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Nickel Grass  It was justifiably called "the airlift that saved
Israel.  One of the most critical but least celebrated airlifts
in history unfolded over a desperate 32 days in the fall of
1973. An armada of Military Airlift Command aircraft carried
thousands of tons of materiel over vast distances into the midst
of the most ferocious fighting the Middle East had ever
witnessed-the 1973 Arab­Israeli War. MAC airlifters-T-tailed
C-141s and C-5As-went in harm's way, vulnerable to attack from
fighters, as they carved a demanding track across the
Mediterranean, and to missiles and sabotage, as they were off-
loading in Israel.  Though not as famous as the 1948­-49 Berlin
Airlift or as massive as the 1990-­91 Desert Storm airlift, this
1973 operation was a watershed event. Code-named "Nickel Grass,"
it restored a balance of power and helped Israel survive a
coordinated, life-threatening So