Airlift icon's advice to mobility Airmen: 'Small actions can bring global impact'

Published Oct. 17, 2010
By 1st Lt. Kathleen Ferrero
Air Mobility Command Public Affairs

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany -- The legendary Berlin Airlift "Candy Bomber" arrived in Germany Oct. 14 as he embarks on a week-long journey to visit with and encourage Mobility Airmen in Europe and Southwest Asia.

Retired Col. Gail Halvorsen said understands the global impact a single Airman can have and said he intends to encourage Mobility Airmen and their sister service members to keep doing a great job.

For the Candy Bomber, what began as an effort to gather sweets from aircrew rations out of a C-54 Skymaster for West German children evolved into a more than 20-ton candy delivery operation that helped enhance U.S.-German relations to this day.

"I was a 'throttle jockey' and didn't know anything about the politics of it all. What I did know was that in trying to control people by starving them, Stalin was getting a black eye in the world press," Colonel Halvorsen said during an interview a few years ago.

In the summer of 1948, he met 30 children at a barbed wire fence at Templehof Airfield in Berlin. He gave them two sticks of gum and was impressed with their restraint as they broke up the pieces and passed them around or refused the gum so that another child could have some. He promised to be back with more for everyone.

"I was so moved by what I saw and their incredible restraint that I promised them I would drop enough gum for each of them the next day as I came over their heads to land," Colonel Halvorsen said. "They would know my plane because I would wiggle the wings as I came over the airport."

He attached gum and chocolate bars to three handkerchief parachutes and delivered the goods to the jubilant children. He continued to make the drops as the group of youngsters grew on the ground, and when the news hit the press, eventually American candy companies made donations, and Colonel Halvorsen had initiated what was dubbed "Operation Little Vittles."

Today he's still a sensation in Germany, especially among Berliners.

"My experience with the Airlift taught me that gratitude, hope and service before self can bring happiness to the soul when the opposite brings despair," Colonel Halvorsen said.

Airmen will draw from his experiences this week as they continue to deliver a hand of hope to those in need while simultaneously supporting the war effort in Operations Enduring Freedom and New Dawn.

Even while delivering a clenched fist to America's adversaries, AMC extends an open hand of hope to victims of crisis. Most recently, Mobility Airmen deployed to Afghanistan were among the first to respond to help millions left homeless by the devastating floods in Pakistan.

A 621st Contingency Response Team from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., brought in equipment to help aircraft loading efficiency at the Central Flood Relief Cell at Chaklala Air Base, Pakistan. Additionally, more than 430,000 halal meals have been delivered via U.S. Air Force airlift. And back in the United States at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., the 618th Air and Space Operations Center (Tanker Airlift Control Center) has been coordinating intra-theater airlift and air refueling support for the effort.