Senior Master Sergeant James Rival Reis

Written by Brenda S. Bear (brendasbear@gmail.com). Please do not copy or share my writing without my permission. Thank you for reading my stories.

Wanda is one of 5 children of Senior Master Sergeant James Rival Reis, a Lewis County Veteran with a Military Hero Banner hanging in downtown Vanceburg. Reis graduated from Lewis County High School in 1942 and was drafted a couple months later.

The Senior Master Sergeant served in 3 wars that spanned over 30 years (1943-1973): World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. I spoke with Wanda today as she told me about her father.

Her father was deployed to Berlin shortly after the end of World War II. It was 1948, and the Soviet Union had seized control of the city in an attempt to isolate and starve its population of over two million. The Senior Master Sergeant was a Corporal at the time serving as a crewman in WWII. He told his family about the starving children in Berlin, a memory that stayed with him for the rest of his life.

Operation "Vittles" began on June 26, 1948, when the U.S. Air Force launched a large scale mission to deliver food and fuel to Berlin using the C-54 transport planes. In addition to the official supply runs, pilots began dropping candy tied to small parachutes made from handkerchiefs for the city's children—a gesture that became known as "Operation Little Vittles." In a remarkable feat of coordination and effort, the U.S. Air Force and Navy set a record on April 16, 1949, by delivering 12,941 tons of coal and food in a single day to the starving families of Berlin.

Although the Soviet Union reopened land routes to Berlin in May 1949, the Allies continued the airlift through September to build up reserves of food, fuel, and medicine in case Stalin changed his mind.

By the end of the operation, more than 2.3 million tons of supplies and 227,655 passengers had been transported. The Berlin Airlift remains the largest humanitarian airlift in history, a testament to international cooperation and determination in the face of crisis.

Wanda said the sacrifices made by families during times of war were often overlooked. Her father missed so many important moments because he was always deployed, yet he never complained. “He was doing his job,” he would say. Wanda shared that she graduated from high school in 1967, her father, who was serving in Vietnam at the time, missed the ceremony. Five years later, her brother graduated, and her father missed his graduation also.

She vividly remembers him carrying a small Bible tucked inside his uniform, along with cherished photos of his family. Despite the distance, he stayed connected, writing each family member individual letters and sending photographs from Vietnam, a sincere effort to remain close even while far from home. Wanda still cherishes those letters and photos, along with the memory of her father who passed away at 94 years old in 2017.