taking leave
“Candy Bomber” pilot dies in the United States at the age of 101
Former Airlift pilot Gail Halvorsen has died aged 101. Photo: Christoph Soeder/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Gail Halvorsen went down in history as the “Candy Bomber” or “Raisin Bomber” pilot. The US pilot who dropped small parachutes filled with candy during the Berlin Airlift has now died.
The extremely popular “raisin bomber” pilot Gail Halvorsen is dead. According to his family, the 101-year-old American, who was fit into old age, died “quite surprisingly” on Wednesday evening (local time) in the US state of Utah.
“We will miss him very much,” said his daughter Denise Williams on Thursday of the German Press Agency.
Her father died of pneumonia following choking. At the beginning of the week he spoke to students in zoom meetings regarding his experiences as a soldier in the Berlin Airlift. “He loved telling kids regarding it and advising them to always do their best,” Williams said.
The director of his foundation in the state of Utah, James Stewart, also paid tribute to the deceased. “The life of Gail Halvorsen truly shows how one person who does something as simple as sharing a piece of gum can change the course of human history,” Stewart said. Until recently, Halverson had been in contact with people in the USA who had witnessed the Berlin blockade as children in Germany. “He talked regarding the love for his Berlin children, as he called them,” Stewart told dpa.
Honored with the Federal Cross of Merit
The former US pilot, who was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit, among other things, turned 100 in October 2020. In mid-December 2020 he contracted Covid-19 but recovered.
Halvorsen was one of the pilots who, a few years following the Second World War, supplied West Berlin, which was sealed off by Soviet troops, with food and coal from the air in so-called candy bombers for months. It was his idea to also drop sweets for the children during the Berlin Airlift. As the “Candy Bomber”, the young pilot became a symbol for the relief operation.
Shortly before his 100th birthday, Halvorsen proudly showed himself in his more than 70-year-old pilot’s jacket in a video call with the dpa. He also spoke a few scraps of German. “This is my second home,” he said at the time with a mischievous smile. He would have liked to have celebrated his milestone anniversary in Berlin.
He last visited Berlin at the age of 98, as a guest of honor at the celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the Airlift. From June 1948 to May 1949, Americans, British and French carried almost 280,000 flights to the more than two million inhabitants with food and coal.
chewing gum made him famous
The idea of dropping candy came to him one day when he met a group of children behind a barbed wire fence at the end of the tarmac at the former Tempelhof Airport. “I still had two sticks of gum that they split into small pieces,” Halvorsen said. “I promised them I’d drop more candy the next day. And because a plane landed every few minutes, I would shake my wings as a sign of recognition when approaching.”
From then on he was nicknamed “Uncle Wigglywing” (Mr. Wigglywing). The young pilot tied candy bars and chewing gum into small bundles and attached them to handkerchiefs that fell from the sky like parachutes.
Halvorsen’s sweet gesture was the best advertisement for the Berlin Airlift, helping German-American friendship to take off. The pilot’s comrades took part in the action. Over the next few months, they dropped more than 23 tons of chocolate and sweets.
Halvorsen remained connected with Germany. In the early 1970s he was commander of Tempelhof Airport for four years, which he had flown to as a “Candy Bomber”. After this final deployment and more than 8,000 military flight hours, he retired to his native Utah. He had a large family there: five children, 24 grandchildren and 65 great-grandchildren, as his daughter Denise listed.
Berlin’s Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) emphasized that Halvorsen’s deeply human action had never been forgotten. “He had many friends in our town and has kept coming here throughout his life.” Berlin was his second home. “We will miss his rousing momentum very much, even in old age.”
Jürgen Lillteicher, head of the Allied Museum in Berlin, praised the “raisin bomber” pilot as “an extremely charismatic and lovable person”. Halvorsen was always involved, the historian said. And he was an example of how enemies might become friends.