ARRC/ARPC in the 1960s

  • Published
  • By Mark Nelson
  • Air Reserve Personnel Center Historian
BUCKLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. --  (This feature is the second of a monthly series celebrating ARPC's 60th birthday. Each month will highlight a new decade until ARPC's 60th birthday which is March 1, 2014.)

People remember the 1960s for different reasons, from President John F. Kennedy to the Beatles to Woodstock to the landing on the moon. For this personnel center, it was a decade of mobilizations.

Officials at the center executed four mobilizations, more than any decade before or since. These mobilizations were the Berlin Crisis of 1961, the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, the USS Pueblo incident of 1968, and the escalation of war in Southeast Asia in 1968.

The Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States was going strong during those years. In 1961, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev threatened to sign a unilateral peace treaty with East Germany and declared that he would not recognize any American rights in the city. To protect West Berlin and stand up to Soviet threats, former President Kennedy ordered a gradual military response to the crisis that July.

In a televised address, the president asked for mobilization authority, an increase in the military draft, and supplemental military appropriations. He also disclosed his intent to mobilize members from Air Force Reserve air transport units and Air National Guard fighter squadrons. Congress approved the president's requests and the crisis escalated when Soviets sealed the East German/West German border and began construction of the infamous Berlin Wall.

Within two weeks, the Air Reserve Records Center became the focal point of the mobilization effort. A team screened personnel records from 31 ANG flying units and 16 ANG support units as well as five AFR flying units. Center officials executed mobilizations for more than 18,000 people for service during the Berlin Crisis.

A year later, an even greater threat materialized in Cuba. In October 1962, an Air Force U-2 reconnaissance aircraft brought back photographic evidence of ballistic missile bases in Cuba and the Kennedy administration was forced to consider all military options to prevent a nuclear war.

The Cuban crisis had been brewing since the fall of 1959, when Fidel Castro, a socialist-turned communist, overthrew the government of Cuba. He quickly moved his country closer toward Soviet Union, and in April 1961, the president supported a poorly-planned invasion of Cuba by a small force of exiles at the Bay of Pigs. An expected uprising against Castro never materialized and the invasion failed.

Castro sought Soviet help in preventing future American attacks on his regime and in September 1962, Soviets announced a treaty with Cuba. The Russians agreed to provide defensive weaponry and technicians to protect Cuban sovereignty. Furthermore, Castro and Khrushchev secretly agreed to place Soviet medium-range ballistic missiles in Cuba.

On October 22, Kennedy demanded removal of these missiles and ordered a naval quarantine of Cuba. He directed all branches of the U.S. military to prepare for any contingency and launched a mobilization of reserve forces.

ARRC mobilization activities included preparing special reserve status reports, identifying all recall-eligible personnel, and delivering personnel records to major air commands. The secretary of defense ordered 24 AFR troop carrier squadrons, one C-123 wing, seven C-119 wings, and six aerial port squadrons to active duty. ARRC staff executed mobilizations for more than 14,000 reserve members from 238 units utilizing 422 Reserve aircraft to meet the crisis.

Fortunately, diplomatic pressure forced Khrushchev to withdraw Soviet missiles and the crisis came to an end. The last mobilized members were released from active duty in December 1962.

Because the center had performed yeoman work in the face of these mobilizations, Air Force leaders recognized that ARRC was not merely a records repository. It was involved in all aspects of reserve force management. For that reason, ARRC was re-designated as the Air Reserve Personnel Center on September 1, 1965.

As the 1960s wore on, worldwide tensions remained constant. On Jan. 23, 1968, the American intelligence-gathering ship, USS Pueblo, was conducting its mission in international waters off North Korea's east coast. The vessel came under attack by North Korean naval forces, whose crews alleged the ship was in North Korean territorial waters.

The Koreans captured the ship and 83 crew members. Two days later, former President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered 15,000 Air Force and Navy reservists to active duty as a precautionary measure.

As a result, ARPC officials pulled master personnel records on nearly 4,900 reservists and 9,400 guardsmen and mailed them to the U.S. Air Force Military Personnel Center. As a result, 14,220 members were mobilized.

ARPC staff also updated its volunteer file and answered inquiries from Headquarters U.S. Air Force, major air commands and the National Guard Bureau throughout the mobilization process. North Koreans released the Pueblo's crew almost one year later in December 1968.

The same week the USS Pueblo was captured, a massive communist offensive began in South Vietnam. The Tet Offensive, launched during a Vietnamese religious holiday, was a surprise to American and South Vietnamese forces. Even though communist forces suffered devastating casualties, the offensive forced the president to rethink his previous opposition to mobilizing reserve forces for Vietnam service.

On April 11, the secretary of defense announced a call-up of about 24,500 reserve members for all service branches. The Air Force's portion of the call-up was small; ARPC officials processed 776 AFR and 1,295 ANG members, the smallest of all mobilizations the center was involved in. By early 1969, mobilized members were released from active duty.

During the decade, ARPC leaders refined the center's internal organization and management structure, employing lessons learned from each mobilization to make ARPC more efficient. In the mid-1960s, ARPC officials conducted mobilization exercises on a regular basis to refine procedures and to develop new ones.

One example of refining processes included switching to social security account numbers. The center had used the terminal digit sequence of the Air Force serial number since 1958, but in 1967, DoD switched to SSAN. The center launched the change in late 1968, a huge undertaking that affected every personnel record.

The project served as a data cleanup since errors in service numbers, conflicting SSANs, and other issues were uncovered. After numbers were converted, all records were re-filed using the SSAN terminal digit sequence. The project was completed by July 1969. For the staff, the project was difficult, time-consuming and even frustrating, but it has stood the test of time as ARPC uses the SSAN terminal digit filing system to this day.

ARPC was tested during four real-world contingencies throughout the tumultuous sixties, and in each one, performed brilliantly. Each mobilization was used as a learning opportunity to better prepare for the future and members of ARPC demonstrated a proactive, positive response to every challenge. As the 1960s ended, ARPC accepted new challenges as it stood ready to move ahead into the total force concept.