Free Republic

U.S. military pilot Gail S. Halvorsen - known as the 'Candy Bomber' for his candy airdrops during the Berlin airlift after World War II ended - has died aged 101. Halvorsen died Wednesday following a brief illness in his home state of Utah, surrounded by most of his children, James Stewart, the director of the Gail S. Halvorsen Aviation Education Foundation, said Thursday. Colonel Gail Seymour 'Hal' Halvorsen is best known as the 'Berlin Candy Bomber' or 'Uncle Wiggly Wings' and gained fame for dropping candy to German children during the Berlin airlift from 1948 to 1949. Halvorsen was beloved...

Gail Halvorsen, a former U.S. airman known as the “Candy Bomber” for delivering sweets to children during the Berlin Airlift, died on Wednesday at the age of 101. The Gail S. Halvorsen Aviation Education Foundation confirmed the veteran's death in a statement on Thursday. The foundation said he passed away peacefully and surrounded by family at the Utah Valley Hospital following a brief illness. Halvorsen gained his "Candy Bomber" moniker during the 15-month Berlin Airlift after World War II that saw western allies drop essential supplies into West Berlin after it was blockaded by the Soviet Union. The airman had...

Gail Halvorsen, a former U.S. airman known as the “Candy Bomber” for delivering sweets to children during the Berlin Airlift, died on Wednesday at the age of 101. The Gail S. Halvorsen Aviation Education Foundation confirmed the veteran's death in a statement on Thursday. The foundation said he passed away peacefully and surrounded by family at the Utah Valley Hospital following a brief illness. Halvorsen gained his "Candy Bomber" moniker during the 15-month Berlin Airlift after World War II that saw western allies drop essential supplies into West Berlin after it was blockaded by the Soviet Union. The airman had...

In 1948, when he was a young U.S. Air Force pilot ferrying humanitarian aid in the Berlin airlift, Gail Halvorsen encountered a group of German children standing by the runway at Tempelhof Airport. As the kids peppered him with questions, he reached in his pocket and found two sticks of gum, which he broke into pieces and passed around the crowd. But it wasn’t nearly enough. Looking at the faces of all the kids who had been left out, he had a brainstorm. Tomorrow when he flew in his load of cargo, he promised the children, he would drop small...

Born in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1920, Gail Halvorsen was the second of Basil and Luella Halvorsen’s three children. Growing up on the family’s farm in Garland, Halvorsen graduated from Bear River High School in Tremonton. “Working on our small farm,” Halvorsen recalled, “I was the only tractor my dad had. This was during the Depression, of course, so we didn’t have any discretionary money. We did have a lot of love, though, and plenty to eat. We had no idea we were ‘disadvantaged.’ “In the springtime we had to thin the sugar beets, and that was a hard...

Today, during an afternoon conference that wrapped up my project of the last 18 months, one of my Euro collegues tossed this little turd out to no one in particular: " See, this is why George Bush is so dumb, theres a disaster in the world and he sends an Aircraft Carrier..." After which he and many of my Euro collegues laughed out loud. and then they looked at me. I wasn't laughing, and neither was my Hindi friend sitting next to me, who has lost family in the disaster. I'm afraid I was "unprofessional", I let it loose -...

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) -- The pilot known as the Candy Bomber for air-dropping handkerchief-tethered chocolate and gum to the children of Berlin in 1948 wants to do the same thing for the kids of Baghdad. "I'd give my right arm to do it," said retired Air Force Col. Gail Halvorsen. "I've had the experience of the reaction of the kids on the ground. It's just incredible." When the Soviets formed a blockade around Berlin after World War II, Halvorsen and other U.S. pilots airlifted food, medicine and other supplies into the city. During that time, Halvorsen collected rations from his...