~~,
3-37
Consequently, it was established with TG 7. Operations that sufficient
aircraft for the day's missions uncer the control of aHelicopter Operations
Officer would be present at Parry on all De-days and on minus ones when the
expected scale ofactivity made maximum , flexibilityonoe. ofSircraft a
>,
U6
(rete
farrier
ones £2
o
o
necessity. rt was “subsequently “agreed thet TFhg’ at wourd“ovidé’1G 7he
Operations with a caily summary of the following day's special missions.
Thus, in effect, the TCA was eliminated from the inter-island transportation system as well as from the control of operational missions.
The
continued location in Eniwetok Base Operations of the radio facility for
control of helicopters ami L-20's was acceptatle, but it would seem more >
e. ficient to move the facility to Parry so that the instructions of the Helicopter Operations Officer could be transmitted directly to the aire.
craft instead of being relayed and delayed at Mmiwetok.
In addition, if .
the tracking of the aircraft were done at Parry, diversions of airborne
aircraft to handle emergency requirements could result both in more rapid
ry
response and increase;“utilization of atroraty flexibility:
te
eene
‘
Oz?
RE Pikini Atel aircraft assimned for intra-atoll airlift consisted of
15 H-19 helicopters of USIC Squadron HiR 361 and 3 L-20 aircraft of TG 7.".
During the Jan-Feb period before the arrival of the majority of Task Force
personnel, only 7 helicopters were available at Bikini and the third L-20
—
~
aircraft was not assigned until the laet week of Hey. “However, during all
phases of the operation the aircraft and helicopters assicned were atle to
provide adequate airlift.
WR 361 managed to maintain an average helicopter in-commission rate
of aoproxinatelyLOf‘and the L-20's maintained an average rate of 85%.
These higher than average in-commission rates were in part the reason that
Cor “p{DOE
LAaL
a
RG
adequste airlift was available at all times at Bikini.
Both helicopters and L-20's averaged atout 2 passengers per mission,
Cop,
byjb200g
i:
[ic
PAGE -/=2