The 118th Field Artillery Regiment: A Brief History

By Maj. William Carraway

Historian, Ga. Army National Guard

 

Soldiers of the 118th Field Artillery Regiment in 1919 and 2023. 2023 photo by Capt. Amanda Russell.

The earliest elements of the 118th Field Artillery were organized April 18, 1751, in Savannah, Ga.[1] The regiment fought during the American Revolution during the Siege of Savannah, during the War of 1812 and began its Civil War service at Fort Pulaski in 1861.

 

Pvt. John Hancock, 1st Ga. Vol. Inf. 1898.
Georgia National Guard Archives.

Elements of the 118th served in multiple units during the Civil War including the 1st Georgia Volunteer Regiment, Wheaton’s Battery, the 13th and 18th Battalion Georgia Infantry. The venerable Chatham Artillery detached from the regiment in September 1861 and served as an independent battery, ultimately surrendering in North Carolina in April 1865.

 

In 1872, the 118th Field Artillery was reorganized as the 1st Georgia Infantry Regiment. Elements of this unit entered federal service in May 1898 during the Spanish American War.

 

In July 1916, the 1st Georgia Infantry Regiment was dispatched to Camp Cotton in El Paso Texas following border tensions with Mexico. Over the next eight months, the Soldiers patrolled the southwest border providing border security in Texas in support of The U.S. Army’s punitive expedition commanded by Brig. Gen. John Pershing who would command the American Expeditionary Force during World War I.

 

Battery A, of the Georgia National Guard's 1st Battalion Field Artillery Regiment on parade at El Paso, Texas in 1916.  Georgia National Guard archives.

Returning in March 1917, the unit began training for overseas service at Camp Wheeler, Ga. in Macon. on September 23, 1917, while stationed at Camp Wheeler, the unit received its present designation as the 118th Field Artillery Regiment.

 

The 118th mobilized to France with the 31st Infantry Division in October 1918 and arrived in the harbor of Brest, where the 31^st Division received orders to break up the division and send its Soldiers forward to augment existing units. While the process of skeletonizing the division was under way, the war ended with Soldiers of the 118^th in Brest and Le Mans. The 118^th returned home in 1919 and was inactivated at Camp Gordon in 1919.[2]

 

Officers of the 1st Field Artillery in Savannah Ga. in 1921. Georgia National Guard Archives.

In 1921, the 118th Field Artillery Regiment was reorganized as part of the post-World War I reorganization of the Georgia National Guard. Headquartered in Savannah, the 118^th was comprised of two battalions with batteries numbered A-F.[3] From 1921 to 1942, the 118th fielded the 75 mm artillery piece which was, until 1934, horse-drawn artillery.

 

In 1941, the 118th Field Artillery was ordered into federal service as part of the 30th Infantry Division. The 118th FAR participated in the Tennessee Maneuvers in from June to August 1941 and the Carolina Maneuvers, which took place in October and November 1941.[4]

 

Coat of Arms of the 230th FA BN.
Georgia National Guard Archives.

On February 16, 1942, the 118th Field Artillery Regiment was reorganized as the 118th
Field Artillery Battalion and 230th Field Artillery Battalion. The 230th was comprised of The Chatham Artillery, who formed Batteries A and C; the Irish Jasper Greens which comprised Battery B, and the German Volunteers, who formed the Service Battery. The reorganization was initiated after the 30th Division was reorganized and redesignated as the 30th Infantry Division. Another result of this reorganization was the reassignment of the 121st Infantry Regiment to the 8th Infantry Division.[5]

 

The 118th and 230^th FA Battalions mobilized to England and arrived in Liverpool February 22, 1944. Traveling by rail, the 118th arrived at Bucks Green and Five Oaks where the men were lodged in Nissen huts – British versions of the venerable Quonset hut. Over the next few months, the 118^th and 230^th  would train for the coming invasion of Europe.

 

On June 8, two days after the D-Day landings, the 230^th was ordered to France to replace a field artillery battalion of the 29th Infantry Division which had lost its field howitzers during the assault on Omaha Beach. These former Georgia Guardsmen turned 30th Infantry Division artilleryman were temporarily assigned to the 29th Division, and within hours, the 230th would become the first Georgia Guard unit to enter combat in France.[6]

 

Soldiers and vehicles of the Georgia National Guard's 230th Field Artillery Battalion move ashore on Omaha Beach. Georgia National Guard Archives.

On June 13, 1944, the first elements of the 118th Field Artillery Battalion went ashore on Omaha Beach. The battalion assembled its vehicles and howitzers in the fading daylight and were guided from the beach under blackout conditions. Like the 230th before them, the men of the 118th FA had been trained to expect every inch of terrain to be mined or guarded by German Soldiers. Thus, as the column of vehicles slowly moved its way to the high ground overlooking the beach the tension was palpable.

 

Reaching a position near Neuilly, France, the Soldiers of the 118th established their first firing positions in an orchard outside of town. Three days later, an observation post overlooking the Vire Et Taute Canal called in a fire mission which was routed to one of the howitzers of Battery C. Thus, on the afternoon of June 16, 1944, with the pull of lanyard cord, the 118th sent its first combat round down range.

 

The next day the battalion displaced to Lison where they were joined by Batteries A and B. Over the coming weeks, the 118th supported the 30th ID’s drive to the Vire River. On June 22, having crossed the Vire and secured the Mont-Martin en Grainges, the 30th ID was ordered to hold a defensive line along the Vire while the 2nd and 29th Infantry Divisions pressed the attack towards St. Lo.[7]

 

Chateau de Cavigny - The 118th FA had its command post in the basement of the chateau. Batteries were stationed on the grounds, July 12-19, 1944.
Photo by Maj. William Carraway.

Subsequent to the landing of the 118^th, the 230^th FA rejoined the 30th ID. In the campaigns in France and Germany, the units earned four Meritorious Unit Commendations and fought with distinction at Saint Lo, Malmedy and Mortain. During the Mortain engagement, the 118^th and 230^th FA howitzers crushed a German attack thanks to the intrepid work of forward observers positioned on high ground overlooking the German advance. In 2020, units of the 30^th ID were awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for Mortain.

 

View from a 230th FA forward observer’s position on Hill 314 near Mortain, France. The 118th and 230th FA firing positions were located on the high
ground at center. Photo by Maj. William Carraway.

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the 1-118th FA has mobilized for overseas contingency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and is currently mobilized in support of operations in the Central Command area of responsibility. In addition to its long history of overseas service, the 118^th has supported response operations at home ranging from hurricanes to Georgia’s coordinated response to the COVID -19 outbreak.

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[1] U.S. Army Center of Military History. Lineage and Honors of the 118th Field Artillery. Department of the Army

[2] Carraway, William “Nescit Cedere: The 118th FA in Normandy,” Georgia National Guard History Blog, July 18, 2019, http://www.georgiaguardhistory.com/2019/07/nescit-cedere-118th-fa-in-normandy.html.

[3] U.S. Army Center of Military History. “National Guard World War I Unit Designations by State” (Unpublished manuscript, n.d., typescript).

[4] Carraway, William “First to Fire: The Georgia National Guard’s 230th Field Artillery in Normandy,” Georgia National Guard History Blog, June 27, 2019, http://www.georgiaguardhistory.com/2019/06/first-to-fire-georgia-national-guards.html

[5] Carraway, William “First to Fire: The Georgia National Guard’s 230th Field Artillery in Normandy,” Georgia National Guard History Blog, June 27, 2019, http://www.georgiaguardhistory.com/2019/06/first-to-fire-georgia-national-guards.html

[6] Carraway, William “First to Fire: The Georgia National Guard’s 230th Field Artillery in Normandy,” Georgia National Guard History Blog, June 27, 2019, http://www.georgiaguardhistory.com/2019/06/first-to-fire-georgia-national-guards.html

[7] Harrison, Gordon A. Cross-Channel Attack,Washington, D.C.: Office of the Chief of Military History, Dept. of the Army, 1951, 377-379.

Training, Dramatic Rescue Saves Ga. ANG Pilots Who Ejected Over the Atlantic

 By Maj. William Carraway

Historian, Georgia Army National Guard

 

Pilots of the 128th Fighter Interceptor Squadron in June 1958. Second Lieutenant Oliver Trotter is in the top row, second from the right.
Squadron commander, Maj. Fletcher E. Meadors is in the first row on the left. Captain Eugene Parrott kneels fourth from the left and
Capt. George Lindsey kneels far right. Photo courtesy of Gary Parrott.

September 21, 1958, began uneventfully for Georgia Air National Guard Capt. Eugene Parrott and 2^nd Lt. Oliver E. Trotter Jr., both of Chattanooga, Tenn. The pilots were on a routine tow-target mission 50-miles off the coast of Savannah. Parrott, a veteran of more than 100 combat missions in the skies over Korea, was at the controls of the T-33 jet trainer. Oliver, in the seat behind him, had graduated flight school in March.[1]

In the era before computer scored target hits, aerial target practice was facilitated by aircraft towing targets, often a large sheet of canvas. Pilots of the Georgia Air National Guard, flying B-26 bombers and T-33 jets, had towed targets for nearly 10 years supporting aerial gunnery training as well as towing targets for ground-based antiaircraft artillery units.[2] Whereas AAA training was conducted at Fort Stewart, aerial gunnery took place over the Atlantic Ocean where jet pilots fired individually colored bullets to mark their hits on the target.[3] 

T-33 pilots of the 128th Fighter Interceptor Squadron prepare to take off on an aerial gunnery training mission in 1958. Georgia National Guard Archives.

Towing targets provided excellent combat training but was not without its risks. Pilots on gun runs might pepper the tow aircraft as well as the target. It was also possible for a pilot to lose sight of the lead aircraft or overcorrect resulting in a mid-air collision. 

On September 21, 1958, Parrott and Trotter were flying at 400 knots at an altitude of 12,000 feet when they experienced a slight jarring sensation. Parrott, a combat veteran and experienced pilot, instinctively began a visual inspection and noticed fuel pouring from the right aileron. Trotter observed the damage as Parrott reported his situation  as smoke began to emerge from the wing. Realizing the craft was on fire, Parrott immediately advanced the throttle in an effort to put the fire out; however, the heat from the fire had already melted half of the aileron which subsequently fell off. The loss of the aileron caused a vibration which threatened to shake the wing to pieces. Assessing the situation, Parrott calmly advised Trotter, “Let’s get out of here.” The pilots ejected from the aircraft and were momentarily unconscious from the force of the ejection rockets. Nevertheless, the parachutes deployed automatically and when the pilots recovered from the initial blackout, they discovered that they were quietly floating within shouting distance of one another towards the ocean below.

Parrott called to Trotter and instructed him to inflate his rescue raft then attempted to inflate his. While Trotter successfully inflated his raft, Parrott's emergency inflation cylinder only partially inflated his. Fortunately, as he drifted ever closer to the waves below Parrott was able to completely inflate the raft and upon landing claimed that he didn’t even get his head under water. 

Observing the drama, Capt. George Lindsey circled his F-84 above the pilots maintaining a vigil over the descending parachutes and calling their location to Savannah Ground Control Intercept Station Glena, which scrambled a Marine Corps rescue helicopter from Beaufort, S.C. A Ga. ANG C-47 was also dispatched and dropped additional rafts; however, the waters were too choppy for the pilots to reach them.[4]

With a rescue helicopter inbound, Lindsey maintained his vigil over the downed pilots despite his rapidly depleting fuel supply. He departed the scene only when relieved by Capt. Roland Rieck of the Savannah-based 158^th Fighter Interceptor Squadron. Rieck helped vector the rescue helicopter to the scene until the Marine rescue crew could observe the sea marker dye the pilots had released from their life vests. Arriving less than one hour after incident, the helicopter plucked Trotter from the ocean using a sling hoist then retrieved Parrott. The rescue was completed 62 minutes after the pilots bailed out.

The pilots were transported to Hunter Air Force Base in Savannah where they were treated for minor injuries and released.

 

Second Lieutenant Oliver E. Trotter Jr. and Capt. Eugene Parrott are congratulated on their rescue by Maj. Fletcher E. Meadors, commander of the
128th Fighter Interceptor Squadron. Georgia National Guard Archives.

Epilogue

Trotter left the Georgia Air National Guard to concentrate on his studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Lindsey remained in the Ga. ANG until 1965 rising to the rank of major. Rieck, who relieved Lindsey of his vigil over the downed pilots remained in the Ga. ANG until 1968 and left the service as a lieutenant colonel.

Parrott remained in the Ga. ANG and was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1965. He left the service in 1966 to become a test pilot for Boeing. He died in 2020 at the age of 91 and rests in Chattanooga National Cemetery.

 

Eugene Parrott. Images courtesy of Gary Parrott.

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[1] “Two Ga. Pilots Rescued at Sea.” The Georgia Guardsman Magazine. Sept-Oct 1958, 10.

[2] “116^th Ftr.Bmr.Wg., Attached ANG Units Set Aerial Records at Travis.” The Georgia Guardsman Magazine. Sept, Oct 1954, 2.

 [3]“Photo review of 116^th Ftr Intcp Wing Encampment“ The Georgia Guardsman Magazine, Aug, Sept 1955, 4.

[4] “2 Guard Pilots Parachute from burning Plane.” Brunswick News. Sept. 22. 1958, 1.

Macon’s 1st Lt. Vivian Roberts: The Georgia National Guard’s only POW of WWI

Private Vivian Roberts of the Macon-based
Company F, 2nd Georgia Infantry Regiment
circa 1907. Photo courtesy of Ms. Tonie Maxwell

By Maj. William Carraway

Historian, Georgia Army National Guard

The United States observes National Prisoner of War / Missing in Action Recognition Day on the third Friday in September. This day allows provides a moment of pause to remember those who have been held as prisoners of war during our nation’s conflicts and those listed as missing in action. One hundred five years ago, the only Georgia Guardsmen held as a POW during World War I began his long journey home to Macon.

Prelude

Vivian Hill Roberts Sr. was born September 29, 1887 in Jackson Ga. He enlisted in the Macon Hussars, then Company F of the 2nd Georgia Infantry Regiment as a private July 26, 1906. Roberts served in every enlisted rank, culminating in a stint as first sergeant of Company F before accepting a commission as a second lieutenant March 1, 1915. He was working as a bookkeeper for Benson Clothing Company in Macon when the Georgia National Guard was deployed to the Mexican Border in August 1916. Returning with his regiment in 1917, Roberts company was redesignated Company A, 151st Machine Gun Battalion and assigned to the 42nd Division which sailed to France in October 1917.

First Sgt. Vivian Roberts with other Soldiers of the
Macon-based Company F, 2nd Georgia Infantry circa 1914.
Photo courtesy of Ms. Tonie Maxwell

As a platoon leader, Roberts led his machine gun sections from the Baccarat Sector near the southern terminus of the Western Front through the fiery Champagne Marne Defensive. He was promoted to first lieutenant May 15, 1918.

Vivian Roberts served as a platoon leader in Company A, 151st Machine Gun Battalion which mobilized for France in October 1917. Georgia Guard Archives

On July 28, 1918, Roberts’ Company was heavily engaged while supporting infantry assaults on German positions near Sergy France. The Soldiers of the 151st MGB were ordered to move forward in support of the infantry regiments of the 84th Brigade, 42nd Division. As the machine gunners were already overly burdened with heavy machine guns and ammunition, Roberts ordered the men to remove unnecessary gear – including packs and canteens. In the assault, the men would only carry ammunition and gas masks.

Capture

Roberts recalled moving forward with four machine guns and establishing firing positions for his sections. Unable to proceed due to the presence of enemy machine guns positioned near the crest of the hill upon which he was advancing, Roberts requested infantry support which came in the form of a company from the Alabama National Guard's 167th Infantry Regiment under command of Capt. Wyatt. Roberts recalls what happened next.

Hill 212 near Sergy France where Roberts was wounded
and captured July 28, 1918. Photo by Maj. William Carraway

“As we reached the crest of the hill, instead of the five or six Germans I had been firing upon, a solid line of Germans arose stretching all across the hill. Machine guns opened up on us from the woods on the right and from the church steeple and buildings from the little village of La Ferte on our left, pouring a terrific fire into our ranks. Hearing a groan at my side I turned and saw little F. H. Dent from Macon, his shirt on fire; a bullet had struck a clip of cartridges in his belt, exploding them, setting his shirt on fire as well as badly wounding him. I put the fire out, gave him first aid and sending him to the rear took his rifle… A German plane swooped down over our line strafing, mowing down it seemed about every sixth man in our line. A bullet struck me in my right thigh breaking the bone and passing on through the leg and lodging in the lower leg… I asked two infantrymen to carry me back. They tried to do it but as my right leg was dangling giving me so much pain and bullets were singing all around us, I asked them to put me in a shell hole and make their escape.”

Roberts was found by German Soldiers. One gave him a blanket and told Roberts that they would come back for him that evening. When they returned it was only to leave Roberts once more with the knowledge that the Germans anticipated an American attack to come in the morning. Roberts remained in the shell hole for 30 hours without food or water and with three exposed wounds before a German non-commissioned officer and three Red Cross men found him and bore him into German lines in a shelter half. His wounds were dressed, and he was taken via stretcher to a horse-drawn ambulance while American artillery shells crashed all around. Roberts grimly recalled the ambulance ride.

“As my leg had not been put into a splint you can imagine the condition I was in after about a two hours’ ride. We arrived at what I took to be Fismes; here we were taken to a German Field Hospital. And my leg was set and put in a splint. As the hospital was being evacuated that night due to the advance of the Americans, I was soon put into an automobile ambulance with three wounded Germans We travelled all night arriving early in the morning at what I took to be Laon.”

In Laon, Roberts along with wounded French and German Soldiers were loaded onto freight rail cars on pallets of blood-soaked straw and blankets for transport to Formies, France near the Belgian border. Here he was asked by an English-speaking nurse when his wound had last been dressed. As jarring as this was, Roberts soon discovered that he was one of 800 wounded Soldiers being treated at the hospital by one doctor and two nurses.

 Vivian Roberts recuperates  at Walter Reed Hospital
circa 1920. Photo courtesy of Ms. Tonie Maxwell

On August 25, 1918, the U.S. Army reported Roberts missing in action. Roberts’ family endured weeks of uncertainty tuntil September 13, when  newspapers reported that the 151st Machine Gun Battalion  had listed Roberts as killed in action. It was not until November 1 that Roberts’ family learned that he was indeed alive and being held in a prison at Langensalza Thuringen, Germany.

Roberts' Return

Roberts would remain at Langensalza until December 21, 1918, when he began his journey home. Arriving at American Base Hospital Number 45 December 24, 1918, Roberts realized his earnest wish to be free by Christmas. He did not return to the United States until February 25, 1919. 

Roberts would remain hospitalized due to the effects of his wound until December 22, 1922, when he was released from federal service. While still a patient at Walter Reed Army Hospital, Roberts married Antoinette Lipgens. For more than 20 years Roberts served as the Clerk of Bibb County Superior Court in Macon. He died August 24, 1946, at the age of 57 and rests in Riverside Cemetery, Macon, Ga.

Vivian Roberts in his American Legion uniform.
After the war, Roberts served as the Clerk of Bibb County
Superior Court. Photo courtesy of Ms. Tonie Maxwell

The Ga. ANG in the C-124 Globemaster Era: 1966-1974

By Maj. William Carraway

Historian, Georgia Army National Guard

 

The C-124 Globemaster was assigned to the Ga. ANG in December 1966 replacing the C-97 Stratofreighter. Stratofreighters are visible
to the left in this image from Dobbins AFB. Georgia National Guard Archives.

On September 19, 1974, the last two C-124 Globemaster aircraft in service departed Savannah Municipal Airport bound for Tucson Arizona and the vast mothball fields of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. The aircraft, assigned to the Georgia Air National Guard’s 165^th Military Airlift Group, had logged a combined 10 million miles and more than 25,000 flying hours each while assigned to the Georgia Air National Guard. The delivery of the last C-124s to storage marked the end of a nearly eight-year chapter in the history of the Ga. Air National Guard

Prelude: The Air Transport Mission Begins

By 1960, the Georgia Air National Guard encompassed fighter interceptor aircraft stationed at Dobbins Air Force Base and Travis Field in Savannah under the 116^th Air Defense Wing and the subordinate 116^th and 165^th Fighter Groups. [1] On April 1, 1961, the Ga. Air National Guard’s 116th Air Defense Wing was reorganized as the 116th Air Transport Wing (Heavy).[2] Pilots of the 116th began delivering their F-86L fighter jets to the California Air National Guard in February and March and started the training to transition from single-engine jet aircraft to the double-deck multi-engine C-97 Stratofreighter. Flight crews and maintenance personnel completed training in May 1961 at Randolph, AFB, Texas and the 128th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, redesignated the 128th Air Transport Squadron, received the first four C-97s in June.

Through the remainder of 1961, 31 pilots and 29 flight engineers completed home-station training on the C-97. Subsequently, the Ga. Air National Guard announced that the Savannah-based 165th Fighter Group would also convert to the heavy transport mission. The 165th received its first C-97 in 1961 and was redesignated the 165th Air Transport Group on April 1, 1962.[3] The Georgia Air National Guard flew the C-97 Stratofreighter for more than five years.

Transition to the Globemaster

The Georgia Air National Guard’s 116^th Military Airlift Group became the first Air National Guard unit in the nation to receive the C-124 Globemaster Dec. 7, 1966.[4] The Globemaster was praised by Ga. ANG pilots for its cargo capacity its range and for the comfort and proximity of crew rest positions to the flight deck.

On January 23, 1967, just six weeks after receiving its first Globemaster, the Ga. ANG began its first over-water mission flying 26,000 pounds of equipment to Antigua. By March 10, four additional flights had been completed to Antigua all by the 128^th Military Airlift Squadron.[5] The enormous range of the C-124 soon allowed the Ga. ANG to support a Joint Chiefs of Staff mission to Spain March 21, 1967. On April 1, 1967, a C-124 crew completed the first of many flights bearing cargo to Vietnam.[6] The 14-day round trip flight from Dobbins AFB carried more than 20,000 pounds of cargo from Travis AFB, Calif. to Da Nang in South Vietnam and returned with 17,000 pounds of cargo.

On April 1, 1967, a Ga. ANG C-124 made the first of many flights to Vietnam. Georgia Air National Guard crews had previously flown air
transport missions to Vietnam with the C-97 Stratofreighter. Georgia National Guard Archives.

In July 1968, the 165^th MAG executed an airlift of 402 Soldiers of the 170th and 176th MP Battalions from Fort Stewart to Dobbins AFB. Seven C-124 Globemaster aircraft transported the Soldiers along with 35 military vehicles.[7]

Over the years, the Ga. Air National Guard would continue to rack up historic firsts in the C-124. In December 1969, a Georgia C-124 crew became the first in Air National Guard history to fly completely around the South American continent. The feat was accomplished while supporting a special assignment airlift mission in support of Operation Deep Freeze 1969.[8] The Guardsmen flew more than 50 military and civilian scientists along with three tons of scientific instruments to Punta Arenas, Chile where a Coast Guard icebreaker was waiting to transport them to Antarctica.

Georgia Air National Guard C-124 Globemasters deliver more than 400 Ga. ARNG Military Police and 35 vehicles during an airlift exercise from
Fort Stewart to Dobbins AFB July 9, 1968. Georgia National Guard Archives.

The Globemaster continued to serve as the workhorse of the Ga. ANG into the 1970s beginning in May when civil unrest in Augusta, Ga. prompted the governor to activate the Georgia National Guard. Three Ga. ANG C-124s delivered the 2nd Battalion 214th Field Artillery under the command of Col. John McGowan to Augusta May 12, 1970.[9]

On August 26, 1970, C-124 Globemaster 52-1049 of the Georgia Air National Guard’s 165th Military Airlift Group crashed into the side of Mount Pavlof while en route from McChord Air Force Base, Wash. to Cold Bay, Alaska with a cargo of satellite equipment. The crashed killed all seven crewmembers.[10]

From Globemaster to Hercules

Military maneuvers of the 30^th Division in Tennessee in 1972 saw the C-124s called to transport Ga. ARNG personnel and equipment to training sites. By that time, the age of the Globemaster frame and scarcity of available parts weighed heavily in the decision to seek a new airframe for Georgia. Governor Jimmy Carter and Maj. Gen. Joel Paris, Georgia’s Adjutant General, along with senior leaders of the Ga. ANG met with National Guard Bureau and U.S. Air Force officials regarding possible aircraft or mission changes. The preferred course of action was to retain the MAT mission with C-130s phasing in. But the C-130 was in short supply and the Air Force Reserve’s 918^th Military Airlift Wing based at Dobbins AFB had already been allocated C-130s the previous year.[11] National Guard Bureau preferred to convert the Ga. ANG to fly the F-100 Super Sabre effective April 1973. [12] Enlisting the aid of Georgia’s congressional delegation Carter and Paris successfully negotiated to maintain the airlift mission for the 165^th.[13]

A C-124 Globemaster delivers vehicles and personnel to Tennessee for maneuvers of the 30th Division in 1972. Georgia National Guard Archives.

Final Flight

Two years would pass before the arrival of the C-130 Hercules. The first C-130 arrived in Savannah Aug. 8, 1974.[14] The following month, two veteran C-124 crews led by Lt. Col. Arthur Eddy, safety officer of the 165^th and Lt. Col. Edgar D. Benson, 165^th MAG Air Force advisor, delivered the last two C-124 Globemasters to Davis-Monthan they went into mothball storage. It would be Benson’s last flight as he was set to retire the following spring. Among the veteran crew members was flight engineer SMSgt. Thomas L. Davis who was the last survivor of the Bataan Death March of World War II still in uniform.

Georgia Air National Guard SMSgt Thomas L. Davis (Center) was the last survivor of the Bataan Death March still in uniform. He retired
following the final flight of the C-124 Globemaster. Georgia National Guard Archives.

By December 10, 1974, the 165^th had completed the conversion to the C-130 with eight aircraft assigned.[15] The 165th Tactical Air Group upgraded to the C-130H model in 1981 and received the first of its new C-130Js in January 2024.

 

The 165 Airlift Wing received the first of its eight C-130J-30 Super Hercules tactical airlift aircraft during a ceremony January 22, 2024, at Lockheed Martin’s
facility in Marietta, Ga. Photo by Master Sgt. Caila Arahood.

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[1] “Russell Praised in Wing Reorganization.” The Georgia Guardsman Magazine, Jan Feb 1960, 4.

[2] “First C-97 Stratofreighters Arrive for ANG.” The Georgia Guardsman Magazine, June 1961, 4.

[3] “Kuhn’s Fighter Gp in Historic Switch to Transport Role.” The Georgia Guardsman Magazine, January 1962, 1.

[4] “Ga ANG First to Get C-124s; 116th MAG Conversion Began 7 Dec.” The Georgia Guardsman Magazine, January 1967, 3.

[5] “Global Missions Begin for C124” The Georgia Guardsman Magazine,” Feb-Apr 1967, 6.

[6] “Lt. Col. C. J. Perkins, Ga. ANG Crew Take First C124 Mission to Vietnam.” The Georgia Guardsman Magazine, Feb-Apr 1967, 3.

[7] “Ga. Emergency Operations Headquarters Conducts Successful Airlift of MP’s.” The Georgia Guardsman Magazine. May-Aug 1968, 4.

[8] “Col Perkins’ ANG Crew Flies to Southernmost City in World; Mission Supports Polar Expedition.” The Georgia Guardsman Magazine, Sept Dec 1969, 6.

[9] “Governor Sends 2,000 Ga. Guardsmen to Augusta and Athens to Restore Calm in Wake of May Civil Disturbances.” The Georgia Guardsman Magazine. Apr.-Jun. 1970, 8-9.

[10] William Carraway. “Remembering the Ga. ANG Airmen of C-124 Globemaster 52-1049” History of the Georgia National Guard. Sept. 5, 2020. http://www.georgiaguardhistory.com/2020/09/remembering-ga-ang-airmen-of-c-124.html

[11] “Dobbins Units to Get C130s” The Atlanta Constitution. April 7, 1917, 8.

[12] “Georgia Air Guard Getting Supersonic Fighters.” The Atlanta Journal and Constitution. Sept. 4, 1972, 14.

[13] “Switch to Fighters Stirs Guard Debate.” The Atlanta Constitution, October 24, 1972.

[14]“Savannah’s 165^th MAG Has New Mission Now That the C-130s are in.” Georgia Guardsman Magazine, Jul Aug 74, 10

[15] State of Georgia Department of Defense. Annual Report 1975.