to other units and the unit inactivated the following month. Reactivation in the reserve The reserve flying mission began at Andrews Air Force Base in the summer of 1954, when the 756th Troop Carrier Squadron was activated and equipped with Curtiss C-46 Commando aircraft. By January 1955, reserve operations at Andrews had grown enough to activate the group as the 459th Troop Carrier Group. During the first half of 1955, the Air Force began detaching Air Force reserve squadrons from their parent wing locations to separate sites. The concept offered several advantages: communities were more likely to accept the smaller squadrons than the large wings and the location of separate squadrons in smaller population centers would facilitate recruiting and manning. As it finally evolved in the spring of 1955, the ConAC plan called for placing Air Force reserve units at fifty-nine installations located throughout the United States. One of the first three squadrons involved in the program, the 757th Troop Carrier Squadron was activated at Byrd Field, Virginia and assigned to the group. In the summer of 1956, the group participated in Operation Sixteen Ton during its two weeks of active duty training. Sixteen Ton was performed entirely by reserve troop carrier units and moved United States Coast Guard equipment From Floyd Bennett Naval Air Station to Isla Grande Airport in Puerto Rico and San Salvador in the Bahamas. After the success of Operation Sixteen Ton, the group began to use inactive duty training periods for Operation Swift Lift, transporting high priority cargo for the air force and Operation Ready Swap, transporting aircraft engines, between Air Materiel Command's depots. The Joint Chiefs of Staff were pressuring the Air Force to provide more wartime airlift. At the same time, about 150 Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcars became available from the active force. A third squadron of the group, the 758th Troop Carrier Squadron, was activated at Greater Pittsburgh Airport, Pennsylvania in November 1957, while the 757th Squadron simultaneously moved without personnel or equipment to Youngstown Municipal Airport, Ohio. Both were equipped with the C-119, while the 756th Squadron had begun its own conversion from the C-46. In April 1959 as Continental Air Command converted its operational wing to the dual deputy organization, in which flying and maintenance squadrons were assigned directly to wing headquarters and the group inactivated. Activation as operations group The group was redesignated the 459th Operations Group and reactivated