June 26, 1948: Harry Yoder Called Back into Service for the Berlin Airlift

By Margaret Leidy Harner from her book One Day at a Time: A Social History of Boyertown, PA.

June 26, 1948: Chief of Police “Mush” Groff knocked on the door at 2:30 in the morning to tell Air Force pilot, Harry Yoder, who was on leave at his mother-in-law’s house in Boyertown, “I have a cable here from the Air Force, they want you back right away,” and Harry immediately left for Westover Field in Massachusetts.

Harry flew C-54’s, the Air Force’s largest transport plane; and the C-54 Skymasters from all over the world, the United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Japan and the Caribbean, had been called to West Germany for the Berlin Airlift, which began June 26, 1948, and provided food and supplies to Berliners cut off by a Soviet blockade. As an operations officer of the Berlin Airlift, Yoder flew the first C-54 aircraft from the United States, landing at Tempelehof Airport on June 28 with 20 tons of coal.

The Soviet Union lifted the blockade on May 12, 1949, restoring access to Berlin from West Germany and the airlift ended four months later. About 277,000 flights had delivered more than 2.3 million tons of food and supplies to the besieged city. Harry then returned to his regular Air Force duties.

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