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The Candy Bomber
By Scott Harrup | May 23, 2008
On May 17, U.S. and German officials at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., commemorated the Berlin Airlift. Sixty years ago this June, the U.S. and British air forces began supplying West Berlin with vital food and supplies in response to a Soviet blockade. The airlift, also known as “Operation Vittles,” became the largest humanitarian mission in Air Force history.
According to the American Forces Press Service, “during the 10-month mission, more than 500 American and British airlifters conducted 277,569 flights, eventually averaging one flight per every 90 seconds. They delivered 2,325,509.6 tons of food, coal, and other commodities to Berlin.”
In a related May 15 article, the AFPS noted the contribution of Lt. Gail S. Halvorsen, the “Candy Bomber.” Halvorson, now 87 and a retired Air Force colonel, had a heart for the children of Berlin. When he spoke to some children about the deprivations they were enduring, he discovered one of the things they had missed for months was candy.
“Halvorsen gave the two pieces of gum in his possession to the kids, half expecting them to fight over the rare treat. Instead, he recalled, the children split the sticks into miniature morsels, and those who didn’t get any gum were given small strips torn from the foil wrappers so they could smell the confection’s sweet residue.”
Halvorsen promised to drop the children candy as he made future approaches to the airstrip. They learned to look for the plane that dipped its wings before releasing a load of candy in the air. Halvorsen earned the nickname “Uncle Wiggly Wings” in the local newspapers. His fame spread, candy donations flooded in, and other pilots began to help. Altogether, more than 23 tons of candy rained down on the children of West Berlin during the airlift.
I met another “Candy Bomber” in 2002. Missionary aviator Mike Hines made countless evangelistic flights across Latin America in his specially adapted Helio Super Courier aircraft. The plane had been designed during the Vietnam War to broadcast American public relations messages to villages and towns. Mike used the thousands of watts of power in his aircraft’s speakers to broadcast Christian music and simple salvation sermons to rural communities in Central and South America.
And he loved to drop candy to joyful crowds of children when he came in for a landing at an outreach site. Photographer Aubra George, writing for Today’s Pentecostal Evangel, described one such scene.
“As we approach the village of Saklin [along Nicaragua’s eastern Miskito Coast], children stand along the steep banks, waving and calling out ‘Nakisma,’ their Miskito greeting. As if on cue, we hear the droning engine and the familiar music of Mike’s plane sifting down as we pull up to the bank. Grabbing our cameras, Christina and I bolt ashore. Chaos erupts as children run to and fro, laughing and screaming as they try to follow the plane. They merge into one mass and tramp down a path through the center of the village. Mike must have just told them he was going to drop candy.
“At a soccer field at the edge of the village Mike does a few low passes and then lets the candy drop. … Kids of all ages dive for it, madly grabbing all they can hold. They look to the sky expectantly, their shirts now makeshift bags bulging with candy. Mike drops more candy before speaking to them through a Miskito translator. He makes wide circles around the soccer field where a team is already setting up for ministry.”
I visited Mike in Nicaragua in 2002 and flew with him on an outreach over Managua. I had the privilege of writing about his ministry in the December 1, 2002, Today’s Pentecostal Evangel.
“Through prayer you break the spiritual yoke over those towns and cities,” Mike told me. “When you fly over those areas, it’s spectacular the way people react.”
I was saddened to learn Mike died when his plane went down in the Andes Mountains on July 31, 2004. Reading about the Berlin “Candy Bomber” got me to thinking about Mike again, and the countless lives he touched from the sky as he delivered so much more than candy.
Topics: History |