations and early Vietnam support
hierarchical_section_title: 464th Tactical Airlift Wing / History / Assault operations and early Vietnam support
caption_attribution_description: South Vietnamese paratroopers jump out of a U.S. Air Force Fairchild C-123B Provider (s/n 56-4367) of the 464th Troop Carrier Wing during a training exercise in April 1966. This plane belly-landed at Tau Tieng after being hit by small arms fire on 26 November 1966.
context_page_description: The 464th Tactical Airlift Wing was a theater airlift unit of the United States Air Force during the Cold War. It served in the United States under Tactical Air Command between 1953 and 1971. Its predecessor was the United States Army Air Forces 464th Bombardment Group of World War II.
context_section_description: In 1957, Tactical Air Command (TAC) realigned its numbered air forces from a functional to a geographic basis and the wing was reassigned to Ninth Air Force.  In November, the wing converted to the dual deputy organization, the wing's 464th Troop Carrier Group was inactivated, and the 776th, 777th, and 778th Troop Carrier Squadrons were assigned directly to the wing. A second Provider squadron, the 346th Troop Carrier Squadron, moved to Pope from Sewart Air Force Base, Tennessee and was attached to the wing.  The wing's three assigned squadrons, meanwhile, began trading their C-119s for Providers before the end of the year.
  Project Mule Train provided airlift support in Vietnam early in the United states' involvement, and was supported by deployed C-123s. In June 1962, the Joint Chiefs of Staff directed the Air Force to double its commitment to this project.  TAC deployed the wing's 777th Troop Carrier Squadron with sixteen aircraft and their crews.  Four of the planes were stationed in Thailand, while the remainder were stationed at Da Nang Air Base, Vietnam, where they were attached to the 6492d Combat Cargo Group.  In July 1963, the Air Force decided to make its airlift in Vietnam regular, and on 1 July, the 777th (on its second deployment and located at Tan Son Nhut Airport and the 776th Squadrons were reassigned to the 315th Troop Carrier Group, which had replaced the 6492d in December 1962.  Their crews and planes located in Vietnam were transferred to the newly-activated 310th and 311th Troop Carrier Squadrons on 1 July, and they were returned to the 464th Wing on 8 July as paper units. The two attached Provider squadrons moved to Dyess Air Force Base, Texas to form the 516th Troop Carrier Wing and the wing's three squadrons were ready for conversion to the Lockheed C-130 Hercules.
caption: 464th Wing C-123B Provider[note 2]
exif: {}