FReeper Canteen ~ The Berlin Airlift Part 4: The Legacy ~ December 22, 2014

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[Kathy in Alaska]

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The Berlin Airlift Part 4:  The Legacy
All info and photos from this website.

Link to Part One
Link to Part Two
Link to Part Three

           

THE AIRLIFT'S LEGACY
 

The most obvious result of this confrontation was the 40-year Cold War with the Soviet Union, which ebbed with the construction of the Berlin Wall, and the Korean and Vietnam Conflicts.  The US also forged a newfound friendship with Germany, its former foe, and established the Federal Republic of Germany as a result.  In addition, the North Atlantic Treaty organization (NATO) was formed as a result of the crisis. 

Less politically, our aircraft and airway system we enjoy today was developed and perfected as a result of the Berlin Airlift.  Ground Controlled Approach or GCA was greatly improved as a necessity for the aircraft to land in Berlin, and our air traffic control system is a direct development of that technology.  Loading procedures and maintenance procedures are greatly improved as a result, too.

More importantly, the Berlin Airlift demonstrated the military need for Air Transport in addition to Bombers and Fighters.  A result is the Air Mobility Command and aircraft like the C-141 Starlifter, the C-130 Hercules, the C-5 Galaxy, and our newest transport, the C-17 Globemaster III. 

All of these political and logistical ideas came as a result of the resolve of the US, Great Britain, France, and Germany to resist totalitarian tactics and wage a battle of air transport.  This battle saved over 2.5 million people without firing a single shot.  In a matter of fifteen months in 1948-49, world history was changed by the greatest humanitarian aviation event in history, the Berlin Airlift. 

MEMORIALS: The Airlift Memorial at Rhein Main Air Base, Frankfurt, and on Luftbruckenplatz at Tempelhf  Airport in Berlin.

Each prong represents one of the 3 air corridors used during "Operation Vittles", and the names of the US and British Airmen killed in the process are inscribed on the base of each.

31 Americans lost their lives during the Berlin Airlift, paying the ultimate price for the freedom of others.  Let that not be forgotten.

1st Lt George B. Smith Tuscaloosa, Alabama	Captain James A. Vaughan New Haven, Connecticut	Cpl Norbert H. Theis Cunningham, Kansas
1st Lt Leland V. Williams Abilene, Texas	1st Lt Eugene S. Erickson Collinsville, Illinois	PFC Ronald E. Stone  Mt. Sterling, Kentucky
Mr Karl V. Hagen New York, New York	Sgt Richard Winter Seattle, Washington	1st Lt Ralph H. Boyd Fort Worth, Texas
1st Lt Charles H. King Britton, South Dakota	Captain Billy E. Phelps Long Beach, California	1st Lt Craig B. Ladd Minneapolis, Minnesota
1st Lt Robert W. Stuber Arlington, California	1st Lt Willis F. Hargis Nacogdoches, Texas	TSgt Charles L. Putnam Colorado Springs, Colorado
Major Edwin C. Diltz Fayetteville, Texas	TSgt Lloyd G. Wells San Antonio, Texas	1st Lt Robert P. Weaver Fort Wayne, Indiana
Captain Willian R. Howard Gunnison, Mississippi	AD/3 Harry R. Crites, Jr. Lafayette, Indiana	1st Lt Royce C. Stephens San Antonio, Texas
Captain Joel M. DeVolentine Miami, Florida	1st Lt Richard M. Wurgel Union City, New Jersey	1st Lt Robert C. von Luehrte Covington, Kentucky
1st Lt William T. Lucas Wilson, North Carolina	1st Lt Lowell A. Wheaton, Jr. Corpus Christi, Texas	2nd Lt Donald J. Leemon Green Bay, Wisconsin
PFC Johnny T. Orms Rhein-Main Air Base	Captain William A. Rathgeber Portland, Oregon	TSgt Herbert F. Heinig Fort Wayne, Indiana
	Sgt Bernard J. Watkins Lafayette, Indiana

 

Please remember the Canteen is here to honor, support and entertain our troops and their families.  This is a politics-free zone!  Thanks for helping us in our mission!

[MEG33]

Happy Monday To The Canteen
Wishing You A Merry Christmas Week
(((HUGS)))

[MEG33]

Oh My!!!You work at a very popular store.
Love your owls.

[HiJinx]

I hope you get a chance to sit a bit this week - looks like working where you do can be a real pain in the legs and back!

[luvie]

That long and longer. It is tiring but everyone seems to be in a good mood for the most part.

[CH3CN]

Kathy,

Sorry to post so late to this thread, but post I must. My MIL has lived with us for the past three years. She turned 100 years old last May. She was born in Berlin. Her father was a German Mennonite farmer whose family, generations before, had been invited by Catherine the Great to Russia to teach farming to the rural folks. After a required 2 year stint in the Russian Forestry Service, he had gone to Berlin to get a degree in Divinity so he could teach in the local college when he went back to Russia. But, things got crazy in 1914.

While in Russia, near the Black Sea, he had met his wife, an English woman whose father was a factory owner in Sheffield. She was a widow with 4 children having previously married another Mennonite farmer who died suddenly from a virus. Man did they click. They married and whole family (which had already increased by one) went to Berlin while the
father studied. There, my MIL was born in May near a street lined with Linden trees. One night in August, her mother said to the family that they must get up from dinner and all go to England immediately. They got up from the table, grabbed a few clothes, and walked out of the house with dirty dishes still on the table. She knew war was going to break out and they could not return to their home in Russia, nor stay and get stranded in E. Berlin. They headed for the harbor and the family of 8 hopped one of the last ships out of Germany before the war broke out the next day.

They arrived in England and stayed a couple of months with her family in Sheffield, but could not stay there because of her father being German. So, they found a distant relative in the United States to sponsor them and once again the family, mother pregnant again with her 7th child, went to Canada, down the St. Lawrence and finally settled in Nebraska, then Kansas, Indiana, Detroit, Texas, and finally Missouri. All together the family wound up as 2 brothers and 2 sisters (from first husband) and 6 more sisters with husband number two.

My MIL has spent 3 years telling me the stories and it’s been so amazing. She had a stroke about a month ago and is now hospicing in our house. (Anyone with good advice about hospice, please feel free to let me know.) I’ve been pulling night detail as I can sleep better in a chair than a bed because of my back and so everyone gets a decent night sleep. It’s about time for me to hit the hay so I can get to my post by 11:00 pm.

I hope you enjoy the little story from a long absent poster.

BSW

[Repeal The 17th]

I don’t know if you know it or not, but you are blessed.

[CH3CN]

You better believe I know it! It has been such a reward having this lady stay with us. I’ll be forever grateful to my husband for bringing her here.

[luvie]

I actually did get a chance to sit and do some stuff in the back for a while today, so I’m glad you wished it! :)

2 more days. The line was ever bit as long when I left this afternoon. We’re also running out of stuff. We’ll have angry peeps by the time it’s over. Not that they couldn’t have come in 2 or 3 weeks ago or anything! Right?

[SandRat]