Source: Good News Network
70 years ago today, a US Air Force pilot went down in history as the man who started dropping candy with miniature parachutes – because every child deserves a sweet treat, even in times of war.
In 1948, the Soviet Union instituted the cruel ‘Berlin Blockade’ as an attempt to cut off all inroads to West Berlin, yet they refrained from stopping the massive humanitarian airlift led by American, British, and French flyers.
For nearly a year, more than a quarter million flights delivered thousands of tons of food and fuel, coal, and liquid fuel to the otherwise strangled German city, which was surrounded by 1.5 million Soviet military troops. Despite the Germans having been the sworn enemy of the West just three years earlier, the merciful airlift—dubbed Operation Vittles—gained popular support and was called “America’s greatest humanitarian mission”.
Gail Halvorsen, one of the many Airlift pilots, decided to use his off-time to fly into Berlin and make movies with his hand-held camera. He arrived at Tempelhof on July 17th, 1948 on one of the C-54s and walked over to a crowd of children who had gathered at the end of the runway to watch the…
The post 70 Years Ago Today, American Pilot Became ‘Berlin Candy Bomber’ for Airdropping Sweets on Kids In-Need appeared first on FeedBox.