Gadling

Hi Chuck,

Thanks for reading. You certainly make a good point, and my sense of things, for what it's worth, is that many Berliners have not forgotten the air lift. West Berliners understandably look on it more fondly than easter Berliners, but it's not forgotten. Coincidently, I write this living very close indeed to the Platz der Luftbrueke, which stands just outside Tempelhof airport to mark the site of the air lift ("Luftbrueke").

I don't know Gabriele Seye is or where this was said -- it wasn't in my post.

Of course, in German Gabriele is really a female name, so perhaps it's better to say Frau. :-)

Thanks again for reading!

Jeff White

Jeff: Thanks for enlightening me on the gender of "Herr" Seye. I should have suspected that Gabriele was a female name. And I apologize for including all Berliners in my comments. I was miffed at Frau Seye's statement and I wrote without considering the fact that she was probably too young to even know about the Blockade.

During the Air Lift we were too busy to know what the people of Berlin were going through. I made 116 round trips from Rhine Main to Berlin and I think the average time I spent on the groung at Templehof was about 20 minutes, so I didn't know much. However, since recently reading 'Berlin Bastion,' which relates the miserable conditions that the Berlin People had to face during the Blockade, I have developed an admiration for the toughness that was required for the Berliners to beat the Russians at that crucial time. So please, forgive me for including too many folks in my feeling for Frau Seye.

Chuck