Tunner takes Command
Lt. General William Tunner rapidly took charge of the Airlift and imprinted his own character upon it. His innovations and his forceful personality saved the Airlift from chaos and collapse at a critical juncture. After his arrival in theater in late July 1948, Tunner set to work putting things “right” immediately. As he reports, “by the way the crews were lounging around in the Operations room and the snack bar, I wondered how in the world they’d get their planes off in time. Well a look at the records showed they were not getting them off in time. There were frequent delays. The schedule was ragged.” [i] On his third day on the job Tunner put an end to the “lounging” and instituted the procedures by which the operations officer, weather officer and snack bar all went to the pilot rather than the other way around. Another immediate change came about when the aircraft in which he was flying to Berlin got stacked up over Templehof in bad weather. He resolved immediately that it wou...