Airmen of the 374th Tactical Airlift Wing at work at Ching Chuan Kang Air Base, Taiwan, the wing base of operations from May 1971 to November 1973. (U.S. Air Force/Facebook)
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — The 374th Airlift Wing in its 75 years has flown prisoners of war home, orphans to safety and aid to survivors of Japan’s worst natural disaster in modern times.
The wing celebrated its birthday Wednesday at the Enlisted Club at Yokota Air Base, the wing’s home and an integral airlift hub in western Tokyo. About 100 people, including wing commander Col. Andrew Roddan and wing historian Lesleigh Jones, recalled the wing’s history over lunch and birthday cake.
Col. Andrew Roddan and Airman 1st Class Renny Rodriguez cut the cake at the 374th Airlift Wing's 75th birthday luncheon at Yokota Air Base, Japan, on Aug. 16, 2023. (Jeremy Stillwagner/Stars and Stripes)
Guests from the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force, which shares Yokota with the 374th, and dignitaries from surrounding cities helped celebrate the day.
In military tradition, Roddan and Airman 1st Class Renny Rodriguez, the wing’s youngest airman in attendance, together sliced the birthday cake.
“Now we’ve come to the 75th anniversary of the 374th Airlift Wing,” Roddan said in his speech. “Whether at Tama Army Airfield, or Yokota Air Base, there is no doubt that the ground we stand on is a place that will forever be etched in history.”
The 374th Airlift Wing was established Aug. 10, 1948, and activated on Aug. 17 at Harmon Airfield, Guam. Originally called the 374th Troop Carrier Wing Heavy, the wing’s primary mission was to ferry troops around the Pacific.
The wing has flown through at least four major conflicts involving U.S. forces, from the Korean War to the Vietnam War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In 1949, the 374th moved from Guam to Tachikawa Air Station, Japan, not far from Yokota, until 1957.
“During those years, we had three troop carrier squadrons, a flying training squadron and an operations squadron,” Jones said during a retelling of the wing’s history.
In that period, wing crews flew in operations Big Switch and Little Switch, carrying U.S. and U.N. former prisoners of war from South Korea to Japan. The 374th also helped train Japanese Air Self-Defense Force pilots before the wing was deactivated in 1957.
Nine years later, the wing came to life again on Okinawa flying C-130 Hercules as the 374th Tactical Airlift Wing in 1967.
During the Vietnam War, the 374th flew airlift for U.S. troops and missions for Operation Blind Bat, a 6-year effort to deny enemy forces the cover of night by routinely dropping flares over designated areas.
Relocated in May 1971 to Ching Chuan Kang Air Base in Taiwan, the wing in March 1973 repatriated U.S. POWs again, this time from Hanoi, North Vietnam, in Operation Homecoming.
After the fall of South Vietnam, the wing evacuated orphans and refugees in Operations Baby Lift and New Life in April 1975.
In 1987 the 374th took responsibility for the airlift portion of Operation Christmas Drop, an annual event to parachute supplies to far-flung South Pacific islands since 1952.
The 374th moved in 1989 to Yokota, formerly Tama Army Air Field during World War II, and was redesignated the 374th Airlift Wing in 1992.
In March 2011, the wing took part in Operation Tomodachi, the U.S. military’s response to the earthquake and tsunami response that struck northeastern Japan.
The twin disasters accounted for about 20,000 fatalities, 6,000 injured and 470,000 people displaced from their homes. The tsunami overwhelmed reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which led to a partial meltdown of three radioactive reactor cores.
