Colonel Mark “Plug” Vlahos retired
from the United States Air Force in
2011. During his 29- year career, he
served in a wide-range of operational
flying and staff assignments including
command of a C-130 squadron in combat
and Vice Wing Commander of the 314th
Airlift Wing at Little Rock Air Force
Base, which was then the largest C-130
wing in the world. Colonel Mark
Vlahos is the author of Leading
the Way to Victory: A History of the
60th Troop Carrier Group 1940–1945.
According to the book description of
Leading the Way to Victory: A
History of the 60th Troop Carrier
Group 1940–1945, "The December
7, 1941, surprise attack on Pearl
Harbor thrust the United States into
World War II. Just six months later in
May 1942, flying new C-47 transport
aircraft, the 60th Troop Carrier Group
led the way as the first U.S. TCG to
deploy to England and the European
Theater of Operations in World War II.
Leading the way to victory, the 60th
TCG’s first mission—dropping U. S.
paratroopers outside of Oran, North
Africa—was not only the first combat
airborne mission in U.S. Army history,
but also the longest airborne mission
of the entire war. This drop
spearheaded Operation TORCH, also
known as the Invasion of North Africa,
by taking key Axis airfields just
inland from the amphibious landing
zones. The 60th TCG went on to fly
some of the first combat aeromedical
evacuation missions and the first
combat mission towing CG-4A “Waco”
gliders during Operation HUSKY—the
Invasion of Sicily. As the new
airborne, air land, aeromedical
evacuation, and glider missions
matured in World War II, the 60th TCG
continued to play a major role, paying
in blood for valuable lessons learned
in the school of hard knocks. The
group later flew dramatic missions
into Yugoslavia, supporting Partisans
as part of the secret war in the
Balkans, an episode of World War II
history still all but unknown today
and dropped British paratroops in the
airborne invasion of Greece. The Group
was inactivated at the end of the
war.
Drawing on official United States Army
Air Forces microfilm records,
operational records in the National
Archives, photographs from both
collections, published historical
materials, and many personal accounts,
author Mark C. Vlahos’ expertly
written and highly readable volume is
certain to become the standard history
and go-to reference for the 60th TCG.
This work offers scholars and lay
readers alike an authoritative,
informative, and engaging saga of the
Group’s battles, adversity, hardships,
and triumphs from inception through
the Allied victory in Europe."