Obituaries

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Gail Seymour Halvorsen (October 10, 1920 – February 16, 2022) was a senior officer and command pilot in the United States Air Force.[1] He is best known as the "Berlin Candy Bomber" or "Uncle Wiggly Wings" and gained fame for dropping candy to German children during the Berlin Airlift from 1948 to 1949.


Halvorsen grew up in rural Utah and always had a desire to fly. He earned his private pilot's license in 1941 and then joined the Civil Air Patrol.[2] He 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.[3] Halvorsen piloted C-47s and C-54s during the Berlin airlift ("Operation Vittles"). During that time he founded "Operation Little Vittles", an effort to raise morale in Berlin by dropping candy via miniature parachute to the city's residents. 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.[4] Halvorsen's operation dropped over 23 tons of candy to the residents of Berlin.[5] He became known as the "Berlin Candy Bomber", "Uncle Wiggly Wings", and "The Chocolate Flier".[6]
Halvorsen received numerous awards for his role in "Operation Little Vittles", including the Congressional Gold Medal.[7] However, "Little Vittles" was not the end of Halvorsen's military and humanitarian career. Over the next 25 years, Halvorsen advocated for and performed candy drops in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania, Japan, Guam, and Iraq.[8] Halvorsen's professional career included various notable positions. He helped to develop reusable manned spacecraft at the Directorate of Space and Technology and served as commander of Berlin Tempelhof Airport.[9] He retired in August 1974 after logging over 8,000 flying hours.[9] From 1976 until 1986 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.[10] He grew up on small farms first in Rigby, Idaho, and then in Garland, Utah.[6] He graduated from Bear River High School in 1939 and then briefly attended Utah State University.[3] He 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.[11] Halvorsen joined the United States Army Air Forces in May 1942[3] 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.[3] After completing pilot training, he returned to the Army Air Forces and was assigned flight duties in foreign transport operations in the South Atlantic Theater.[3] He was ordered to Germany on July 10, 1948, to be a pilot for "Operation Vittles", now known as the Berlin Airlift.[3]

Main article: Berlin Blockade

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Halvorsen, who pioneered the idea of dropping candy bars and bubble gum with handmade miniature parachutes, which later became known as "Operation Little Vittles".

[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_C-54_Skymaster]Douglas C-54 Skymaster landing at Berlin Tempelhof Airport, 1948.

Lieutenant Halvorsen's role in the Berlin Airlift was to fly one of many C-54 cargo planes used to ferry supplies into the starving city.[12] During his flights he would first fly to Berlin, then deeper into Soviet-controlled areas. 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.[3] One day in July, he was filming plane takeoffs and landings at Tempelhof, the main landing site for the airlift. While there, he saw about thirty children lined up behind one of the barbed-wire fences. He went to meet them and noticed that the children had nothing. Halvorsen remembers: "I met about thirty children at the barbed wire fence that protected Tempelhof's huge area. They were excited and told me that 'when the weather gets so bad that you can't land, don't worry about us. We can get by on a little food, but if we lose our freedom, we may never get it back.'"[13] Touched, Halvorsen reached into his pocket and took out two sticks of gum to give to the children. The kids broke them into little pieces and shared them; the ones who did not get any sniffed the wrappers.[1] Watching the children, so many of whom had absolutely nothing, Halvorsen regretted not having more to give them.[14] 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. According to Halvorsen, one child asked "How will we know it is your plane?" to which Halvorsen responded that he would wiggle his wings, something he had done for his parents when he first got his pilot's license in 1941.[15]

That night, Halvorsen, his copilot, and his engineer pooled their candy rations for the next day's drop. The accumulated candy was heavy, so in order to ensure the children were not hurt by the falling candy, Halvorsen made three parachutes out of handkerchiefs and tied them to the rations.[16] In the morning when Halvorsen and his crew made regular supply drops, they also dropped three boxes of candy attached to handkerchiefs. They made these drops once a week for three weeks. Each week, the group of children waiting at the Tempelhof airport fence grew significantly.[17]

When word reached the airlift commander, Lieutenant General William H. Tunner, he ordered it expanded into Operation "Little Vittles", named as a play on the airlift's name of Operation Vittles.[18] Operation Little Vittles began officially on September 22, 1948.[4] Support for this effort to provide the children of Berlin with chocolate and gum grew quickly, first among Halvorsen's friends, then to the whole squadron.[16] As news of Operation Little Vittles reached the United States, children and candymakers from all over the US began contributing candy.[19] By November 1948, Halvorsen could no longer keep up with the amount of candy and handkerchiefs being sent from across America.[16] College student Mary C. Connors of Chicopee, Massachusetts offered to take charge of the now national project and worked with the National Confectioner's Association to prepare the candy and tie the handkerchiefs.[20] With the groundswell of support, Little Vittles pilots, of which Halvorsen was now one of many, were dropping candy every other day. Children all over Berlin had sweets, and more and more artwork was getting sent back with kind letters attached to them.[21] The American candy bombers became known as the Rosinenbomber (Raisin Bombers), while Halvorsen himself became known by many nicknames to the children of Berlin, including his original moniker of "Uncle Wiggly Wings", as well as "The Chocolate Uncle", "The Gum Drop Kid" and "The Chocolate Flier".[22]
Operation "Little Vittles" was in effect from September 22, 1948, to May 13, 1949.[4] Although Lieutenant Halvorsen returned home in January 1949, he passed on leadership of the operation to one of his friends, Captain Lawrence Caskey.[23] Upon his return home, Halvorsen met with several individuals who were key in making Operation "Little Vittles" a success. 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.[24] He also 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.[25][26] In total, it is estimated that Operation "Little Vittles" was responsible for dropping over 23 tons of candy from over 250,000 parachutes.[5]

Colonel Halvorsen's work with Operation "Little Vittles" not only won him international acclaim, but "drew him two proposals" according to one U.S. newspaper.[27] He turned both of them down, hoping that the girl he left home in Garland, Utah would still have feelings for him. Halvorsen had met Alta Jolley in 1942 at Utah State Agricultural College. After Halvorsen left for Germany, the couple carried on their courtship via mail.[28] Gail Halvorsen and Alta Jolley were married in Las Vegas, Nevada on April 16, 1949.[29] The Halvorsens had five children, all of whom were raised in various parts of the United States and Germany as Halvorsen fulfilled his military assignments.[30] After Colonel Halvorsen's retirement in 1974, the couple moved to Provo, Utah. From 1976 until 1986 Halvorsen served as the Assistant Dean of Student Life at Brigham Young University.[8] Alta and Halvorsen were both active in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They served as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1986 to 1987 in London, England, and again from 1995 to 1997 in St. Petersburg, Russia.[30] Alta died on January 25, 1999, at which time the couple had 24 grandchildren.[30] Five years later, Halvorsen married again, this time to his high school sweetheart, Lorraine Pace.[31] The couple currently resides in Spanish Fork, Utah on their farm, and spend winters in Arizona.[32] In January 2021, it was reported that he had recovered from COVID-19, which he had contracted about 1 month before.[33]

Halvorsen died in Provo on February 16, 2022, at the age of 101.[34][35]

After returning home in January 1949, Halvorsen considered the idea of leaving the Air Force. He changed his mind, however, when he was offered a permanent commission with full pay and the promise that the air force would send him to school.[36] In 1951 and 1952 he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Florida as an assignment from the Air Force Institute of Technology.[37] He 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.[9] Halvorsen was reassigned in 1957 to the Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell AFB, Alabama. He was there until 1958, when he was assigned at the Air Force Space Systems Division of Air Force Systems Command in Inglewood, California. While on this assignment, Halvorsen researched and developed various space projects. The most notable of these was the Titan III launch vehicle program, for which he chaired source selection.[38] Halvorsen would serve as part of Air Force Systems Command for the next four years.[39]

From 1962 to 1965, Halvorsen served in Wiesbaden, West Germany, with the Foreign Technology division of AF Systems Command.[9] He 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.[9] He developed plans for the advanced manned reusable spacecraft, space policy and procedures, and on the Manned Orbital Laboratory Project.[9] He 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.[9]

Halvorsen then became the Commander of the 7350th Air Base Group at Tempelhof Central Airport, Berlin, Germany, in February 1970.[40] It was the very same airfield he flew to daily during the Berlin Airlift. During this period, he also served as the US Air Force Europe Representative in Berlin, as well as completing a master's degree in Guidance and Counseling from Wayne State University through an on-base educational program.[9] His final assignment was as the Inspector General, Ogden Air Materiel Center, Hill AFB, Utah.[41] Halvorsen retired on August 31, 1974, having accumulated over 8,000 flying hours and 31 years of military service.[9]

Halvorsen's work with Operation "Little Vittles" had a profound impact on lives both in the United States and throughout the world.[42] After his official retirement in 1974, Halvorsen continued to serve the local, national, and international community in a variety of ways.[39]