The Berlin Airlift Exhibit

Last month, as I was cruising around the Smithsonian Museum of American History, I came across the Berlin Airlift exhibit.  There's a panel in there with a number of readily recognizable, even iconic, images of this event that happened in the early part of the Cold War.

I saw iconic, because when I arrived in Berlin in October 1981 (just occured to me that it has been 30 years!), one of my first impressions during those ever shorter and colder fall days was that the Berlin Airlift was a signature event for the USAF's presence.  It formed such a strong impression that as I walked around for those first few months the memories that I still hold translate many of the buildings and experiences into grainy black and white images.

This exhibit has 15 or so of some of the more well known photographs from the original reporting, along with some maps and a diagram showing how the Airlift worked.  There is some interpretive material that shows what the whole point of the enterprise was:  to feed the blockaded city of about 2 million people. 

In rediscovering the photos I took at the exhibit, I had a moment of nostalgia (as I always do at the mere mention of the city) that has inspired me to make yet another list in my life - the significant events of my nearly five years there.  At some point I'll have that compiled in a way it's suitable for publication here on the blog.