May 30, 2025 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Gail Halvorsen was a young pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps assigned to the Berlin Airlift, where American forces flew vital supplies into a war-torn, Soviet-blockaded Berlin after WWII. While carrying out his missions, Lt. Halvorsen noticed German children gathering at the fences of Tempelhof Air Base. Wanting to bring them hope and a little joy, he came up with an idea: drop candy from his plane. And so, the “Candy Bomber” was born. Here’s the late Gail Halvorsen in his own words.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
And by the way, to check out our American Stories podcast,
subscribe on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Up next, the story of Gail Halverson, a young pilot
(00:31):
in the US Army Air Corps who was assigned as
a cargo pilot at the Berlin Airlift, in which US
forces flew much needed supplies into a war torn Soviet
blockaded Berlin following World War II. Gail grew up on
a farm in Utah and joined the Army Air Corps
in June of nineteen forty two.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Here's Colonel Halverson.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
With the story, beginning with the three reasons why he
and his fellow serviceman saw the Berlin Airlift as necessary.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
I stayed in the Air Force, the Army Air Corps
at the time after the war, and that we wanted
to keep flying. And we were briefed in our pilot
meetings all the time, every month about the world's situation
after the war, and we knew from these briefings the
(01:29):
new enemy was Stalin and Communism. He'd just taken Czechoslovakia
had the popular democratic leader assassinated taking Hungary. We knew
he was headed west. The second factor was we knew
that most of the two million two point five million
(01:50):
people in Berlin, in West Berlin were women and children.
Very few men. And the stars man take fresh milk
or food from babies, from and from women and children.
That's a mitigating factor on how we felt about what
(02:11):
we're doing. The third one was when I landed on
my first trip into Berlin of twenty thousand pounds of
flour and opened that have that back door. A crew
chief went back open the door. In came these Germans,
six of them downloaded, about six in the semi trip.
I wondered how these supermen are gonna look. And they
(02:33):
had mixed uniforms, part uniform Parsivanian put doctors or Weimart
privates all together for one purpose. They needed freedom, they
needed flour. We had both. And when I got out
of cockpit and walked back, and the lead man came
right up, put his hand in mine and gripped it
(02:54):
and looked me in the eye, and his eyes were
moist and looked down at that flour like rangels from heaven.
And we were on the same page. So there are
three factors. So I got to go to Berlin and
see them on the ground. I had a friend in
Berlin who says, you get here. I got a jeep
for in the driver. You take you over and you
see everything. And so one day I came back and
(03:18):
it was about the seventeenth of July. Came back and
landed at Rhine Mind about noon. It was a beautiful day, sunshine.
I was supposed to go to bed fly that night.
Had the movie camera in my hand, and Bill Christian,
a buddy from Mobile, Alabama, was in the in an
airplane in the next hardstand, Lord of dry Potatoes, ready
(03:41):
to go to Berlin, just getting ready to start the engines.
That holy cow, what an opportunity. Beautiful day Bill's going.
I'll just jump on the airplane with him. I'm not
going to bed. I got a jeep waiting for him
in Berlin. I get off the fly line. I'll go
over the sea and get these great movies. And so well,
John Pickering my copalt go to bed John, you and
(04:04):
Elkins get to bed. I'm going to Berlin. He said,
you're crazy, and I said, I know, but I'm going
to Berlin. If this thing stops tomorrow, they're going to
send us all home. They're not gonna let everybody go
sside seeing to Berlin. And I want to see Berlin.
I want to see Hitler's bunker. I want to see
the richestar got close. I loved history, and here I
was right in the middle of it. I said, I
want it. It's gonna be or I'm going to Berlin.
(04:26):
I'll see if before I go back. All he need
is the uniform. Airplanes come back five, no reservations required.
So uh, I jumped on the airplane went back. We
called in and Jeep was waiting. But uh, before I
went around town, I wanted to get on the end
of the runway and take pictures of the airplanes coming
over the buildings before we had it come between the buildings.
(04:47):
And that's that's uh, that's how dumb I was. I
thought it was going to be over that quick caught.
I was there to get movies if I ever had
any kids, to show them the approach. And so I
went around there and started shooting movies. The airplanes coming
over barbar fence in front of me, bombed out buildings,
a couple hundred yards over, and then suddenly here were
(05:10):
the kids. See the color of their eyes. They're right
up against me looking at this uniform was bombing them
three years before, maybe killed their dad in law, who knows.
And I didn't know how they get I'd looked down.
All of a sudden there's thirty kids, about roughly thirty,
(05:32):
standing right on the other side of the barbar from me,
looking at me. And they were friendly. And I thought,
why would they be friendly? You know, here's that uniform
right here. And it was the first time they seen
a uniform up course, the military rushing the first witch
is terror and occupation guys. Later then I found out
(05:57):
later why they were so friendly because their aunts and
uncles or Arbortray cut off with the border. Not cut
off because you've walked across the border then, but they
could walk across the border. Their aunts and uncles and whoever,
the close family type come over to West Berlin to
use the library to see what's going on in the world.
(06:22):
They'd lost their freedom. They lost freedom of the press,
the freedom expression, freedom of travel, freedom of religion, freedom
of electing who they wanted to be their ruler. They'd
lost that so they were over there and they were
telling their aunts and uncles, then I can't travel, I
(06:42):
can't do this, can't do that. And they knew they
knew then what con is like. They had missionaries, and
the conists not for this program, but negative missionaries said Hey,
this is not very cool, buddy. You know how you
knew these guys though they were friendly.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
And you're listening to Colonel Gail Halverson tell the story
of why the Berlin Airlift was necessary.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
The people of Germany knew who we were. We were on.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Their side and on the side of freedom. When we
come back, more of this remarkable story not told enough
in America's classrooms, the story of the Cold War, the
story of the Berlin Airlift. Here on Our American Stories,
Lie Hibib here the host of Our American Stories.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Every day on this show, we're bringing.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Inspiring stories from across this great country, stories from our
big cities and small towns. But we truly can't do
the show without you. Our stories are free to listen to,
but they're not free to make. If you love what
you hear, go to Ouramerican Stories dot com and click
the donate button. Give a little, give a lot, Go
to Alamerican Stories dot Com and give, and we continue
(08:10):
with our American stories and the story of Colonel Halveson
and in the end, the story of the Berlin Airlift
and why it was so necessary and in the end
so remarkable and emblematic of the people the country that
made it happen.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
American style freedom was their dream, and Hitler's passed in
Stalin's future was their nightmare. They knew, those kids eight
to fourteen, they will giving me a lesson about freedom. Look,
he said, it's pretty good here in July. You know,
the weather's not too bad, gas some storms. But you wait.
(08:48):
They had school English, they spoke. Someone spoke pretty good English. School.
I couldn't speak any German. They said, come the winner.
In the fall, you can't get in here. It's going
to be bad. Kids, give me a lecture, said, but
when that happens, don't worry about us. We don't have
(09:10):
to have enough to eat. Just don't give up on us.
Someday we'll have enough to eat. But if you lose
your freedom, we'll never get it back. American style freedom
of their dream. And they knew about the other systems.
They didn't want him to Those kids were incredible. I
(09:30):
just said, holy count, and I got so interested in
listening to him. I looked at them while Summer acts
I've been there over an hour, and I said, boy,
she might not be waiting. I gotta get out of here.
So I started to run so I see you later, kids,
and got about five steps and then the kids I
stopped and I said, boy, these incredible kids. I said, well,
(09:54):
they got a postgraduate degree in international relations. They know
what's important. They got their head screwed on. They really
know what's important. And it started to walking, and that
little voice just kept came back again. I don't know
how it overcame to get to the jeep. You're late,
but it did. It don't treat me. And then I
knew in a flash why. And it was because during
(10:18):
the war and after the war, walked down the street
in the foreign country where the kids had some chocolate,
not much, but had some, and those kids would chase
yet going down the street, interception and surround you begging
for chocolate and gum. And of course the military, since
the Continental Army was Washington, going through a town to
give kids stuff from the ration, they had a little
(10:41):
piece of chocolate or heart dick or something. They'd give
it the kids, that's nothing new. And then I said,
though they haven't had any chocolate for months, they haven't
had gum. They halady knew what gum was anyway, but
no chocolate for months. And not one of those kids
(11:02):
would lower themselves to be a beggar or something to
go striving it as chocolate when they had flour to
be free, When they wouldn't ask for more than freedom,
lower themselves to beg for something more. It blew my mind.
When somebody gives you a million dollars, you don't ask
for four bucks more. Yeah, you wouldn't ask for that. Well,
(11:27):
they didn't ask for that cream on the top, because
there was so thankful for what freedom meant to them.
When I realized that, I just said, holy cow, can't
believe it. Not one child put out their hand, not one.
By voice inflection indicated which you got some chocolate or something,
not one. So I reached my pocket and just had
(11:50):
two sticks a gum. Said, holy cow, two sticks are gum.
You're gonna have fight, You're gonna have blade noses. Get
out of here. And I said, well, I never seen
it these kids again. I'll be flying twenty four hours
out of sleep. I'll be sleeping on the Autoplot's fine,
coming to go in the copil probably, but I can't
come to the fence anymore. I'll never see these kids again.
(12:13):
How could I possibly get in something? And so everybody, well,
I said, well give it to them, it's all you got.
Broke it in a half four pieces through the bar bar.
The kids that were translating, I gave them half a stick.
They did most of it, and boy, they looked like
they got a one hundred dollar bill. And boy they
had got a hold of that. And then here came
(12:34):
the rest of kids. There no fight, They just wanted
a piece of the wrapper. And the kids with half
a stick youm tore off the outer wrapper and the
tinfoil and handed it to the kids that didn't get
any anything at all. And the kid that got a
piece of paper put it up their nose and smelled
it and smelled it a piece of paper. I stood there.
(12:57):
It flattened them. Believe what I've seen, Holy cow. For
thirty cents, I could buy them thirty sticks a gum
and they could have the wrapper and everything. But how
do I deliver it? I can't come out here. Could
I get some German to deliver it? Who knows what
kids would get it, or if he'd even deliver it.
(13:18):
By that time, an aeroplane flew over my head and
landed right and run away behind me. And I got
the idea, I'm coming in tomorrow. I can deliver it
to these kids. I can put it in that open
place and I'll get enough for everybody. And boy, and
then the red light came on. So you got to
have permission for that. You can't drop stuff out airplanes
(13:41):
unless you get the clearance. And then I rationalized, and
that's how you get in trouble. That's the first step
getting off the path. And so I thought, well, starving
two million people, not according to oil anyway, what's a
few sticks a gum? And so I found myself almost horrified, saying, kids,
(14:05):
you'd come back tomorrow. Stand in this open place. When
I come into land. I'll drop enough out of the
airplane two is before I land if you'll share it.
Oh you're vold, y'all. Vold will share it. They said,
you bet, and bouncing up and down, and I started leaving.
They called me back. I said, what's the matter, you
(14:27):
gotta know what airplane you're in. Every five minutes there's
an aeroplane coming by here. Well, I didn't know what
airplane because the airplanes from the Alaska had red noses
and red tails. They crashed in the snow they could
find them, and the airplanes from Hawaii had coconut palms
and stuff on. Everybody had a different singing. And I
(14:50):
flew whatever airplane was loaded. I don't know what airplane though,
for I'm just sure it was a four engine. There
are a lot of two engines, see forty. It was
still fun, so four angel. They said, no, no, off,
we're gonna know. Then I told them, wiggle the wings
when I come over the beacon of first uh before
we go ees Berlin to come around the land, all
(15:12):
wiggle the wings. Boy said, let's let's get out of here.
Let's start this thing. So I went all over town
and got the movies I've seen in every documentary every
major producer has put out has got my film in it.
I took around the city and off of the airlift
as it went on, and I took those pictures, went
back to several hours where to start flying. That night,
(15:35):
I went to Basic change open twenty four hours a
day bottle I could on a weekly ration, and I
didn't have enough. So I went to my crew and
I said, I gotta have your ration. They gave me theirs.
I had a big double handful of chocolate chocolate bars,
Hershey Bars, Babe Ruth Bounce and double mint gum, and
(15:58):
broke out in three piece, put three parachutes on it,
and anksious parachutes and and uh m. Next day flew
that night, of course, and the next day after noon
the weather it was good. Looked down there and those
kids were right in the open place between the bomb
doub buildings and the barbar fences. They hadn't told anybody
(16:18):
else in this small group. And we go the wings
and they went crazy. Still see their arms as they
came over the bomb up billing. Right behind the pola
seats a flair chute where emergency flares pushed out in
case you did have emergency in flight, and it's easy
for the COUCHI stamp between the posse just access that.
So as he came over, the head just told push
(16:40):
it out, and he pushed it out and unloaded twenty
thousand pounds of flour. The Germans did and worried that
somebody had seen the airplane. These parachutes get me in
trouble and wind up to take off and uh or
they pulled the parachutes over barbeer where they couldn't get
him in the under the field. But he turned tacks
it out. There's three Anses waving through it, all airplanes.
(17:03):
Their mouths were going up and down, and we waved,
and I said, wish they wouldn't do that, waving all airplanes.
I love. That's how it started.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
And you're listening to Colonel Gail Halverson tell the story
of how the Berlin Airlift came to be. Two million
people trapped without any means of really supporting themselves. We'd
bombed many parts of Germany to bits and leave it
to American gis to come up with the idea.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
One As he said, a light bulb went off in
my head.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
But then he realized, quote, you can't drop stuff off
out of airplanes without permission.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
And then he.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Added, Then I rationalized, and that's when you get in trouble.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
More.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
This remarkable story, the story of the Berlin Airlift, the
story of American compassion and ingenuity. Here on our American stories,
(18:08):
and we continue with our American stories and the story
of the Berlin airlift, how it came to be, how
it happened, and the man on the ground then, who's
now telling us this story is Colonel Gail Halverson. Let's
continue where Gayle last left off.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
After the first drop. Let's say it was about three
weeks later when I got called in and chewed out
because I didn't have permission, Colonel Horn, and it was
about that long ago. And then they said, it's okay,
but you got to report down to Frankfort, to the
(18:46):
press center at Frankfort. They want to know all about it,
this news release that came out. So it was then
I knew that boy, something read somebody rethought this was
a crazy idea. So I went in and all the news,
all the news agencies, of course recovering the Berlin herlot.
So they were all there in this big press center
(19:09):
in Frankfort, and I was pretty humble. The first lieutenant
guy and had a chauffeur and a driver and took
me into Frankfort in a hurry, and and all these
guys waiting for me for Wow, what if I call
what happened? Then I knew and uh then I was crazy.
Everybody was talking about it. When the word got out.
(19:33):
We came back from Berlin to the beds and there'd
be boxes of chocolate bars uh gum. The guys given
the ration and we figured that overall we must have
dropped about two hundred and fifty thousand parachutes during the
(19:55):
During the course of the flockade, we were able to drop.
My buddies dropped after I left. They kept dropping and
dropped until the end of September nineteen forty nine, so
it went on that long. What happened is that the
American Confectioneers Association that represents all the candy makers in
(20:19):
America got a hold of me when I was in
New York in September nineteen forty eight to pick up
an airplane. General Tenner had me stay for a week
in New York and appear on the early television program
We the People and the number of radio talk shows
and to inform people about what the airlift was like
(20:42):
and in my operation, and the representing the American Confectioneers
Association said how much of this stuff can you use?
And I gave him some ridiculous number and later they
sent six thousand pounds of chocolates by boat and by
rail from through Bremerhaven down to Rhyane Mine. I came
(21:06):
back to Berlin one day and and uh an officer
met me there with a cheap and said, uh, come
with me. And at four he said, I'll show you.
Went over the railway spur on Ryan Mine and there
was a box car with his armed guard. And I said, uh,
(21:27):
what's in a box car? He says, chocolate bars? And
it was two shipments of one three thousand pounds one
thirty five hundred pounds chocolate bars. And we couldn't drop
that much cause we didn't can tie up the parachute.
We too busy, and so we decided to have a
(21:47):
Christmas party in Berlin with that. And we we got
that about the middle of December nineteen forty eight, those shipments,
and and we uh had I we put it unloaded
and put it in the you know, supply building where
somebody there all the time regarded because the boy that
there was enough chocolate to buy King of doing his
(22:10):
castle on the black market, there's an incredible value. And
so we accumulated all of it before Christmas. On the
twenty fourth of December nineteen forty eight, the German Youth
Association in Berlin was the use of West Berlin and
the military teamed up and had Christmas parties for the
(22:31):
kids all over West Berlin for that amount. But from
then on they said, I said, we can't, we can't
handle it this way. If we had it ready to drop,
then we could drop it over the city as we
came in. And so they said, okay. I don't know
(22:54):
how they found it. But Elms Junior College in Chickpee, Massachusetts,
Miss O'Connor said, well, we'll handle that project for him.
Just send all the candy dust and we'll tie up
the parachutes, put in the boxes ready to drop and
ship it. In Chickpen, Masks they had a fire station,
(23:16):
an old fire station that they had a new and
so the city gave it to him. They had a
big sign up from operational little Vittles and twenty two
schools with alternate tying up parachutes, and sail boat companies
donated old sail cloth. They have cut it up parachutes
about the size of man's handkerchief a little bigger, and
(23:39):
the twine companies gave them all the twine. The cardboard
companies gave them all the cardboard. They had processed eighteen
sons through that facility by January nineteen forty nine. And
Westover Air Force Base is right next to Chickipee Mass
(24:00):
was one of the big transport bases that supported Ryan Mine.
And there's airplanes going back and forth all the times.
And so I had all my squadron were there organized
so that we had a a map of Berlin with
pins and the map on the best places to drop
through the cloud when it was a cloudy. We knew
(24:22):
where the the homing beacons were around the city for navigation,
and and so we knew where the biggest playgrounds are
where the children most likely congregrating. So we'd bring that
those boxes in and the pilot would take him out,
and we quit dropping on the end by the end
of the runway because uh, the crowd was got too
(24:42):
big and concentrated area and the austray, the kids getting
hurt and bigger guys running over them for the stuff,
and so uh, we started dropping randomly all over the city.
So when we come over different parts of the city
where we wanted to drop, why the creachy should go
back and just check this kept the top of the
(25:05):
cardboard wasting, and just check it up against the escape
patch and the stuff had come out like popcorn and
just blow all over the place and scatter all over
the countryside. We drop it from the thousand feet to
two thousand feet and they just go over. And I've
got letters from kids that would see it. One man.
(25:25):
In nineteen ninety eight we flew the I'm still flying
the Berlin Airlift Flying Museum, the Spirit of Freedom, the
Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation airplane, and we make parachhoe drops
out of it a lot. We go to air shows
all over the country. In nineteen ninety eight we flewid
across the North Atlantic back to Europe, sixty nine days
(25:49):
in Europe, air shows and air drops in Great Britain, France, Luxembourg,
and Berlin twice. And in Berlin the people had come
through the aeroplane. You could tell immediately those who were
there during the blockade. They're very emotional about telling you
thanks for our freedom, and with moist eyes they'd tell
(26:11):
you how much it meant to them.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
And you've been listening to Colonel Gail Halverson tell the
story of the Berlin airlift. After that first drop of his,
the one where he didn't ask for permission, well, just
a few weeks later he was hauled in, as he
put it, and shoot out. But soon thereafter he found
himself into Frankfort in a big press conference. He'd stumbled
(26:33):
onto something, by the way, this old adage that my
dad taught me, a military adage, better to ask for
forgiveness than permission.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
And boy is it no.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Better evidence of that than right here, and my goodness,
starting to drop in one place created problems. Everybody started
to gather. Then the next thing you know, Halverson was
worried that the young kids would get trampled by the
starving big kids. So then the drops started to get
scattered all over Germany and from one to two thousand feet.
(27:03):
Can you imagine being starving and waiting for stuff to
come out of the sky from American planes that it
bombed you only well, just years before.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
It's remarkable.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Actually, when we come back more of the story of
the Berlin airlift here on our American stories, and we
(27:37):
continue with our American stories and with Colonel Gail Halverson,
who was there and who in essence sort of got
the thing rolling. The idea of the Berlin Airlift. Let's
return where Gail last left off.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
But one of the men that came through is sixty
years old and said to me, you guys, boy attend
going to school. And the clouds were very low and
it was raining, and I knew you were using radar
to land, cause I couldn't see the aeroplanes. And suddenly,
out of this cloud came a parachute of a fresh
(28:13):
airshy candy bar and landed right at my feet. And
it took me a week to eat it, he said.
I said, astounded. I hit it day and night. And
he said, uh, it's not the chocolates important. It was important,
was it? Somebody in America knew I was in trouble.
Somebody cared. He said, Uh, I can live on thin rations,
(28:35):
but not without hope. Without hope, the soul dies, he said.
And one little boy was going to school. Suddenly he'd
hear coming much parachutes. It wasn't that better weather before,
and they'd they're picking him up. But he was out
of the group of ways and he saw that one
land in the duck pond, and he went in the
duck pond after it. He got all mucky with duck
(28:58):
stuff and everything else. They got the parachute in the
in the chocolate bar and they went on to school,
wasn't very far from the they caught it. M headmaster,
so I'm gonna, what are you going kind of school
and all money and all messed up, and he showing
the thing. The guy said, oh, that's alright, that's alright,
that's okay, and uh so he yeah, I think he
(29:20):
had the same moment changed his clothes. But uh so
that was it was exciting for him that they never
knew where it was gonna East East Bolin kids wrote
to me and said, look, uh we we can't help
it where they put the border. We were over here
with these Russians, we like the Americans, and and when
we're getting some of that stuff, we'd come over to
West Berlin and we're catching it and and uh but
(29:43):
we'd like to have you drop it over East Berlind.
There's not so many people over here. It'd be a
lot better for us. And so I said why not,
and so I did, And it'd be fun. There are
some soccer fields as in our pattern as we'd go
around Eastberland, and and when they'd be playing soccer. W
That's when I liked it best, cause we'd saved the
(30:03):
candy and we got over the kids playing soccer in
East Berlin and kick it out and then the soccer
ball would go one direction, the kids would chase the ball,
the parachutes going somewhere else break up the soccer game.
But that was fun to watch it that we'd bank
the airplane and get a look at what's going on.
And so I had to quit because uh in East Berlin,
(30:24):
because the Soviets complained to the State Department, there's a
dirty capitalist trick. We're trying to influence the minds of
the young people against that's the Soviets by giving him chocolate,
and they said it was a CIA operation. This government
operation gotta stop. Was never a government operation. And so uh,
(30:44):
I came back from Berlin one day and this Austin
met the airplane and says, what are you doing over
East Berlin? And and then I knew I was in trouble.
He said, well, he gotta stop, and he told me why.
I've had lots of people in East Berlin that I've met,
the caught purachutes, ask me why I quit. It's politics,
not people and politics are problem. It's uh, I guess
(31:09):
the addictives. It's the only drug. I was very addicted
to smile on the kid's face when I got something unexpected.
I I I didn't think I did anything special. I
just gave kids two sticks a gun. I just keep thinking,
it's just two sticks a gun and that's all it is.
And whatever's made of it somebody else, not not not
my doing. I didn't. Whenever you think that you d
(31:33):
you you're causing all the good things to happen. Boy,
you're in deep trouble. I mean, from then on you
you go, you're off the path of life. If if
you don't give credit for the Good Lord of what
what he's made available to us and and what other
people do for you, then you just as well say hey,
but yeah, I'm I'm not a contributor to society anymore.
I'm a millstone on the system. I think the air
(31:56):
list was to me. It was the reinforcement of the
things my church taught me all my life, and my
family taught me. Basically, money is not the answer to happiness.
The more you get, the more you want, and there's
just no answer and open ended Uh, chase for the
(32:18):
for the family, youth. That the only way the real
fulfillment is serving others, service before self. And that's one
of the air Force UH core values service before self.
And UH that's what the Savior taught. This is life
is you want happiness, UH, serve others. The dead sea
(32:41):
is dead because it takes in all the good ideas
of fresh water. It gives out nothing. So it's dead.
And people are that way. They say give me, give
me all the time, and give naught of itself. The
dead sea souls and that was demonstrated in the space
thirty one of 'e well Jesus Christ a greater loveness
that no man that he lay down his life for
(33:02):
a friend and thirty one or the buddies gave their
lives for an enemy Germans that became a friend. Why
because the service, the re the reward you get you
can't buy by helping somebody, especially having somebody need and
and the enemy. It is the epitome. If you're able
to do that, why, that's the that's the element. If
(33:23):
you're able to forgive and to serve an enemy, So
service before so are airl is the perfect demonstration, absolute
perfect demonstration, and that indicates what my parents and my
church taught me. Now, the other thing is the little
decision you make in life are important, extremely important, more
(33:43):
important than big decisions, because they put your footsteps and
your mindset on the path that leads you to your
final destination, your final position. And you're down that path
where you're not going to return when the big decision comes.
That little decision for two sticks are gone and the
whole world change for me for two six a gun.
(34:03):
That's about as small as you can get. Where does
the little decision come from? Well, we get an impression.
Everybody's got a conscience, the spirit we believe every certain
person has, and the conscious and you got a trigger
and it tells you very subtly what you ought to do.
Then you argue with it and do something different, and then
you miss out on the good things of life. The
(34:33):
gratitude break down the wall between people when you when
you're grateful for something, and don't think that you've invented
the world by yourself and everything that happens to you
was because how smart you are, and give credit to
nobody else. Boy, you're you're in the dead seat, getting
the dead seat again. But the gratitude by stopping and
(34:56):
telling the lady mopping the floor in the office building
on the way out that boy, you're doing a good job.
We'll sure make this place look better if you can
see that. Then she'd grateful back and that that job
is getting better next time, and and the other. The
other thing I guess too is attitude. Ninety percent of
(35:19):
the things that happened to us, including the airlift, we
can do something about. We can hate the enemy and
be mad all the time, or we can get on
with it and and enough to get the reinforcement to
find out that we're doing something worthwhile. But the attitude
determines success or failure. Determine in the family, in the home,
(35:40):
or in the nation of the community. The attitude how
you approach things. Ninety percent of the things I think
that happened to us, we can determine how we feel
we have control of that one string on their violin
that how we react. That's attitude, and ten percent we can't.
Let's be sent does go, God grant me the serenity
(36:02):
to accept the things I can't change at ten percent
that you can't change, and the courage to change the
things I can and the wisdom to tell the difference.
So attitude, attitude is voy about everything, and the airlift had
all of them. Attitude, gratitude serves the foreself, and integrity,
(36:25):
all those things were factored in this airlift.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
To me and a great job on the storytelling and
production by Greg Hangler, and a special thanks to Colonel
Gail Halverson, who celebrated his one hundred and first birthday recently.
And thanks to the National Archives for the interview and
the Truman Presidential Library is also a wonderful children's book,
Christmas from Heaven, The True Story of the Berlin Candy Bomber,
(36:51):
with Tom Brokaw narrating the story.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
In the books accompanying DVD.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
My goodness, how rich to bump into a beneficiary of
the Berlin Airlift decades later and have a grown man say,
it wasn't the chocolate that was important. It was the
sense that someone out there cared. A person can survive
thin rations. One can't survive without hope, And my goodness,
(37:16):
two point three million tons of supplies were dropped in
the Berlin Airlift, two point three million tons. It was
called Operation Victuals and took place over an eighteen month period,
and I simply love what Halverson said at the end.
The Berlin Airlift reinforced many of the things my church
(37:36):
taught me and my family. Money is not the answer.
Real fulfillment comes from serving others, service before self. It's
what our Savior taught us. Colonel Gail Halverson's story, the
Berlin Airlift story, and a story of so much more,
including the American spirit and American generosity. By the way,
(37:58):
we did this with the British as well, our compatriots
across the sea.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Here on our American stories.
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
And by the way, to check out our American Stories podcast,
subscribe on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Up next, the story of Gail Halverson, a young pilot
(00:31):
in the US Army Air Corps who was assigned as
a cargo pilot at the Berlin Airlift, in which US
forces flew much needed supplies into a war torn Soviet
blockaded Berlin following World War II. Gail grew up on
a farm in Utah and joined the Army Air Corps
in June of nineteen forty two.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Here's Colonel Halverson.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
With the story, beginning with the three reasons why he
and his fellow serviceman saw the Berlin Airlift as necessary.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
I stayed in the Air Force, the Army Air Corps
at the time after the war, and that we wanted
to keep flying. And we were briefed in our pilot
meetings all the time, every month about the world's situation
after the war, and we knew from these briefings the
(01:29):
new enemy was Stalin and Communism. He'd just taken Czechoslovakia
had the popular democratic leader assassinated taking Hungary. We knew
he was headed west. The second factor was we knew
that most of the two million two point five million
(01:50):
people in Berlin, in West Berlin were women and children.
Very few men. And the stars man take fresh milk
or food from babies, from and from women and children.
That's a mitigating factor on how we felt about what
(02:11):
we're doing. The third one was when I landed on
my first trip into Berlin of twenty thousand pounds of
flour and opened that have that back door. A crew
chief went back open the door. In came these Germans,
six of them downloaded, about six in the semi trip.
I wondered how these supermen are gonna look. And they
(02:33):
had mixed uniforms, part uniform Parsivanian put doctors or Weimart
privates all together for one purpose. They needed freedom, they
needed flour. We had both. And when I got out
of cockpit and walked back, and the lead man came
right up, put his hand in mine and gripped it
(02:54):
and looked me in the eye, and his eyes were
moist and looked down at that flour like rangels from heaven.
And we were on the same page. So there are
three factors. So I got to go to Berlin and
see them on the ground. I had a friend in
Berlin who says, you get here. I got a jeep
for in the driver. You take you over and you
see everything. And so one day I came back and
(03:18):
it was about the seventeenth of July. Came back and
landed at Rhine Mind about noon. It was a beautiful day, sunshine.
I was supposed to go to bed fly that night.
Had the movie camera in my hand, and Bill Christian,
a buddy from Mobile, Alabama, was in the in an
airplane in the next hardstand, Lord of dry Potatoes, ready
(03:41):
to go to Berlin, just getting ready to start the engines.
That holy cow, what an opportunity. Beautiful day Bill's going.
I'll just jump on the airplane with him. I'm not
going to bed. I got a jeep waiting for him
in Berlin. I get off the fly line. I'll go
over the sea and get these great movies. And so well,
John Pickering my copalt go to bed John, you and
(04:04):
Elkins get to bed. I'm going to Berlin. He said,
you're crazy, and I said, I know, but I'm going
to Berlin. If this thing stops tomorrow, they're going to
send us all home. They're not gonna let everybody go
sside seeing to Berlin. And I want to see Berlin.
I want to see Hitler's bunker. I want to see
the richestar got close. I loved history, and here I
was right in the middle of it. I said, I
want it. It's gonna be or I'm going to Berlin.
(04:26):
I'll see if before I go back. All he need
is the uniform. Airplanes come back five, no reservations required.
So uh, I jumped on the airplane went back. We
called in and Jeep was waiting. But uh, before I
went around town, I wanted to get on the end
of the runway and take pictures of the airplanes coming
over the buildings before we had it come between the buildings.
(04:47):
And that's that's uh, that's how dumb I was. I
thought it was going to be over that quick caught.
I was there to get movies if I ever had
any kids, to show them the approach. And so I
went around there and started shooting movies. The airplanes coming
over barbar fence in front of me, bombed out buildings,
a couple hundred yards over, and then suddenly here were
(05:10):
the kids. See the color of their eyes. They're right
up against me looking at this uniform was bombing them
three years before, maybe killed their dad in law, who knows.
And I didn't know how they get I'd looked down.
All of a sudden there's thirty kids, about roughly thirty,
(05:32):
standing right on the other side of the barbar from me,
looking at me. And they were friendly. And I thought,
why would they be friendly? You know, here's that uniform
right here. And it was the first time they seen
a uniform up course, the military rushing the first witch
is terror and occupation guys. Later then I found out
(05:57):
later why they were so friendly because their aunts and
uncles or Arbortray cut off with the border. Not cut
off because you've walked across the border then, but they
could walk across the border. Their aunts and uncles and whoever,
the close family type come over to West Berlin to
use the library to see what's going on in the world.
(06:22):
They'd lost their freedom. They lost freedom of the press,
the freedom expression, freedom of travel, freedom of religion, freedom
of electing who they wanted to be their ruler. They'd
lost that so they were over there and they were
telling their aunts and uncles, then I can't travel, I
(06:42):
can't do this, can't do that. And they knew they
knew then what con is like. They had missionaries, and
the conists not for this program, but negative missionaries said Hey,
this is not very cool, buddy. You know how you
knew these guys though they were friendly.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
And you're listening to Colonel Gail Halverson tell the story
of why the Berlin Airlift was necessary.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
The people of Germany knew who we were. We were on.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Their side and on the side of freedom. When we
come back, more of this remarkable story not told enough
in America's classrooms, the story of the Cold War, the
story of the Berlin Airlift. Here on Our American Stories,
Lie Hibib here the host of Our American Stories.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Every day on this show, we're bringing.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Inspiring stories from across this great country, stories from our
big cities and small towns. But we truly can't do
the show without you. Our stories are free to listen to,
but they're not free to make. If you love what
you hear, go to Ouramerican Stories dot com and click
the donate button. Give a little, give a lot, Go
to Alamerican Stories dot Com and give, and we continue
(08:10):
with our American stories and the story of Colonel Halveson
and in the end, the story of the Berlin Airlift
and why it was so necessary and in the end
so remarkable and emblematic of the people the country that
made it happen.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
American style freedom was their dream, and Hitler's passed in
Stalin's future was their nightmare. They knew, those kids eight
to fourteen, they will giving me a lesson about freedom. Look,
he said, it's pretty good here in July. You know,
the weather's not too bad, gas some storms. But you wait.
(08:48):
They had school English, they spoke. Someone spoke pretty good English. School.
I couldn't speak any German. They said, come the winner.
In the fall, you can't get in here. It's going
to be bad. Kids, give me a lecture, said, but
when that happens, don't worry about us. We don't have
(09:10):
to have enough to eat. Just don't give up on us.
Someday we'll have enough to eat. But if you lose
your freedom, we'll never get it back. American style freedom
of their dream. And they knew about the other systems.
They didn't want him to Those kids were incredible. I
(09:30):
just said, holy count, and I got so interested in
listening to him. I looked at them while Summer acts
I've been there over an hour, and I said, boy,
she might not be waiting. I gotta get out of here.
So I started to run so I see you later, kids,
and got about five steps and then the kids I
stopped and I said, boy, these incredible kids. I said, well,
(09:54):
they got a postgraduate degree in international relations. They know
what's important. They got their head screwed on. They really
know what's important. And it started to walking, and that
little voice just kept came back again. I don't know
how it overcame to get to the jeep. You're late,
but it did. It don't treat me. And then I
knew in a flash why. And it was because during
(10:18):
the war and after the war, walked down the street
in the foreign country where the kids had some chocolate,
not much, but had some, and those kids would chase
yet going down the street, interception and surround you begging
for chocolate and gum. And of course the military, since
the Continental Army was Washington, going through a town to
give kids stuff from the ration, they had a little
(10:41):
piece of chocolate or heart dick or something. They'd give
it the kids, that's nothing new. And then I said,
though they haven't had any chocolate for months, they haven't
had gum. They halady knew what gum was anyway, but
no chocolate for months. And not one of those kids
(11:02):
would lower themselves to be a beggar or something to
go striving it as chocolate when they had flour to
be free, When they wouldn't ask for more than freedom,
lower themselves to beg for something more. It blew my mind.
When somebody gives you a million dollars, you don't ask
for four bucks more. Yeah, you wouldn't ask for that. Well,
(11:27):
they didn't ask for that cream on the top, because
there was so thankful for what freedom meant to them.
When I realized that, I just said, holy cow, can't
believe it. Not one child put out their hand, not one.
By voice inflection indicated which you got some chocolate or something,
not one. So I reached my pocket and just had
(11:50):
two sticks a gum. Said, holy cow, two sticks are gum.
You're gonna have fight, You're gonna have blade noses. Get
out of here. And I said, well, I never seen
it these kids again. I'll be flying twenty four hours
out of sleep. I'll be sleeping on the Autoplot's fine,
coming to go in the copil probably, but I can't
come to the fence anymore. I'll never see these kids again.
(12:13):
How could I possibly get in something? And so everybody, well,
I said, well give it to them, it's all you got.
Broke it in a half four pieces through the bar bar.
The kids that were translating, I gave them half a stick.
They did most of it, and boy, they looked like
they got a one hundred dollar bill. And boy they
had got a hold of that. And then here came
(12:34):
the rest of kids. There no fight, They just wanted
a piece of the wrapper. And the kids with half
a stick youm tore off the outer wrapper and the
tinfoil and handed it to the kids that didn't get
any anything at all. And the kid that got a
piece of paper put it up their nose and smelled
it and smelled it a piece of paper. I stood there.
(12:57):
It flattened them. Believe what I've seen, Holy cow. For
thirty cents, I could buy them thirty sticks a gum
and they could have the wrapper and everything. But how
do I deliver it? I can't come out here. Could
I get some German to deliver it? Who knows what
kids would get it, or if he'd even deliver it.
(13:18):
By that time, an aeroplane flew over my head and
landed right and run away behind me. And I got
the idea, I'm coming in tomorrow. I can deliver it
to these kids. I can put it in that open
place and I'll get enough for everybody. And boy, and
then the red light came on. So you got to
have permission for that. You can't drop stuff out airplanes
(13:41):
unless you get the clearance. And then I rationalized, and
that's how you get in trouble. That's the first step
getting off the path. And so I thought, well, starving
two million people, not according to oil anyway, what's a
few sticks a gum? And so I found myself almost horrified, saying, kids,
(14:05):
you'd come back tomorrow. Stand in this open place. When
I come into land. I'll drop enough out of the
airplane two is before I land if you'll share it.
Oh you're vold, y'all. Vold will share it. They said,
you bet, and bouncing up and down, and I started leaving.
They called me back. I said, what's the matter, you
(14:27):
gotta know what airplane you're in. Every five minutes there's
an aeroplane coming by here. Well, I didn't know what
airplane because the airplanes from the Alaska had red noses
and red tails. They crashed in the snow they could
find them, and the airplanes from Hawaii had coconut palms
and stuff on. Everybody had a different singing. And I
(14:50):
flew whatever airplane was loaded. I don't know what airplane though,
for I'm just sure it was a four engine. There
are a lot of two engines, see forty. It was
still fun, so four angel. They said, no, no, off,
we're gonna know. Then I told them, wiggle the wings
when I come over the beacon of first uh before
we go ees Berlin to come around the land, all
(15:12):
wiggle the wings. Boy said, let's let's get out of here.
Let's start this thing. So I went all over town
and got the movies I've seen in every documentary every
major producer has put out has got my film in it.
I took around the city and off of the airlift
as it went on, and I took those pictures, went
back to several hours where to start flying. That night,
(15:35):
I went to Basic change open twenty four hours a
day bottle I could on a weekly ration, and I
didn't have enough. So I went to my crew and
I said, I gotta have your ration. They gave me theirs.
I had a big double handful of chocolate chocolate bars,
Hershey Bars, Babe Ruth Bounce and double mint gum, and
(15:58):
broke out in three piece, put three parachutes on it,
and anksious parachutes and and uh m. Next day flew
that night, of course, and the next day after noon
the weather it was good. Looked down there and those
kids were right in the open place between the bomb
doub buildings and the barbar fences. They hadn't told anybody
(16:18):
else in this small group. And we go the wings
and they went crazy. Still see their arms as they
came over the bomb up billing. Right behind the pola
seats a flair chute where emergency flares pushed out in
case you did have emergency in flight, and it's easy
for the COUCHI stamp between the posse just access that.
So as he came over, the head just told push
(16:40):
it out, and he pushed it out and unloaded twenty
thousand pounds of flour. The Germans did and worried that
somebody had seen the airplane. These parachutes get me in
trouble and wind up to take off and uh or
they pulled the parachutes over barbeer where they couldn't get
him in the under the field. But he turned tacks
it out. There's three Anses waving through it, all airplanes.
(17:03):
Their mouths were going up and down, and we waved,
and I said, wish they wouldn't do that, waving all airplanes.
I love. That's how it started.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
And you're listening to Colonel Gail Halverson tell the story
of how the Berlin Airlift came to be. Two million
people trapped without any means of really supporting themselves. We'd
bombed many parts of Germany to bits and leave it
to American gis to come up with the idea.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
One As he said, a light bulb went off in
my head.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
But then he realized, quote, you can't drop stuff off
out of airplanes without permission.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
And then he.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Added, Then I rationalized, and that's when you get in trouble.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
More.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
This remarkable story, the story of the Berlin Airlift, the
story of American compassion and ingenuity. Here on our American stories,
(18:08):
and we continue with our American stories and the story
of the Berlin airlift, how it came to be, how
it happened, and the man on the ground then, who's
now telling us this story is Colonel Gail Halverson. Let's
continue where Gayle last left off.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
After the first drop. Let's say it was about three
weeks later when I got called in and chewed out
because I didn't have permission, Colonel Horn, and it was
about that long ago. And then they said, it's okay,
but you got to report down to Frankfort, to the
(18:46):
press center at Frankfort. They want to know all about it,
this news release that came out. So it was then
I knew that boy, something read somebody rethought this was
a crazy idea. So I went in and all the news,
all the news agencies, of course recovering the Berlin herlot.
So they were all there in this big press center
(19:09):
in Frankfort, and I was pretty humble. The first lieutenant
guy and had a chauffeur and a driver and took
me into Frankfort in a hurry, and and all these
guys waiting for me for Wow, what if I call
what happened? Then I knew and uh then I was crazy.
Everybody was talking about it. When the word got out.
(19:33):
We came back from Berlin to the beds and there'd
be boxes of chocolate bars uh gum. The guys given
the ration and we figured that overall we must have
dropped about two hundred and fifty thousand parachutes during the
(19:55):
During the course of the flockade, we were able to drop.
My buddies dropped after I left. They kept dropping and
dropped until the end of September nineteen forty nine, so
it went on that long. What happened is that the
American Confectioneers Association that represents all the candy makers in
(20:19):
America got a hold of me when I was in
New York in September nineteen forty eight to pick up
an airplane. General Tenner had me stay for a week
in New York and appear on the early television program
We the People and the number of radio talk shows
and to inform people about what the airlift was like
(20:42):
and in my operation, and the representing the American Confectioneers
Association said how much of this stuff can you use?
And I gave him some ridiculous number and later they
sent six thousand pounds of chocolates by boat and by
rail from through Bremerhaven down to Rhyane Mine. I came
(21:06):
back to Berlin one day and and uh an officer
met me there with a cheap and said, uh, come
with me. And at four he said, I'll show you.
Went over the railway spur on Ryan Mine and there
was a box car with his armed guard. And I said, uh,
(21:27):
what's in a box car? He says, chocolate bars? And
it was two shipments of one three thousand pounds one
thirty five hundred pounds chocolate bars. And we couldn't drop
that much cause we didn't can tie up the parachute.
We too busy, and so we decided to have a
(21:47):
Christmas party in Berlin with that. And we we got
that about the middle of December nineteen forty eight, those shipments,
and and we uh had I we put it unloaded
and put it in the you know, supply building where
somebody there all the time regarded because the boy that
there was enough chocolate to buy King of doing his
(22:10):
castle on the black market, there's an incredible value. And
so we accumulated all of it before Christmas. On the
twenty fourth of December nineteen forty eight, the German Youth
Association in Berlin was the use of West Berlin and
the military teamed up and had Christmas parties for the
(22:31):
kids all over West Berlin for that amount. But from
then on they said, I said, we can't, we can't
handle it this way. If we had it ready to drop,
then we could drop it over the city as we
came in. And so they said, okay. I don't know
(22:54):
how they found it. But Elms Junior College in Chickpee, Massachusetts,
Miss O'Connor said, well, we'll handle that project for him.
Just send all the candy dust and we'll tie up
the parachutes, put in the boxes ready to drop and
ship it. In Chickpen, Masks they had a fire station,
(23:16):
an old fire station that they had a new and
so the city gave it to him. They had a
big sign up from operational little Vittles and twenty two
schools with alternate tying up parachutes, and sail boat companies
donated old sail cloth. They have cut it up parachutes
about the size of man's handkerchief a little bigger, and
(23:39):
the twine companies gave them all the twine. The cardboard
companies gave them all the cardboard. They had processed eighteen
sons through that facility by January nineteen forty nine. And
Westover Air Force Base is right next to Chickipee Mass
(24:00):
was one of the big transport bases that supported Ryan Mine.
And there's airplanes going back and forth all the times.
And so I had all my squadron were there organized
so that we had a a map of Berlin with
pins and the map on the best places to drop
through the cloud when it was a cloudy. We knew
(24:22):
where the the homing beacons were around the city for navigation,
and and so we knew where the biggest playgrounds are
where the children most likely congregrating. So we'd bring that
those boxes in and the pilot would take him out,
and we quit dropping on the end by the end
of the runway because uh, the crowd was got too
(24:42):
big and concentrated area and the austray, the kids getting
hurt and bigger guys running over them for the stuff,
and so uh, we started dropping randomly all over the city.
So when we come over different parts of the city
where we wanted to drop, why the creachy should go
back and just check this kept the top of the
(25:05):
cardboard wasting, and just check it up against the escape
patch and the stuff had come out like popcorn and
just blow all over the place and scatter all over
the countryside. We drop it from the thousand feet to
two thousand feet and they just go over. And I've
got letters from kids that would see it. One man.
(25:25):
In nineteen ninety eight we flew the I'm still flying
the Berlin Airlift Flying Museum, the Spirit of Freedom, the
Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation airplane, and we make parachhoe drops
out of it a lot. We go to air shows
all over the country. In nineteen ninety eight we flewid
across the North Atlantic back to Europe, sixty nine days
(25:49):
in Europe, air shows and air drops in Great Britain, France, Luxembourg,
and Berlin twice. And in Berlin the people had come
through the aeroplane. You could tell immediately those who were
there during the blockade. They're very emotional about telling you
thanks for our freedom, and with moist eyes they'd tell
(26:11):
you how much it meant to them.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
And you've been listening to Colonel Gail Halverson tell the
story of the Berlin airlift. After that first drop of his,
the one where he didn't ask for permission, well, just
a few weeks later he was hauled in, as he
put it, and shoot out. But soon thereafter he found
himself into Frankfort in a big press conference. He'd stumbled
(26:33):
onto something, by the way, this old adage that my
dad taught me, a military adage, better to ask for
forgiveness than permission.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
And boy is it no.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Better evidence of that than right here, and my goodness,
starting to drop in one place created problems. Everybody started
to gather. Then the next thing you know, Halverson was
worried that the young kids would get trampled by the
starving big kids. So then the drops started to get
scattered all over Germany and from one to two thousand feet.
(27:03):
Can you imagine being starving and waiting for stuff to
come out of the sky from American planes that it
bombed you only well, just years before.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
It's remarkable.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Actually, when we come back more of the story of
the Berlin airlift here on our American stories, and we
(27:37):
continue with our American stories and with Colonel Gail Halverson,
who was there and who in essence sort of got
the thing rolling. The idea of the Berlin Airlift. Let's
return where Gail last left off.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
But one of the men that came through is sixty
years old and said to me, you guys, boy attend
going to school. And the clouds were very low and
it was raining, and I knew you were using radar
to land, cause I couldn't see the aeroplanes. And suddenly,
out of this cloud came a parachute of a fresh
(28:13):
airshy candy bar and landed right at my feet. And
it took me a week to eat it, he said.
I said, astounded. I hit it day and night. And
he said, uh, it's not the chocolates important. It was important,
was it? Somebody in America knew I was in trouble.
Somebody cared. He said, Uh, I can live on thin rations,
(28:35):
but not without hope. Without hope, the soul dies, he said.
And one little boy was going to school. Suddenly he'd
hear coming much parachutes. It wasn't that better weather before,
and they'd they're picking him up. But he was out
of the group of ways and he saw that one
land in the duck pond, and he went in the
duck pond after it. He got all mucky with duck
(28:58):
stuff and everything else. They got the parachute in the
in the chocolate bar and they went on to school,
wasn't very far from the they caught it. M headmaster,
so I'm gonna, what are you going kind of school
and all money and all messed up, and he showing
the thing. The guy said, oh, that's alright, that's alright,
that's okay, and uh so he yeah, I think he
(29:20):
had the same moment changed his clothes. But uh so
that was it was exciting for him that they never
knew where it was gonna East East Bolin kids wrote
to me and said, look, uh we we can't help
it where they put the border. We were over here
with these Russians, we like the Americans, and and when
we're getting some of that stuff, we'd come over to
West Berlin and we're catching it and and uh but
(29:43):
we'd like to have you drop it over East Berlind.
There's not so many people over here. It'd be a
lot better for us. And so I said why not,
and so I did, And it'd be fun. There are
some soccer fields as in our pattern as we'd go
around Eastberland, and and when they'd be playing soccer. W
That's when I liked it best, cause we'd saved the
(30:03):
candy and we got over the kids playing soccer in
East Berlin and kick it out and then the soccer
ball would go one direction, the kids would chase the ball,
the parachutes going somewhere else break up the soccer game.
But that was fun to watch it that we'd bank
the airplane and get a look at what's going on.
And so I had to quit because uh in East Berlin,
(30:24):
because the Soviets complained to the State Department, there's a
dirty capitalist trick. We're trying to influence the minds of
the young people against that's the Soviets by giving him chocolate,
and they said it was a CIA operation. This government
operation gotta stop. Was never a government operation. And so uh,
(30:44):
I came back from Berlin one day and this Austin
met the airplane and says, what are you doing over
East Berlin? And and then I knew I was in trouble.
He said, well, he gotta stop, and he told me why.
I've had lots of people in East Berlin that I've met,
the caught purachutes, ask me why I quit. It's politics,
not people and politics are problem. It's uh, I guess
(31:09):
the addictives. It's the only drug. I was very addicted
to smile on the kid's face when I got something unexpected.
I I I didn't think I did anything special. I
just gave kids two sticks a gun. I just keep thinking,
it's just two sticks a gun and that's all it is.
And whatever's made of it somebody else, not not not
my doing. I didn't. Whenever you think that you d
(31:33):
you you're causing all the good things to happen. Boy,
you're in deep trouble. I mean, from then on you
you go, you're off the path of life. If if
you don't give credit for the Good Lord of what
what he's made available to us and and what other
people do for you, then you just as well say hey,
but yeah, I'm I'm not a contributor to society anymore.
I'm a millstone on the system. I think the air
(31:56):
list was to me. It was the reinforcement of the
things my church taught me all my life, and my
family taught me. Basically, money is not the answer to happiness.
The more you get, the more you want, and there's
just no answer and open ended Uh, chase for the
(32:18):
for the family, youth. That the only way the real
fulfillment is serving others, service before self. And that's one
of the air Force UH core values service before self.
And UH that's what the Savior taught. This is life
is you want happiness, UH, serve others. The dead sea
(32:41):
is dead because it takes in all the good ideas
of fresh water. It gives out nothing. So it's dead.
And people are that way. They say give me, give
me all the time, and give naught of itself. The
dead sea souls and that was demonstrated in the space
thirty one of 'e well Jesus Christ a greater loveness
that no man that he lay down his life for
(33:02):
a friend and thirty one or the buddies gave their
lives for an enemy Germans that became a friend. Why
because the service, the re the reward you get you
can't buy by helping somebody, especially having somebody need and
and the enemy. It is the epitome. If you're able
to do that, why, that's the that's the element. If
(33:23):
you're able to forgive and to serve an enemy, So
service before so are airl is the perfect demonstration, absolute
perfect demonstration, and that indicates what my parents and my
church taught me. Now, the other thing is the little
decision you make in life are important, extremely important, more
(33:43):
important than big decisions, because they put your footsteps and
your mindset on the path that leads you to your
final destination, your final position. And you're down that path
where you're not going to return when the big decision comes.
That little decision for two sticks are gone and the
whole world change for me for two six a gun.
(34:03):
That's about as small as you can get. Where does
the little decision come from? Well, we get an impression.
Everybody's got a conscience, the spirit we believe every certain
person has, and the conscious and you got a trigger
and it tells you very subtly what you ought to do.
Then you argue with it and do something different, and then
you miss out on the good things of life. The
(34:33):
gratitude break down the wall between people when you when
you're grateful for something, and don't think that you've invented
the world by yourself and everything that happens to you
was because how smart you are, and give credit to
nobody else. Boy, you're you're in the dead seat, getting
the dead seat again. But the gratitude by stopping and
(34:56):
telling the lady mopping the floor in the office building
on the way out that boy, you're doing a good job.
We'll sure make this place look better if you can
see that. Then she'd grateful back and that that job
is getting better next time, and and the other. The
other thing I guess too is attitude. Ninety percent of
(35:19):
the things that happened to us, including the airlift, we
can do something about. We can hate the enemy and
be mad all the time, or we can get on
with it and and enough to get the reinforcement to
find out that we're doing something worthwhile. But the attitude
determines success or failure. Determine in the family, in the home,
(35:40):
or in the nation of the community. The attitude how
you approach things. Ninety percent of the things I think
that happened to us, we can determine how we feel
we have control of that one string on their violin
that how we react. That's attitude, and ten percent we can't.
Let's be sent does go, God grant me the serenity
(36:02):
to accept the things I can't change at ten percent
that you can't change, and the courage to change the
things I can and the wisdom to tell the difference.
So attitude, attitude is voy about everything, and the airlift had
all of them. Attitude, gratitude serves the foreself, and integrity,
(36:25):
all those things were factored in this airlift.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
To me and a great job on the storytelling and
production by Greg Hangler, and a special thanks to Colonel
Gail Halverson, who celebrated his one hundred and first birthday recently.
And thanks to the National Archives for the interview and
the Truman Presidential Library is also a wonderful children's book,
Christmas from Heaven, The True Story of the Berlin Candy Bomber,
(36:51):
with Tom Brokaw narrating the story.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
In the books accompanying DVD.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
My goodness, how rich to bump into a beneficiary of
the Berlin Airlift decades later and have a grown man say,
it wasn't the chocolate that was important. It was the
sense that someone out there cared. A person can survive
thin rations. One can't survive without hope, And my goodness,
(37:16):
two point three million tons of supplies were dropped in
the Berlin Airlift, two point three million tons. It was
called Operation Victuals and took place over an eighteen month period,
and I simply love what Halverson said at the end.
The Berlin Airlift reinforced many of the things my church
(37:36):
taught me and my family. Money is not the answer.
Real fulfillment comes from serving others, service before self. It's
what our Savior taught us. Colonel Gail Halverson's story, the
Berlin Airlift story, and a story of so much more,
including the American spirit and American generosity. By the way,
(37:58):
we did this with the British as well, our compatriots
across the sea.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Here on our American stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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