Howard E. Halvorsen
Air Force Sustainment Center Historian
Editor’s note: This is part three of a four-part story on the history of the Berlin Airlift.
Tinker Air Force Base played an absolutely essential role in the success of the Berlin Airlift. Tinker and the former Douglas Aircraft plant provided the support and the weaponry for our warfighters all over the world during World War II, so supporting an airlift mission in Europe is comparatively easy. 
As you’ll recall from the last two weeks’ Tinker Take Off stories about the Berlin Airlift, it started on June 26, 1948. Although the Soviet land blockade of West Berlin was lifted on April 12, 1949, the airlift continued until Sept. 30, 1949 to build up supplies just in case there was another betrayal by the communists. In just 15 months, 309 C-54s, 105 C-47s, and 101 aircraft of the Royal Air Force made 277,569 flights to transport over 227000 passengers and deliver 2.3 million tons of food, supplies, and fuel to the decimated former capital of Germany. Not only were millions of lives saved, but the will of the Western democracies to stop the spread of Soviet hegemony was shown. Indeed, this was the first gambit of worldwide communist expansion during the Cold War and it was stopped – cold.
The first direct act that had an enormous benefit to the airlift was our sustainment mission. Yes, even as early as the 1940s Tinker Air Force Base was fixing, maintaining, and upgrading our Air Force’s aircraft to give our warfighters what they need to win. The most important project that aided the airlift was the Stoner Mudge process. As good a plane as the C-54 was, it was prone to terrible fuel tank leaks. Stoner Mudge was a fuel tank reliner process pioneered at Middleton ATSC. A liquid is poured into the tanks, treated, and later removed, leaving a rubber coating and the fuel tanks leak proof. This project was started at Tinker in 1945 in the closing months of WWII. It was continued after the war, at some point only at Tinker Air Force base, to upgrade the entire C-54 fleet – to include President Truman’s plane, the “Sacred Cow.” Thus, when the Berlin Airlift began, the entire C-54 fleet was war ready.
Once it became obvious “Operation Vittles” would be more than a short-term venture and with the initial air depot at Oberpfaffenhofer, Germany (called “Obie” or “Oberhuffinpuffin” by the GIs) taxed way beyond its ability, Air Force leaders opted to reopen the WWII depot at Burtonwood, in northern England, and concentrate all 200-hour maintenance inspections and repairs for C-54s there. The fleet of Skymasters was already experiencing wear and tear, and the quicker Burtonwood became operational, the better the chance of saving West Berlin. The nature of the airlift mission was putting unexpected stresses on the C-54s. For example, while the threat of fuel leaks (and fire) was gone, the planes were taking off and landing far more frequently than normal, with very heavy loads on landing strips that were coming apart. This was causing incredible wear on the landing gear. Also, some of the cargo, especially coal, had an adverse effect on the interior parts of the plane clogging the flight instruments. When combined with flour it was highly combustible and corroded control cables, electrical circuits, switches, and connectors.
On Nov. 1, the first exhausted C-54 landed at the refurbished British airfield for urgently needed mechanical overhaul and surface repair. Turnaround time was reduced to less than 72 hours and in six months production jumped from a low of 18 aircraft in November to a high of 261. To create these efficiencies, experts like Borum needed to teach airlift experts like Berlin Airlift commander Lt. Gen. William H. Tunner about the sustainment mission. In order to properly assist the airlift mission, the sustainers and maintainers needed to educate their mission partners. It was Borum and his team that taught airlift experts like Tunner that a constant flow of planes for overhaul to Burtonwood would speed up the process of return to Germany.
Tinker people provided not just part of the expertise but a good portion of the thousands of equipment items needed for the operation at Burtonwood and the maintenance of aircraft. By mid-December 1948, shipments from Tinker already totaled more than 100,000 pounds of aircraft parts, accessories, and equipment necessary for C-54 overhaul. Maintenance personnel also modified a number of quick-change engine mounts and aircraft repair stands. Supply shipped such items as ailerons, elevators, and flaps.
Soon a steady pipeline of aircraft, engines, and subsystems flowed to a fro between Burtonwood and the AMC depots back in the United States. With the assignment completed, General Borum and his OCAMA cadre returned to Tinker three days after Christmas in 1948. What does this teach us? First, it reminds us that everything we do in peacetime may suddenly be called upon to win the next war or prevent one. Second, that our sustainment mission reminds us that our work displays our faith in the future; that there will always be a future worth whatever fight awaits us.
Sources include: “Berlin, Burtonwood, and Borum” by Dr. James Crowder, “The Air Force Can Deliver Anything” by Daniel Harrington, the Air Force History Support Office, and the May 26, 1945 and November 14, 1947 editions of the Tinker Take Off.