February 24, 2025 • 12 mins
For An Army of Normal Dead Folks, Larry Reed brings us the story of the pilot who dropped sweets & hope to the children of Berlin.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
And one kid named Peter writes this adorable letter where
he says, you guys keep dropping parachutes, but they don't
land near me. I don't know how you guys ever
won the war.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney.
I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, a father, an entrepreneur,
and I've been a football coach in Inner City Memphis.
That last part somehow led to an oscar for the
film about our team. That movie is called Undefeated. Y'all,
(00:37):
I believe our country's problems are never going to be
solved by a bunch of fancy people and nice suits
talking big words that nobody ever uses on seeing it in
a fox, but rather by an army of normal folks.
That's us, just you and me deciding hey, I can help.
And that's exactly what Gail Halverson did during the Berlin Blockade.
(01:01):
Gail became lovingly known as the Candy Bomber, even if
he disappointed young Peter. I cannot wait for you to
hear his story from Real Heroes author Larry Reid as
we pay tribute to him for our special series An
Army of Normal Dead Folks. Right after these brief messages
(01:24):
from our general sponsors. Okay, two more to discuss Chapter thirty.
(01:48):
I just love this guy, Gail Halverson Halberson. And yes,
this dude is the candy bomber. Yep, tell us about him.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Okay, he just died, by the way, a couple of
years ago, well over one hundred years of age. He Actually,
you know.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
All these heroes, if they weren't executed, seemed to have
had pretty long lives.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah. I think that that may be God's way of saying,
well done, the good and faithful servant. You get a
little extra time.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Well, Gail Halverson, who died just a couple of years ago,
he'd come down with COVID in twenty twenty, but completely
at like age one hundred or close to it, completely
recovered from it a couple of years later. Well, he
was in the US Air Force after World War II.
And this may tax the memory of Americans today because
(02:41):
we kind of forgotten the Berlin Blockade of nineteen forty eight.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I have not forgotten, our studied that, and it's important
we don't forget that. Oh.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Absolutely, it was a horrific time. Think of Germany eighteen
forty five divided, occupied, demoralized, defeated, devastated. The Soviets have
a zone not only of Germany, but also a zone
within the city of Berlin West Berlin. The wall would
(03:15):
not be built until nineteen sixty one, but there were
many efforts to keep people apart within the city of
Berlin itself.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
But correct me if I'm wrong. Even though there wasn't
a wall, they were separated and guarded by outposts, razor wire,
chaining fence, all.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Of that, Yes, but still there was a stream of
people getting through that and they were losing people like
you wouldn't believe, from east to west trying to escape.
That's eventually a reason they put the wall up, because
they just couldn't keep the human traffic on one side. Well,
Stalin in the Soviet Union thought that Allied occupation of
(03:49):
West Berlin was untenable, that he could gobble up all
of the city of Berlin if he just put on
the pressure. So overnight, he announced in nineteen forty seven,
I think it was maybe or yeah, forty seven or
forty eight, that West Berlin was being blockaded. No traffic,
(04:12):
no land or river traffic would be allowed into West Berlin.
He was going to starve him out. In effect, he
thought the Western Allies would just give up and leave
and leave all of Berlin to the Soviets. Well, he
didn't bank on Harry Truman, who decided from the start,
we're not going to let this stand. So Truman put
(04:33):
together the Berlin Airlift, which involved thousands of mostly American
but also British and French cargo planes on a daily.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Basis, unarmed and unescortated, that's right, which was very important, yep,
because the Soviets could never say it was some type
of military invasion, and so they couldn't shoot down these
humanitarian planes because they were on armed and unescorted. It
was a brilliant maneuver. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Absolutely, Now they did harass them.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
They would, but they wouldn't shoot them down. But that's
how to start yet another conflict. Yep.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
They would shine spotlights in as a plane was landing.
They would shine bright spotlights into the eyes of the
crew in these planes to try to disorient them. Things
like that. But nonetheless, the Berlin Airlift brought thousands upon
thousands of cargo planes full of food other essentials to
get the West berliners through this blockade. Not knowing how
(05:34):
long it might last well. One of the pilots was
Gail Halverson from Utah. While his plane was being unloaded
in West Berlin, he wandered over to a fence where
he saw some children had gathered on the other side,
and they all obviously were desperately poor in rags for
(05:58):
the most part, but they were smiled and they wanted
to say hello if they could, and get maybe some
candy from him. First time he did that, he had
only two sticks of gum in his pocket. He broke
them up into very small pieces and distributed them to
the kids. When he ran out, the remaining kids just
smelled the gum wrappers, you know, and just savor the aroma.
(06:21):
And that gave him an idea. He told the kids,
I'll be back and watch for my plane. He said,
I'll wiggle the wings. That's how he became known to
West Berlin children as Uncle Wiggly Wings. He said, I'll
wiggle my wings before I drop you some candy buy parachutes,
(06:42):
and so he and some of his men would tie
chocolate bars and other candies to homemade parachutes like a handkerchief,
make a parachute out of it, and when they were
bringing the cargo loads of stuff into West Berlin, before
they'd land, they would throw out all these parachutes with
candy for these kids. And other air forcemen thought this
(07:04):
is a great idea. I'm going to do it too well.
Gail Halverson never went to his superior officer to get
authorization for this.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
He just did it.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
He just did it, and so the others were as well.
And then he got called in and he thought he
might even be court martialed, but his commanding officer called
him in to commend him, and he said, let's make
this a magnificent campaign. Let's let the world know that
we're doing this well. In the end. Over the next
(07:33):
several months, thousands of American families sewed together crude little parachutes.
Candy companies in America and Britain donated more than twenty
tons of candy that the Air Force dropped, and they
are great stories. Gail Halverson wrote a book about it,
and he produced some of the letters that kids in
(07:55):
West Berlin wrote once they learned of him, letters to
the airport hoping that it would get to mister Halverson.
And one kid named Peter writes this adorable letter where
he says, you guys keep dropping parachutes, but they don't
land near me. I don't know how you guys ever
won the war. And he gave directions. He says, next
(08:21):
time you come to West Berlin, look for the house
right next to the bridge, turn right and drop it there.
I mean, it's just an incredible correspondence. But this turned
out to be one of the many reasons why after
the Berlin blockade was lifted by Stalin that came to
an end. There was such great love for Americans by
(08:43):
West Berliners. They came to our rescue. They even dropped
candy by parachutes.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
See that's the part that really struck me. Is just
a small thing, but just an average guy. There were
thousands of Polots. Think of the enormous good will it
created and candidly, you know, we can have diplomats all
(09:11):
over the place. This is maybe one of the greatest
foreign affair successes there is because those kids become adults
and always remember Americans as the ones who tried to
put a smile on it.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
That's right, ordinary people helping ordinary people. This isn't president
to president, it's ordinary person to ordinary person.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
That's it. And I remember in this chapter a line
clean this up for me because I'm about to butcher it.
But don't forget about us freedom something. What was the
comment there.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Something to the effect that freedom is indivisible, that when
someone loses it, we all lose something, and that we're
all in this together. That was the kind of sentiment,
don't forget us. We are as interested in in freedom
as you.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Are, right and just a little candy bar being dropped
gave those children hope that they weren't forgotten. Yep, exactly,
Gail Howverson, the candy bomber, Maybe he should have been
our ambassador to Germany or something, because he probably created
(10:22):
more goodwill than anything else our government.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Absolutely, And in his book, by the Way, there are
many stories of what happened in subsequent years as he
grew older and as the kids grew up. There were
many occasions when he would go back to Berlin to
be celebrated by some event, and children who were then
adults came up to thank him, and they were telling
(10:46):
him stories about how, you know, where they got their
first candy bar by parachute, that kind of thing. So
there were a lot of wonderful reunions in later years,
and that just cemented the relationship between ordinary Germans in
ordinary Americans.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
As a result of this man, yep, thank you for
joining us for this special series, An Army of Normal
Dead Folks. If Gail Halverson or other episodes have inspired
you in general, or better yet, to take action by
acting heroically in our time buying Larry Read's book Real
(11:25):
Heroes where the story came from, or if you have
story ideas for this series, please let me know. I'd
love to hear about it. You can write me anytime
at Bill at normal folks dot us, and I promise
you I will respond. If you enjoyed this episode, share
it with friends and on social subscribe to the podcast,
(11:45):
rate it, review it, join the Army at normal folks
dot us, consider becoming a premium member there any and
all of these things that will help us grow an
Army of normal Folks. I'm Bill Courtney. Until next time,
do what you can mhm.
And one kid named Peter writes this adorable letter where
he says, you guys keep dropping parachutes, but they don't
land near me. I don't know how you guys ever
won the war.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney.
I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, a father, an entrepreneur,
and I've been a football coach in Inner City Memphis.
That last part somehow led to an oscar for the
film about our team. That movie is called Undefeated. Y'all,
(00:37):
I believe our country's problems are never going to be
solved by a bunch of fancy people and nice suits
talking big words that nobody ever uses on seeing it in
a fox, but rather by an army of normal folks.
That's us, just you and me deciding hey, I can help.
And that's exactly what Gail Halverson did during the Berlin Blockade.
(01:01):
Gail became lovingly known as the Candy Bomber, even if
he disappointed young Peter. I cannot wait for you to
hear his story from Real Heroes author Larry Reid as
we pay tribute to him for our special series An
Army of Normal Dead Folks. Right after these brief messages
(01:24):
from our general sponsors. Okay, two more to discuss Chapter thirty.
(01:48):
I just love this guy, Gail Halverson Halberson. And yes,
this dude is the candy bomber. Yep, tell us about him.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Okay, he just died, by the way, a couple of
years ago, well over one hundred years of age. He Actually,
you know.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
All these heroes, if they weren't executed, seemed to have
had pretty long lives.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah. I think that that may be God's way of saying,
well done, the good and faithful servant. You get a
little extra time.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Well, Gail Halverson, who died just a couple of years ago,
he'd come down with COVID in twenty twenty, but completely
at like age one hundred or close to it, completely
recovered from it a couple of years later. Well, he
was in the US Air Force after World War II.
And this may tax the memory of Americans today because
(02:41):
we kind of forgotten the Berlin Blockade of nineteen forty eight.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I have not forgotten, our studied that, and it's important
we don't forget that. Oh.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Absolutely, it was a horrific time. Think of Germany eighteen
forty five divided, occupied, demoralized, defeated, devastated. The Soviets have
a zone not only of Germany, but also a zone
within the city of Berlin West Berlin. The wall would
(03:15):
not be built until nineteen sixty one, but there were
many efforts to keep people apart within the city of
Berlin itself.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
But correct me if I'm wrong. Even though there wasn't
a wall, they were separated and guarded by outposts, razor wire,
chaining fence, all.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Of that, Yes, but still there was a stream of
people getting through that and they were losing people like
you wouldn't believe, from east to west trying to escape.
That's eventually a reason they put the wall up, because
they just couldn't keep the human traffic on one side. Well,
Stalin in the Soviet Union thought that Allied occupation of
(03:49):
West Berlin was untenable, that he could gobble up all
of the city of Berlin if he just put on
the pressure. So overnight, he announced in nineteen forty seven,
I think it was maybe or yeah, forty seven or
forty eight, that West Berlin was being blockaded. No traffic,
(04:12):
no land or river traffic would be allowed into West Berlin.
He was going to starve him out. In effect, he
thought the Western Allies would just give up and leave
and leave all of Berlin to the Soviets. Well, he
didn't bank on Harry Truman, who decided from the start,
we're not going to let this stand. So Truman put
(04:33):
together the Berlin Airlift, which involved thousands of mostly American
but also British and French cargo planes on a daily.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Basis, unarmed and unescortated, that's right, which was very important, yep,
because the Soviets could never say it was some type
of military invasion, and so they couldn't shoot down these
humanitarian planes because they were on armed and unescorted. It
was a brilliant maneuver. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Absolutely, Now they did harass them.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
They would, but they wouldn't shoot them down. But that's
how to start yet another conflict. Yep.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
They would shine spotlights in as a plane was landing.
They would shine bright spotlights into the eyes of the
crew in these planes to try to disorient them. Things
like that. But nonetheless, the Berlin Airlift brought thousands upon
thousands of cargo planes full of food other essentials to
get the West berliners through this blockade. Not knowing how
(05:34):
long it might last well. One of the pilots was
Gail Halverson from Utah. While his plane was being unloaded
in West Berlin, he wandered over to a fence where
he saw some children had gathered on the other side,
and they all obviously were desperately poor in rags for
(05:58):
the most part, but they were smiled and they wanted
to say hello if they could, and get maybe some
candy from him. First time he did that, he had
only two sticks of gum in his pocket. He broke
them up into very small pieces and distributed them to
the kids. When he ran out, the remaining kids just
smelled the gum wrappers, you know, and just savor the aroma.
(06:21):
And that gave him an idea. He told the kids,
I'll be back and watch for my plane. He said,
I'll wiggle the wings. That's how he became known to
West Berlin children as Uncle Wiggly Wings. He said, I'll
wiggle my wings before I drop you some candy buy parachutes,
(06:42):
and so he and some of his men would tie
chocolate bars and other candies to homemade parachutes like a handkerchief,
make a parachute out of it, and when they were
bringing the cargo loads of stuff into West Berlin, before
they'd land, they would throw out all these parachutes with
candy for these kids. And other air forcemen thought this
(07:04):
is a great idea. I'm going to do it too well.
Gail Halverson never went to his superior officer to get
authorization for this.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
He just did it.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
He just did it, and so the others were as well.
And then he got called in and he thought he
might even be court martialed, but his commanding officer called
him in to commend him, and he said, let's make
this a magnificent campaign. Let's let the world know that
we're doing this well. In the end. Over the next
(07:33):
several months, thousands of American families sewed together crude little parachutes.
Candy companies in America and Britain donated more than twenty
tons of candy that the Air Force dropped, and they
are great stories. Gail Halverson wrote a book about it,
and he produced some of the letters that kids in
(07:55):
West Berlin wrote once they learned of him, letters to
the airport hoping that it would get to mister Halverson.
And one kid named Peter writes this adorable letter where
he says, you guys keep dropping parachutes, but they don't
land near me. I don't know how you guys ever
won the war. And he gave directions. He says, next
(08:21):
time you come to West Berlin, look for the house
right next to the bridge, turn right and drop it there.
I mean, it's just an incredible correspondence. But this turned
out to be one of the many reasons why after
the Berlin blockade was lifted by Stalin that came to
an end. There was such great love for Americans by
(08:43):
West Berliners. They came to our rescue. They even dropped
candy by parachutes.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
See that's the part that really struck me. Is just
a small thing, but just an average guy. There were
thousands of Polots. Think of the enormous good will it
created and candidly, you know, we can have diplomats all
(09:11):
over the place. This is maybe one of the greatest
foreign affair successes there is because those kids become adults
and always remember Americans as the ones who tried to
put a smile on it.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
That's right, ordinary people helping ordinary people. This isn't president
to president, it's ordinary person to ordinary person.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
That's it. And I remember in this chapter a line
clean this up for me because I'm about to butcher it.
But don't forget about us freedom something. What was the
comment there.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Something to the effect that freedom is indivisible, that when
someone loses it, we all lose something, and that we're
all in this together. That was the kind of sentiment,
don't forget us. We are as interested in in freedom
as you.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Are, right and just a little candy bar being dropped
gave those children hope that they weren't forgotten. Yep, exactly,
Gail Howverson, the candy bomber, Maybe he should have been
our ambassador to Germany or something, because he probably created
(10:22):
more goodwill than anything else our government.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Absolutely, And in his book, by the Way, there are
many stories of what happened in subsequent years as he
grew older and as the kids grew up. There were
many occasions when he would go back to Berlin to
be celebrated by some event, and children who were then
adults came up to thank him, and they were telling
(10:46):
him stories about how, you know, where they got their
first candy bar by parachute, that kind of thing. So
there were a lot of wonderful reunions in later years,
and that just cemented the relationship between ordinary Germans in
ordinary Americans.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
As a result of this man, yep, thank you for
joining us for this special series, An Army of Normal
Dead Folks. If Gail Halverson or other episodes have inspired
you in general, or better yet, to take action by
acting heroically in our time buying Larry Read's book Real
(11:25):
Heroes where the story came from, or if you have
story ideas for this series, please let me know. I'd
love to hear about it. You can write me anytime
at Bill at normal folks dot us, and I promise
you I will respond. If you enjoyed this episode, share
it with friends and on social subscribe to the podcast,
(11:45):
rate it, review it, join the Army at normal folks
dot us, consider becoming a premium member there any and
all of these things that will help us grow an
Army of normal Folks. I'm Bill Courtney. Until next time,
do what you can mhm.
Host
Bill Courtney
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