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| News > Feature - Jan. 23, 1949: Snowbound in the Heartland |
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A Nebraska National Guard C-45 photographed through the open cargo door of another transport. Operation Haylift dropped hundreds of tons of hay to stranded livestock. (Photo courtesy of the Nebraska State Historical Society)
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Jan. 23, 1949: Snowbound in the Heartland
Posted 1/21/2009 Updated 1/21/2009
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by Andy Stephens
11th Wing Historian
1/21/2009 - BOLLING AFB, D.C. -- The winter storm of 1948 through 1949 covered 193,193 square miles in four states. It left nearly a quarter of a million people trapped to face an icy doom in their own homes.
Operation Snowbound was one of the greatest humanitarian missions the Air Force ever flew -- and Bolling ever supported -- within its own borders.
On Nov. 18, 1948, heavy snow blew into the Great Plains at wind speeds of up to 70 miles per hour, covering the roofs of houses and making all travel impossible. The winds blew down more than 1,700 telephone poles with thousands of breaks in communication lines. The four states most affected -- Nebraska, both North and South Dakotas, and Wyoming -- seemed to disappear from the American fabric.
While some of the snow melted soon thereafter, a heavy rain fell that Christmas -- and then the temperatures dropped again. The wet, compressed snow had turned into a layer of ice several feet thick before the snow started falling again. The blizzard lasted for three days in some parts of Nebraska.
Air Force leadership at Bolling's Headquarters Command, already supporting the Berlin Airlift, now faced a second humanitarian mission closer to home. Some questioned if the Air Foce could support both missions in tandem.
The Air Force pressed ahead with Operation Snowbound, the rescue of Americans trapped in a blizzard of near-biblical proportions and the support of millions of livestock crucial to the states' economies. There was only one way to bring in food and supplies and that was through airlift. It was something the Air Force had become quite adept at because of the situation in Europe.
The Air Force didn't act alone. Through the Military Air Transport Service, a newly formed Air Force organization that had absorbed both the Air Transport Command, a Bolling mainstay since WWII and the Naval Air Transport Service. Under MATS the Fifth Army, American Red Cross, Army Corps of Engineers, National Guard assets not currently supporting the Berlin Airlift, and the Civil Air Patrol were mustered into a home front "Berlin Airlift," channeling their resources for the second great humanitarian effort of 1949.
One of the key players in the unfolding drama was the 1100th Special Air Missions Group, headquartered at Bolling. The 1100th SAMG flew every aircraft available to help drop feed to some of the more than four million sheep and cattle, and to transport some of the approximately 1,600 pieces of heavy equipment needed to clear more than 115,000 miles of road.
On Jan. 23, 1949, alone, the Air Force airdropped approximately 525 cases of "C" rations, 20,000 pounds of food and 10,000 pounds of coal in Nebraska alone. Figures for Operation Snowbound are unavailable, but the impact made by the Air Force in the region was quite distinct and the Airmen were hailed as heroes in the heartland, as well as abroad.
Operation Snowbound continued well into April, after the last of the big storms hit south central and eastern Nebraska. During this period, Airmen joined with their peers from the other services to respond to train derailments brought about by another snowstorm in late March and flooding along the ice-packed Big and Little Nemaha rivers. Many of the 30-foot-deep snowdrifts didn't melt until June.
The operation was a monumental undertaking for the newly created Air Force, still less than 2 years old, but rapidly assuming a more and more prominent social role as a first responder for humanitarian issues and the use of wartime science used for peaceful applications.
Editor's Note: A Hollywood docudrama entitled "Operation Haylift" was released in 1950 that recounted the Air Force's role in the humanitarian mission. The movie featured a fleet of the Air Force's C-119s (also known as "flying boxcars") as well as actual pilots who participated in the humanitarian mission. The movie starred Bill Williams, Ann Rutherford, Tom Brown and Jane Nigh. |
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