Gail Halvorsen: The Candy Bomber

Gail Halvorsen pioneered the idea of dropping candy bars and bubble gum with handmade miniature parachutes, which later became known as "Operation Little Vittles." Public Domain

Gail Halvorsen (1920–2022) was born and raised on the farms of Idaho and Utah. Born around the start of the Interwar Years, he enjoyed the quiet serenity of a world at peace for a majority of his early life. While growing up, America played a role in the advancement of flight. Pilots, such as John Macready, Oakley Kelly, Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, and Carl Spaatz, were the heroes of the day, setting records and demonstrating the ingenuity behind American aeronautics. Hearing the stories of high-altitude daring and witnessing planes in the sky every so often, Halvorsen had one wish and that was to become a pilot.

As a teenager, he earned a scholarship for flying lessons and by the time he was 20 years old, he'd received his pilot’s license from the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP). The CPTP was founded in 1938 with the objective of training 20,000 civilian pilots each year. This program was initiated due to the possible outbreak of war in Europe. The year after the CPTP began, Germany invaded Poland and started World War II. Shortly after Halvorsen received his pilot’s license, America was drawn into the war when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

From Fighter Pilot to Transport

Halvorsen immediately enlisted into the Army Air Forces, and since he already had his pilot license, he volunteered for an opportunity to join Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) to train as a fighter pilot. While training with the British, he earned his RAF wings.

In 1943, he was placed on active duty with the Army Air Forces. Although he had been trained as a fighter pilot, there was a greater need for transport pilots. It was a necessity that would not only change his life, but would immensely impact post-World War II global relations.

Halvorsen was stationed in the South Atlantic Theater of Operations and made flights from Brazil to Ascension Island, a small island in the Atlantic Ocean, and into Africa, as well as England and Italy. The young pilot flew the Douglas C-47 Skytrain and the Douglas C-54 Skymaster. When the war ended, Halvorsen remained with the Army Air Forces, which would become its own military branch in 1947 called the United States Air Force.

After World War II and the defeat of the Nazis, Germany was partitioned among the Allies—America, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. The latter received the eastern portion of Germany, which included eastern Berlin. The western half was broken up between the three western democracies. When the countries of America, Great Britain, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands agreed to extend economic assistance to West Germany, as well as institute a new German currency and federal government, the Soviet Union, fearing a strong and unified Germany, cut off Allied access into Berlin. It was the start of the Berlin Blockade, and the only way into the city now was by air.

Back to Europe

Halvorsen was back in America at the time, but he was soon back on duty in Europe. The transition overseas took place so fast that he hardly had time to pack.

“We had left for Germany so fast I had to drive the first new car of my life under the trees in Mobile, Alabama, put the keys in my pocket, look back once and leave,” he recalled. “I would never see that new, red, four door Chevy again.”

Halvorsen was back to piloting C-54s as part of the West’s response to the Berlin Blockade. The Berlin Airlift, as it was known, began in June 1948 and lasted 11 months. At the height of the Berlin Airlift, a plane landed at Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport every 45 seconds to drop off food and supplies. The 2 million Berliners were literally reliant on the Americans and British for their survival.

At Tempelhof Airport, Berliners watching a C-54 land. The aircraft was used in the Berlin Airlift of 1948–49, which defied the Soviet blockade by delivering supplies to the city's western sectors. Public Domain

Halvorsen arrived in July and made his first flight to Tempelhof Airport. “On my first trip to Berlin the flattened ruins of the once proud and sophisticated capital looked like a moonscape as the wreckage passed beneath the wings of my flour laden C-54 Skymaster,” he remembered.

The Children of Berlin

Another sight that left a great impression on him happened after he landed at the airport. There was barbed-wire fencing, and along the fenceline were about 30 children awaiting their nutritional relief to be unloaded. He walked over to the children. To his surprise, none asked for candy, which had been a commonality during the war.

Halvorsen said the West Berliners’ concern was that the Americans not give up on them. Upon hearing this, the pilot took out two sticks of gum and handed them to the children. He watched as they tore the gum into small pieces and shared them. Those who didn’t receive a piece were given pieces of the wrapping paper so that they could sniff the scent. The moment affected him so much that he promised to come back and drop off candy and chocolate. With so many planes coming in, the children asked how they would recognize his plane. He told them he would “wiggle the wings” of his plane. The children quickly nicknamed him “Uncle Wiggly Wings.”

That night, he tied gum and chocolate bars to three handkerchief parachutes. The next day, he flew into Tempelhof, wiggled his wings, and released the tiny parachutes. Halvorsen continued dropping his mini-parachutes to the children of Berlin, despite his actions violating Air Force regulations.

Word spread to the commanding officers and Halvorsen was threatened with a possible court martial, but word also spread to the right person: Gen. William Tunner, who was the officer in charge of the airlift. Tunner commended Halvorsen and encouraged him to continue. It was the perfect way to spread hope among Berliners, as well as definitively demonstrate the difference between the West and the Soviet Union.

A Douglas C-54 Skymaster dropping candy over Berlin, circa 1948–49. Public Domain

The Berlin Airlift’s official name was “Operation Vittles.” Halvorsen’s side operation was now given an official name: “Operation Little Vittles.” Operation Little Vittles, which began as a one-man operation, grew to include his entire squadron, and blossomed into delivering more than 250,000 candy-filled parachutes. Not only was the Air Force committed to the cause, but the American Confectioners Association got involved, donating tons of candy. By the end of Operation Little Vittles, Halvorsen and the Air Force squadrons had delivered more than 20 tons of gum and candy to the Berlin children.

A Sweet Legacy

Halvorsen became known as the Candy Bomber. He received hundreds of letters over his lifetime from those children he had helped. One Berliner, who had received a Hershey’s chocolate bar, recalled that moment, “It took me a week to eat it. I hid it day and night. But the chocolate was not the most important thing. The most important thing was that someone in America knew I was in trouble and someone cared. That meant hope. Without hope the soul dies. I can live on thin rations, but not without hope.”

Decades later, Halvorsen wrote his memoir about his experience during the Berlin Airlift called “The Berlin Candy Bomber.” In it, he wrote, “As I look back at ‘Operation Little Vittles’ and the years that have followed, there is one human characteristic above all others that gave it birth—the silent gratitude of the children at a barbed wire fence in Berlin, July 1948.”

Gail Halvorsen tells his story in "The Berlin Candy Bomber."

Halvorsen spent 31 years with the Army Air Forces and U.S. Air Force, eventually retiring with the rank of colonel. Before retiring, he was the commander of the Tempelhof Airport from 1970 to 1974. Post-retirement, he continued his humanitarian efforts in places like Albania and Kosovo, as well as Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He received numerous awards, including the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom from the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and the Congressional Gold Medal.

Col. Gail S. Halvorsen leans out the window of a C-54 Skymaster aircraft on static display at Tempelhof Central Airport during ceremonies commemorating the 40th anniversary of the airlift, which led to the Soviet's ending the Berlin blockade. Public Domain

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