1987 Berlin Airlift Memorial

1987 Berlin Airlift Memorial in Tempelhof

As I was watching the US Air Force Academy Graduation for the class of 2020, it inspired me to tell a story from my days at USAFA. I’m going way back for this post, but it’s an experience I will never forget.

It was the summer of 1987 and it was the summer before my senior year at the Air Force Academy. I had taken every aviation class the Academy had to offer. (My nearsighted eyes wouldn’t allow me to go to pilot training, but I was impassioned that I was going to do whatever it took to take the long route and become a Weapon Systems Officer (WSO) flying fighters.)

Our final exercise was to get to navigate a jet by every means possible, including celestial, across the ocean and back. Looking back now, getting that experience to cross the ocean just by the sun and the stars is something folks will likely seldom ever do again.

Once we got to Europe, we spent time in England and Germany. In Germany we landed at Tempelhof airport in Berlin. We flew in through one of the three air corridors that flew over Soviet controlled East Germany to get into the free portion of West Berlin.

At that time, Berlin was still officially under martial law as an occupied city since WWII. Surprisingly to us, as Cadets we were formally classified as officers in the occupying force. I volunteered for duty that had me traveling all over East Berlin exercising our rights to freely explore the areas controlled in the Russian sector. I had learned to speak some Russian at the Academy. That combined with the incredible sense of history led to a lot of amazing memories. It was VERY clear to me at that time that we were on the good guy side, and the communist Russians and even worse the East Germany security police (the Stasi) were evil. During these tours I had several short interactions with people trapped behind the Berlin Wall in East Berlin, and developed a tremendous sympathy for the plight of those living under communism.

SO NOW TO THE STORY…..

Coming back from one of those tours, I decided to stop at the Berlin Airlift memorial. I was in my blue USAFA service dress, and had my glider pilot wings on my service jacket.

As I walked around the memorial reading the plaques and somberly soaking in the history of the place, I kept noticing an older couple that was walking around the same areas I and that kept looking at me.

I politely walked to the other side of the memorial to move away from them, uncertain if I was interrupting them. They followed me to the other side of the memorial….

At that point they both walked straight toward me. As they came closer I was stunned at what I saw… The older gentleman was dressed in the formal uniform of a World War II era Luftwaffe pilot.

I stopped and stood quietly. They slowly walked right up to me, the man leaning heavily on a cane. When they reached me the gentleman stopped and handed his cane to his wife for her to hold. He forced himself to stand erect, crisply clicked his heels together, and gave me a sharp Nazi salute which he held.

In respect I also snapped to attention and returned his salute with the most professional salute I could muster.

After we both dropped our salutes, I stepped forward and stuck out my hand to shake his. He took my hand, and started to shake it, and wouldn’t let go. I greeted both of them as best I could in my broken German, and in English.

At this point I noticed that both of them had tears in their eyes. Her wife thanked me in English. She said that they were so happy to have found a US service member, and that her husband was thrilled when he saw wings on my chest. He hoped to find a US service member, but to find an Air Force “officer” with wings was more had hoped for.

As I stood still holding the gentleman’s hand, I asked her what had just happened.

She explained that here husband had been a Hitler youth before the war. He learned to fly, and ended up flying Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighters during the war. He shot down American bombers attacking Berlin, and was a proud Nazi. He thought Americans were weak, spoiled, soft and self centered.

He was devastated when Germany surrendered. After the war he remained with his family in what was to soon become West Berlin surrounded by the Soviet occupied region.

It was during this time that he watched hundreds of US Air Force airmen risk and in many cases loose their life supplying critical life-giving food, fuel, and medicine to keep the people of West Berlin alive. He commented with surprise to his wife that these American’s would risk their lives to help their former enemy seemed amazing to him.

After that he watched the horrors of the East under Soviet control. He told his wife that he felt like he owed an official thank you to the the US Air Force.

Now, here in the late ’80s his health as deteriorating. He told his wife he wanted to go to the memorial and see if there was any chance they could find a US service member to give his thanks. When he saw me, his wife said he got extremely excited.

We stood there for some time and talked about the amazing history of this place, and the very bright future of West Berlin. They asked me why I joined the US Air Force and what I hoped to do. He seemed very happy with my answers. Finally we shook hands again and parted ways. He thanked me again in German. Before we parted I came to attention and saluted my new friend. He responded with his salute and we parted ways.

…There are some experiences in life you just couldn’t make up….