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Midwest Connections
The Berlin Airlift was a truly international operation, involving nations and nationalities from everywhere around the globe. It should not be surprising, then, that the operation touched the lives of people living in America’s heartland. Following are a description of the Airlift training center in Great Falls, Montana, where pilots came to practice before heading to Berlin, and the stories of two Midwest-born men, Forrest Ott and William Michaels, who participated in the Airlift.
Great Falls Air Force Base, 1940's (Paul Freeman, "Western Montana," Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields, revised 11/8/08, http://www.airfields-freeman.com/MT/Airfields_MT_W.html (accessed 8/19/09).
One might guess that Great Falls, Montana would have been the last place with any connection to the Berlin Airlift, but this was, in fact, where many recalled pilots came for training before taking part in the Berlin operation. As Wolfgang Huschke recounts in his book about the Airlift, replacement pilots were in desperate need, and as a result, numerous retired Air Force flyers were called back into temporary service to meet the personnel shortcomings (not always to their great excitement). To make their retraining possible and prepare them for the situation in Berlin, General Laurence S. Kuter, head of the Military Air Transport Service, organized the training center in Great Falls in September, 1949. On hand were roughly 60 flight instructors and 36 ground instructors, and through their work, 636 pilots, 487 co-pilots, 496 flight engineers, and 126 mechanics received training. That each pilot spent 100 hours of ground instruction and 20 (later 40) of instruction in their air attests to the thoroughness of the program. An attempt was made to simulate the Berlin Airlift flying experience, although the weather in Montana could be much harsher than the prevailing conditions in Berlin. According to Huschke, the transition from Great Falls training to the real thing went smoothly, and “The training programme in Great Falls, Montana was therefore a great success and made a major contribution to the overall success of the Berlin Airlift.”[i]
Midwest Airmen who served the Berlin Airlift -- and found German wives in the process
Forrest E. Ott was born in Wergeland Township, Minnesota, in 1921. Like so many Midwesterners, he grew up on a farm. His ancestors on his father’s side were of German origin, which gave him an early affinity for the German people. After majoring in math and physics in college, Forrest became a pilot in the Army Air Corps Reserve. He was activated in 1943, when the U.S. was already deeply involved in the war, and entered cadet flying school, where he would learn the skills of a military pilot. Following the war, Forrest became an air traffic controller, from 1948 working in Berlin, just before the Airlift. When the operation began, Forrest remained in this post, directing planes in and out of Templehof Air Base. In addition to this indispensable work, Forrest piloted 110 missions himself during his time off duty. He described conditions in Berlin at the time, noting that German civilians had only two hours of electricity per day during the 1948-9 winter, and would barter cigarettes for food on the black market. He himself would marry a German woman whom he met during his time in the Airlift, who was a cashier at Templehof. Once the operation ended and he was transferred back to the States, Forrest returned to ask her hand, and she emigrated from Germany in 1951, to live with him in Texas.[ii]
William Michaels was an Ohio native, born on March 21, 1922. He lived in the city and was drafted into duty in 1942. Stationed in England with the Eighth Air Force during the war, he acted as Flight Chief in Newburgh, New York after the war’s end. Unlike others who were simply called up by the Army to participate in the Berlin Airlift, William volunteered. During the Airlift, William was a Flight Engineer on a C-54. He found it strange, having been with the organization which demolished many German cities during the war, to be doing just the opposite, but he soon made German friends. He flew on a 12- 24- schedule, making trips to Berlin for 12 hours, and then enjoying time off duty for the next 24. During his time in Celle, he met Anne, a native German, in a café, and a promising relationship began. She accepted his proposal of marriage, and after William was transferred back to the States in 1949, Anne came to live with him in Illinois.[iii]
[i] Wolfgang Huschke, The Candy Bombers: The Berlin Airlift 1948/49: A History of the People and Planes (Berlin: Metropol Verlag, 1999), 214. [ii] Joseph Werner, Berlin Airlift: Brides and Grooms Created. (NY: Water Edge Publishing Co.,1998.), 137-145. | Home | |
