Robert Wilcox (1922–2017), Pilot During the First Days of the Airlift

The American Robert Wilcox was deployed to Europe as a pilot during World War II. Up until 1948, he was stationed in Bavaria. On 29 June 1948, he is assigned to Wiesbaden for the airlift. In his diary entries, he describes the early days of the operation.

Wednesday, 30 June 1948: Arrived at the operations center at 07:00 and learned that takeoff was scheduled for 09:10. Made two flights to Berlin and back, spent a total of 9:15 hours in the air, three of which the weather was as it is now. On our first flight, we carried 2700 kg of canned pineapple cubes.