At the Quebec conference in August 1943, President Roosevelt agreed to Prime Minister Churchill's request for U.S. air support for the British Chindits commanded by General Orde Wingate, and General H.H. Arnold used the opportunity to apply air power in full support of ground combat operations. A 528-man all-volunteer force was recruited beginning in September 1943, and by December men and equipment were in place in India. On March 5, 1944, Operation Thursday began as British Chindits were flown by glider at night to a field 150 miles behind Japanese lines in Burma. A dirt airstrip was cut out the next day, and within a week 12,000 additional troops, 1,300 mules, and tons of equipment and supplies were airlifted into Broadway. L-1 and L-5 light planes, gliders, and a YR-4 helicopter evacuated sick and wounded personnel, while C-47s and UC-64s carried resupply flights and P-51s and B-25s provided air cover, close air support, and interdiction. After May 1944, the redesignated groups supported the British 14th Army in its victorious drive to Rangoon, with additional personnel assigned and P-47s replacing P-51s while operations continued with the same esprit de corps. The strategy of General Arnold, the leadership of Colonels Philip Cochran and John Alison, and the bravery of the 1st Air Commandos played a significant role in the defeat of the Japanese in Burma. The name Air Commando was chosen by Gen. H. H. Arnold as a tribute to Admiral Louis Mountbatten, who had formed and trained the first British Commandos and served as Supreme Allied Commander for Southeast Asia. The Chindits were highly trained jungle fighters organized as a reinforced division to infiltrate behind Japanese lines and disrupt communications and supply lines, and their high casualty rates led to the request from the United States for help evacuating the wounded. After a glider crash during night training killed British Chindits, a British commander sent a message saying, "Please be assured that we will go with your boys, any place, any time, any where," and that phrase became the motto of the 1st Air Commando Group, later retained in abbreviated form by Special Operations Command of the U.S. Air Force.