I Troop Carrier Command

I Troop Carrier Command
Army Airborne troops and a jeep coming out of a CG-4A Waco glider after landing at Laurinburg-Maxton Army Air Base, North Carolina during a training exercise, 1944
Active	1942–1945
Country	United States
Branch	United States Army Air Forces
Role	Airlift Training
Part of	United States Army Air Forces
Motto(s)	Vincit Qui Primum Gerit Latin He Conquers Who Gets There First
Insignia
I Troop Carrier Command emblem (approved 21 October 1942)

The I Troop Carrier Command is an inactive United States Army Air Forces unit. Its last assignment was with the Continental Air Forces, based at Stout Field, Indiana.

The command's mission was specialized training of combat crews for the air assault/air resupply mission tasked to the Army Air Forces. It was responsible directly to AAF Headquarters for the majority of the war, later coming under the umbrella of the Continental Air Forces in the spring of 1945. I TCC coordinated its activity with the Army Air Forces Training Command, from which it drew its crews, with the four continental air forces which carried the main responsibility for operational and replacement (OTU/RTU) training, and with Army Ground Forces agencies for which its training was conducted.

The troop carrier units and crews it produced served in all overseas combat theaters, where the troop carrier groups were under the direct control of a separate troop carrier command answering to the theater commander through his air commander.

Perhaps the most dramatic innovation in military tactics during World War II was the landing of airborne forces behind enemy lines. The American public was deeply impressed by the sight, in newsreels and photos, of skies filled with billowing parachutes as men fell earthward to encircle the enemy. The hardened paratrooper, with his peculiar gear, became a special kind of fighting hero, and his jumping cry, "Geronimo," became almost a byword.

While specially trained ground soldiers did the fighting after the landings, it was the responsibility of the Army Air Forces (AAF) to make the deliveries of men and supplies. To carry out this responsibility was the mission of AAF troop carrier units, serving under theater or task force commanders in cooperation with ground force elements. The training of these units, which had to be able to perform all phases of airborne operations, was the function of I Troop Carrier Command. Troop carrier headquarters was located throughout the war at Stout Field, Indianapolis, Indiana.