Family and friends in the U.S. and Germany bid farewell to the ‘Berlin Candy Bomber’

Col. Gail S. “Hal” Halvorsen — better known as the “Berlin Candy Bomber” — was eulogized as a man who “changed the world in big ways and small ways” on Tuesday.

“His actions did fundamentally change the relationships between two great countries,” said retired U.S. Air Force General Duncan McNabb, at a memorial service Tuesday in Provo. “But in small ways, it was in all the people that he touched, all the people that he saw and he inspired.”

“He was a good man,” said Latter-day Saint apostle Dieter F. Uchtdorf, who presided over the services at the Edgemont Stake Center in Provo — which were streamed on YouTube. “I think that says it all. … We always felt and when we were with Hal that he brought sunshine to all of us. He had a smile for everyone, and he was a friend to everyone.”

Halvorsen, 101, died Feb. 16 after a short illness. A U.S. Air Force cargo pilot, Halvorsen gained fame for dropping treats to children during the Berlin airlift in 1948-49. When the Soviet Union cut off access to West Berlin and stopped supplying food and coal for residents, the United States and its allies responded by flying supplies into the city. Halvorsen’s “Operation Little Vittles” made him a hero to Germans, and fostered friendship between that country and the United States, who had been at war just three years earlier.

McNabb recalled a story Halvorsen told of how, after he returned to Berlin in 1970 as the commander of the 7350th Air Base Group at Berlin’s Tempelhof Central Airport — the same airport he flew into on his Candy Bomber runs — he encountered a young man who said, “I just want to thank you for saving my life.”

(AP Images) US lieutenant Gail Halvorsen throws chocolate and chewing gums on parachutes from a "Raisin Bomber" over Berlin, during the Berlin Blockade in October 1948. 50 years ago, on 24 June 1948, the USSR imposed a blockade on Berlin as a reaction to the currency reform. All land and waterways were blocked for passenger and freight traffic between West Berlin and West Germany. The supply of the West Berlin population and the western allied occupation took place by an airlift establiched by the USA and Great Britain. Halvorsen recognized the Berlin children's desire for candy and threw his sweet freight everytime short before landing on Tempelhof airport. (dpa/)

The man was orphaned during World War II, and — living in the midst of post-war devastation — was “totally hopeless” and “devastated.” He told Halvorsen that when “one of your pieces of candy happened to fall close to me,” he didn’t eat it, but put it under his pillow.

Halvorsen said the young man told him, “You can live on very little food. And very little water. But without hope, your soul dies. Your candy meant to me that somebody out there was trying to help me and cared about me and it gave me hope.”

Uchtdorf, who was a child in what was East Germany at the time, said Halvorsen “gave the German people … not only hope and confidence that freedom was not a lost cause … but also that the good and kind in humanity would prevail.”

The apostle said he “was one of those little boys in Berlin and in Germany who received the goods they brought in and, above all, through whose actions we gained the much-needed hope for a brighter future. … The compassionate and courageous service of Hal and his buddies to a people of former enemies made all the difference.”

Retired Col. Gail Halvorsen, center, poses with boys and girls as he attends a ceremony to dedicate the baseball and softball field of the Berlin Braves baseball team in 'Gail Halvorsen Park' in Berlin , Saturday, May 11, 2019. Halvorsen is known as the "Candy Bomber," "Chocolate Pilot," and "Uncle Wiggly Wings," for the small candy-laden parachutes he dropped from his aircraft to children during the Berlin Airlift of 1948-1949. (Christoph Soeder/dpa via AP) (Christoph Soeder/)

McNabb said that “one of the times he really got to see Gail’s impact” on the world was at the 60th anniversary celebration of the Berlin airlift.

“You’ve never been around a rock star more than Gail Halvorsen in Berlin,” McNabb said. “It was just amazing to see how he was adored. I still remember the crowd kind of opening up as Chancellor [Angela] Merkel came through the crowd to him to say ‘thank you.’”

Halvorsen’s daughter, Denise H. Williams, said that during the airlift, one little German girl brought Halvorsen “her one possession remaining after years of devastation — it was a little teddy bear.” He didn’t want to accept it, “but she and her mother insisted it would keep him safe.”

Halvorsen put the teddy bear in his cockpit window. A short time later, he was flying a Berlin airlift mission and “the clouds parted and he was eyeball to eyeball with another C-54 (transport plane). They barely missed each other,” Williams said. And the Candy Bomber credited “the prayers and sacrifice of a little Berlin child” with saving his life.

Williams said her father expressed gratitude for everything “and taught us that through small acts of kindness, we can bring miracles into the lives of others.” She said Halvorsen was “a man of action, adventure and faith. Every night, even at 101 years old, he knelt — with a struggle — by his bed to pray.”

Uchtdorf met Halvorsen in 1999, after he moved to Salt Lake City, and “whenever I wanted to impress someone who was skeptical about my faith and my church, I told them that the Candy Bomber was one of my fellow church members. It always worked. … Today, my friend has flown to even greater heights and returned to his heavenly home.”

Halvorsen was interred in a private ceremony at the Provo City Cemetery.

from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/MVJ1FzT