Related by Marriage: Berlin Blockade

June, 1948, was a pivotal month for postwar Germany. The Western Allies had just announced their decision to form a Western German state. By month's end, a new currency, the Deutsche Mark, replaced the Reichsmark. The Deutschen Marken had been secretly printed in the United States, and they had arrived in Frankfurt with a U.S. Army escort.

The Soviet Union responded to the formation of Western Germany by blockading roads and canals leading to Berlin and stranding the thousands of U.S. and British troops stationed there. The soldiers lacked food and materials. On June 26, the Western Allies began an airlift of supplies to their Berlin-based soldiers.

Mr. Irene's Dad was finishing his training with the U.S. Army near Frankfurt on that day. He remembers that transport planes departed from the miltary field hourly from that day forward; the airlift lasted almost one full year. He was part of a 250-member corps of Lithuanian men who had been accepted as recruits from the Seligenstadt DP camp for a security detail assisting the U.S. Army. During his six weeks of training in Mannheim, Mr. Irene's Dad volunteered with 29 others to join the canine patrol unit, where he was assigned to work with his German Shepherd, Arno.

The canine security unit abruptly received its orders, and it traveled to a secret location. In thick forests about 50 miles from Frankfurt, the unit assembled in tents and makeshift quarters for the dogs. Mr. Irene's Dad patrolled the perimeter of the newly built camp with Arno every night between midnight and 6:00 am. He saw the new stockpiles of tanks, jeeps, and weapons that he was guarding. Who knows? Perhaps some of the freshly printed supply of Deutschen Marken—destined for the new, Western Germany—also were secured there.

Kaiserslautern, Germany, June or July 1948. Mr Irene's Dad, seated at the table in the foreground, chats with visiting U.S. military commanders. The base at Kaiserslutern would grow over the next decade to become on of the largest American military bases outside the United States. Within a year, Mr Irene's father would be living in Chicago—and soon would be drafted to serve in the U. S. Army during the Korean War.