General Tunner had an experience on his first trip to Berlin in a C-54, soon after he arrived, that led to a new rule. It was August 13, 1948, a day he referred to as “Black Friday.” The weather was fair when he departed from Wiesbaden, but the plane was soon in the clouds as it entered the corridor. “We were not alone in the sky,” he said. “As the pilot followed the prescribed flight path to Tempelhof, radioing the exact moment he passed over the Fulda low-frequency beacon and turning to the heading of 057 degrees, we knew there were C-54s behind and ahead of us, each precisely three minutes apart, and each flying at a speed of 180 miles per hour. I felt that the operation was going smoothly.”

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But when they arrived over Berlin, there was a heavy rainstorm and visibility was zero. The rain also impaired the radar screen returns, and the situation became serious when two C-54s had landing accidents that tied up the Tempelhof runway. Air traffic controllers began to stack the C-54s at different altitudes as they continued to arrive steadily. “And here I was, flying around in circles over their heads,” Tunner said in his memoirs. “It was damned embarrassing. The commander of the Berlin Airlift couldn’t even get himself into Berlin.”

Tunner grabbed the mike, identified himself and called the Tempelhof tower. “Tell everyone in the stack above and below me to go back home,” he ordered. “Then tell me when it’s OK to land.” They returned to their bases, and he landed.

“I believe the real success of the Airlift stems from that day,” Tunner recalled. “It was that day that the rule book for instrument flying was rewritten.” He ordered that all flights, regardless of the weather, would follow instrument flight rules (IFR), and any pilot who missed an approach for any reason would immediately bring his load back to his base. No one would be given another chance to try an approach and hold up other aircraft.

Once this rule was put into effect, the tonnage to Berlin rose steadily in good weather or bad as Air Force crews flew the 120 miles in and out, round-the-clock through the three air corridors. The flights became a steady routine. Each pilot was given a precise takeoff time. At that exact moment, he would push the throttle forward and climb out on the prescribed flight path to the first beacon at Darmstadt and level off at his assigned altitude. The next beacon would be tuned in and followed on the radio compass to others along the corridor until the final one near Tempelhof. At that point, a ground controlled approach (GCA) radar operator would take over and give precise heading and altitude instructions until touchdown.

The operational questions resolved, Tunner turned to “people problems.” Most of the men assigned to the airlift were on temporary duty away from their bases and thought they would be returning home after 30 to 60 days in the theater. But their orders were extended when the Soviets showed no indication of lifting the blockade. Housing was in short supply, so tents were erected and old Quonset huts were unboarded and outfitted with the bare essentials. Meal hours at the dining halls were lengthened so that crews could eat at almost any hour. Still, morale began to sag.

“Things like poor mail service, no curtains on the windows so crews could sleep in the daytime, and poor washing facilities took on huge proportions,” Tunner said. He decided that a spirit of competition and accomplishment had to be established in each unit. He initiated the Task Force Times, an airlift newspaper that contained the airlift’s statistics “for all to see, compare, and try to beat.” It also contained cartoons by Sergeant John H. “Jake” Schuffert, who drew humorous scenes of the airlift, reminiscent of famous World War II cartoonist Bill Mauldin’s irreverent drawings.

The Times worked its communications magic. The tonnage increased, and even the German workers loading and unloading the planes caught the fever of competition. A C-54 loading record was established that was never beaten: 20,000 pounds by one 12-man crew in five minutes and 45 seconds.

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