1st Lt George B. Smith 1st Lt Leland V. Williams Tuscaloosa, Alabama Abilene, Texas Mr Karl V. Hagen 1st Lt Charles H. King New York, New York Britton, South Dakota 1st Lt Robert W. Stuber Major Edwin C. Diltz Arlington, California Fayetteville, Texas Captain Willian R. Howard Captain Joel M. DeVolentine Gunnison, Mississippi Miami, Florida 1st Lt William T. Lucas PFC Johnny T. Orms Wilson, North Carolina Rhein-Main Air Base Captain James A. Vaughan 1st Lt Eugene S. Erickson New Haven, Connecticut Collinsville, Illinois Sgt Richard Winter Captain Billy E. Phelps Seattle, Washington Long Beach, California 1st Lt Willis F. Hargis TSgt Lloyd C. Wells Nacogdoches, Texas San Antonio, Texas AD/3 Harry R. Crites, Jr. 1st Lt Richard M. Wurgel Lafayette, Indiana Union City, New Jersey 1st Lt Lowell A. Wheaton, Jr. Captain William A. Rathgeber Corpus Christi, Texas Portland, Oregon Sgt Bernard J. Watkins Cpl Norbert H. Theis Lafayette, Indiana Cunningham, Kansas PFC Ronald E. Stone 1st Lt Ralph H. Boyd Mt. Sterling, Kentucky Fort Worth, Texas 1st Lt Craig B. Ladd TSgt Charles L. Putnam Minneapolis, Minnesota Colorado Springs, Colorado 1st Lt Robert P. Weaver 1st Lt Royce C. Stephens Fort Wayne, Indiana San Antonio, Texas 1st Lt Robert C. von Luehrte 2nd Lt Donald J. Leemon Covington, Kentucky Green Bay, Wisconsin TSgt Herbert F. Heinig Fort Wayne, Indiana
Anyone notice the two chunks of French controlled West Germany were at convenient "retreat/backstab" positions?
The airlift sounds pretty amazing in terms of equipment at the time.
Nowadays, it sounds paltry compared to what the C5's and C141's can do.
Too easy these days to forget the accomplishments of the previous generations.
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on January 28:
1457 Henry VII Pembroke Castle, 1st Tudor king of England (1485-1509)
1600 Clement IX [Giulio Rospigliosi], Pistoia, Italy, 238th pope (1667-69)
1608 Giovanni Alfonso Borelli Naples Italy, mathematician/astronomer/physiologist
1611 Johannes Hevelius Danzig, astronomer (star cataloger)
1706 John Baskerville English printer (typeface inventor)
1717 Mustapha III Sultan of Turkey (1757-74)
1815 Andrew Jackson Hamilton Brigadier General (Union volunteers), died in 1875
1822 Alexander MacKenzie (L) 2nd PM of Canada (1873-78)
1825 George Edward Pickett Major General (Confederate Army), died in 1875
1828 Thomas Carmichael Hindman Major General (Confederate Army), died in 1868
1831 Henry Brevard Davidson Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1899
1833 Charles George Gordon London England, military hero/general (China, Khartoum)
1841 Henry Stanley England, journalist/explorer (found Livingston in Africa)
1853 José Martí y Perez Cuba, poet/essayist/politician
1855 William Seward Burroughs New York, inventor (recording adding machine)
1884 Auguste Piccard Switzerland, scientist/explorer (balloonist)
1910 John Banner Vienna Austria, actor (Sergeant Hans Schultz-Hogan's Heroes)
1912 Jackson Pollock Cody WY, abstract artist (Lavender Mist)
1924 Frank R Lautenberg (Senator-D-NJ)
1928 Slade Gorton (Senator-R-WA, 1981-96 )
1929 Acker Bilk clarinetist (Stranger on the Shore)
1933 Susan Sontag New York City NY, essayist/novelist/film director (The Benefactor, 1966 Pol Award)
1936 Alan Alda [Alphonso D'Abruzzo], New York City NY, actor (Hawkeye Pierce-M*AS*H)
1948 Mamoru Mohri Yoichi-machi Hokkaido Japan, astronaut (STS 47)
1950 Barbi Benton [Klein], California, Playboy model/actress (Hee Haw, Sugar Time!)
1950 David Carl Hilmer Iowa, Colonel USMC/astronaut (STS 51-J, 26, 36, 42)
Berlin "Candy Bomber"
http://www.hill.af.mil/museum/history/candy.htm
One of the many American pilots to fly the USAF C-54 Skymaster during the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49 ("Operation Vittles") was Colonel Gail S. Halvorsen of Provo, Utah. During the operation he became known as the "Candy Bomber" because he repeatedly dropped candy to German children from his aircraft on approach to the runways.
The idea grew out of a chance meeting between Halvorsen and several German school children at the perimeter fence of Tempelhof Airport. While waiting for his aircraft to be unloaded one day he decided to walk to the end of the runway and photograph other C-54s making their landing approach to the runway, a tricky descent over several buildings outside the Tempelhof grounds. While standing at the barbed wire fence he struck up a conversation with the German children gathered outside to watch the giant airplanes land. The hungry children asked if Halvorsen had any gum or candy, and he eagerly gave them two pieces of gum that he happened to be carrying in his pocket. He promised to bring them more gum and candy on his next flight into the airport, saying that he would drop it to them as he passed over them while landing. When asked how they would known which of the huge airplanes was his, he said he would "wiggle his wings" as he approached their position.
True to his word, on his next mission to Tempelhof Airport, on final approach to the runway Halvorsen "wiggled his wings" and had the Flight Engineer push three bundles of sweets through the flare chute on the C-54 flightdeck. (Halvorsen had gathered the candy by talking other pilots into donating their Candy Ration Cards to the effort.) The three small parcels floated down on tiny, homemade handkerchief parachutes, but Halvorsen could not see whether the children caught the packages due to the business of landing. Later, as he taxied the empty C-54 to the end of the runway to depart the airfield, he looked to the crowd of children at the fence. Three white handkerchiefs waved back at him enthusiastically!
Over the next few weeks Halvorsen repeated the airdrops to an ever-growing audience of German children at the fence. Soon he even began to receive letters at the airport, addressed simply to "Uncle Wiggly Wings -- Tempelhof," requesting special airdrops at other locations within the city! Local newspapers picked up the story and his fame began to spread. Back at his home base Halvorsen began to receive mail from other pilots who wanted to help. Candy was donated, handkerchief parachutes were made by volunteers, and the tiny parcels began to fall all over Berlin.
On a brief trip back to the United States Halvorsen was asked by an interviewer what he needed to continue his popular "Candy Bomber" operation. He jokingly remarked "boxcars full of candy!" Sure enough, shortly after his return to Germany a traincar loaded with 3,000 pounds of chocolate bars arrived for "Uncle Wiggly Wings." Thousands of pounds of candy continued to arrive from the United States to support the airdrops. Other pilots volunteered to drop the packages of sweets across the city. After several letters were received from East Berlin "Uncle Wiggly Wings" even made a few drops to school yards there, angering Soviet officials for the "attempted subversion of young minds." When asked about it Halvorsen commented "kids are kids everywhere." He even mailed packages of candy to disappointed children who wrote to say they had never been able to reach the "sweet gifts from the sky" before others got all the loot. No one was to be missed by Utah's "Candy Bomber."
Candy Bomber still delivers
http://www.usafe.af.mil/berlin/uns99207.htm
Released: May 19, 1999
By Tech. Sgt. Joe Bela
USAFE News Service
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (USAFENS)-- From the Berlin Airlift, 50 years ago, to Operation Shining Hope, the Candy Bomber still delivers.
One man's kind gesture at the end of World War II blossomed into a major operation with one mission -- to airdrop candy to the children of war-torn Berlin.
For the Candy Bomber, retired Col. Gail Halvorsen, the legacy continues.
Halvorsen, one of the Berlin Airlift's most famous figures and the impetus behind Operation "Little Vittles," visited Albania Tuesday to make yet another delivery to the Kosovar Albanian refugees fleeing Serb oppression in Kosovo.
The Candy Bomber made the 4 1/2-hour trek to Tirana aboard a C-130 transport plane from Ramstein's 37th Airlift Squadron. While there, he saw similarities between the nearly 600 U.S. servicemembers supporting humanitarian operations and the airmen who did the same for West Berlin in 1948.
"I saw the same spark in the folks here today. It's reflected in the crews and the ground folks," Halvorsen said. "I was impressed with their professionalism, how they went about their tasks and worked together as a team."
It's the same thing as the Berlin Airlift, he said in reference to Operation Shining Hope. "It's the spirit ... of helping people we don't even know and risking our lives to do it."
Halvorsen's trip included a 30-minute ride aboard a Navy CH-46 helicopter to Camp Hope where he delivered school supplies, toys and candy to the children. The U.S.-built facility is currently home for more than 2,000 refugees, and is expected to shelter up to 20,000 people upon completion.
Although no children had heard of the Candy Bomber, their curiosity alone was enough to draw a crowd. "They just ran out. It was the same in Berlin," said Halvorsen. "Kids naturally know GIs are a 'soft touch' for gum and candy.
"I was amazed to find these children -- who'd been sleeping out in the open just a few weeks before, deprived of their homes -- so upbeat. We have to take a lesson from that," he said.
"These children taught me a lot today. Your heart bleeds for them, but when you see them adapting like that, it renews your faith," he said. "If you have the right attitude, well then, the whole world is a different color. These kids have that attitude."
For Halvorsen, the visit was a great experience he'll never forget -- an experience like the one in Berlin 50 years ago.
The Berlin Airlift and Operation Shining Hope have one thing in common. These (the German and Kosovar) people sacrificed the comforts of life because they believed in the same principle and that's freedom," he said.
"They may not have had enough to eat, but they put aside the hunger for the principle of being free," he said. "We need to understand the trials of people like them and learn to have an appreciation for the little things in life."