PRINCETON — A cargo plane which participated in one of the Cold War’s opening moves could visit the Mercer County Airport if the necessary funds are raised.

The Mercer County Commission voted Feb. 25 during a special meeting to give the Mercer County Airport a $1,500 grant to help fund the visit of a vintage C-54 cargo plane which celebrates the Berlin Airlift. The aircraft, known as the Spirit of Freedom, is a flying exhibit which describes how the major operation gave West Berlin’s people the food and fuel they needed after the Soviet Union started a blockade.

Life in Berlin was hard in 1948. World War II was over and the city was, like much of Germany, devastated by years of Allied bombing and the vicious fighting it experienced when Soviet troops took it. The dawn of a new conflict, the Cold War, was about to make life there even harder.

Germany had been divided into occupation zones between the United States, Great Britain, France and the Soviet Union. The capital, Berlin, was also divided into four sectors. Tensions between East and West were strained, and the Soviets decided in June 1948 to try expelling the Western allies from Berlin by cutting off all highways, canals and railroads leading there. The West responded on June 4, 1948 by starting the Berlin Airlift. Thousands of flights carried vital supplies to the besieged city until the Soviets finally reopened the roads and railroads on May 12, 1949.

Airport Manager Clint Ransom said the airport needs $5,000 bring the Spirit of Freedom flying exhibit to Mercer County on May 22 for the annual Car Show and Fly-In. If the airplane arrives on May 22, local school groups could visit it. Then it would remain for the festival on May 23.

Ransom said the $5,000 fee would be lower than what the Spirit of Freedom usually charges because the C-54 would be flying from South Carolina to an airshow in Pennsylvania, so it could stop in Mercer County along the way. Organizers now hopes to raise the remaining $3,500.

Commissioner Bill Archer recused himself from voting because he is a member of the Mercer County Airport Authority Board of Directors. County Commission President Gene Buckner and Commissioner Greg Puckett voted to grant the airport $1,500 for the plane’s visit.

Anyone who would like to contribute to the C-54’s visit can call the Mercer County Airport at 304-327-5308.

— Contact Greg Jordan at [email protected]

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