Mike Kanze wrote:
The previous posts by Allen and OJ come closest to my recollection.
As a
Navy brat in the 1950s and 1960s I first heard the term with
reference to
consolidating aircraft types at certain bases.

Mini-backgrounder: Back in the 1950s, each active duty Air Group was
based
as a unit at one location, ex all the cats and dogs. (They weren't
called
Air Wings until sometime in the 1960s IIRC.) Thus all the squadrons
of Air
Group Nine - VF-91, VF-92, VA-93, VA-94 and VA-95 - were based at NAS

Alameda. When the Master Base concept was implemented on the west
coast, all
the fighters went to NAS Miramar and all the light attack went to the
then
brand-new NAS Lemoore.

And the same held for Air Group 14 -- all based at NAS Miramar, then
the VAs to Lemoore and the VFs stayed at Miramar. Discovered this when
researching the history of then-VF-142 "Fighting Falcons."

I'm not sure but this may have come about at the same time as (or as
the
result of) the implementation of NATOPS. In any event, it made better
sense
to consolidate types for purposes of training and equipment
maintenance.

IIRC from the research, it also came within the time period of Air
Group 12 becoming the RAG on the west coast. Or is the "implementation
of NATOPS" also part of the RAG establishment?

MW