 You know, each rotation of this world of ours presents to mankind a constantly changing panorama, but unfortunately is not always a pleasant picture. Our turning globe produces many imbalances, floods, earthquakes, famine, disease, and man's encroachment upon the rights of other men. Since our early history, we Americans have sought ways to combat these conditions throughout the world, and particularly to alleviate the resultant suffering. These efforts have faced the time barrier of surface travel, often affording too little too late. Today however, air transportation has whittled this barrier to a matter of hours, and to assure that there'll be enough of anything at any time, any place to aid their neighbors, the people of the United States often call upon the services, their military, air transport, and rescue forces. Although humanitarian airlifts have been employed in the past, the first mammoth application began in June 1948 to bring relief to western Berlin. On the 24th of that month, with all highways already blocked and river transportation cut off, the city's remaining surface contact with western Europe, its rail traffic, was terminated. The only access to the city was by air. For the first time in modern history, more than two and one-quarter million people had recently faced the privation of war, now faced starvation and peace. To meet this crisis, the decision was made to institute an airlift to Berlin from the western sectors of Germany. The United States employed military and commercial aircraft, relying heavily on its newly formed Air Force Command, MATS, the Military Air Transport Service. And on June 26th, assisted by planes from Great Britain, a seemingly impossible task began. The ensuing action became a gigantic peacetime airborne operation. Traffic schedules at the onset of an aircraft dispatched every six minutes. As time rolled on, this was gradually reduced to three minutes. For 15 long months, 24 hours a day, the people of western Berlin were sustained entirely by this humanitarian airline. During the period it brought in products equal to more than one ton per inhabit. The mission of the Berlin Airlift was to supply the island of Berlin by air with the necessities of life. In September 1949, the lift was concluded. Mission accomplished. Forces of nature, however, bear no allegiance to race, color, creed, or country. Thus it was that in January 1949, in the midst of the Berlin Airlift, western America was invaded by the most severe weather in its history. Here was snow incited by wind and temperatures falling to 40 degrees below zero, whipping across thousands of miles of open range, drifts piled to enormous heights, train stop, road traffic, hauling, rural communities cut off, thousands of sheep and cattle were snowbound. Denied access to natural forage, these animals faced starvation in their cousins. The deer and elk of the area suffered with them. The only solution, airlift and drop hay. Mustering their tactical air units, Americans turned to the task at hand. Aerial dropping of hay to all of these snowbound creatures was the order of the day. As this project proceeded, surface forces began clearing the way to hundreds of ranch homes and communities isolated by the storms. This is Beirut, Lebanon, August 1950, from all parts of the world. Thousands of Muslim pilgrims have gathered for aerial transportation to Jeddah and Saudi Arabia, air gateway to their revered Mecca. The unprecedented influx was far too much for the available commercial aircraft because Muslim law prescribes that a pilgrim must reach Mecca by the 28th of August. It was suddenly apparent that over 3,000 Muslims would face the crushing disappointment of not fulfilling their sacred pilgrimage. On direct orders from Washington, American military planes winged to the rescue. Operating around the clock, these United States transports carried over 3,700 pilgrims to their destination in just four days. The Mecca airlift was dramatic and in religious history unusual, but the real story lies deeper. Perhaps it is best expressed by an 85-year-old pilgrim who kissed the ground at Jeddah and looking at the American crew said, today we have become brothers. Less than 150 days had passed before the unpredictable forces of nature levied another tax on humanity. This time, the ravages of the sea. The violent winds of a storm which struck the North Sea reached the sea wall and dikes of the Netherlands tearing out gaps thousands of feet wide. Holland faced a national disaster as the gale-driven flood swirled over hundreds of square miles inhabited by nearly a million people. American and Allied forces in Europe prepared immediately to rush construction and relief supplies to the stricken area. While the most urgent requirement of evacuation of people from the dangerous flood areas was begun by U.S. Air Force and Army helicopters, warm and serviceable clothing was packed for delivery to the thousands of homeless. In the larger land areas, transports landed and unloaded their cargo. In addition to food, medicine and clothing, generators, high-capacity water pumps and sandbags for the emergency repair of the breaches in the bike system were delivered. Emergency Red Cross centers distributed clothing and supplies to those flood victims who had been rescued from the ravaged lowlands. The death toll climbed toward 2,000. Property damage into unestimated figures. Special reconnaissance flights haul life rafts to marooned flood victims and drop them for use in the restoration of the dikes. Other transports took off with bundles of food, hay and fodder, blankets, emergency rations and hand tools. Dropping over 65,000 pounds of these supplies brought speedy relief to hundreds throughout the stricken area. Victims of Europe's worst peacetime disaster in recent years. August 1953, the United States Air Forces in Europe launched the first of one of the most unusual airlifts in history, the Kinderland. An operation to provide free summer vacation for Berlin's needy children who could not otherwise leave the streets in pavements of the city. The political refugee status of many of these youngsters' parents made surface travel too risky. An American airlift was the best way to move the kids to and from West Berlin. Gathered at Temple Hall Airport by the Red Cross, they were flown to airports in the German Federal Republic. After a good meal, they would go by rail, bus and car to special youth camps or private homes of American and German families who would sponsor them. Here, they would spend a five-week vacation and then be flown back to Berlin. The language barrier proved no problem as the children visiting American homes were all taking English courses in school. The delight and well-being which Kinderlif brought to these youngsters marked the program's success and gave reason for its continuance. During five consecutive years, Kinderlif carried nearly 10,000 refugee children to five weeks of summer happiness. The most severe winter in a generation, lashed into Europe in February 1956. Buffeted by snow, cold and high winds, South Central Italy and Northern Greece were particularly hard hit. A thousand communities were cut off. In dire need of food, clothing and medicine, the U.S. Army opened the doors of its depots in Germany and the transports from Air Forces in Europe, loaded with 700,000 pounds of supplies, bought blizzards and sub-zero temperatures to ease the plight of the suffering peoples of those two countries. Rome was the immediate downloading point. In the eternal city, the supplies went by surface vehicles, helicopters and airdrops to the isolated regions. We in America well remember our winter of 1957 with its record snowfalls and blizzards that isolated entire townships. It was a far-reaching cold that stretched even in a normally warm and sunny Florida where citrus crops froze on the trees. But our hardships were dwarfed by those which earlier faced nearly 15,000 of our fellow humans at Hungary. Fleeing their strife-torn country to seek a haven in the West, they had gone to refugee camps in Germany. By special executive order, they were to be airlifted and admitted to the United States. Immigration dates and quotas required rapid action and the ensuing operation became the largest American airlift mission since the aerial supply of Berlin. Medical crews of an aeromedical evacuation squadron attended the sick, injured and expected mothers. The policy of the entire airlift was to keep families together to accomplish this gigantic movement of refugees. The full support of the Air Force Military Air Transport Service was augmented by units of the Navy and commercial carriers. Even the personal plate of the President was pressed into service. Although plagued with the weather problems of the mid-winter, transportation continued on schedule and without incident. This then was the Hungarian airline. Using their military transports and a token of international friendship, the American people had again confirmed the message graven on the base of their Statue of Liberty. Gimme your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free. Send these the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. This was the work of a typhoon called Vera. She arrived in Japan early in a Sunday morning in September 1959. She smashed her way across the island of Honshu falling with full force on the town of Nagoya. Within hours, Japan's third largest city was a splintered mass of rubble and murky water. Thousands were dead, missing, injured, and homeless. Responding immediately to a call for aid, military transports of the United States began flying in hundreds of blankets, food packages, and emergency supplies. In just seven days, more than 200 tons had been shuttled to the Nagoya area. In the outlying, isolated areas, inaccessible by other means, Navy, Marine, and Air Force helicopters performed the vital missions of rescue and the distribution of supplies. As shattered communication lines were pieced back together, it was learned that the typhoon had cut a vicious swath across the island. No misery and death had been lessened by the efforts of the United States military personnel and equipment. Only time could erase the memory of a catastrophe brought to Japan by her grim visitor. 1960 was a leap year. The extra day, February 29, served as a marker for another disaster which struck on the other side of the globe. Here is Agadir, Morocco, crushed by earthquake and tidal wave as it faced the early mornings of the 1st of March. Answering the news of this calamity, American military transports arrived in the scene with emergency equipment, medical supplies, and aeromedical technicians. American transports also brought special Air Force work crews armed with picked shovels and wrecking bars to help clear the debris and remove the dead and injured. Devastation was practically unaccountable and the death toll reached 12,000. Emergency shelters, cots, and bedding were flown in to provide for the injured and homeless. Patients needing hospital attention were airlifted to Rabat, Casablanca, and other sections of Morocco. By March 4, evacuation of the injured was completed. To assist further in relieving the buried city of Italian of U.S. Army engineers with earth-moving equipment flown into Agadir. With all survivors removed, the devastated areas were sprayed to erase the impending threat of disease. Bringing aid to their Moroccan brothers, the American people at airlifted nearly 400,000 pounds of emergency relief supplies and equipment and flown 500 relief workers to the scene. As 1960 rolled on, it showed itself destined to bring tragedy to mankind. On May 21, the two-day series of severe earthquakes, tidal waves, torrential rains, avalanches, and volcanic eruptions prostrated southern Chile. Relief for these stricken people became an international effort. Practically every country in South America sent help. The Royal Canadian Air Force flew in five planes loaded with emergency supplies and the people of the United States assigned their military forces to another vital peacetime mission. Santiago, 4,500 air miles in the United States was the base for initial download. From here supplies were trans-shipped by smaller aircraft, helicopters, and surface vehicles. It was a 24-hour schedule for American and Chilean Air Force personnel. A night they worked by automobile and truck headlights to speedily unload the huge cargo planes. The food, medicine supplies, and medical personnel were urgently needed. Two fully equipped Army field hospitals were soon erected. These units, each with a 400-bed capacity, were put apart of the airlifted cargo. Posted notices informed the people of the medical assistant available and of their need for inoculation against the possible spread of disease. Unloaded planes were used to evacuate victims and refugees to other areas in the country where help from relatives or other more fortunate Chileans was available. It doesn't seem possible. Over 990 tons of relief supplies and nearly 700 field and medical workers were flown into Santiago in only five days. A vivid portrayal of assistance in time of need and of the inestimable value of international cooperation and understanding. Our Air Force aptly named this operation Amigos Air League. Within five days the eruptions of the crumbled southern Chile hurled the forces of a tidal wave against the shores of Hawaii. Hardest hit was Hilo, some 200 miles from Honolulu. The gigantic waves all but demolished the entire town. Power facilities, processing plants, communications. Practically every vital service was wiped out. Winging in from Hickam Air Force Base, military transports brought the supplies, food, stuffs, clothing, and equipment to rehabilitate the town. Critically needed refrigerated vans prevented food losses resulting from the lack of electricity and wave damage storage facilities. Local food suppliers shared the space to assure maximum utilization. Hilo's Public Library is the emergency red cross center for the distribution of clothing to the disaster victims. Full-scale activity continued for three days as the transports delivered everything from diapers to 3500 pound generators and a portable chlorinator for the water department. The complete destruction of the city's pasteurizing plant necessitated a true milk run from Honolulu to Hilo with trucks supplying the stores throughout the striccan area. As the people worked to remake their city, the year 1960 planned another regression of mankind. This time the devastator was polioed, the place Hakkaida, Japan. In August over 700 cases the dread disease were reported. From the United States by military airlift came life-saving iron lungs donated by the National Polio Foundation and with them ample supplies of vitally needed salt vaccine. This was one of the major airlifts directed toward fighting the scourge of polio that also marked nearly 10 years of such work by American military transports. Besides scores of such flights within the states there have been many American airlifts of patients, equipment, and vaccine to polio areas in Nairobi, Guatemala, Buenos Aires, and Hawaii. But other forces of nature continued to defy containment. Tanganyika, East Africa. The spring of 1962, swollen by torrential rains the refugee river goes on a rampage. Meagre crops are destroyed. The simple shelters of the natives collapse as they fall prey to the raging waters. In the flood's wake the menacing specter of hunger stands ready to collect its toll. But aid is at hand. Food from the United States is on the way. For the natives of isolated villages that cannot be reached by truck or boat low-flying airdrops bring mace, a staple item of Tanganyika diet. Within a month over 1,500 tons have reached the desperate people. Aids supplied by our nation's agency for international development and delivered to those in need by our military airline. That's our story but it's far from complete. We're missing quite a number of chapters. Chapters which include military airlift of equipment, personnel and supplies too. Flooded Pakistan in August 1954. In the wake of swirling waters the dreaded plague cholera required the quick inoculation of vast multitudes of the population. The Greek islands in the Aegean Sea devastated by earthquake in August 1955. Red Cross aid distributed by helicopter Navy ships and boats. Demolition and cleanup work by Marines. Tampico, Mexico October 1955. Washed with the murky waters of uncontrolled flood. Since that first massive airlift relief for Berlin the American people through their military air transports have helped thousands of their fellow human beings around the world. But these missions of friendship, humanity and goodwill are not confined to the major airlifts depicted here. Whenever and wherever there's an SOS, the cry of May Day or a quest for aid. The military air of the United States stands ready to help. Not a day passes without some aerial unit filling a life-giving or life-saving road. It may be an airdrop to an isolated village such as this on the island of Juxt in the North Sea where ice flows cut off contact with the outside world. Crash flyers, lost mountain climbers, the crews of ships wrecked or lost at sea. The rush of serum and medical supplies to marooned areas. The evacuation of the sick and injured all are part of the job. Doing this work are helicopters, sea planes, search, cargo aircraft on constant alert everywhere. Alert to the task of all Americans, saving lives. And so our story is really a continuing one. Today as a peacetime byproduct of its military airlift capacity, the United States can send relief assistance to any spot on Earth within 72 hours. And as new equipment like the jet-powered cargo ship the C-141 is added to the inventory, this time will be cut in half. Rapid communication and the ever-increasing speed of our transportation have led us to speak of our Earth as this shrinking world. Conversely, the same shrinking is allowed to the expansion of man's humanity toward man. May it continue so.