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This is one of my favorite stories from the Cold War. Gail Halvorsen was a pilot during the Berlin Air Lift. Russia blocked allied ground access to West Berlin. America Air lifted the supplies needed to sustain West Berlin. During this time Halvorsen traveled around Berlin. At one point he met some kids and visited with them. The kids had nothing. He gave them some gum and told him he would bring more tomorrow. The kids asked how would they know his plane. He told them he would “ wiggle his wings” the rest is history! Halvorsen became “CAPT Wiggle wings” This is a wonderful story.
Gail Halvorsen - Wikipedia
Posted from en.wikipedia.org
Berlin
Leadership
Children
Edited 3 y ago
Posted 3 y ago
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One of the other missions that my father flew as Crew Chief, so I heard this story and others from him. The Air Force Museum has an entire section on the Airlift. While it was somewhat safer that his previous tour Flying the Hump, during the course of the Airlift, 25 aircraft were lost along with over 100 crewmembers. Considering that it lasted 15 months or so, it averaged about 7 deaths a month, so certainly not the safest place to fly.
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