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Berlin Airlift

Our common history isn’t all pleasant, but seeing it firsthand is deeply moving

 “This is the White House calling,” the voice on the phone told the language teacher 

From 1957 to 1980 I taught German at the Foreign Service Institute School of Language Studies, run by the Department of State in Washington, D.C. Classes were small, seldom more than four students, and I spent six hours every day with them, five days a week for five months.

During World War II, Tunner led the effort to fly supplies from India “over the Hump” of the Himalayas to supply nineteen Chinese divisions, and later commanded the Berlin Airlift operation.

 

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