Berlin Airlift exhibit to reside at Travis Air Museum

  • Published
  • By Senior Master Sgt. Ellen L. Hatfield
  • 349th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFNS) --  Retired Col. Gail Halvorsen, the man known fondly as the "Candy Bomber" for his role in the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49, cut the ribbon on the Berlin Airlift Exhibit Dec. 10 at the Travis Air Museum here.

After traveling to 29 different cities, the exhibit now has a permanent home at the museum.

Mr. Heinz-Gerd Reese, the director of the Berlin Airlift Gratitude Foundation, spoke about the long friendship between the German and American people, built on the Berlin Airlift.

"The Berlin Airlift veterans changed the world," he said. "It was the greatest airlift ever, and you can be proud of it, and your continued humanitarian operations today, worldwide, wherever needed."

Dr. Bernd Von Muenchow-Pohl, the director of the German Information Center USA, said there was no better place for the exhibit because Air Mobility Command was the "child" of those who carried out the Berlin Airlift. "The old frontlines of the Cold War have vanished, but there are new threats and challenges we friends have faced together, to overcome."

Despite his 89 years, Colonel Halvorsen spoke from a memory undiminished by age, about his "sweet" bombing runs.

"I landed at Templehof (Air Base), and there were children behind a barbed wire fence. All I had in my pocket were two sticks of gum, but I promised them I'd come back the next day with more candy," he said.

They broke the gum into small pieces, some children being content with smelling the wrapper. "They never asked for a single thing, because they only wanted their freedom, but I saw their silent gratitude, and I had to give them something," he said. "A small decision can change your life -- that small decision changed the rest of mine."

With that, the airlift began in earnest. With planes arriving every 90 seconds, the children couldn't know which one was Colonel Halvorsen's, so he had told them he'd wiggle his wings to let them know it was him. To this day, he is still remembered as "Uncle Wiggly Wings," or, in German, "Onkel Wackelflugel."

Colonel Halvorsen remembered one small girl giving him a teddy bear, which he was reluctant to take. It turned out that she believed the bear had saved her life during the bombing of Berlin. "That little girl believed the bear was her talisman and she wanted me to have it as my good luck charm," he said. "We knew they were struggling for food and heat, and they told me, 'somebody will have heat, but if we lose our freedom, we'll never get it back.'"

Mr. Reese reiterated that they've never forgotten what the Americans in the Berlin Airlift did for them. "We will be friends always," he said.

Colonel Halvorsen said he started the airlift for the children because he was so touched by their gratefulness and their smiling faces. Bringing them food kept them going and gave them hope. "Without hope, the soul dies," he said.

He said serving others, like he did during "Operation Little Vittles," which is what the humanitarian mission was known as, is still one of the three core values of the U.S. Air Force today. "Service breaks down the wall between people," he said. "When you help somebody else, you get something back, that's your reward." During the course of the operation, he and the other service pilots dropped more than 21 tons of candy.

"This museum and exhibit remind us of the cost of freedom for us and our friends," he said.