The pilots and crewmen who flew the airlift came from all over the world on short notice. They were uprooted from their families and placed on temporary duty for 45 to 90 days. For some it seemed like a lark to get away from peacetime routines and take part in a mission that made headlines almost every day in the newspapers of America and Europe. However, as the airlift dragged on with no end in sight and the temporary duty orders were extended, involuntarily in many cases, for another 90 or 180 days, many men and their families experienced hardships. Many arrived without personnel or financial records. Records were sometimes lost which resulted in financial problems for their families in such far off places as Alaska, Japan, Hawaii, and the Canal Zone. As these difficulties were overcome, the dull routine of 12 to 16 hour days, seven days a week, set in.

While waiting for their "block," pilots relax in the pilots' lounge at Wiesbaden.

During yet another monotonous flight to Berlin, the radio operator aboard a C-54 describes interference he's receiving as the engineer (seated behind the pilots) wonders aloud about a light outside the right window.

Project Sleighbells brought Christmas gifts from dependents of Vittles flyers from all parts of the world to Germany. In the foreground are some of the mail bags to be loaded and to the extreme left can be seen some of the C-74 crew members. At the extreme right are crew members of a plane which had just arrived from Alaska bringing in gifts for the project. The women and children are dependents of Vittles personnel from Brookley Air Force Base and Mobile, Alabama.

Air Force personnel from Fassberg RAF Station are shown aboard the "Rotation Special" which will take them to the Bremerhaven Port of Embarkation. This was the first group to be returned to the United States under the 6 month Airlift rotation plan.