Gail Halverson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gail Halverson was a USAAF pilot involved in the Berlin Airlift.
Lt Halverson is remembered because it was he who started the parachuting of sweets to children in Berlin. He used handkerchiefs and small squares of cloth to create the parachutes and he dropped the packages out of the pilot's side-window of the C-47 aircraft that he was flying.
His actions caused considerable anger to the Russians and glee for the children who were close to the air corridor from Rhine Main AFB to Berlin's Tempelhof airport. Because of the results of this philanthropic act his fellow pilots became involved as did the American Confectioners Association.
