Gail Halvorsen was known as the original “Candy Bomber”
During the Berlin Airlift, Gail Halverson flew one of the innumerable C-54 cargo aircraft ferrying supplies into Berlin, then deep within the Soviet sector of control in Germany. On his days off, he went sightseeing in Berlin and shot film on his personal handheld movie camera. One on such visit, he saw thirty children lined up behind a fence at Tempelhof airport, the main landing site for the airlift. He went to meet them and noticed these kids had nothing without the aid of the US air force. He looked into his pocket and took out some candy to give to the kids who hadn’t had any sweets for years. He realized that he did not have enough candy for thirty but gave to the kids anyway; they didn’t fight for it, instead they let the ones who got it kept it. Halverson thought for a moment and decided that he would drop candy out of his C-54. The kids asked how they would know what plane was his. He replied, “I’ll wiggle my wings.“
When Halverson got back to his air force base he used his ration to get candy, and also asked his friends to contribute. The next step was to get some type of parachute since they could not use full size parachutes and of course he didn’t want to hurt the kids. They decided to use their extra clothes and handkerchiefs. In the morning when they would do their regular supply drops they also dropped three boxes of candy attached to handkerchiefs. They would do these drops once per a week; the children were very happy and began sending the parachutes back along with letters and artwork. Their popularity was increasing and then the commanding officer heard about it. Gail was called to his office thinking he was in trouble but the commander was instead proud.
