Candy Bombers- Make Up Blog From Week of: 2/3/14

Pages: 1-100 (end)
Prompt: Give an in depth summary of the whole story.

    Candy Bombers, was a really interesting book! It's a Biography, which is a genre that I'm not particularly interested in, but this book seemed to be different! I loved the story, and the topic really interested me! The book is about a man named Gail Halvorsen, who was a U.S. Air force Lieutenant. It was after World War II was over, and the city of Berlin in Germany, was in ruins. Most of the people in Germany no longer had homes, a job, clothing or food. The allied powers, (Great Britain, U.S., France, and the Soviet Union) defeated Germany and then divided into four occupation zones that they controlled in a certain part of Germany. The soviets took the north-eastern part of the country, which included Berlin. Even though the other allied powers had their own zones, they still wanted a part in Berlin. So, the allied powers split up control over the city. Though, Russia eventually wanted Britain, the U.S., and France out of Berlin. Soon, the Russians decided to drive those countries out, by blockading Berlin. This cut off land and water travel, and the Russians wanted to stop all food shipments to Berlin form the other allied countries. Though the allied countries found a loop hole; they delivered the food shipments, by plane! Gail Halvorsen, was just one of the many pilots to fly the planes that delivered the food. He loved the satisfaction of delivering the food for the starving people in Berlin, but he really wanted to discover, and see the city, as just a tourist. So, he left on an earlier flight that was delivering food, and he got off the plane to see Berlin!

     As he was walking towards a car that would take him to see the city, he stopped and saw almost 30 children standing behind a wire fence. He approached them, and said hello, and they greeted him back. They asked him about his job with the planes, and about the food that the planes carried, but he could tell that they cared more than just about the food. He saw the hunger in their eyes, and realized that he had two pieces of gum in his pocket. He pulled them out, split them in half, and offered them to the children. They gratefully took it, and those who didn't get a piece asked for the wrapper to smell. Gail knew they most likely didn't get candy often, and then had a great idea! What if, instead of dropping food from the planes for the starving people of Berlin, drop candy out of the planes! He told the children about his plans, and they were excited, and asked how they'd know which plane would be his that had the candy, and he said when he flew above the children with the candy, he would wiggle the wings of the plane. So, the next day he filled up three small parachutes with chocolate and gum, and dropped it down to the children. He didn't tell his boss, because he was afraid his boss wouldn't be on board with it, but it turns out, he was! People began to get excited about the new candy being dropped from the sky and many people made candy donations, and donations to make parachutes to deliver the candy in! This idea that started with two pieces of gum, was really starting to take off!

     People were beginning to really get excited about the candy, and were also very grateful for it! They wrote Thank You cards to Gail, and drawings of what it looked like when they were receiving the parachutes of candy! Some people even wrote him letters saying they hadn't received any candy, so Gail would end up mailing it to them! He was just an extremely kind man with a big heart. Though, as he got older, he was reassigned to another job through the air force, and Captain Eugene Williams took over Operation Little Vittles (what the operation of the delivering of the candy was called.) Though people still continued to write to Gail expressing their gratitude for all he had done for them. He made appearances at different places, and was even a part of the opening and closing ceremonies at the Olympics in 2002. In 1970, Gail went back to Berlin, to reconnect with some of the children that he had delivered candy to, back in 1948. He met one girl named Mercedes Simon who had mailed Gail that she lived on a farm, and when the planes to deliver candy flew over the farm, her chickens would run around crazily, and were so scared they refused to lay eggs, yet she never received any candy. So, Gail wrote her back and mailed her the candy. When he had come back to Berlin in 1970,
he met her once again, with her husband and two children. It was an amazing  experience for Gail, and Mercedes had even kept the letter Gail had written her. Throughout all of his experiences, Gail was so pleased, and proud of himself for all that he'd accomplished, and all of the lives he'd changed.