The Candy Bomber Has Passed Away

[MIflyer]

From Avweb:

Famed Berlin Airlift "Candy Bomber" pilot Col. Gail S. Halvorsen passed away on Wednesday at the age of 101. Halvorsen was known for dropping candy via handkerchief parachutes from his C-54 to the children of Berlin during the Soviet Union's blockade of the city in 1948-1949. Although begun without official authorization, his actions opened the door for "Operation Little Vittles," which dropped over 23 tons of candy over Berlin between September 1948 and May 1949.


"It is with a heavy heart that we bid farewell to our friend, Col. Gail Seymour Halvorsen, known to the world as The Berlin Candy Bomber, Uncle Wiggly Wings, the Chocolate Pilot and many other well earned terms of endearment," the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation wrote. "The impact and legacy he leaves behind is immeasurable, not only on his friends and family, but on the entire world."


Halvorsen was born on Oct. 10, 1920, in Salt Lake City, Utah, and earned his private pilot certificate in 1941. He joined the U.S. Army Air Forces in May 1942, serving 31 years and logging more than 8,000 flight hours before his retirement in 1974. Halvorsen's military service included working at the Air Force Space Systems Division on programs including the Titan III launch vehicle, commanding the 6596th Instrumentation Squadron of the AF Systems Command Satellite Control Facility and commanding the 7350th Air Base Group at Berlin's Tempelhof Central Airport. Among his many military and civilian decorations, Halverson was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Cheney Award, the Legion of Merit and the Congressional Gold

HEY! He was an Air Force space guy, like me!

 

[pbehn]

It made an impression on the German people, a young German engineer spoke about it to me about 20 years ago.

 

[Peter Gunn]

 

[GrauGeist]

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

The man spent tough times giving smiles to children. Who can gainsay that?

RiP, colonel.

 

[MIflyer]

By the way, back around 1990 I think it was GHW Bush that cited Col Halverson as an example of how we have been using FEMALE military pilots for many years. They assumed that Gail was a female name and did not realize the only female pilots we used in WWII or afterwards were the WASPS on ferry missions.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

By the way, back around 1990 I think it was GHW Bush that cited Col Halverson as an example of how we have been using FEMALE military pilots for many years. They assumed that Gail was a female name and did not realize the only female pilots we used in WWII or afterwards were the WASPS on ferry missions.

Bless his heart.

 

[nuuumannn]

Bless his heart.

Dubya was such a comedian...

 

[nuuumannn]

Sad to hear about Halvorsen. I met him once during an anniversary of the Airlift, he flew in the Historical foundation's C-54 to Berlin and landed at Duxford as a stop-over. Nice fella, very relateable and keen to talk to those who braved the rain to go visit the aircraft. He told me he flew this C-54 to Tempelhof years after the airlift and it was put outside the big terminal for years, but was moved for fear of vandalism and was kept in one of the hangars. Now the airfield has closed it is kept there, hopefully to become part of the Alliertenmuseum when (or if) it moves to Tempelhof.

Europe 251

His story was terrific and truly inspirational.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Sad to hear about Halvorsen. I met him once during an anniversary of the Airlift, he flew in the Historical foundation's C-54 to Berlin and landed at Duxford as a stop-over. Nice fella, very relateable and keen to talk to those who braved the rain to go visit the aircraft. He told me he flew this C-54 to Tempelhof years after the airlift and it was put outside the big terminal for years, but was moved for fear of vandalism and was kept in one of the hangars. Now the airfield has closed it is kept there, hopefully to become part of the Alliertenmuseum when (or if) it moves to Tempelhof.

View attachment 659031Europe 251

His story was terrific and truly inspirational.

I've had the pleasure of meeting veterans from the WWII era (none famed, mind you), but it is always such a cool thing to hear first-hand accounts of the BoB or Gaudalcanal and other events we read about. It brings history alive!

 

[nuuumannn]

It brings history alive!

It sure does! I had the pleasure of meeting a few vets as a result of working in museums and there were some hoots. I met Lancaster pilot and VC winner Bill Reid, who came to the museum for an exhibition opening, usually when these guys were dragged along, and he was fantastic. I was on the podium among the speech givers and while we were waiting to give our speeches he kept nudging me and telling me jokes! He was fuuu-nny!

William REID VC

Victoria Cross and George Cross Association Official Website

vcgca.org

I met 603 Sqn pilot Stapme Stapleton at Duxford once with the official squadron historian I knew from working at the museum. He was a cracker, again, funny. When I was introduced to him he said to me, "so you're a Kiwi huh, some of my best mates were kiwis. You're alright son" and proceded to talk about stuff he'd done. Lots of wisecracks. His moustache was stained yellow with nicotine, that's what I remember most about meeting him.

Aircrew Remembered: Aviation Obituaries from London Daily Telegraph

Reprints of Obituaries of aviation people as published by the London Daily Telegraph, along with original research.

aircrewremembered.com

 

[GrauGeist]

I grew up around WWII vets (including being taught how to fly by them), and I truly regret not writing down some of the things they (rarely) shared (beyond the freely shared stories of shenanigans and such).

They are all gone now, but I remember them as if it were yesterday and it was an honor to have known them.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

It sure does! I had the pleasure of meeting a few vets as a result of working in museums and there were some hoots. I met Lancaster pilot and VC winner Bill Reid, who came to the museum for an exhibition opening, usually when these guys were dragged along, and he was fantastic. I was on the podium among the speech givers and while we were waiting to give our speeches he kept nudging me and telling me jokes! He was fuuu-nny!

William REID VC

Victoria Cross and George Cross Association Official Website

vcgca.org

I met 603 Sqn pilot Stapme Stapleton at Duxford once with the official squadron historian I knew from working at the museum. He was a cracker, again, funny. When I was introduced to him he said to me, "so you're a Kiwi huh, some of my best mates were kiwis. You're alright son" and proceded to talk about stuff he'd done. Lots of wisecracks. His moustache was stained yellow with nicotine, that's what I remember most about meeting him.

Aircrew Remembered: Aviation Obituaries from London Daily Telegraph

Reprints of Obituaries of aviation people as published by the London Daily Telegraph, along with original research.

aircrewremembered.com

I had a regular customer who always came in wearing a bright red Marine 1st Div WWII Vet cap, so I asked him about it one day. Turns out he fought on Bloody Ridge and landed on Pelelieu where he got his million-dollar wound. I was awestruck into silence as he told me about fighting off waves of both men on the 'Canal and the sea at Pelelieu.

Another time, managing a framing shop, a guy came in with what was obviously a squadon reunion pic to have it framed. When I got his info for the work order, he had a Polish name, so I had to ask. He flew and fought over Poland and when they lost he snuck through the Balkans and ended up in England, where he joined one of the Polish squadrons, too late for BoB but flying Spits, in which plane he later got three kills.

It's one thing to read about it, but it's another thing entirely to see their eyes glisten as they answer questions from some young nobody about what they did.

 

[Gnomey]

 

[soulezoo]

I had a regular customer who always came in wearing a bright red Marine 1st Div WWII Vet cap, so I asked him about it one day. Turns out he fought on Bloody Ridge and landed on Pelelieu where he got his million-dollar wound. I was awestruck into silence as he told me about fighting off waves of both men on the 'Canal and the sea at Pelelieu.

Another time, managing a framing shop, a guy came in with what was obviously a squadon reunion pic to have it framed. When I got his info for the work order, he had a Polish name, so I had to ask. He flew and fought over Poland and when they lost he snuck through the Balkans and ended up in England, where he joined one of the Polish squadrons, too late for BoB but flying Spits, in which plane he later got three kills.

It's one thing to read about it, but it's another thing entirely to see their eyes glisten as they answer questions from some young nobody about what they did.

I had an uncle (now passed) that was in the Marine 1st and fought at Pelelieu and Tarawa then on to Okinawa. My son-in-law is currently a lance corporal in the 1st. Sadly, he knows very little about that history.

 

[vikingBerserker]

 

[FLYBOYJ]

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

I had an uncle (now passed) that was in the Marine 1st and fought at Pelelieu and Tarawa then on to Okinawa. My son-in-law is currently a lance corporal in the 1st. Sadly, he knows very little about that history.

I have no doubt y'all are proud of your son-in-law, and rightly so, but that last sentence makes me sad too. I had always thought that the Corps was the branch most steeped in its history.

 

[MIflyer]

A man I worked with in my first USAF assignment served in the Polish Army in WWII, was wounded on the first day of the war, and spent most of the war in a German POW camp. He escaped, was recaptured and treated so badly that he vowed he would never try to escape again. The RAF bombed their camp one night and one day P-38''s strafed the hell out of it. Late in the war the camp guards were replaced by old men and boys and so he escaped again. He and the other POWs were trapped in a house as the battle raged around them but finally they were able to reach the US Army. He volunteered to accompany them as a guide and interpreter, since he spoke Polish, French, German, and Russian. One day his jeep hit a mine; the driver was killed and he woke up in a US Army hospital in France weeks later, where he met his wife-to-be, a nurse. He went to work for the USAF as an engineer and one day a contractor came to discuss some civil engineering work they were doing, bringing his head foreman with him. The foreman looked at my friend in shock and said, "You're supposed to be dead! Your Jeep hit that mine and I put you on the stretcher! We knew you would never survive!"

Those people used to be all around us., the high school teacher who was a WWII USN Aviator and suffered serious injuries in a crash, the high school teacher who was a bombardier on the Doolittle Raid, the next door neighbor who flew B-25's in the Med and B-24's in the Pacific, the building general contractor who flew Spits and Hurris in the UK before the US entered the war and then B-24's in the Pacific.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]