The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1949-02-17


my dress.
anybody riding the airlift, they
explained. has 10 be ready to
buckle on a parachute harness. il
necessary That's why trousers
are De rigeur.
really hadn't expected to be a
hitchhiker. But the fog was SO
thick in Frankfurt. the capital of
the American Zone in Western
Germany, that nothing flew for
nearly three days. Commercial
planes were still grounded when
the Berlin blockade busters be-
gan taxing off again.
The woods around the Rhein-
Main airport looked like a setting
for The Snow Maiden. The C-54s.
were zooming off into the mist
like street cars passing a down.
town street corner. One every
four OF five minutes.
Changed into overalls, l climb
ed zap an eight-foot ladder and
into my ship. Flight Engineer L.
=. Eichenlaub, of Mt. Vernon,
Washington. took my hat-box and
weekend bag up past the dusty
piles of flour sacks TO the crew
compartment.
Flour Is heavier than a house,
wife would guess. The ten tons
covered only a fraction of the
cargo deck.
! 80, on the lower bunk in what
the crew call their bedroom, just
behind the radio controls. II was
strcwn with parachutes and 9TH
~ gear
mo seat belts here" said Engi-
neer Eichenlaub, lust hold on"
Before ] knew il, we were in
thc air. Dense fog streamed past
the port hole window. Then SUM-
shine came pouring in. We were
zap 500 feet and il was quite clear.
Lieutenant Junior grade) @. w.
Kimmons was flying on a beam.
Ne made II seem easy. He said he
was a long way from home in
Akron, Ohio. and even farther
from his last navy assignment
ilying between Honolulu and
Guam.
he and ihs co-pilot, Ensign
W A. Nomber, of Gary, Nebras-
ka. and his engineer had come
over together in a transferred Pa
Ofic squadron. They were the
first Navy crew to cross the At
lantic Co Join the airlife.
They had one night out in
Paris, but mostly for two months
they had been contending with
Ocrmany's cold and fog. Their
squadron had ~ planes and had
set a record Of 40 flights to Berlin
in "a hours.
| asked II we were sure of be-
,ng able 90 land at Tempelhof
field IN Berlin, because weather
reports from there hadn't been
too reassuring and we would ar
rive after dark. The young pilot
grinned
They tell US that il the ceiling
lis less than 500 feet, the landing
is done al a pilots own discre-
ton" he said. My own limit is
ADO feet. AS far as I'm concerned,
there are always three VIPs
aboard-me, my co-pilot and my
engineer We're all very impor-
tant persons. II it's less than 400,
wei 60 over to Fassberg in the
British Zone. That flour back
there is worth only a minimum
risk"
Over Fulda, | was given a
chance % broadcast our identifi-
cation and position signal to al
ground station.
1t makes a nice change to hear
q wOman's voice on our commu-
nications system" Lieut.. Kim
mons said.
"Of course, somebody may
think its Just an imitation and
kid YOU, cautioned Ensign Nom
her
ia barely concluded the signal
with Roger" when a baritone
voice came through my earr
phones.
Hey, Babe. when did you
leave California;"
| thought this proved the sys-
tenn has remarkable clarity, at
least for California accents.
The sun had set before we
neared Berlin after 100 minutes
~ the air. Any other city might
have danced with lights. But
pipst Of Berlin was dark. Airlift
eoal Is precious here and cleo
tricity Is Skimped.
Tcmpelhofs GCA-ground con-
troll for approach-started direct
ing us vocally We circled accord
ING 90 instructions. A steady
stream of precise information
came over the radio - altitude,
speed. time, headings. and rate of
descent
Landing in misty darkness,
even by GOA, impressed me as
akin Ia driving blindfOlded a
hcavy truck AZ top speed down a
sheer mountain grade.
We rushed downward al two
strings 81 white. yellow and red
lights. marking the Tempelhof
runway. I was standing up cling