 This is the story of CRAF, the Civil Reserve Air Fleet, founded on an agreement between U.S. Airlines and the U.S. government, by which certain airlift resources are committed for use by the military airlift command in a national emergency. More than 300 aircraft and thousands of civilian personnel are part of this program. In an emergency, these resources will be combined with those of active duty Air Force, Air Force Reserve, and Air National Guard. Together, they comprise the greatest total airlift force available in the world today. During a national emergency, we'll be dependent upon all components of our national transportation system, railroads, trucks, and ships as well as aircraft. However, airlift does serve a need in a national emergency. It is the spearhead of our planning to move the initial forces, which are critical during early phases of conflict, to prevent escalation into an all-out war. The use of U.S. civil airline resources is not unique to this day and time. Prior to and during World War II, extensive use was made of U.S. airline capabilities. Expert navigators of Pan-American Airways provided training to U.S. Army Air Corps aviators. But an arrangement was needed to permit the military to plan for optimum use of the airlines in an emergency. The need for such a relationship was again highlighted during the Berlin Airlift of 1948 and 1949. During this international crisis, the great city was virtually cut off from food and supplies. Most of the available U.S. military transport aircraft were pressed into direct use of support of the city. More than a quarter million cargo flights were required to keep Berlin alive. The Department of Defense found it necessary to fall back on the civil airlines to pick up the slack by providing airlift support to other areas of the world. The crisis pointed up the fact that military airlift alone could not provide all transportation requirements in a major conflict. One year later, the Korean War again strained our ability to rapidly respond to a crisis. The brunt of the North Korean attack had to be carried by a relatively small number of United Nations troops. These troops, facing a far larger force, were placed in great jeopardy and had to yield large areas of South Korea to the aggressor. If the U.S. had been able to rapidly reinforce the U.N. troops at the beginning, the invasion could have been installed quickly, thus forcing an early settlement and saving thousands of lives. It was apparent at that time that airlift would be a vital trump card in future military engagements. In 1951, the President issued an order which charged the executive branch of the government with planning for the use of civil air carrier resources to meet emergency defense needs. The financial benefit was obvious. It provided a way to utilize our country's total national resources and save the taxpayer from duplicating the same capability in the military. This was accomplished by making available the vast resources of the commercial airlines in the event of national emergency, a very low-cost method of achieving the objective. In 1952, the Civil Reserve Air Fleet was organized in response to the executive order. It was composed of the airlift and support capability of the United States civil airlines, its purpose to establish a partnership with the industry. To apply that capability in the most efficient manner, the Civil Reserve Air Fleet of today is composed of four segments, international long range, international short range, domestic, and Alaskan. Aircraft of the Alaskan Fleet provide airlift in support of the Alaskan Air Command and the radar sites of the Dew Line, the distant early warning line of the Aerospace Defense Command. The domestic fleet includes short and medium-range cargo aircraft, most of them operating during peacetime for the Air Force and the Navy to support logistics bases in the continental United States. The international short-range fleet is composed of medium-range passenger aircraft which can be converted to cargo and cargo aircraft which augment theater airlift forces. The international long-range fleet is made up of aircraft capable of trans-ocean operations. This fleet will augment military aircraft when an emergency arises. This arrangement provides flexibility to the total airlift force by permitting the use of all or just a part of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet depending upon the situation. Personnel problems would be minimized because the air carriers would continue to manage their aircraft with their own personnel and resources. The aircraft missions, however, would be directed by the Military Airlift Command. Participation is encouraged in the CRAF program by awarding Department of Defense peacetime airlift contracts to U.S. Certificated Airlines to operate aircraft suitable for military requirements. The contracts contain stipulations which encourage airlines to modernize their fleets to participate in the program. Looking back, there is ample evidence of private industry's contribution to national defense in peace as well as war. The role played by this nation's Civil Reserve Air Fleet is perhaps the most consistent example of that contribution. For example, the civilian airlines were employed to move Cuban citizens seeking refuge from the communist regime, from Cuba to Homestead Air Force Base near Miami. During the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, U.S. civilian personnel were evacuated by military aircraft from Arab countries to secure staging areas in Spain. After a short rest period, they were then transferred to aircraft of the civilian fleet and returned to safety in the United States. During the Vietnamese War, CRAF aircraft and crews airlifted personnel and equipment directly into Vietnam from all parts of the United States, in this long and costly conflict so familiar to all of us. The members of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet worked alongside their military counterparts to provide a continuous flow of support over a 10,000-mile pipeline. In fact, during the twin crises of the 1967 Tet Offensive of the Viet Cong and the subsequent seizure of the Pueblo by the North Koreans, airline volunteers helped provide the additional airlift necessary to counterbalance the potential disastrous effects of these actions. In Cambodia, during the siege of Phnom Penh, resupply was carried out by aircraft from Flying Tiger, Trans-International, Seaboard World, Airlift International, and World Airways. Some of these received combat damage. That same year, humanitarian rescue missions were flown by both military and civilian aircraft from Vietnam. This airlift team worked together in the evacuation of Vietnamese orphans, relocating them to new homes and foster parents in America. Later, with the impending downfall of Saigon, this same team completed the evacuation of thousands of Vietnamese refugee families in imminent danger from the advancing North Vietnamese. While these are only a few examples of CRAF's 25-year partnership between the Department of Defense and the airline industries, the relationship continues and flourishes. The C-5 and wide-bodied airliners represent the ultimate in our current state-of-the-art. The future of CRAF, however, lies in the development of a new generation of more efficient cargo and passenger aircraft designed to conserve energy and preserve the clean environment. Working together, the Air Force and the civil air industry will achieve this goal. And at a cost, this country can afford.