Thursday, March 28, 2024
 
Click HERE to sign up to receive Eye On Sun Valley's Daily News Email
 
Candy Bomber May Be 100 But He’s Still Dropping Candy
Loading
   
Monday, July 5, 2021
 

BY KAREN BOSSICK

It was 10 years ago that Ret. U.S. Air Force Gail Halvorsen dropped candy bars tied to parachutes from a vintage plane cruising over Quigley Canyon.

The reenactment had been arranged by Dr. Tom Crais in honor of the Hailey Armory and attracted hundreds of onlookers. Among them, Ketchum resident Ellen Gillespie who caught a parachute on behalf of her father who saw Halvorsen drop the candy as a 10-year-old growing up in East Berlin but was not able to snag a piece.

Halvorsen was back in the skies on the Fourth at age 100—this time over the Dixie State University stadium in St. George, Utah, in a helicopter. One of the first German children to get a stick of gum from Halvorsen—at age 3—was there to honor Halvorsen with a plaque—and a pack of gum.

Halvorsen was one of hundreds of American, English and French pilots who took part in a huge U.S. airlift that saved two million Germans from starvation after the Soviet Union blockaded West Berlin to take it away from western Allies.

Halvorsen, who turns 101 in October, flew planeload after planeload of flour and coal. But even more memorable were the drops of 23 tons of candy that he and his fellow pilots made. Halvorsen, who grew up in Utah, got the idea after giving a few sticks of gum to children he spotted watching the pilots through the fence at Berlin’s Tempelhof Air Force Base in Berlin.

He promised to return the next day with more and ended up dropping 23 tons of candy provided by Hershey and candy manufacturers from five other countries between July 1948 and September 1949.

He was nicknamed Uncle Wiggly Wings by the Berlin children because of the way he wiggled his aircraft wings upon approaching Berlin’s airport to let them know it was a candy drop.

"He's the closest thing to a real fairytale hero--yet not a fairytale at all. To have candy falling from the sky during such dark times is such a rainbow thought," said Hailey resident Geegee Lowe.


 

~  Today's Topics ~


Lou Whittaker Leaves Behind a Legacy of Mountaineering and Storytelling

Free Range Poetry Society to Hold Second Gathering Tonight

Easter Bunny to Begin Hopping Friday
 
 

 

 

 
Website problems? Contact:
Michael Hobbs
General Manager /Webmaster
Mike@EyeOnSunValley.com
 
Got a story? Contact:
Karen Bossick
Editor in Chief
(208) 578-2111
Karen@EyeOnSunValley.com
 
 
Advertising /Marketing /Public Relations
Leisa Hollister
Chief Marketing Officer
(208) 450-9993
leisahollister@gmail.com
 
Brandi Huizar
Account Executive
(208) 329-2050
brandi@eyeonsunvalley.com
 
 
ABOUT US
EyeOnSunValley.com is the largest online daily news media service in The Wood River Valley, publishing 7 days a week. Our website publication features current news articles, feature stories, local sports articles and video content articles. The Eye On Sun Valley Show is a weekly primetime television show focusing on highlighted news stories of the week airing Monday-Sunday, COX Channel 13. See our interactive Kiosks around town throughout the Wood River Valley!
 
info@eyeonsunvalley.com      Press Releases only
 
P: 208.720.8212
P.O. Box 1453 Ketchum, ID  83340
LOGIN

© Copyright 2023 Eye on Sun Valley