50 Facts About Gail Halvorsen

Colonel Gail Seymour "The Candy Bomber" Halvorsen was a senior officer and command pilot in the United States Air Force.

Gail Halvorsen is best known as the "Berlin Candy Bomber" or "Uncle Wiggly Wings" and rose to fame for dropping candy to German children during the Berlin Airlift from 1948 to 1949.

Gail Halvorsen earned his private pilot's license in 1941 and then joined the Civil Air Patrol.

Gail Halvorsen joined the United States Army Air Forces in 1942 and was assigned to Germany on July 10,1948, to be a pilot for the Berlin Airlift.

Gail Halvorsen piloted C-47s and C-54s during the Berlin airlift.

Gail Halvorsen began "Little Vittles" with no authorization from his superiors but over the next year became a national hero with support from all over the United States.

Gail Halvorsen's operation dropped over 23 tons of candy to the residents of Berlin.

Gail Halvorsen received numerous awards for his role in "Operation Little Vittles", including the Congressional Gold Medal.

Gail Halvorsen helped to develop reusable manned spacecraft at the Directorate of Space and Technology and served as commander of Berlin Tempelhof Airport.

Gail Halvorsen retired in August 1974 after logging over 8,000 flying hours.

From 1976 until 1986, Gail Halvorsen served as the Assistant Dean of Student Life at Brigham Young University.

Gail Seymour Halvorsen was born in Salt Lake City on October 10,1920, to Basil K and Luella Spencer Halvorsen.

Gail Halvorsen grew up on small farms first in Rigby, Idaho, and then in Garland, Utah.

Gail Halvorsen graduated from Bear River High School in 1939 and then briefly attended Utah State University.

Gail Halvorsen earned his private pilot license under the non-college Civilian Pilot Training Program in September 1941, and at about the same time joined the Civil Air Patrol as a pilot.

Gail Halvorsen joined the United States Army Air Forces in May 1942 and was 22 when he arrived in Miami, Oklahoma, to train with 25 other USAAF Aviation cadets, and 77 Royal Air Force cadets, in Course 19, at the No 3 British Flying Training School, operated by the Spartan School of Aeronautics.

Gail Halvorsen was ordered to Germany on July 10,1948, to be a pilot for "Operation Vittles", now known as the Berlin Airlift.

Gail Halvorsen had an interest in photography and on his days off often went sightseeing in Berlin and shot film on his personal handheld movie camera.

Gail Halvorsen went to meet them and noticed that the children had nothing.

Gail Halvorsen recorded that he wanted to do more for the children, and so told them that the following day he would have enough gum for all of them, and he would drop it out of his plane.

The accumulated candy was heavy, so in order to ensure that no children were hurt by the falling package, Gail Halvorsen made three parachutes out of handkerchiefs and tied them to the rations.

Gail Halvorsen personally thanked his biggest supporter Dorothy Groeger, a homebound woman who nonetheless enlisted the help of all of her friends and acquaintances to sew handkerchiefs and donate funds.

Gail Halvorsen met the schoolchildren and "Little Vittles" committee of Chicopee, Massachusetts who were responsible for preparing over 18 tons of candy and gum from across the country and shipping it to Germany.

Gail Halvorsen changed his mind when he was offered a permanent commission with full pay and the promise that the Air Force would send him to school.

Gail Halvorsen went on to be the project engineer for cargo aircraft research and development with the Wright Air Development Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and Hill Air Force Base from 1952 to 1957.

Gail Halvorsen was reassigned in 1957 to the Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell AFB, Alabama.

Gail Halvorsen was there until 1958, when he was assigned at the Air Force Space Systems Division of Air Force Systems Command in Inglewood, California.

Gail Halvorsen would serve as part of Air Force Systems Command for the next four years.

From 1962 to 1965, Gail Halvorsen served in Wiesbaden, West Germany, with the Foreign Technology division of AF Systems Command.

Gail Halvorsen was next assigned to the Deputy Chief of Staff for Research and Development, HQ USAF, the Pentagon, and in the Directorate of Space and Technology.

Gail Halvorsen developed plans for the advanced manned reusable spacecraft, space policy and procedures, and on the Manned Orbital Laboratory Project.

Gail Halvorsen then was given the command of the 6596th Instrumentation Squadron of the AF Systems Command Satellite Control Facility, Vandenberg AFB, California, which was involved in both satellite launch and orbit operations.

Gail Halvorsen then became the Commander of the 7350th Air Base Group at Tempelhof Central Airport, Berlin, Germany, in February 1970.

Gail Halvorsen retired on August 31,1974, having accumulated over 8,000 flying hours and 31 years of military service.

Gail Halvorsen turned both of them down, hoping that the girl he left home in Garland, Utah, would still have feelings for him.

Gail Halvorsen had met Alta Jolley in 1942 at Utah State Agricultural College.

From 1976 until 1986 Gail Halvorsen served as the Assistant Dean of Student Life at BYU.

Alta and Gail Halvorsen were both active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Five years later, Gail Halvorsen married again, this time to his high school sweetheart, Lorraine Pace.

Gail Halvorsen died from respiratory failure in Provo on February 16,2022, at the age of 101.

In 1949 Halvorsen received the Cheney Award, given by the Air Force to recognize humanitarian action, from General Hoyt S Vandenberg for the inception of Operation "Little Vittles".

In 2014, Gail Halvorsen became a recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award that Congress can give to a civilian.

In 2008, Gail Halvorsen was honored as Grand Marshal of the German-American Steuben Parade in New York City, where he was celebrated by tens of thousands of spectators on Fifth Avenue.

Gail Halvorsen has appeared many times on German television over the years, often paired with some of the children who received his candy parachutes.

Gail Halvorsen has appeared extensively on American television and movies.

In 2012 Gail Halvorsen's story became the theme of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert, entitled Christmas from Heaven and narrated by Tom Brokaw.

Gail Halvorsen helped to re-enact one of his famous candy drops in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift.

Gail Halvorsen again participated, this time with a television team from Good Morning America, and dropped candy to Berlin children, including some of the grandchildren of those he had originally given chocolate to.

Gail Halvorsen would continue to fly with the group and perform candy drops with the BAHF until just after his 99th birthday.

Gail Halvorsen did not want to merely re-enact the candy drop to countries no longer plagued by war.