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COLONIAL AIRLINES, INC.
Inter-Office Correspondence
TO: All Employees   DATE: January 23, 1951
SUBJECT: [[underline]]MOBILIZATION MANPOWER[[/underline]]


On last Thursday, January 18th, I was invited to a meeting in Washington with officials of the U. S. Air Forces, the Civil Aeronautics Board, the Civil Aeronautics Administration, and representatives of the other scheduled and non-scheduled airlines, to discuss general policies to govern the nations' civil air carriers during the national emergency.

Discussions at the conference concerned the utilization of civil airlines for wartime airlift, as outlined in a recent report submitted by a panel appointed by the National Security Resources Board. This report, informally called the "Douglass Report", was originally drafted by a panel of civil aviation industry representatives, upon the suggestion of Under-Secretary of the Air Forces John A. McCone. The Chairman of this Panel was James H. Douglas, Jr., Chicago attorney and Chief of Staff of the Air Transport Command during World War II. The meeting was called by Delos W. Rentzel, Chairman of the C.A.B., who is also Chairman of the NSRB's Air Transport Mobilization Survey. 

A very important point that was brought out at this meeting was that the Air Force has now accepted the general outline of a plan for utilizing a substantial part of civil air transport four-engine air-craft as a reserve to augment the military transport fleet in time of national emergency. Air Force Under-Secretary McCone stated:

"The Air Force is, now more than ever, vitally interested in the growth and strength of the nation's total civil air fleet capacity. The United States has become increasingly dependent on air commerce and that part of the civil air fleet must continue to support the national economy during war."

Mr. McCone further pointed out that the prompt and efficient support of the Pacific Air Lift by both scheduled and non-scheduled carriers in the Korean emergency was an excellent example of the civil air transport industry's contribution as true air transport reserve and auxiliary to our armed forces.

I regret to state that, due to military security restrictions, I am not permitted to detail in this memorandum the specific tasks which are assigned to Colonial in these mobilization plans. I can assure you, however, that Colonial is prepared to make a very real contribution to the national defense on M-Day and, consequently, the military appreciates the the need for Colonial to retain certain essential personnel to accomplish the job assigned.