European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 9, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sunday february 9, 1992 the stars and stripes Page 3 Muter set  Wen bom Back direct of a mate of a mkt onto a to ruin driven by sgt. William Mcdonald. Tech. St Wayne Sears poses the pallet while set Wayne Fangman watches i Effort Quot it a is Jadw Tim airman James White Maneu vers a Load of food. Hope from Page 1 Between the two superpowers is most apparent at the Rhein main air terminal operations Center a place that for 350 people is always Busy 24 hours a Day. For the past week the work has been even More intense. While forklifts unload crates of supplies other work Crews create specially designed pallets to carry leftover War rations from operation desert storm. A this has special meaning a senior master sgt. Gary Lensink said. A a it a interesting that this is excess War Materiel and Here we Are giving it to the russians. I guess its part of winning the cold  the supplies will be delivered to veterans and children a hospitals orphanages Community Aid offices pensioners groups and Community shelters. The Airlift will Cost approximately $53 million for the surplus War stocks plus an undisclosed amount for air transportation. Each c-141 can carry up to 13 Sallets 25 tons of supplies. C-5s can Andle 36 pallets. A Mascis Mission invokes memories of another Airlift by Ron Mckinney staff writer at the height of the Berlin Airlift in 1948, Guido Rohde fondly remembers the postwar raids. Instead of bombs the cargo floating softly Down to the City were chocolate bars attached to handkerchief Par a Rohde then a 12-year-old German boy knew then that the americans would save his country from starvation. A the feeling was that there was somebody helping you trying to make things Well again a Rohde said of the Airlift. That Friend a the United states a was one of 54 nations at the coordinating conference on assistance to the newly Independent states last month that decided to help the Commonwealth of Independent states overcome a severe food the current operation provide Hope Mission is not nearly As grand however ii the 15-month operation vittles Mission in War torn Berlin m the years Fol to Quot a , which became better known As the Berlin Airlift 2.34 million tons of food and supplies such As Coal were transported by 278,000 sorties. In one Day a on april 16,1949 a 1,398 sorties carried nearly 13,000 tons of food and supplies on a Day the airlifts maximum efficiency was tested. Operation pro Rohde vide Hope pales in comparison. A the Berlin Airlift was 15 months a ours is going to be like 15 Days a said air Force capt. Andree Swanson a joint information Bureau spokesman at Rhein main a Germany. The current Mission will provide 2,250 tons of food and supplies on 54 official sorties. Swanson said the food will provide 300,000 i reals at hospitals orphanages and pensioner Homes. Swanson said however that the humanitarian Aid will continue beyond the 54 flights a number that represents the nations that agreed on launching an immediate Relief Effort to the Cis. A this is the beginning of an Effort to get food and Medicine into the Cis a Swanson said. A this is not going to be the Only  Rudi Kinzel a 5231-0 cameraman with armed forces network in Berlin remembers seeing the planes taking off or Landing at the military Airfield every 30 or 40 seconds during the Berlin Airlift which started on june 14,1948. A i think it was impossible to count them. Every time you looked up in the sky there was an air plane coming or going a Kinzel said. Then 8 years old Kinzel and some schoolmates got hold of some of the army so ration but the Rich food made them ill. A we got real sick eating the chocolate because it was so Rich and our stomach was not used to such a High Quality food As this chocolate was a Luntzel said. A it was not bad it was Good. It was just too  but while the kids were so captivated with the chocolate even if it made them sick Kinzel understands today How operation vittles saved German lives. A we definitely were hungry from the time i was bom in 1940. 1 think it saved our lives and it was  like Kinzel Rohde also remembers the hunger of postwar Berlin. Rohde who became a naturalized american citizen after leaving Germany in the 1950s, is a chief warrant officer 4 in the . Army and is a property Book officer for the Berlin brigade. Rohde 55, said the. Germans were starving after world War ii ended in 1945. A it was bad. People were dying left and right because there was no food right after the War a he said. Even though he was so Young at the time of the Airlift Rohde understood that there was something seriously wrong in the country. A you know what a going on even As a child. If your mom can to put food on the table because there is none you live off dandelions and seaweed a he said