its title. Accordingly, the command was redesignated the I Troop Carrier Command. The command's mission was "the training of troop carrier units, which provide for the air movement of air landing troops and equipment, including glider-borne troops troops and parachute troops and equipment; and for the training of air evacuation units." The AAF established the troop carrier mission as one of the four combat missions of the Army Air Forces – bombardment, pursuit or fighter, reconnaissance and troop carrier. Crew training In the early stages of training, the command relied heavily on airline pilots as instructors, and used various models of the Douglas DC-3 obtained from airlines, in addition to C-47s produced for the military for training. Later, the command began to train crews on the larger Curtiss C-46 Commando, and by the end of the war, the command was exclusively training with the C-46. The Operational - Replacement Training Units (OTU-RTU) system of operational training, which was used in the fighter and bombardment training programs, was also adopted for troop carrier instruction. Command training drew from the graduates of AAF Training Command two-engine flight schools for the pilot and co-pilot, along with a newly graduated navigator, radio operator and an aerial engineer from AAF Training Command technical schools to complete a troop carrier aircrew for the C-47. Individual crew members were expected to show proficiency in skills normally exercised by the corresponding specialists of bombardment crews, however proficiency in aerial gunnery was not required because the troop transports carried no armament. Members of troop carrier crews, on the other hand, had special duties not required in other types of combat units. The pilot, for example, had to be capable of glider towing and to be familiar with the flight characteristics of gliders, while the aerial engineer had to know how to attach glider tow ropes and operate and maintain glider pickup equipment. A unique characteristic troop of carrier aircrews was the ability to make accurate drops of aerial delivery containers, both free and parachuted, into small clearings surrounded by natural obstacles. This mission, especially important in the Pacific and CBI theaters supported small units of soldiers and commando units behind enemy lines where aerial resupply was their only means of sustainment. This mission also required the crew to employ "kickers", men whose duty was literally to "kick" the resupply containers out of the door of the aircraft, which was