written by Todd DePastino Former USAF pilot Dick Westerhoff recently mentioned that when he flew the F-104 in the late 1950s, the ejection seat fired downward out the bottom of the aircraft. If you think that sounds like a bad idea, you're right. It was. Dick's Lockheed F-104 Starfighter was the leading
By Phil Metzler In the spring 2023 issue of VBC Magazine, we ran an article about the Berlin Airlift of 1948-1949. Army veteran Phil Metzler of Lancaster, PA, responded by sharing his own memories of serving in Berlin, not in the Airlift, but thirteen years later during the second Berlin Crisis. Below is his
Written by Todd DePastino It was hardly a speech. The 674 spoken words were more like "remarks." But what remarks they were. On June 26, 1963, President John F. Kennedy stood before a crowd of 120,000 West Berliners on Rudolph Wilde Platz and, in the German language, declared himself citizen of that partitioned city.
Written by Todd DePastino The Berlin Air Lift of 1948-1949 owed its enormous success not only to the skill, determination, and courage of its air crews but also to good old American hoopla that publicized it. The Cold War, among other things, was a battle of messaging, as the United States and the Soviet
Written by Todd DePastino The Berlin Airlift, which began 75 years ago on June 25, was one of the United States Armed Forces’ finest hours. Children watching a U.S. cargo plane landing at Tempelhof Airfield in Berlin, 1948 (USAF Historical Research Agency) For almost one year, the US Air Force, with the
Written by Todd DePastino All he did was give candy to children. But in doing so, Lieutenant Gail Halvorsen inadvertently launched one of the greatest diplomatic missions of the Cold War. A Douglas C-54 Skymaster dropping candy over Berlin (Museum of USAF) In November 2020, we welcomed the 100-year-old Berlin Airlift hero
