Douglas Braeuer

The Berlin Crisis was due to the people of East Germany were constantly trying to escape to West Germany in Berlin. They were activated to Chaumont, France for the Berlin Crisis in August 1961, to a reopened base with 20 men – a skeleton crew! There were no lockers and barely enough bunks of old metal cots and cheap mattresses. Planeloads of troops came in day in, day out for weeks. From August to November, they were getting shipments to get the base ready. They needed a huge quantity of supplies, from lockers and bedding, to weapons, generators and compressors. These were flown on military planes from McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey. In November, when aircraft needed for the base arrived – as per then Chief of Staff of the US Air Force Curtis LeMay, four of them were to be fully loaded with bombs and rockets, on-alert, and ready to go, and that was the main priority for the flight line. 

Flight line mechanics like Braeuer and armament workers had the planes to load for Alert. His daily tasks while in Chaumont were to be on one of three work shift crews. Early morning shift was from 5:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., regular shift was 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and late shift was 4:30 to 8:00 p.m. Tasks during each shift depended on what was already done or needed to be done. On-alert planes were the focus; four different planes would be rotated out after a certain amount of time. After the on-alert planes were fully good to go, Braeuer would fall back to work on other planes that he was tasked with fixing.

During his time in Chaumont, Braeuer did travel to Bitburg Germany for temporary assignment duty for about a week. Firing in Gun Pit was where they trained the guns on the planes that had to go to Wheelus Air Force Base in Tripoli North Africa: Air to Air gunnery. His Wing also had a temporary assignment in Bermuda, a radar penetration mission, radar along the coast making sure it was picked up and intercepted on the mainland.

During his free time, Braeuer did not travel as much as other guys at the base. It was very convenient for them to travel, because there was a railroad very close to the base. But Braeuer needed to send most of his money back home to his wife and new baby. He did travel to Paris once where he experienced friendlier French people than those that were near the base. Those near the base didn’t care for them being there and weren’t always happy about the fact they were there.

Before being discharged, Braeuer returned to the States at McGuire Air Base in NJ where his staff sergeant wanted him to stay hoping to get him promoted, which would help him receive more money. Braeuer knew the chances were low, and in December 1962 he was discharged after eight years in the Air Force. He now had a good background in electronics and could get a better job, but he also wanted to get home to his wife and child.

Braeuer worked as a union electrician and in construction for 38 years before retiring. He was retired for a full year before getting a part-time job as a flight line mechanic at Miller Airport. Braeuer never used his GI benefits. He had tried to use the VA for hearing loss. Braeuer attended the 25th reunion of Berlin Crisis veterans in Princeton, New Jersey, where he reconnected with one of the pilots who he was the crew chief. 

At the time of this interview, Braeuer was 74 and still working on a flight line refueling planes, moving planes and staying active. He recruited his friends to join him and got to be flown to Miami as the reward. His employer, Ocean Air, takes care of all the old museum planes in Millville, New Jersey. Old war planes are maintained and inspected.