Making History

Greetings from Germany! Here's your German language lesson for the day: in most cases when you see two vowels together in a German word, the second is pronounced. Thus Rhein Main Air Base is pronounced RINE MINE - each word one syllable, and each with what we in English call a long "i" sound.

But go ahead and pronounce it the way it looks; after all, generations of American GIs did. And although that's not the reason for it, the most frequently mispronounced US military installation in the world was returned to Germany this past week. Stars and Stripes reports on the end of an era:

RHEIN-MAIN AIR BASE, Germany ? As it flew overhead, the mighty metal bird wiggled its wings, a fitting final salute for a place known for lifting spirits near and far.

The U.S. ceremoniously returned Rhein-Main Air Base to Germany on Monday, an event that drew military veterans, well-heeled politicians and hundreds of other well-wishers. The Air Force still needs to pack out a few items, but by early December the keys to the base should be in German hands.

?Hey, it?s fine with me,? Dr. Earl Moore, president of the Berlin Airlift Veterans Association, said in reference to the changes. ?That?s progress.?

An interesting timeline of aviation history at Rhein-Main here. (It begins in 1785!!)

Austin Bay notes the passage here.

Soldier's Angels in Germany, also mark the occasion.

As the headline above this story reminds us, Rhein-Main (located in Frankfort) played a key role in the Berlin Airlift, as allies worked furiously to supply citizens of West Berlin after the Soviet Union blocked overland delivery of food and other essential material from reaching the then-East German city.

Which partly explains the symbolism of the wiggle wings gesture described above. Among the many other heroes of the airlift was C-54 pilot USAF Colonel Gail Halvorsen of Provo, Utah.

One of the many American pilots to fly the USAF C-54 Skymaster during the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49 ("Operation Vittles") was Colonel Gail S. Halvorsen of Provo, Utah. During the operation he became known as the "Candy Bomber" because he repeatedly dropped candy to German children from his aircraft on approach to the runways.

The idea grew out of a chance meeting between Halvorsen and several German school children at the perimeter fence of Tempelhof Airport. While waiting for his aircraft to be unloaded one day he decided to walk to the end of the runway and photograph other C-54s making their landing approach to the runway, a tricky descent over several buildings outside the Tempelhof grounds. While standing at the barbed wire fence he struck up a conversation with the German children gathered outside to watch the giant airplanes land. The hungry children asked if Halvorsen had any gum or candy, and he eagerly gave them two pieces of gum that he happened to be carrying in his pocket. He promised to bring them more gum and candy on his next flight into the airport, saying that he would drop it to them as he passed over them while landing. When asked how they would known which of the huge airplanes was his, he said he would "wiggle his wings" as he approached their position.

True to his word, on his next mission to Tempelhof Airport, on final approach to the runway Halvorsen "wiggled his wings" and had the Flight Engineer push three bundles of sweets through the flare chute on the C-54 flightdeck. (Halvorsen had gathered the candy by talking other pilots into donating their Candy Ration Cards to the effort.) The three small parcels floated down on tiny, homemade handkerchief parachutes, but Halvorsen could not see whether the children caught the packages due to the business of landing. Later, as he taxied the empty C-54 to the end of the runway to depart the airfield, he looked to the crowd of children at the fence. Three white handkerchiefs waved back at him enthusiastically!

Over the next few weeks Halvorsen repeated the airdrops to an ever-growing audience of German children at the fence. Soon he even began to receive letters at the airport, addressed simply to "Uncle Wiggly Wings -- Tempelhof," requesting special airdrops at other locations within the city! Local newspapers picked up the story and his fame began to spread. Back at his home base Halvorsen began to receive mail from other pilots who wanted to help. Candy was donated, handkerchief parachutes were made by volunteers, and the tiny parcels began to fall all over Berlin.

On a brief trip back to the United States Halvorsen was asked by an interviewer what he needed to continue his popular "Candy Bomber" operation. He jokingly remarked "boxcars full of candy!" Sure enough, shortly after his return to Germany a traincar loaded with 3,000 pounds of chocolate bars arrived for "Uncle Wiggly Wings." Thousands of pounds of candy continued to arrive from the United States to support the airdrops. Other pilots volunteered to drop the packages of sweets across the city. After several letters were received from East Berlin "Uncle Wiggly Wings" even made a few drops to school yards there, angering Soviet officials for the "attempted subversion of young minds." When asked about it Halvorsen commented "kids are kids everywhere." He even mailed packages of candy to disappointed children who wrote to say they had never been able to reach the "sweet gifts from the sky" before others got all the loot. No one was to be missed by Utah's "Candy Bomber."

Gail Halvorsen, 84, gives a thumb up in front of a U.S. Airforce C17 Globemaster aircraft named 'Spirit of Rhein-Main' during the symbolic closure ceremony honoring US Rhein-Main Airbase in Frankfurt, central Germany, Monday, Oct. 10, 2005. Halvorsen was a 'raisin bomber' pilot, flying food from Frankfurt to blockaded Berlin in 1945, in Germany after World War II and now lives in Spanish Fork, Utah. A hub of U.S. military activity for decades, Rhein-Main is being given back to Germany and its logistical functions taken over by bases at Ramstein and Spangdahlem.(AP Photo/Michael Probst)

From the Berlin Airlift, 50 years ago, to Operation Shining Hope, the Candy Bomber still delivers.

One man's kind gesture at the end of World War II blossomed into a major operation with one mission -- to airdrop candy to the children of war-torn Berlin.

For the Candy Bomber, retired Col. Gail Halvorsen, the legacy continues.

Halvorsen, one of the Berlin Airlift's most famous figures and the impetus behind Operation "Little Vittles," visited Albania Tuesday to make yet another delivery to the Kosovar Albanian refugees fleeing Serb oppression in Kosovo.

The Candy Bomber made the 4 1/2-hour trek to Tirana aboard a C-130 transport plane from Ramstein's 37th Airlift Squadron. While there, he saw similarities between the nearly 600 U.S. servicemembers supporting humanitarian operations and the airmen who did the same for West Berlin in 1948.

"I saw the same spark in the folks here today. It's reflected in the crews and the ground folks," Halvorsen said. "I was impressed with their professionalism, how they went about their tasks and worked together as a team."

Chief Holton, an Army interrogator, has published a book detailing his time in Iraq. You can get a copy here.