to training aircrew and support personnel in their new PSYWAR mission and in rebuilding Mountain Home AFB, which had fallen into disrepair since the end of World War II. "A B-29 assigned to the 581st Air Resupply Squadron, 580th Air Resupply and Communications Wing (ARCW), based at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, conducted trials at Eglin AFB, during the summer of 1951 to determine if the aircraft could be used to extract personnel utilizing the prototype Personnel Pickup Ground Station extraction system. The test aircraft was modified with a 48-inch diameter opening in place of the aft-belly turret and with an elongated tailhook at the rear of the aircraft. The system was similar to the one adopted in 1952 by Fifth Air Force for the C-47 Skytrains of the Special Air Missions detachment in Korea. The tests proved technically feasible, but the project was dropped for the B-29 aircraft due to aircraft size and safety considerations of flying it so close to the ground." In July and September 1952 the 580th ARCW, which had been stationed at Mountain Home AFB since its activation, embarked its support personnel by way of ship to North Africa for its initial deployment overseas. Assigned B-29s flew out of Westover AFB, Massachusetts, with a planned refueling and overnight crew rest stop in the Azores en route to Wheelus AB, Libya. The C-119s and SA-16s, with a much shorter range than the B-29s, took a northern route through Iceland, England, and Italy before arriving in Libya. Life at Wheelus AB for the 580th was Spartan, at best, for the first six months of operations. Personnel lived and worked in tents enduring the sweltering summer heat of North Africa. Low-level training was emphasized for the aircrews. The B-29s and C-119s flew low over the Mediterranean Sea, and flew 500 feet above the Libyan desert. In January 1954 a B-29 was lost during a low-level training mission when it failed to clear a ridgeline. A primary customer for the 580th was the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) (10th SFG) (A) which was garrisoned at Bad Tölz, West Germany, in the Bavarian Alps. Tenth Group personnel would deploy to Libya for parachute and desert survival training. Dropping at 1,000 feet above the ground, B-29 navigators utilized the Norden bombsight developed during World War II to determine the release point. The bombsight proved to be equally as accurate at 1,000 feet