Page 5 - December 2018
P. 5
As we discussed the situation, the loadmaster chimed in. “Christmas from Heaven”
“Pilot, Load. I wouldn’t worry too much about the The heartwarming saga of the Candy Bomber
Christmas tree. Remember that ‘Door Open’ light 10
On Christmas Eve, 1948, somewhere between
minutes ago?”
Wiesbaden and Berlin, a twenty-seven-year-old
Somewhere on the West Coast, a woman in her mid-30s American pilot gazed into the night sky.
is telling her daughter, “Yes, there is a Santa Claus. I
The heavens were so full of stars, it seemed they
remember the Christmas Day when I was a little girl in
would overflow and tumble to earth in a brilliant
California and we didn’t have a tree. And then, out of
display of Christmas generosity and joy.
the sky, a fully decorated Christmas tree landed in the
yard. It could only have come from Santa.”
Book of the Month
Lt. Gail S. Halvorsen
Hal, as he was known to his crew, wrapped his hands
around the yoke of his C-54 cargo plane packed with
20,000 pounds of flour. “This is the real spirit of
Christmas,” he thought to himself as he guided his
plane toward Tempelhof Air Base in West Berlin.
When World War II had ended three years earlier,
Germany and its capital city were divided between
the Western allies and the Soviet Union. Then, in a
grab for power, Stalin blocked ground transportation
into the city. To preserve freedom and keep two and
Just four days before Christmas, two enemies—a a half million West Berliners from starving, the
German fighter ace and an American bomber pilot—met United States and Great Britain began transporting
in the skies over Germany. What they did had not food and other basic supplies by air.
happened before, or since. They decided not to kill one
Hal was one of hundreds of Americans who
another.
participated in the historic Berlin Airlift, which was
The American’s bomber was damaged. The German’s called “Operation Vittles.”
fighter was primed for the kill. But when the German’s
That snowy Christmas Eve, as Hal radioed for
eyes met those of the American pilot, something
clearance to land, his mind wandered back six
changed in both men.
months to the day that had changed his life. He had
Instead of destroying the bomber, the German escorted been standing at the end of the Tempelhof runway,
it out of Germany, to safety. The two pilots parted with taking home movies of arriving planes, when he
a salute. Then, in the late 1980s, as old men, the noticed about thirty children on a grassy strip just
American and the German searched for one another, beyond a barbed wire fence. In broken English, they
reunited, and became best friends. asked about the planes, how much flour each one
It’s the greatest little-known story of World War II. carried, and whether the airlift would continue.
Although the children had been on meager rations,
they were more concerned with freedom than with
flour.
