Re: Korean War Causes & US Involvement

[<MikeMldvn@aol.com>]

Ed Evanhoe et al,

I'm new here and thought your summary was excellent, Ed.  

At the time that the events leading to the Korean War were happening I was a 
civil service employee in the Hqs Air Force Logistics Command 'Directorate of 
Supply' at Wright-Patterson AFB. I had returned to Wright-Pat from Hickam 
several months earlier where I had been a senior parachute rigger (and later, 
a technical writer) in the Hawaiian Air Depot's Maintenance Division since 
late December 1941.

A few months before the Korean War started I was made supervisor of the work 
unit at Hq AFLC that determined requirements and initiated Purchase Requests 
for emergency bailout parachutes, life preservers, personal survival kits 
(attached to parachutes), and other personal emergency gear. 

The morning after Truman ordered 'go' the Hqs was kind of hectic. In my 
situation, the parachute supply situation was sad. 'Korea' hit suddenly and 
only five years after the end of WW2: stocks were dispersed all over the 
world and often were needed for urgent tasks right where they were, 
replenishment for survival gear was on 'hold' until we knew more about what 
we had and where. Parachutes had a specific and strict service life (seven 
years from date of _manufacture_ stamped on the canopy).  Supply and 
procurement were still caught up wholesale contract terminations for materiel 
and services overall; sudden reductions in facilities and personnel (both 
military and civil service), etc.  Also, the Air Force had become a separate 
and equal Service and still negotiating with the other Services on 
who-got-what. Add that in the late '40s parachute engineering was bringing 
new types into 'standardization' status and therefore ready for procurement.

The requirement to support Korea was urgent and a high priority.  I felt that 
traditional procurement lead time for an already ongoing 'hot war' wouldn't 
make it.  Others agreed with me. The answer was to get USAF-certified 
parachute riggers at AFLC depots and other AF bases into the act where they 
could supplement the mfr's production lines.
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I'm now 83 and carying the baggage of my age.  A few years ago, I wrote 
several Memoirs on what, to me, had been important events in my career. The 
acquisition of parachutes for Korea was one, another was 'parachute rigging 
and emergency gear servicing' at the Hawaiian Air Depot and other places 
during WW2. The third covered a 'Cold War' planning project I worked on in 
1952 at the Nouasseur Air Depot south of Casablanca, in what was then French 
Morocco, and the fourth was my involvement in 'suicide prevention in the 
Armed Forces' during Viet Nam on my last assignment as senior civilian in the 
IG shop at McClellan AFB until I retired in '73. 

For the time being -- until I find permanent website homes for them  --  I've 
posted to my AOL web page the complete memoirs or pointers to URLs where 
they're located.  If there's any interest, I can post my web page URL here or 
as a direct 'reply' to a request.  

Mike Moldeven
(MikeMldvn@aol.com)