The 492nd also carried out radio countermeasures and leaflet-dropping missions, always in secrecy and usually in B-24s that flew alone. A related OSS operation, called the Halyard Mission, extracted downed American airmen being protected by partisans in Yugoslavia. Between June and August 1944, OSS agents in AAF C-47s landed behind enemy lines and recovered 432 Americans and 80 Allied combatants.

Independent, untidy, at times arrogant, and commanded by a mere colonel who answered only to Washington –  Cochran – the Air Commandos became the personal air force of Brig. Orde C. Wingate, the unorthodox British commander in the CBI. Their tools were the P-51A Mustang fighter, B-25 Mitchell bombers packing a 75-mm cannon in the nose, the Stinson L-5 liaison aircraft, the Waco CG-4A glider, and, of course, the trusty C-47.

Air Commandos

If the “Carpetbaggers” were one leg of what became today’s Special Operations forces, the Air Commandos of Southeast Asia were their heart. In the book Apollo’s Warriors, Col. Michael E. Haas compares the arrival of the 1st Air Commando Group in the China-Burma-India Theater with “a brick exploding through a plate glass window.”

Independent, untidy, at times arrogant, and commanded by a mere colonel who answered only to Washington –  Cochran – the Air Commandos became the personal air force of Brig. Orde C. Wingate, the unorthodox British commander in the CBI. Their tools were the P-51A Mustang fighter, B-25 Mitchell bombers packing a 75-mm cannon in the nose, the Stinson L-5 liaison aircraft, the Waco CG-4A glider, and, of course, the trusty C-47.

The Air Commandos, known originally as “Project 9,” were conceived as a one-of-a-kind outfit to fight only during the 1944 dry season. Their job was to support Wingate’s “Chindit” long-range raiding parties, named after a legendary winged stone lion. With 528 men and 348 aircraft, Cochran and air ace Lt. Col. (later Maj. Gen.) John R. Alison wreaked havoc on Japanese forces, giving the Allies an edge in a campaign that had stagnated for two years.

The boxy R-4 was challenged by the high, hot conditions of Burma, but the Commandos pulled off history’s first combat helicopter rescue.

On March 5, 1944, they launched Operation Thursday, using C-47s and CG-4A gliders to haul Chindits behind Japanese lines. More than 100 C-47s, each pulling two gliders, hauled 2,500 troops 260 miles to a drop zone scouted by Cochran in a P-51A and dubbed “Broadway.” Contrary to all wisdom, much of the flying was done in darkness with no lights or radios, and the C-47 pilots used almost two-thirds of their fuel on the outbound leg. Some returned to base with less than 40 gallons.  In 24 hours, troops secured a landing field, making the gliders unnecessary. The Japanese never again saw success in the region.

Instead of going away when the season ended, the group expanded to become the First Air Commando Division. Learning of a new aerial gadget being tested in the U.S., the commandos tested their political leverage in Washington by requesting four Sikorsky YR-4B helicopters. The boxy R-4 was challenged by the high, hot conditions of Burma, but the Commandos pulled off history’s first combat helicopter rescue.

Before V.J. Day, AAF boss Gen. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold authorized two additional Air Commando Groups. The 2nd joined the 1st in the CBI while the 3rd fought in the Philippines. In those islands, the Army Air Forces became a navy of sorts, operating boats including a 63-foot rescue boat similar to the real Navy’s PT boats. The AAF also operated an 85-foot rescue boat powered by two Merlin aircraft engines, with a 14-member crew and a range of 1,000 miles.

History’s most horrendous war gave AAF special operations pioneers opportunities to test tactics and techniques they would use well into the 21st century, including close air support for clandestine operations, a “quick snatch” device that enabled a C-47 to snatch up a glider (and, later, a person), a primitive night vision device (the size of a footlocker), short takeoff and landing methods (with aircraft flaps that resembled barn doors), and other innovations.

Upstarts who would have failed a white-glove inspection were the norm among Carpetbaggers and Air Commandos. “We wouldn’t have shined on the parade ground,” said Col. Fleming Johnson, an Air Commando veteran, in an interview. “We weren’t good at snapping salutes or saying, ‘sir.’ And regular Army officers didn’t understand that we were different.” In fact, Cochran, Alison, Johnson, and company were more than different: They were the point of the spear.

Postwar Years

World War II taught many lessons. They led to the creation in 1947 of a Secretary of Defense, a Department of Defense, a Central Intelligence Agency, and the Air Force. Not created, however, was an Air Force Special Operations component. The Air Commando units folded in 1948.