Word: airlifted
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Beneath the mushroom shadow that hung over Berlin, the cold war's moves and countermoves continued. Last week President Kennedy announced that he was sending retired General Lucius Clay, commander of U.S. forces in Europe during the tense days of the 1948-49 airlift, back to Berlin as his personal representative. Berlin knew Clay as a clear-and tough minded man who would report the situation as he saw it without diplomatic sweetening. Cried West Berlin's Mayor Willy Brandt: "Berlin will welcome him like a homecoming...
...Communists block ground-supply routes into West Berlin, would another massive airlift work? The most experienced airlift expert of them all, retired Air Force Lieut. General William H. Tunner, is certain that it would. He even has a plan detailing just how it could be done...
Tall, white-haired Tunner, 55, now a Virginia gentleman farmer, ran the Allied airlift over the hump between India and China in World War II, went on to mesh U.S., French and British aircraft into the effective lift that broke the Red blockade of Berlin, and after that to direct the Korean war air supply shuttle between Japan and Korea...
...Tunner's airlift required eight airfields in West Germany and three in Berlin, including famed Tempelhof, which was ringed by buildings. Tunner would use just three fields this time: at the West German end, the two closest to Berlin in the central air corridor, and in Berlin, unobstructed Tegel Airport in the French sector. Using these three fields would avoid the 5,000-ft. climb to clear mountains, cut the average distance nearly in half, permit the planes to flow toward Tegel at a mere 500 ft., returning in a wide northern loop to approach their home fields from...
UNDER the Kennedy program of increased flexibility, the Air Force will increase its airlift capacity-now one of the weakest links in U.S. defenses-by calling up an unannounced number of reserve squadrons flying C-124s, and Air National Guard squadrons equipped with C-97s. In addition, the Air Force will keep in service some C-118s that were scheduled for deactivation. By squeezing more mileage out of these aging, prop-driven planes, the Air Force will boost its airlift capability by 25%, will be able to fly two divisions to Europe in about two weeks. Looking ahead...