10/15/2026
🍨NATIONAL DESSERT DAY
Marine Ace J. Hunter Reinburg had a storied career. A recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross with *4 stars* for his service in the Pacific Theater with squadrons VMF-121 and VMF-122, his most famous exploit involved cocoa powder, ammo cans, and some creative "test flights".
The heat, isolation, and ops tempo were brutal for aircrew flying out of Peleliu Island. Over the course of three experimental flights in 1944 - code name Operation Freeze Flight - Reinburg developed the perfect recipe for high-altitude ice cream.
Combining canned milk and cocoa powder from the mess in an ammo can, he used the cold temperatures, perfect positioning in the plane, and a combo of aircraft vibration and a slipstream impeller to achieve a perfectly churned sweet treat. The dessert proved a favorite exploit to produce among fellow flyers and a much needed morale-booster.
Reinburg was a career marine aviator. During the Korean War, he commanded the legendary "Flying Nightmares" of Marine Night Fighter Squadron 513. (VMF(N)-513) pioneered airborne radar-guided intercepts in darkness, served as the sole aerial night defender of the Pusan Perimeter, and the squadron was the first to achieve a radar night kill of an enemy jet aircraft in 1952.
Reinburg would go on to receive a Silver Star for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action against enemy aggressor forces in Korea on 21 August 1950. He retired from the Marines as a colonel in 1978.
📸: U.S. Naval Institute, U.S. Navy, National Archives, personal collection
