The South Atlantic Wing, Air Transport Command is a former United States Army Air Forces unit. It was organized in 1942 to ferry aircraft and transport personnel and equipment from the Caribbean to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, European Theater of Operations, China-Burma-India Theater and for delivery of lend lease aircraft to the Soviet Union. It also transported critical material from South America. The wing commander also served as the United States Army theater commander for South America. After V-E Day, the wing became responsible for the return of aircraft and personnel to the United States. It was inactivated in 1946 as operations in the South Atlantic decreased. History Origins The origins of the wing date to January 1942, when Air Corps Ferrying Command informally organized sectors under its Foreign Division to provide control officers at various points on its overseas routes for ferrying aircraft. It established a sector at West Palm Beach, Florida on 23 January. The West Palm Beach Sector was formally established on 14 February and renamed the South Atlantic Sector in April. However, the relationship between the sector headquarters and the control officers at the stations along the routes in its area of responsibility remained unclear. In the spring of 1942, a reorganization of the Foreign Wing contemplated the addition of regularly scheduled airlift service to the ferrying mission of the sector, accompanied by a transition of scheduled service from airline to military personnel. The new, expanded organizations would also be responsible for the service and maintenance of aircraft, communications and flight supervision at stations under their control. This plan was implemented in June 1942, with the South Atlantic Sector split between the 27th Wing at West Palm Beach and the 24th Army Air Forces Ferrying Wing, which was activated at Georgetown, British Guiana on 26 June 1942. Within a few days, the Ferrying Command had become Air Transport Command (ATC) and the wing, the South Atlantic Wing, Air Transport Command. Prior to the entry of either the United States or Brazil into World War II, in January 1941, negotiations began for American use of airfields for military use in northern Brazil. These negotiations were carried out by Pan American Airways through its subsidiary Panair do Brasil, to give them the appearance of being for commercial airfields. Panair proposed improvements to a number of airports in northern Brazil, which would include construction of facilities to support