Uncle Wiggly Wings
- sn pubs
- Feb 5, 2020
- 2 min read
During my history lesson, I learnt about the cold war and the events surrounding it, like The Berlin Airlift. The Berlin Airlift was a military operation in the late 1940s that brought food and other necessities into West Berlin by air after the government of East Germany, which at that time surrounded West Berlin, had cut off its supply routes. However, what truly intrigued me was in the midst of such hostility, “Uncle Wiggly Wings’ emerged, displaying the true essence of what it means to be charitable.
Colonel Gail Halvorsen, best known as the “Berlin Candy Bomber” or “Uncle Wiggly Wings” gained fame for dropping candy to German children during the Berlin Airlift from 1948 to 1949. Born October 10, 1920, he was a retired officer and command pilot in the United States Air Force. Halvorsen grew up in rural Utah but always had a desire to fly. He earned his private pilot’s license in 1941 and then joined the Patrol. He joined the United States Army Air Forces in 1942 and was assigned to Germany on July 10, 1948, to be a pilot for the Berlin Airlift. During that time he founded “Operation Little Vittles”, an effort to raise morale in Berlin by dropping candy via miniature parachute to the city’s residents. Halvorsen began “Little Vittles” with no authorization from his superiors but over the next year became a national hero with support from all over the United States. Before long, people and companies were donating tremendous amounts of candy to be dropped during the ongoing airlift.
Halvorsen received numerous awards for his role in “Operation Little Vittles”, including the Congressional Gold Medal. However, “Little Vittles” was not the end of Halvorsen’s military and humanitarian career. Over the next 25 years, Halvorsen advocated for and performed candy drops in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania, Japan, Guam, and Iraq. Halverson’s professional career included various notable positions. He helped to develop reusable manned spacecraft at the Directorate of Space and Technology and served as commander of Berlin Tempelhof Airport.
I have high admiration towards him as he is very benevolent. Especially during the times when conflicting factions had high hostility towards each other, he persisted in showing the world what humanity was. He was a source of hope for the children in West Berlin who lacked contact with the outside world. I feel that people of this 21st century have much to learn from him. Research shows that people now are less compassionate compared to people from the past. In the fast-paced world that we live in, we often work tirelessly to reach higher advancements in life, forgetting to take a step back and look around to see if others need our help. We forget to even carry out simple gestures like giving someone a thoughtful gift, giving someone a heartfelt compliment, taking the time to listen to someone attentively rather than monopolize the conversation etc and turn a blind eye to the needy. We forget that everyone, like ourselves needs affection and care from others. Dalai Lama once said, “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” I hope that more people can look around with open eyes to see acts of kindness they can do every day.
References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gail_Halvorsen
Lynn Tan
4 Justice
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