Dear Editor: I received a copy of your Aug. 28 publication. I was pleased to see a photo of 100-year-old Berlin Airlift Veteran Mike Perensovich and read about his birthday party. As the founder of the Berlin Airlift Remembrance Alliance honoring him was significant.
Your earlier publication dated Wednesday, July 16, 2014, had a photo of Mike holding a display case showing his Air Medal. This is presented only to airmen who had distinguished themselves ‘‘by meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight.’’ Mike had flown 200 life support missions into West Berlin during the Russian land blockade of 1948 and 1949. He was eligible for this medal in 1949, but a bureaucratic mishap slipped his recognition through the cracks. Thankfully, it was corrected by efforts of the Sitka Coast Guard Auxiliary, in 2014, 60 years after the airlift ended.
The Berlin airlift was the most significant non-combat military operation of the 20th century. The aircraft of the U.S. and the British commonwealth landed in West Berlin every three minutes for 16 months. The combined flights provided food and coal to the city’s 2.4 million citizens allowing them to gain their self-determination for freedom. If the Berlin airlift failed there would be no NATO, no Euro-Union, no Eurocurrency, and the map of Western Europe would be much different than it is today.
I extend a ‘‘thank you’’ to your publication for honoring Mike. The impact of reading your newspaper was surprising. Your coverage of local events is the way newspapers here in the lower 48 should copy. Your subscribers don’t have to search the internet to find out what’s happening in and around Sitka, they have it every day.
Continue what you’re doing. Best Regards,
Eddie Ide, Berlin Airlift
Remembrance Alliance, berlinairlift.org
