Personal account of Mac Vickrey





I landed in Berlin in Jan or Feb and was advised by the tower to park my plane after it was unloaded , as all bases were below minimums and expected to remain that for the next 24-48 hours. I parked my plane and told my co pilot and eng, we would check with the wx office, before we went to bed. While talking to the wx officer, some one behind me asked { what base are you from?} I replied, y 80, and the voice said, lets go. I turned around and it was Gen. Tunner, I told him the base was below minimums and I did not  have enough fuel to go to France. He said lets, we took off and as we approached Y 80 we were again advised the wx was below minimums, I told them to get the first team in the gca unit and i would make an approach, When we landed we had about 50 ft and 3 runway lights. Gen. Tunner thanked me and told the co pilot to get better on  his reporting procedures, I told the Gen. that it was the copilots first trip. No other planes landed at Wiesbaden for the next 24 hours. That was my one and only contact  with Gen. Tunner. I flew c-47s for 10 trips  taking in pap and supplies to build the new runway, then flew about 100 trips in C54s, I returned to the US in May 49.


Mac Vickrey