Gail Halvorsen: The Berlin Candy Bomber For Kids

We’re going to talk about one of the most difficult times in the history of the world — World War 2. A world war is where many countries are fighting each other at the same time. Two of the countries fighting in World War 2 were America and Germany.

But tonight our story begins before the World War on a little farm in Utah. Living at this farm was a boy named Gail. Every day Gail helped his father grow sugar beets on the farm. Gail’s father taught him to work hard and to help his neighbor.

One day when Gail was working in the fields he heard a noise in the sky. He looked up and watched as planes flew over his head. From that moment he knew he wanted to be a pilot when he grew up.

When he was old enough, Gail joined the air force and learned to fly. Soon after this enemy airplanes attacked America’s base at Pearl Harbor and America joined in the war. Gail flew bomber planes during the war.

Once the war was over America decided to help its old enemy, Germany. They helped them by giving them food. Gail and other pilots new job was to fly food to the hungry people in Germany.

One day when Gail was walking around in Germany he saw a bunch of kids crowded at a fence. They talked to him and thanked him for bringing them food. Gail had a strong feeling he should give them the gum he had in his pocket. The kids broke up the gum into little pieces and shared it with each other. They appreciated the gum. Appreciation is when you are thankful for something.

Uncle Wiggly Wings

The next time Gail flew his plane over the crowd of kids he had a crazy idea about how to give the kids his chocolate bars. He made little bags of candy and little parachutes for the bags. When he flew over the kids he threw the bags out the window and they floated down to the ground. The kids picked up the candy and jumped for joy. When Gail would fly over he would wiggle his plane wings so the kids would know it was him. They started calling him “Uncle Wiggly Wings.”

Later other pilots learned about Gail throwing candy out of his plane, so they started the same thing with their chocolate bars. Newspapers all over the world started writing stories about what Gail and the other pilots were doing for the kids in Germany. Soon candy companies started sending boxes and boxes of all types of candy to give to the kids in Germany. In school in America kids helped tie the candy into parachutes for Gail and the other pilots.

Even though the kids were happy to get the candy, more than anything Gail’s kindness gave them hope that life would be okay.

After helping in Germany Gail spent the rest of his life trying to help people in other ways. He is very old now but stills does all he can to be kind and help others.

Many years later Gail met a man who said when he was a little boy in Germany he was walking to school one day. It was rainy, cloudy and he was sad — when all of a sudden he saw a white parachute fall through the clouds and landed right at his feet. He was so excited and it made him happy! He said that he enjoyed eating the chocolate, but more importantly he knew that someone else was thinking about him and cared enough to send him chocolate. It gave him hope.

How can you be like Gail?

Like Gail, you can forgive others who might have been your enemy. Forgiveness is when we are kind to someone even if they did something wrong to you. You can also be creative and think of fun ways to help others. You can help your family by cleaning your room or making your bed or helping your little brother or sister get dressed. You could make someone at school a nice card. You can be nice to someone at school who others aren’t nice to. There is so much you can do to help others like Gail if you just think about it.

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