Berlin, Germany, July 12, 1954: A young girl sits on one of the folding chairs at Berlin’s Tempelhof airport. The girl was one of 288 children waiting to board one of four USAF planes to be taken to Frankfurt to spend a five week summer vacation. Earlier that day a ceremony marked the first day of the second year of “Operation Kinderlift.” A total of 1,440 children — not only Berlin children, but also children from refugee, and displaced families — will be flown into West Germany to summer with West German and American foster parents, made possible through the joint U.S. Air Force Europe and Red Cross operation.

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