Jake Schuffert

Technical Sergeant John “Jake” Schuffert offered a memorable and valued contribution to the Berlin Airlift. Sergeant Schuffert, originally an aircraft radio operator, volunteered to be a cartoonist for the Task Force Times, the Berlin Airlift’s newsletter. His keen sense of humor and skill as a cartoonist soon made him one of the best-known and remembered Airlift personalities. Schuffert, who is from New Carlisle, Pennsylvania, joined the U.S. Army Air Forces, in 1941, and served as a radio operator and gunner on B-24s of the 464th Bomb Group in Europe. Shot down in late 1944, he spent the rest of the war, with the help of Yugoslav partisans, evading German forces. After the Airlift, he served in the Korean War and, in the early 1960s, retired at the rank of Master Sergeant. He then continued his service in the U.S. Air Force as a civilian graphic artist until his final retirement in 1986.