Gail Halvorsen was a United States Air Force pilot known as the “Candy Bomber” for dropping candy over Berlin from his airplane during the Berlin airlift in 1948.
- Died: Wednesday, February 16, 2022. (Who else died on February 16?)
- Details of death: Died at the age of 101 at his home in Utah.
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The Candy Bomber
Gail Halvorsen joined the Air Force as a pilot during World War II, serving as a transport pilot in the South Atlantic. After World War II, Berlin was divided into four sections occupied by the United States, France, England, and Russia. In the start of the Cold War, Russia blocked food supplies from coming into the city. The United States began dropping food supplies over Berling in 1948 and Halvorsen was one of the pilots assigned to the mission in what would become “Operation Little Vittles.”
After sharing some of his gum with local children and seeing how excited they were to receive it, he promised he would drop more for them from his plane the next day. He began to regularly drop handkerchiefs full of candy from his own candy rations and became known as the “Candy Bomber.” Russia lifted the blockade in 1949 and Halvorsen attended the 70th anniversary party in 2019 in Berlin that celebrated the end of the Russia blockade. He received the Congressional Gold Medal.
Notable Quote
“One man told me how he’d been walking to school, 10 years old, when a Hershey bar landed at his feet. He said, ‘It wasn’t chocolate that fell at my feet. It was hope.” – The Daily News 2016
Tributes to Gail Halvorsen
Full Obituary: Los Angeles Times
