The Candy Bomber

Like all true stories, there are many different perspectives.  This is my experience, and though some of the facts are third-hand, I have tried to be as accurate as possible with my story, and with what I heard second and third-hand.  This is what I wrote down yesterday when I got home, with some revisions today.

July 3, 2015

Today, I  saw the original Candy Bomber, Gail Halvorsen. At 11:30, I went to the park and saw him speak. The ceremony began with them swearing in about twenty new U.S. citizens. When Gail got up to speak, he thanked them, and said that our country is enriched when we have people from different cultures join, and it enriches our blood, and keeps our blood new. “So thank you for the transfusion,” he said. He talked about how Stalin had trapped the people of Berlin because there was a pocket of freedom in there, so he planned to starve them out. He talked about the “invisible flag” that people across all nations can share, one of brotherhood, love and service.

The Candy Bomber candy drop was scheduled for 4:00 pm, and they were going to drop 1,000 candy bars tied to parachutes into the field behind Scera Elementary School.  I walked from our house, arriving around 3:30 pm. There were many people there. I settled somewhere, but then someone with a microphone said we needed to move east of the “flag line,”--a line of American flags. He said the airplanes needed 500 feet of clearance, per FAA regulations, just in case they crashed. I headed east of the American flags, but it was so

packed, I settled for fifteen feet from the American flags. There were still many people ahead of me who didn't pack themselves back. There were only about five people who seemed like they were working for the event, who could herd people in the right direction. Looking around, we estimated there were 10,000 people packed around us, possibly 20,000.  I think it's safe to say they were not expecting this turnout.  (Edit:  The newspaper report said 50,000 people were there.  They apparently packed people into the Scera Shell outdoor theater, and there were many other people I couldn't see.)

We waited and waited. The excitement was palpable. Finally, someone shouted he could see the planes in the distance.  Ninety-four-year-old Gail Halvorsen was in the largest plane, and he was accompanied by two other planes. Each of the planes was a vintage WWII aircraft. The planes finally came close, and then Gail's plane flew above us, and we saw in the distance that his plane had released 10-50 candy bars with parachutes. It looked like they had landed outside the field. We waited and watched as the planes flew around, and then Gails' plane came again, and this time dropped 100-300 candy bars with parachutes in the field. Kids in the crowd started heading toward the field, and soon, the field had been swarmed. The airplanes weren't permitted to go over the field when there wasn't a large, empty space, so that ended up being the last drop.

I listened to a man who as in the middle of the chaos a few minutes later. He estimated that 200 candy bars had been dropped, and that there were roughly 2000 kids trying to get candy bars. Many candy bars had landed over the fence in someone's garden, so several kids hopped the fence and were trampling through his garden, and occasionally, a kid would throw a candy bar over the fence, and kids would swarm toward the candy bar. He said there were hundreds of crying children.

I walked near the field afterward, and saw only two or three policemen. They were writing down the names of all the lost children being brought to them or coming up to them.

Afterward, Gail Halvorsen's daughter (Debbie?) and a woman who was a child in Berlin during the Candy Bombing, Brigitta, spoke with a small crowd. Gail's daughter talked about how her dad has always been positive and happy. His mother wrote of him, “To the boy who was born smiling.”

Brigitta spoke about how hungry “Berliners” were when Stalin trapped them in and cut them off from food. Children would follow around soldiers who were smoking cigarettes, and collect the butts, and if they got enough, they could make the tobacco into new cigarettes and sell them for food. Food that fell on the floor never got wasted.  Gail's daughter said that they saw a hot dog fall on the ground earlier that day, and Brigitta had commented that, in Berlin in 1948, the hot dog wouldn't have lasted a second--it would be gone "like that."  She described what "true hunger" was.  Brigitta said that Berliners will be eternally grateful to Americans for what they did for them. She said how profound it was to them that, only three years after the United States had fought WWII against Germany, Americans rescued Berliners from starvation by bringing food and supplies to them by aircraft. She said, it was seventy years ago, but she will always remember. She thanked all us of us in the crowd for what we, as Americans, did for them. She wanted us to know what we had done for them, and told us about some books about “The Candy Bomber” to look up.

She also spoke of Berliners' love for Gail Halvorsen. She said that, only two government buildings in Berlin have been named after people who were still living. In 2013, they held a vote to choose who to name an elementary school after, and the school children, parents and teachers chose Gail Halvorsen by a landslide.

Brigitta said that, as someone who has worked with airlines for many years, she has met many famous and “important” people. She said that she has never met anyone so “important,” and yet so humble and loving as Gail Halvorsen is.

Brigitta (or maybe it was Debbie) told the story of a girl (her name starts with an “M”—I can't personally remember it) who lived in one of the apartment buildings next to the area where the airplanes made their dangerous descent. This girl wrote Gail Halvorsen and told him that her chickens had stopped laying eggs because of the airplane noise, and that she hadn't gotten any candy. When Gail visited Germany in the 1970s, he finally agreed to leave his duties and meet a family. This girl, we'll call her “M”, led Gail up to her room and showed her the letter he had written her. “Dear M, I'm sorry your chickens have stopped laying eggs. Here is a candy bar.” Or something. Every time Gail has returned to Germany and visited M, he has signed her letter, so she now has it locked in a safety deposit box.

Someone asked where Gail's inspiration came to drop the candy for the children. Gail's daughter said that Gail had completed two work shifts, and didn't want to go home, so he and his friend rode around Berlin to take pictures, because he loved taking pictures. There was one area where airplanes would fly in between two apartment buildings, with a small area to land, and a cemetery at the end. It was very difficult and dangerous. Gail wanted to get a picture of this. When he went to take pictures over there, there were about thirty kids behind a barbed wire fence. He went over and talked to them for about an hour. Gail had been to several countries and areas, and everywhere he spoke with children, they always asked for candy or treats. As he spoke with the children, he observed that they didn't ask him for anything. They were simply grateful for the supplies the American soldiers brought for them. He searched in his pockets for some candy, but all he had was one or two pieces of gum. He figured that, if he gave the thirty children only two pieces of gum, the children would squabble over it, so he left without giving it to them. But as he was walking away, he heard a voice in his head that said, “Go back to the fence.” He went back to the fence and split the gum into two pieces, and gave it to the children. There was no fighting or squabbling. The children shared the gum, and for the children who couldn't get a piece, they passed the gum wrapper around and held it up to their noses so they could smell it. He realized he had to do something for these children.

According to Gail's interview on his website, he told the children that he would be back the next day to drop some candy for them.  The children asked how they would identify his plane, since there were airplanes coming in every few minutes.  Gail had performed in air shows, so he told the children he would wiggle the wings of the airplane so they would know it was him.  This earned him the nickname, "Uncle Wiggle Wings."

Someone asked Gail's daughter how much candy they dropped. Gail dropped candy from around July 1948-Jan 1949 (when he was transferred), and the drops continued until around May 1949, when the situation had become less dire for the Berliners. All in all, they dropped 23 tons of candy, and distributed 3 tons (or maybe it was 30 tons). School children in Massachusetts helped by tying candy bars to handkerchiefs because the pilots didn't have time.

Gail's daughter, Debbie (?) also spoke of what it was like to have Gail for a dad, and how he was always serving others. They were a military family, so were constantly moving. One time, they moved into a new neighborhood, and shortly after, another family moved in. Gail told his children they should bake a cake for the new family—even though, Debbie commented, they were new themselves. Gail often distributed vegetables (from his garden, I think) to other families, earning him the nickname of the “The Farm Man,” or something like that (I can't remember the exact nickname). She has a deep love and respect for him. Debbie (?) said that people ask her all the time, “Do you realize how lucky you are to have Gail as your father?” She said, “Oh yes, we realize how lucky we are. In fact, we realize it so much, that we realize we don't even realize how lucky we are.”

It occurs to me that the children from Berlin in Gail's story are quite different from the children who stormed the field today in Orem. I was sort of annoyed that the parents hadn't stopped their children from running into the field, because it prevented the planes from being able to drop the rest of the candy bars. But then I thought how positive Gail Halvorsen is, and that he would find the positive side of this experience no matter what, and that he wouldn't want his service to us to result in negative feelings. So I forced myself to look at the bright side:  the planes didn't crash, and this day didn't end in tragedy. On top of that, 10,000 people were able to witness something so special as the re-enactment of the historical candy bomber drop by the original Candy Bomber.

A few hours after the candy drop, Gail Halvorsen came back to the park in a golf cart. He handed out the remaining candy bars, still tied to parachutes, to children. People surrounded his golf cart, and adults and children were taking pictures with him. He had a smile on his face, and you could tell he loved every one of them. As I watched him, I was touched. I felt his love for these people, and their love for him. I recalled how the Bible mentions the popularity of the Savior, and the love the people had for him, and his love for them. Jesus was often surrounded by people.  One story tells of a woman who wished to be healed, but the crowd around Christ was so thick, she thought to herself, "If I could just touch his robe, I'll be healed."  Gail Halvorsen is human, but it was incredible to see the love surrounding a man who has given his life in service to others.

This is an article about the logistics of the candy drop, which will be one of Gail Halvorsen's last drops:
How the Candy Bomber's Orem drop came to be and how it happened

These are photos of Gail before and during the flight:
Photos: 'Candy Bomber' Gail Halvorsen makes historic drop in Orem

Here is another article about the Orem candy drop:
Tens of thousands gather for Candy Bomber's Orem drop

And this is Gail Halvorsen's website: http://wigglywings.weebly.com/

Among the books recommended by Brigitta are: The Berlin Candy Bomber, by Gail Halvorsen, and Candy Bomber, by Michael Tunnell.

- Carly