~ : CONSPISITIAL Task Force SEVEN staff officers, while one (1) was based at Eniwetok and used by Comander, Task Group 7.4 and certain senior staff officers. See Figure 18 for a surmary of L-19 flying activities. Seven (7) SA~16 aircraft were required for the SAR and weather island re-supply mission. The Air Rescue Service of MATS was required to furnish the aircraft and personnel for this effort. The nucleus of this organi- zation was the 64th Air Rescue Squadron, based at Norton AFB, which fur- nished five (5) of the aircraft. Two (2) others were furnished by the 2nd Air Rescue Group, operating in the Pacific area, one com‘ng from Two of these aircraft arrived dur- ing February and the other five arrived at Eniwetok during March. $ Clark AB and the other from Naha AFB. The SA-16 aircraft flew SAR cover for all of the nuclear detonations in the EARDTACK test series held at the Eniwetok Proving Ground, The operational policy was established that the SAR aircraft would be airborne prior to the take-off of the first mission aircraft and would remain airborne until after the last mission aircraft had landed. The SA-16 aircraft have also filled in with special missions when other aircraft capability was short. Instances are the airlift of impor- tant persons to Bikini and of special significance, a flight to Rabaul, New Britain with a flight surgeon and nuclear research specialists te look into the alleged radiation contamination of a Japanese vessel. During HARDTACK the SA-16's flew 2168 hours. These flying hours have involved 79 orbit missions during nuclear test events, five (5) escort missions, 17 intercept missions of aircraft in distress, ten (10) Search and Rescue missions, twelve (12) medical evacuation missions, e ou we 11 \ 3