So began Project Green and Project White, two of the most complex logistics missions in aviation history – and both running concurrently. Project Green would transport the personnel back stateside, Project White would transfer aircraft. Both missions were coordinated out of Bolling Field's Air Transport Command and would reach every corner of the globe before the last of the Green⁄White missions ended in September 1945.

ATC was an outgrowth of the Ferrying Command that had been established prior to American entry into World War II to deliver aircraft for Britain under Lend-lease from United States factories to embarkation points on the East Coast. On June 20, 1942, the Ferrying Command became ATC and assumed worldwide responsibility for transporting personnel, supplies and mail, and maintaining the vast network of air route facilities outside of the United States, as well as ferrying aircraft.

ATC was able to accomplish all this due to the experience of its Airmen, who came from all over the world. Besides Women's Air Force Service Pilots, or WASPs, reservist pilots were also called to active duty to support ATC. But little-known to many today were the hundreds of civilians who were commissioned as officers and became “service pilots,“ a rating for which physical qualifications were lower than for combat pilots.

As the war continued, the ATC grew as former combat personnel who completed their overseas tours were overestimated. As the need for combat pilots dropped, the ATC therefore expanded.

By May 9, 1945, ATC had become the largest airline in the world and was the right type of organization Eisenhower needed at the right time. It had taken the better part of four years for approximately 250,000 servicemen to be relocated and based in Europe and the Mediterranean. He wanted them all home in five months, plus any equipment that could contribute to the defense of the United States that was deemed too valuable to leave behind.

At the peak of its operations, the ATC aircraft fleet of 3,700 aircraft crossed the Atlantic at an average of one every 13 minutes. The longest route was the trip home from China, which flew service members to India, the rear area of the China-Burma Theater, to the Middle East, then Africa, over the Atlantic to Brazil, to Miami, and finally landing at Bolling Field. Only a few traveled this torturous route; most service members returned via Bolling (history is unclear on exactly how many). From airfields on the East Coast, servicemen were then taken to train stations for the trip home. For them, the war was over.

But not for ATC, not by a long shot. As spectacular as Projects Green and White were, ATC lacked a true military mission and its postwar prospects were unclear. The idea had been floated to turn ATC into a national airline, but when the Air Force was created as a separate service in 1947, the Military Air Transport Service was established to support the new Department of Defense. Responsibility for MATS was given to the Air Force, where it continued to function as a military airline until Military Airlift Command replaced it in 1965, now possessing true military capabilities, the “global reach“ envisioned by the Ferrying Command planners of World War II.

After the first Gulf War, MAC evolved into Air Mobility Command. The lesson learned from history? AMC is responsible for issuing military contracts to the nation's airlines in the event a new incarnation of Project Green or Project White is needed again.