The Berlin Airlift Candy Bomber
The Berlin Airlift is back in the news. The “Candy Bomber” now has a baseball field at Tempelhof Airport named for him.
Germans are celebrating the anniversary of the USAAF’s efforts to keep Berlin supplied with food and fuel at the end of World War II, despite Stalin’s attempt to seize control of the entire city. Retired COL Halvorson was known by various nicknames, including “Candy Bomber”, for dropping sweet treats to Berliners during the airlift runs.
He repeated the candy bombing in July, 2015, at a July 4, 2015 air show in Utah. https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2015/07/04/candy-bomber-drops-sweets-from-utah-s-air-for-july-4/
We are slowly losing this generation of warriors. It’s up to us, like the D-Day Darlings in the UK, to make sure that the memory of them and what they did to keep the world free does not fade.
Category: Historical, Real Soldiers, War Stories, We Remember
If I remember right, his daughter was in my OTS (OCS) class, and he flew the flyover for our graduation. At any rate, his story was well-known to our class.
For me, it was real history, because there was a film about the entire thing that was shown on TV about 15 years later.
I’ll see if I can find that.
Now that’s cool, Eden!
Great story. The whole Berlin airlift is a testament to the will of Americans to do what others think impossible.
If someone was to do that today they’d be accused of embarking on a campaign of terror backed by the high fructose corn syrup industry to make children fat. That is if they could stop drawing sky penises long enough to do it.
Cool story with linkies. Tanks Matey. Served with an old supply MSG that was a PVT helping load the planes during the airlift. He had married a furline and kept re-upping to stay. Did 2 seperate tours in VN to avoid stateside duty and come back to FRG. One of the very few honest and non-black marketeer supply SGTs I ever met. Turned down the 1SGT slot cause he liked what he did. Retired over there and took a gig as the AAFEES Warehouse Manager.
Y’all notice it was the United States ARMY Air Forces that ran the mission? Not the Marines, (Berlin was a land locked island), not the Navy, (didn’t/couldn’t want to run a’ground) Not the Air Force (was just a figment of a golf course keeper’s imagination then).
Candy Bombs….sweetest rounds ever laid on target by flying Artillery.
Ahem. (Stepping in here uninvited on behalf of my TAH Navy Naval Aviation brethren AW1Ed, Atkron, et al.) “Naval Aviation’s Involvement in the Berlin Airlift” https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/naval-aviation-history/involvement-by-conflict/cold-war/naval-aviation-s-involvement-in-the-berlin-airlift.html (Quote below is taken from the “The U.S. Navy’s Participation in the Berlin Airlift” link embedded at the Navy website noted above) ‘[…] On 10 September, General Clay requested 116 additional C-54s—69 to be made available by 1 October and the remaining 47 by 1 December 1948—so that he could build up a stockpile of supplies for the winter months and could raise the daily tonnage total for Berlin up to an average of 4,500 tons. In response to this request, Washington decided to augment the Berlin airlift by 50 additional C-54s. On 24 September, Clay strongly restated his appeal for the full 116 aircraft. After conducting a thorough reappraisal of U.S. objectives in Berlin, the NSC finally approved the recommendations of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for an immediate reenforcement of the airlift, and, on 22 October, President Truman approved the expansion of the airlift by the additional 66 C-54s that Clay wanted. This is when the Navy became fully involved in the Berlin airlift. Although Navy tankers had been delivering huge quantities of aviation gas to Bremerhaven, Germany, to furnish fuel for the airlift since the beginning of the blockade, its planes heretofore had not been involved in the aerial supply effort. The new increase called for, however, would bring the use of C-54s in the airlift up to approximately 52% of the total number of such aircraft in the country’s operational inventory—thus seriously reducing MATS support for implementing the military’s emergency war plans. Because of his concerns over this situation, Air Force Secretary Stuart Symington asked Navy Secretary John Sullivan to provide the Navy’s three MATS squadrons to the Airlift Task Force as part of the latest augmentation. The Navy readily agreed to this request. On 27 October 1948, the Commander, Military Air Transport Service, with the concurrence of Chief of Naval Operations Louis Denfeld, ordered Navy MATS units Transport Squadrons (VRs) 6 and 8 to 180 days temporary additional duty… Read more »
Cool beans! Good add on and Tanks for the linkie Matey. Figured if I poked hard enough some body would take some umbrage and bring me the “rest of the story.” Was waiting on a wing wiping airedale to come up and point out the the US Air Force had been formed by that time. Had known that Naval Aviation was heavily involved and had worked their asses off in nasty weather to do what needed to be done. Started 3 months late and still delivered 7.3% of the total. According to my old MSG (former PVT) “they didn’t do half bad at all for a buncha squids.” He also made mention of some of the “not so friendly rivalries” amongst the crews. Good times!
The aircrew simulator facility at Charleston AFB is named after him. I got to meet him at the dedication ceremony.