William H. Tunner

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Lt. General William H. Tunner, Jr. (July 14, 1906 - April 6, 1983) was a remarkably efficient American General, and dubbed by the Military Channel as one of the legends of air power. He had a remarkable tendency to create order, discipline and organization out of chaos as demonstrated in each occasion he took over a malfunctioning operation in place—The Hump of Burma, the Berlin Airlift and the near loss of Korea—in each case he at least redoubled the gross amount of cargo and men delivered by his predecessors almost immediately, and effected a vast improvement in average cargo delivered per day after that.

Just prior to World War-II, he became the creator of the Air Transport Command (renamed the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) post-World War-II as a command of the newly minted United States Air Force) and was most responsible for the remarkable performance of the Army Air Corps smooth and efficient air supply operations during World War II, the Korean War and untangling the mess of the early Berlin Airlift and turning it into a record setting smoothly synchronized operation that has become iconic with efficiency. He was the general responsible for drawing civilian female pilots into the (See Main article: Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS)) shuttling planes from factory to Army Air Corps fields and eventually war theaters freeing up thousands of male pilots for combat service under the aegis of the Air Transport Command's Ferry Command.

After the Burma Road was cut by the advancing Japanese in early 1942, he organized the Allied logistical airlift from India in to China over the Hump to support Chiang Kai-Shek's Chinese forces and the Flying Tigers until the opening of the Ledo Road.

After the war, he was the organizer of the Berlin Airlift (1948–49), and took a direct hand when the early efforts bogged down. Under his hand, the operation amassed more than 250,000 flights, cycled a plane every ninety seconds, and broke the will of the Soviet Union with the so-called 'Easter Parade', delivering nearly 13,000 tons of supplies in a single 24 hour period. In addition, when Tunner learned of pilot Gail Halvorsen's initiative of airdropping candy for the children of Berlin, he ordered that idea expanded into Operation Little Vittles which saw tons of candy dropped for a major propaganda success.

As a general in the new United States Air Force, he was head of Military Air Transport Service in the darkest days of the Korean war, and instrumental in reinforcing the nearly conquered south, and in post-Inchon operations while the United Nations Forces had yet to join the perimeters and secure the south. In the rough Korean terrain the air supply by parachute techniques he pioneered in the Burma theater kept the UN forces supplied and healthy throughout the campaign despite medieval roads, and brutal winters.

[edit] Miscellany

• Played by Heino Ferch in the film "Nur der Himmel war frei" (2005)

[edit] See also

• General Albert Wedemeyer