Alabama NewsCenter — ‘Candy Bomber’ of Berlin Blockade, Gail Halvorsen, dies at 101

By Angela Cullen
Bloomberg

Gail Halvorsen, the U.S. military pilot who brought joy to Berlin’s children by dropping candy in tiny handkerchief parachutes from his plane when the Soviet Union blockaded the divided city during the Cold War, has died. He was 101.

He died Wednesday evening at Utah Valley Hospital in Provo, Utah, after a long illness, surrounded by most of his children, according to a Facebook post by his educational foundation.

Halvorsen was a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps – forerunner to the Air Force – during World War II, ferrying transport planes in England, Italy and North Africa. He remained in the military after the war ended in 1945 and was stationed at Brookley Air Force Base in Mobile, flying C-74 Globemaster and C-54 Skymaster transports stateside.

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