Andrei,
I purchased your book, The Candy Bombers, today because my uncle was one of the pilots in the airlift. When I checked the index, I see that he is mentioned on page 504! He was Lt. Robert McGuire and he flew 169 missions on the airlift (after 20+ as a B-17 pilot in WW II). I look forward to reading the book and learning more about the airlift than I have through personal research.
-- Bill, Orlando, FL (4/20/08)
Bill,
What an appropriate first note from a reader to receive! Your uncle was the pilot who had the honor of flying the 100,000th airlift flight, landing at Tegel airfield on December 31, 1948. The next day, he headed home from Germany -- one of the first pilots to see their six month tour of duty on the airlift end. What a nice bookend to our interaction sixty years later!
-- Andrei