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Episode #722 of Hometown Heroes, airing February 25-28, 2022, celebrates the legacy of Gail Halvorsen, the famed “Candy Bomber” of the Berlin Airlift, who passed away February 16th at the age of 101. Click here or on the image below to watch his entire memorial service on YouTube:

The Gail S. Halvorsen Aviation Education Foundation carries on Halvorsen’s legacy and priorities, emphasizing an “attitude of gratitude” and “service before self,” as it seeks to train future generations of aviators.

Halvorsen’s own aviation dreams began as a boy on a Utah farm, picked up steam through a Civil Air Patrol flight training scholarship, and in 1941 found their wings as he pooled his money with friends to try out a pretty primitive aircraft.

“55-horsepower engine with single ignition,” Halvorsen explained on Hometown Heroes. “That means if the ignition quits, you’re a glider, so you learn to look out for emergency landing places.”

He would graduate to much more advanced planes after enlisting in the Army Air Corps in the wake of Imperial Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. While he initially hoped to become a fighter pilot and trained briefly with Royal Air Force pilots in Oklahoma, he spent most of World War II flying between Florida, South America, Africa, and England, ferrying supplies as well as airplanes. That made him a very experienced transport pilot by the time the Soviet blockade of West Berlin created the opportunity for Gail and so many other Americans to provide an aerial lifeline to Germans who would have otherwise starved. You’ll hear Halvorsen explain that his sentiments toward the German people at the time had been influenced by what happened to a friend Gail had taught to fly. Conrad Steffen had become a P-47 pilot, but was shot down and killed by Nazi forces while escorting American bombers over Europe.

“What changed it, totally, was knowing that the people were different than Hitler,” you’ll hear him say of the compassion that stirred in his heart for the suffering German women and children. “I wanted to do more and I volunteered to join the airlift.”

Click on the image to order the Berlin Candy Bomber book.

“Operation Vittles” would provide life-saving food and supplies for the people of Berlin. “Operation Little Vittles” resulted from an encounter with grateful German children that you’ll hear Halvorsen describe on Hometown Heroes. He would fly three round trips per day to Tempelhof airport in West Berlin, and after one such day, he had the opportunity to skip his scheduled sleep and make a fourth flight instead. Wanting to take some photos in Berlin before the airlift ended, he decided to go. While the rest of his crew enjoyed some slumber in preparation for the next day’s flights, he headed back to Tempelhof. After landing, he saw a group of about thirty German children, ages 8 to 15, watching him through a barbed wire fence as he walked in his Army Air Corps uniform. The children spoke to him in English, warning him about the weather conditions he would encounter once winter arrived.

“But when that happens, don’t worry about us,” the kids told him. “Someday, we’ll have enough to eat, but if we lose our freedom, we’ll never get it back.”

That statement made a powerful impression on Halvorsen, underscoring the importance of the work he and so many others were performing in the airlift. The faces and voices of those children would be etched in his memory forever, but it was another voice that proved pivotal as he walked away.

“Got about fifty yards and a voice came to me clear as a bell,” you’ll hear him say of the unmistakable prompting to find something sweet to share with the kids. “I reached in my pocket hurriedly and all I found was two sticks of Wrigley’s Doublemint gum.”

Gail Halvorsen at the fence with German children.

That voice made him hesitate for a moment, then he continued to walk away. As he thought it over, he could only envision a riot ensuing from trying to share two measly sticks of gum with a crowd of thirty children. But the voice returned, commanding him unequivocally to “go back to the fence.” While some kids received fractions of the gum, others were content just to have a piece of the wrappers. Their gratitude motivated him to find more to share with the children. Listen to Hometown Heroes for how that simple exchange turned into a massive candy-dropping operation and how it earned him the nickname “Uncle Wigglywings,” or “Onckel Wackelflugel” in German. Ultimately, 23 tons of candy found its way to the German people. Over the years, Halvorsen has been the most noted participant in that massive humanitarian endeavor supported by so many in the U.S. and elsewhere, but “Hal” always redirected the credit to another group.

“The ultimate sacrifice was the 31 Americans that were killed during the blockade,” you’ll hear him say. “And the 39 Brits that gave their lives for their former enemy.”

German children waiting for candy to drop from Onckel Wackelflugel’s C-54.

In this episode, you’ll hear tributes to Halvorsen from General Duncan McNabb, USAF Retired, as well as Gail’s daughter Denise. But perhaps the most penetrating sentiments are the heartfelt words Halvorsen shared consistently for decades with anyone who would listen: gratitude, attitude, and service before self.

“Those are the things that the airlift taught me that affected by life,” he reflected. “It changed hatred to friendship.”

For a final sample of the hopeful and encouraging spirit that propelled Gail Halvorsen for 101 years, watch the video below, in which he recites a poem he wrote in the cockpit in 1946, entitled “Clouds: Nearer, My God, to Thee.”