CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. –
You've heard safety slogans before.
Things like, "safety first, mission always" or "safety is a force multiplier," but do you really believe these slogans? Did you know that during World War II safety played a critical factor in winning the war? Let's take a quick look back at how safety won the day.
In 1937, Japan invaded China and soon controlled China's Pacific coast and large parts of the interior. Japan now controlled all naval routes to China. Japanese units overtook Burma in the spring of 1942, strangling the remaining land routes that supplied China's Army.
The Allies desperately needed China to keep engaging the Japanese troops, forcing the Japanese to keep hundreds of thousands of its troops preoccupied. Holding the Japanese forces in China was crucial to the Allies' overall war strategy. This strategy permitted the Allies to focus its efforts on the European theater, while building a necessary launch site for an Allied attack on Japan's home islands and preventing the Japanese from reaching the oil fields in the Middle East. This strategy would only work if the Chinese troops could be adequately supplied.
In order to supply the Chinese, Allied forces flew a 530-mile route over the treacherous Himalayan Mountains. This route was nicknamed the "Hump." On May 29, 1941, Air Corps Ferrying Command was established under the command of General Hap Arnold to meet this mission. The Air Force would lose more men, aircraft and equipment flying supplies into China, than were lost in combat by the 14th Air Force. In addition to enemy aircraft and ground troops, aircrews had to contend with treacherous weather, rudimentary navigation and high winds up to 200 mph.
There were two routes that aircrews used to reach China. The first was a direct flight over Burma and the second was a circuitous flight north over the higher peaks.
Because of Japanese fighter activity, the Burma route could only be flown in bad weather. The Burma route was a more direct route over lower mountain passes. The northern route avoided most of the fighter activity and was flown during good weather but forced aircrews to maintain an altitude of 20,000 feet. Even with good weather the loss of a single engine resulted in the loss of an aircraft and crew. Aircraft could not maintain a safe altitude even if they jettisoned the load. Staff reports analyzing early mission failures and aircraft crashes identified problems such as shortage in aircraft, aircrews, high altitudes and poor maintenance. General Arnold decided to place Air Transportation Command (the grandfather of AMC) in command of all "Hump" operations.
Obviously getting the supplies on target was a high priority, and so was keeping the aircrew and aircraft flying. How to attack such a high risk, high pay off mission was the question of the day. Aviation Safety was a high pay off environment. Every aircraft that safely off loaded its cargo provided sorely needed supplies to the Chinese troops on the ground, and represented another aircrew saved.
Aviation Safety has come a long way from this initial military airlift foray. However the bottom line remains the same: if the aircraft is damaged or crashes, or if the aircrew is injured or killed, the mission is lost and so is the war. More than a mere slogan, "safety wins the war." Safety is just as important today as it was then. Without safety we cannot win the war.