Gail Halvorsen was a command pilot in the United States Airforce during the times around and leading up to the Cold War. He is most known during the Berlin Airlift of being the first “Candy Bomber.” Candy Bombers were pilots who dropped candy and such to the children down in Berlin as they brought the supplies during the Berlin Airlift from 1948 to 1949.
Although besides this Gail commonly known as Hal was known for quite a bit during and after his military career. Gail was October 10th, 1920 in Utah. From a young age, he always knew he wanted to fly airplanes. By 1941 he earned his pilot license and joined the Civil Air Patrol. By 1942 he had joined the United States Air Force and was assigned to be stationed in Germany. In Germany, he was assigned to bring supplies to the people of Berlin that had their resources cut off by Stalin. This is when he began his operation “Little Vittles,” this was his practice of dropping candy the german children by attaching the candy to small parachutes. He started this operation by himself in order to boost morale and soon he was recognized as a national hero in Germany and the United States. He became known to the children of Berlin as “Uncle Wiggly Wings” and was adored by the thousands. He received the congressional gold medal for his work as a candy bomber and he advocated for candy bombing in other countries that he deemed had low moral due to the conflict going on in the world.
Hal also greatly assisted in developing a reusable manned spacecraft at the Directorate of Space and Technology. Along with being appointed as commander of Berlin Tempelhof Airport. He retired from the United States Air Force in 1974 and spent the next 12 years serving as the Assistant Dean of Student Life at Brigham Young University. Hal is still alive today and spends his time on his family farm in Utah with his wife and resides in Arizona in the winters.
I thought that this was a really interesting blog post, and it taught me a lot about Gail Halvorsen's legacy! His story as the first "candy bomber" is really uplifting, especially amidst the general tension and suffering of the Cold War. I found out that the Berlin blockade lasted for almost a year, and Westerners made over 272,000 flights to deliver supplies. The support of the Westerners, and especially the candy bomber, probably helped the people of Berlin maintain hope and humanity until Stalin ended the blockade.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/berlin-wall#section_6
I really enjoyed reading this blog post! Halvorsen's legacy is a rare heart-warming story that comes out of such a conflicted time. I wanted to find out why he was nicknamed Uncle Wiggly Wings (as well as the Candy Bomber) because it seems like such a random name. Apparently, the Berlin children were worried about knowing which plane was Halvorsen's, so he told them that he would wiggle his wings. He rocked his plane from side to side when approaching the city, so the children could tell which plane was going to drop candy.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.wonderopolis.org/wonder/who-was-uncle-wiggly-wings