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Fostering Friendship
How Operation Little Vittles Came About and the “Candy Bomber” Got His Name

The friendship which the heroes of the Airlift planted in the hearts and minds of the German people endures.

“Candy Bomber” Gail Halvorsen dropping his homemade parachutes filled with chocolate and gum over Berlin in October 1948. © dpa

Among the most eagerly anticipated provisions brought in were the bundles of candy for the city’s children. “Operation Little Vittles” started after American pilot, Lt. Gail S. Halvorsen, encountered a group of children near the Berlin airport.

Touched by their gratitude for his gift of a couple of sticks of gum, he promised more candy on his next trip, telling them to watch for the plane that would “wiggle” its wings once.

Halvorsen kept his promise by dropping candy wrapped in handkerchiefs and scraps of cloth as miniature parachutes the next day. His kindness earned him the nickname “Uncle Wiggly Wings”, the “Chocolate Flyer” and the “Berlin Candy Bomber”. News accounts of the deed caught the imagination of school children across America. As a result, American youngsters began candy collections for the kids in Berlin. Eventually donations of thousands of pounds of candy and hundreds of handkerchiefs and other pieces of scrap cloth reached him. By January 1949, more than 250,000 midget parachutes with treats attached had been dropped.

When the crowds of children awaiting his C-54 grew too large for the youngster's safety, his crew dropped the candy in other sections where they saw children playing. Other candy went to schools and to children confined to Berlin hospitals.
“This self-initiated act of kindness became the humanitarian heart that kept the aircrews going, fueled the hope of all Berliners, and set the mold for all future humanitarian airlifts,” an Airlift Association website underscores.

In recognition of his action and as a symbol of appreciation for the entire airlift operation, Lt. Halvorsen received the Cheney Award for 1948-49 “ ... for an act of valor, extreme fortitude, or self-sacrifice in a humanitarian interest.”