Word: haylifts
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Dates: during 1949-1949
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...Haylifts. Westerners-with eleventh-hour aid from state and federal governments-began a grim and final battle with the weather. The most spectacular was "Operation Haylift"-the Air Force's attempt to feed more than a million sheep and 100,000 cattle marooned in distant and desolate corners of Nevada and Utah...
Hazards. The engines of the planes, chilled nightly in the sub-zero cold at Fallen, had to be warmed with hot air for hours before flight. Operation Haylift flew over rugged mountains which pilots nicknamed "Lower Slobbovia." To get feed close to the animals, the planes flew low (from 150 to 200 ft.) while airmen, muffled and goggled, toiled in a storm of freezing wind and flying chaff to kick bales out of open doors...
Once dropped, the hay was ready for feeding-the tightly pressed bales frequently burst like bombs when they hit the ground, scattering loose alfalfa in sprays. In its first seven days, Operation Haylift had flown 126 "sorties," had dropped 525 tons of alfalfa, seemed on the way to saving thousands of starving animals. Other missions were flown from Denver, Ogden, Utah; Kearney, Neb.; and Rapid City...
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