Evening star., 1949-05-12
By Charles NJ. Egcn
News Editer 81 riss Star


not completely satisfied with the
military unification picture as it
appears from his Pentagon ofice.
he can obtain considerable COM
fort from the evidences of inter-
service cooperation here and at
Frankfurt. Wiesbaden and other
key points on the Berlin Airlift.
In fact, when q final appraisal
Of the airlift's accomplishments Is
made 1t Is not unlikely that this
welding of the services viii rank
in importance only behind the
primary aim-to supply Berlin
and the training benefits accruing
to our. airmen. which many now
believe the most vital development
Of all.
To illustrate:
Not long after Operation vittles
broke all records on Easter Satur-
day by hauling 12,s4l tons during
a 24-hour period. ! talked at
Wiesbaden with Mai Gen. Will
liam H. Tunner. commander OF
the Combined Airlift Task Force
and one of the lifts guiding
geniuses. During the talk he went
out of his way to praise the Army
and its Transportation Corps, say
ing:
mot once since this operation
started last June 26 have our
planes been delayed a single min
ute waiting for a load. On one
occasion early in the game there
was only a 15-minute margin, but
the Army came through"
Navy Gets Efficiency Honorss
The same day read in the Task
Force Times a lead story from
Frankfurt emphasizing that for
the second straight month two
Navy squadrons-VRS and VR6-
had finished first and second in
the race for airlift efficiency hon.
ors. YRS. commanded by Comdr.
James o. Vosseller Of Pensacola,
Fla, which now has topped all
others for four months, had In
March q rating Of 15l.1 per cent
for efficiency utilization" It had
exceeded its quota requirements
by $40 tons In one month. and
servicemen Of all branches had
their hats of.
Later, at sprawling Tempelhof
Field here. where for nearly IL
months all the big C-54s from
Frankfurt and Wiesbaden have
been landing. Mai. T. q. Ham
mond, who is In charge. Of the
fields loading and unloading
operations for the Transportation
Corps, called the airlift a perfect
example" of unification Of the
services.
This is the most outstanding
example Of interservice co-opera-
ton have ever seen." said Maj.
Hammond, who has been here
since last September and took
charge on December /. He stressed
that there had been mo friction
whatsoever" between Army. Navy
and Air Force traffic officers.
Mai. Hammond, who halls
from Sparrows Point. Md. where
his wife and 8-year-old daughter
are living, also had words Of
praise for the German crews who
load and unload the heavy bags Of
coal, flour. etc.
Its more than Just q job to
them" he said. "They are actu-
ally proud to be connected with
the air]ift and have developed be-
tween the crews q keen. friendly
sense of competition"
Germans Hard Workers.
My own opinion. formed after
q weeks observation, Is that
these German laborers are as hard
workers as would be found in any
piecework operation anywhere.
They handle the heavy bags as If
thsy weighed little or nothing, and
act rs though they were competing
In q race all the while.
They work with such zeal and
concentration that one crew. on
the big Easter Saturday. almost
caused one plane to be overloaded
on q flight from the Rhine Main
airbase, near Frankfurt. The pilot
Of this plane was in such a hurry
that he was out on the runway.
engines roaring for the takeoff, be-
fore it was discovered that the
tie-down crew was still aboard.
The German laborers. who had
been so intent on their work that
they didn't even notice what was
happening, were quickly unloaded.
This industrious side Of the Ger
man character. incidentally. Is