National Affairs: Carrying the Coal

Last week the Air Force celebrated its first birthday as an independent arm of equal status with the Army & Navy. It flew bombers nonstop to the U.S. from Japan and Germany. It set a new speed record. And in Germany it demonstrated what the airlift could do when it really turned on the heat.

Lieut. General Curtis LeMay, Air Force chief in Europe, had called for a special 24-hour effort. The entire load was to be coal, to be distributed as an Air Force birthday present to families with two or more children in the Western sectors of Berlin.

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