Yesterday I had the great privilege of seeing and hearing Colonel Gail Halvorsen, the famous “Candy Bomber” of the Berlin Airlift.
… While flying missions during the airlift, Halvorsen began dropping chocolate bars with tiny parachutes to Berlin’s children. His actions earned him the love and gratitude of Berliners and the acclaim of people in the United States and throughout the free world.
Halvorsen was on hand to help to dedicate the corridor, and he also spoke during the ceremony. He reminisced about his experiences and how he was inspired by some German children he met at the Berlin fence in 1948 who told him, “Someday, we’ll have enough to eat. But if we lose our freedom, we’ll never have it back.”
A great piece of living history, and a real character too, from one of the Air Force’s finest hours. I’m glad I was there to see it.
Colonel Halvorsen’s story is wonderful. He is a great American.
I wish I could meet him! For me, this would have been a doubly interesting experience since my birth country was the one he helped to put in place…
Interesting how those kids understood what was important but their children/grandchildren marched/marching against US military presence in Europe…
I was able to meet and talk to(for a few minutes) Col. Halvorsen at the Oshkosh(WI) EAA Airventure last August.
I had missed his presentation and I’m sure he was probably tired of talking about it, but he took a few minutes and reviewed his part in the Berlin Airlift before signing a book about the Candy Bomber/Berlin Airlift that I left with a class I was working with.
It was nice to meet such a good man.
They say that, while on His D-Day Photo-Op Tour, His Imperial Majesty is going to apologize for American War Crimes committed against Germans during WWII. Wonder if he’s going to apologize for this?