Vandenberg and the Berlin Airlift
The Oval Office was silent, but the map on the desk screamed war.
It was June 1948.
President Harry Truman looked at the Generals surrounding him.
The news was catastrophic.
Joseph Stalin had just slammed the iron gate shut.
The Soviet Union had blockaded West Berlin.
Two and a half million men, women, and children were trapped inside the city, deep within Soviet territory.
No trains. No trucks. No food. No coal.
The Generals looked at the map. The math was simple, and it was brutal.
"We have two choices, Mr. President," an advisor whispered.
"We retreat and hand Europe to the Communists."
"Or we send in the tanks and start World War III."
Truman turned to the youngest man in the room.
He was forty-nine years old.
He was wearing the uniform of the newly formed United States Air Force.
He looked at the President.
"There is a third option, sir," Vandenberg said.
"We don't retreat. And we don't drive."
"We fly."
The Army laughed at the idea.
The Navy said it was a logistical impossibility.
Vandenberg ignored them.
He stripped the Air Force to the bone.
He pulled planes from Guam, from Alaska, from Hawaii.
He gambled the entire readiness of the United States military on a single corridor of sky over Germany.
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Vandenberg Space Force Base
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vandenberg_Space_Force_Base
The facility was renamed Vandenberg Air Force Base on 4 October 1958 in honor of General Hoyt Vandenberg, the Air Force's second Chief of Staff.
Piloterna var min barndoms hjältar. Jag var sju år.
Där grundlades min motvilja mot socialism och kommunism. Det blev styrande för mitt yrkesliv.
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