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Our Troops Rock!  Thank you for all you do!   For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.   Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today!     ~ Hall of Heroes ~ Part 4, The LegecyAll info and photos from this website. Link to Part 1 Link to Part 2 Link to Part 3             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...

Our Troops Rock!  Thank you for all you do!   For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.   Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today!     ~ Hall of Heroes ~ ~ The Berlin Airlift ~ Part 3:  Operation Little VittlesAll info and photos from this website. Link to Part One Link to Part Two             "DER SCHOKOLADEN FLIEGER"   OPERATION LITTLE VITTLES   40K JPEG General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force is...

Our Troops Rock!  Thank you for all you do!   For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.   Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today!     ~ Hall of Heroes ~ Part 2: OperationsAll info and photos from this website. Link to Part One             Lt. Gen. William H. Tunner:  directed Berlin Airlift operation    A native of New Jersey and son of an immigrant father, General Tunner was awarded an appointment to West Point upon his graduation from Roselle...

Just days after Berlin's Tempelhof Airport was turned into a giant city park, people gathered on Wednesday in the German capital to commemorate the Berlin Airlift. Originally known as Operation Vittles, the Airlift was a stopgap mission to circumvent the Soviet Blockade imposed on West Berlin in June 1948. For eleven months, the Western Allies flew 2.3 tonnes of food, coal and emergency supplies to sustain the lives of some two million Berliners, who lived in the American, British and French occupied zones. “You have to imagine,” said Berlin Mayor Klaus Woweriet in a speech, “the Airlift happened just a...

TODAY every news service in the world will transmit the same gratifying and facile images of the destruction of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago: a moment when -- as solemn-voiced announcers will intone in practised cadences -- not just a wall, but an entire era was ground into brick-dust. Such commemorations are easy and agreeable because they invite us to celebrate the ending of something, without requiring us to know anything about what it was that ended. What could be more pleasant than to enjoy an obscurely heart-lifting, lung-expanding sensation of liberation without having to trouble ourselves as to...

(Planes flew a distance equivalent to flying to the moon and back 63 times) Ceremonies have been taking place in Berlin to mark the 60th anniversary of the ending of the blockade of West Berlin by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. In 1948, Stalin cut off all land links into West Berlin in an attempt to force out British, French and US troops. Instead, the Western nations launched the biggest airlift in history to keep 2.25 million residents from starving. For the next 11 months, planes landed every two minutes, bringing in total more than 2.5m tonnes of supplies. Seventy-eight aircrew...

Our Troops Rock!  Thank you for all you do!   For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.   Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today!     ~ Hall of Heroes ~ The Berlin Airlift Part 3:  Operation Little VittlesAll info and photos from this website. Link to Part One Link to Part Two               "DER SCHOKOLADEN FLIEGER"   OPERATION LITTLE VITTLES   40K JPEG General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force is shown...

Let’s give him credit: Obama gives a good speech. His cadence and rhythm of delivery is excellent. But, his abilities in this regard are overrated. If one strips bare all the stock, and by now, predictable platitudes that form the basis for his orations, what one finds is a lot of cheerful, but empty sloganeering that often times seeks to reconcile the irreconcilable (Philadelphia speech) or that in the end, reveals that there is no unifying or meaningful theme throughout, but rather, the presence of a lot of syrupy, mellifluous mush. Thus, a common reaction among many ordinary folks after...

Our Troops Rock!  Thank you for all you do!   For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.   Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today!     ~ Hall of Heroes ~ 60th Anniversary of theBerlin Airlift Part 3 All info and photos from this website.             June 30 was the 60th Anniversary of the Berlin Airlift, a subject which we covered in detail in December 2007 in these threads:We're going to look at a few other stories surrounding this heroic...

This is a "heads-up" for presentations on what sound like promising books (well, in my humble opinion). I'll post fuller info below, but the books are: If By Sea: The Forging of the American Navy - from the Revolution to the War of 1812 The Candy Bombers: The Untold Story of the Berlin Airlift and America's Finest Hour "Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad"

VILLANOVA, Pennsylvania: As the 60th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift approaches, recycled myths about its accomplishments drop from the sky like candy into the waiting arms of Americans hungry for a foreign policy alternative to endless war and secret torture. But politicians and pundits looking for a humanitarian policy to win the world's hearts and minds should look back to the airlift with caution. Sixty years after British and American planes began to fly supplies to West Berliners facing a Soviet blockade, even the faux news program "Colbert Report" has reprised the Cold War refrain that the airlift saved the...

ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Md., May 17, 2008 – The historic humanitarian efforts of the Berlin Airlift 60 years ago demonstrated to U.S. allies and enemies alike that the country would not be deterred from its commitments, the Air Force secretary said today. Two Oracle bi-planes perform aerial acrobatics during the Joint Service Open House at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., May 17, 2008. Thousands attended the event, which coincided with the 60th Anniversary of the Berlin Airlift. Defense Dept. photo by Fred W. Baker III  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “It displayed a U.S. dedication to a...

ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Md., May 17, 2008 – The historic humanitarian efforts of the Berlin Airlift 60 years ago demonstrated to U.S. allies and enemies alike that the country would not be deterred from its commitments, the Air Force secretary said today. “It displayed a U.S. dedication to a stable and prosperous rule of law and international system. It demonstrated truly the ingenuity of America’s military to create sovereign options … in response to a changing national security environment,” said Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne, speaking at the opening ceremonies of the Joint Service Open House at Andrews Air...

Our Troops Rock!  Thank you for all you do!   For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.   Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today!     ~ Hall of Heroes ~ The Berlin Airlift Part 4:  The LegacyAll info and photos from this website. Link to Part OneLink to Part TwoLink 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...

Our Troops Rock!  Thank you for all you do!   For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.   Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today!     ~ Hall of Heroes ~ The Berlin Airlift Part 3:  Operation Little VittlesAll info and photos from this website. Link to Part One Link to Part Two               "DER SCHOKOLADEN FLIEGER"   OPERATION LITTLE VITTLES   40K JPEG General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force is shown...

Our Troops Rock!  Thank you for all you do!   For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.   Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today!     ~ Hall of Heroes ~ The Berlin Airlift Part 1:  The BeginningAll info and photos from this website.             For the next four weeks, on Mondays, the Hall of the Heroes threads will be about the Berlin Airlift and it's heroes.  I hope the story inspires you like it does me!  Thank you to...

(On This Day In History) June 26, 1948 : Berlin Airlift Begins In response to the Soviet blockade of land routes into West Berlin, the United States begins a massive airlift of food, water, and medicine to the citizens of the besieged city. For nearly a year, supplies from American planes sustained the over 2 million people in West Berlin. On June 24, 1948, the Soviet Union blocked all road and rail travel to and from West Berlin, which was located within the Soviet zone of occupation in Germany. The Soviet action was in response to the refusal of American...

Berlin-Tempelhof, Hitler’s favourite airport, could yet be rescued by one of the world’s most influential Jewish philanthropists. Cosmetics billionaire, New York socialite and art collector Ronald Lauder – son of the celebrated Estée Lauder - is behind a €350m (£235m) project to turn the Third Reich architectural relic into a luxury fly-in health clinic for Europe’s super rich. Berlin's cash-strapped city fathers earlier this year finally cleared the way to develop the proposed new Berlin Brandenburg International (BBI) on the site of the present Schönefeld airport to the south east of the city, handling an annual 22 million passengers. Inner...

For the past month, there has been heavy advertising for a made-for-tv movie on SAT1 Television called "Die Luftbruecke" (this means "The Airlift"). I was skeptical that it would be pro-American. However, I can't believe me eyes: the movie that everyone in Germany is watching tonight...accurately portrays the Americans as doing everything they can to save Berlin from Stalin, and the film is showing many American heroes dying as their planes crash from the chaos. German children are waving and cheering as the American pilots fly overhead...and German women are saying yes to marriage proposals from Americans. Am I in...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel...

President Bush Discusses Iraq in Veterans Day Address Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center Washington, D.C. 1:16 P.M. EST THE PRESIDENT: Ed, thank you very much. It's an honor to be here. I appreciate your invitation. I want to thank you for your decades of leadership in the conservative movement. Presidents come and go, except here at the Heritage Foundation. (Laughter.) I appreciate being with your good bride, Linda; the trustees of the Heritage; the longtime Heritage supporters; and the Ronald Reagan Fellow at Heritage, a man who is a fine leader and a fine Attorney General, Ed...

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) -- The pilot known as the Candy Bomber for air-dropping handkerchief-tethered chocolate and gum to the children of Berlin in 1948 wants to do the same thing for the kids of Baghdad. "I'd give my right arm to do it," said retired Air Force Col. Gail Halvorsen. "I've had the experience of the reaction of the kids on the ground. It's just incredible." When the Soviets formed a blockade around Berlin after World War II, Halvorsen and other U.S. pilots airlifted food, medicine and other supplies into the city. During that time, Halvorsen collected rations from his...