Veterans honor Berlin Airlift's 60th anniversary

BERLIN: American, British and French veterans have returned to Germany to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift.

Dr. Helmut Trotnow, the curator of the Allied Museum in Berlin, attributed part of the dissolution of the Soviet blockade to the U.S. armed forces involved in the airlift.

"This is not just an aspect of history in the books, but it's flesh and blood human beings," he said. "They had feelings. They had hopes. They had thoughts. They had ideas, and you know if they hadn't had stuck to their ideas of freedom and democracy, the Berlin Airlift might not have been a success."

The Berlin Airlift kicked off with Operation Vittles. Its mission was to supply roughly 1,500 tons worth of goods daily to keep more than 2 million East Berliners alive while under Soviet occupation. West Berlin was occupied by Allied interests: the United States, Great Britain and France.

In June 1948, the newly created U.S. Air Force, with help from the French and British air forces reacted to the blockade with continual daily flights that dropped much needed food and supplies into the city of West Berlin. On May 12, 1949, the Soviet government yielded and lifted the blockade.

"We had a job to do and we got it done," said retired Master Sgt. Jonny Macia, an aircraft maintainer from the airlift. "The crews were flying night and day. We had everybody doing their job, and at Templehoff, the planes were coming in about every 90 seconds. The aircraft were tearing up the runways, so the German's had men and women on the side with shovels and sand and tar filling up the holes. It took everyone to run the operation. At the time we just thought we needed to get it done."

The Airlift ended Sept. 30, 1949, 15 months after it started. In total, the U.S. and British aircrews delivered more than 2.3 million tons of goods from 277,569 flights to Berlin. Some historians say this "battle" saved more than 2.5 million people without firing a single shot.