The Man Who Bombed Berlin With....Candy?

At Ford, we pride ourselves on building strong, capable vehicles. But we're only as strong as the people who drive them.

People like you. Who don't just see an F-150, but see what they can build with it. Because Built Ford Proud, it's a pact. Between us, our drivers, and what we can do together. Built Ford Proud.

Some models, trims, and features may not be available or may be subject to change. Listen to life as a gringo on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by State Farm.

Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Hey, hey, holiday you here. You know me, I'm all, put down that protein shake and bring on the pumpkin spice lattes with extra whip. Regular you might skip the blueberry pie and worry about staining your teeth. But with Colgate Optic White Pro Series Toothpaste, twice daily brushing removes 15 years of stains in two weeks. So grab another glass of bread and raise it up. Because regular you can live life to the brightest all year long. Colgate Optic White Pro Series Toothpaste.

Find it at all major retailers. This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories. The show where America is the star and the American people. And by the way, to check out our Our American Stories podcast, subscribe on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Up next, the story of Gail Halverson, a young pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps who was assigned as a cargo pilot at the Berlin Airlift. In which U.S. forces flew much needed supplies into a war torn Soviet blockaded Berlin following World War II.

Gail grew up on a farm in Utah and joined the Army Air Corps in June of 1942. Here's Colonel Halverson with the story beginning with the three reasons why he and his fellow servicemen saw the Berlin Airlift as necessary. I stayed in the Air Force, in the Army Air Corps at the time, after the war. And wanted to keep flying and we were briefed in our pilot meetings all the time, every month, about the world situation after the war. And we knew from these briefings, the new enemy was Stalin and communism. He'd just taken Czechoslovakia, had the popular democratic leader assassinated. He'd taken Hungary and we knew he was headed west. The second factor was we knew that most of the 2.5 million people in West Berlin were women and children.

Very few men. And to starve them, take fresh milk or food from babies and from women and children, that's a mitigating factor on how we felt about what we were doing. The third one was when I landed my first trip into Berlin with 20,000 pounds of flour and opened that back door. The crew chief went back, opened the door. In came these Germans.

About six of them to unload and about six in the semi-trip. I wondered how these supermen are going to look. And they had mixed uniforms, part uniform, parts civilian clothes. Doctors or Weimark privates all together for one purpose. They needed freedom, they needed flour. We had both. And when I got out of the cockpit and walked back and that lead man came right up, put his hand in mine and gripped it. And looked me in the eye and his eyes were moist. And looked down at the flour like we're angels from heaven.

And we're on the same page, so those are three factors. So I got to go to Berlin and see it on the ground. I had a friend in Berlin who said if you get here, I've got a Jeep for you and a driver, he'll take you over and you'll see everything. And so one day I came back and it was about the 17th of July. I came back and landed at Rheinmein about noon. It was a beautiful day, sunshine. I was supposed to go to bed and fly that night.

I had my movie camera in my hand. And Bill Christian, a buddy from Mobile, Alabama, was in an airplane in the next hard stand with a load of dried potatoes ready to go to Berlin. Just getting ready to start the engines.

I said, holy cow, what an opportunity. Beautiful day, Bill's going, I'll just jump on the airplane with him. I'm not going to bed.

I got a Jeep waiting for me in Berlin. I get off the flight line, I'll go over the sea and get these great movies. And so I told John Pickering, my copilot, go to bed, John. You and Elkins get to bed, I'm going to Berlin.

He said, you're crazy. I said, I know it, but I'm going to Berlin. If this thing stops tomorrow, they're going to send us all home. They're not going to let everybody go sightseeing to Berlin. And I want to see Berlin. I want to see Hitler's bunker. I want to see the Reichstag up close. I love history. And here I was right in the middle of it. I said, I want to, it's going to be over, I'm going to Berlin. I'll see it before I go back. All you need is a uniform. Airplanes come back to fight.

No reservations required. So I jumped on the airplane, went back. We called in and the Jeep was waiting. But before I went around town, I wanted to get on the end of the runway and take pictures of the airplanes coming over the buildings before we had to come between the buildings.

And that's how dumb I was. I thought it was going to be over that quick. I thought I was there to get the movies if I ever had any kids to show them the approach.

And so I went around there and started shooting movies. The airplane's coming over, barbed wire fence in front of me, bombed out buildings a couple hundred yards over. And then suddenly here were the kids.

See the color of their eyes. They're right up against me looking at this uniform that was bombing them three years before. Maybe killed their dad and mom.

Who knows? And I didn't know how to get... I looked down and all of a sudden these 30 kids, about roughly 30, standing right on the other side of the barbed wire from me, looking at me, and they were friendly. And I thought, why would they be friendly?

Here's that uniform right here. And it was the first time they'd seen a uniform up close, very Russian first, which is terror, and the occupation guys later. Then I found out later why they were so friendly. Because their aunts and uncles were arbitrarily cut off with the border. Not cut off because you'd walk across the border then. But they could walk across the border.

Their aunts, uncles, and whoever, close family type, come over to West Berlin to use the library to see what's going on in the world. They lost their freedom. They lost freedom of the press, freedom of expression, freedom of travel, freedom of religion, freedom of electing who they wanted to be their ruler. They'd lost that. So they were over there. And they were telling their aunts and uncles, man, I can't travel.

I can't do this, can't do that. And they knew, they knew then what common is like. They had missionaries from the communists, not for this program, but negative missionaries, saying, hey, this is not very cool, buddy.

You don't want anything to do with these guys. So they were friendly. And you're listening to Colonel Gail Halverson tell the story of why the Berlin Airlift was necessary. The people of Germany knew who we were.

We were on their side and on the side of freedom. When we come back, more of this remarkable story, not told enough in America's classrooms, the story of the Cold War, the story of the Berlin Airlift, here on Our American Stories. Lee Habib here, the host of Our American Stories. Every day on this show, we're bringing inspiring stories from across this great country.

Stories from our big cities and small towns. But we truly can't do this show without you. Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not free to make. If you love what you hear, go to OurAmericanStories.com and click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot.

Go to OurAmericanStories.com and give. and professional skateboarder and Olympic athlete Samaria Brevard to highlight their unique talents, inspiring journeys, and how Boost Mobile helped them continue to get after it. Boost Mobile knows the importance of shining a spotlight on the neighborhood kids and showing up for the communities they are in. It's time to join Boost Mobile and get after it.

Switch to Boost Mobile today and get a free Samsung Galaxy A23 5G phone powered by America's largest 5G networks. New customers only. Tax is extra.

One device per line. 5G not available everywhere. Other restrictions apply.

Check out the full offer details at BoostMobile.com. Terms and conditions apply. NFL fans, it's time to unwrap nonstop football action. This holiday season, throw down our big matchups with DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NFL. This week, new customers can bet just five bucks on the NFL to score 150 instantly in bonus bets.

That's it. Download the app now. Use the code BOBBYSPORTS. New customers can bet five dollars on NFL action to score 150 instantly in bonus bets only on DraftKings Sportsbook. The code is BOBBYSPORTS. Put that in, please.

The crown is yours. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit www.1-800-GAMBLER.net. In New York, call 877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY for 67369. Connecticut help is available for problem gambling at 878-977-77 or visit ccpg.org.

Please play responsibly. On behalf of Moody Hill Casino and Resort in Kansas, 21 plus age varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance.

See dkng.com slash football for eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms, and responsible gaming resources. That time of the year is coming around. The Holiday Classic is back on Christmas Eve. Let's go!

Tune in to NFL Network for an epic primetime showdown. And we continue with our American stories and the story of Colonel Halverson and in the end the story of the Berlin Airlift and why it was so necessary and in the end so remarkable and emblematic of the people, the country, that made it happen. American-style freedom was their dream. Hitler's past and Stalin's future was their nightmare. They knew. Those kids, 8 to 14, they were giving me a lesson about freedom. Look, they said, it's pretty good here in July.

You know, the weather's not too bad against the storms. But you wait. They had school English. Some of them spoke pretty good English.

I couldn't speak any German. They said, come the winter and the fall, you can't get in here. It's going to be bad. Kids, give me a lecture. I said, but when that happens, don't worry about us. We don't have to have enough to eat. Just don't give up on us. Someday we'll have enough to eat.

But if we lose our freedom, we'll never get it back. American-style freedom was their dream. And they knew about the other systems. Those kids were incredible. I just said, holy cow. And I got so interested in listening to them. I looked and lost something. I said, I've been there over an hour. And I said, boy, it's a dream of mine.

I'll be waiting. I got to get out of here. So I started to run. I said, see you later, kids.

And got about five steps. And the kids, I stopped. And I said, boy, these incredible kids. I said, well, they got a postgraduate degree in international relations. They know what's important. They got their head screwed on.

They really know what's important. And they started to walk. And that little voice just came back again. I don't know how it overcame the get to the Jeep, you're late.

But it did. It so intrigued me. And then I knew in a flash why. And it was because during the war and after the war, I walked down the street in a foreign country where the kids had some chocolate, not much, but had some. And those kids would chase you going down the street, intercept you, and surround you begging for chocolate and gum.

Of course, the military, since the Continental Army was Washington, going through the town to give kids stuff from the Russians. They had a little piece of chocolate or a heart attack or something. They'd give it to the kids.

That's nothing new. And then I thought, they haven't had any chocolate for months. They haven't had gum.

They already knew what gum was anyway. But no chocolate for months, and not one of those kids would lower themselves to be a beggar for something most driving against chocolate when they had flour to be free. When they wouldn't ask for more than freedom, lower themselves to beg for something more, it blew my mind. When somebody gives you a million dollars, you don't ask for four bucks more, do you? You wouldn't ask for that. Well, they didn't ask for that cream on the top because they were so thankful for what freedom meant to them.

When I realized that, I just said, holy cow, can't believe it. Not one child put out their hand. Not one by voice inflection indicated that you got some chocolate or something.

Not one. So I reached in my pocket and just had two sticks of gum. I said, holy cow, two sticks of gum? You're going to have fights. You're going to have bloody noses.

Get out of here. And I said, well, I'll never see these kids again. I'll be flying 24 hours without sleep.

I'll be sleeping when the autopilot's flying, coming to go on the copilot, probably. But I can't come to the fence anymore. I'll never see these kids again. How could I possibly get them something? So everybody, well, I said, well, give it to them.

That's all you got. Broke it in half, four pieces through the bar bar. The kids, they were translating. I gave them half a stick. They did most of it. And boy, they looked like they got a $100 bill. Boy, they got a hold of that. And then here came the rest of the kids.

No fight. They just wanted a piece of the wrapper. And the kids with a half a stick, gum tore off the outer wrapper and the tinfoil and handed it to the kids that didn't get anything at all. And the kids, they got a piece of paper, put it up their nose, and smelled it, and smelled it. A piece of paper? I stood there, just flattened, dumb, couldn't believe what I'd seen.

I said, holy cow. For 30 cents, I could buy them 30 sticks of gum and they could have the wrapper and everything. But how do I deliver it?

I can't come out here. Could I get some German to deliver it? Who knows what kids would get it or if he'd even deliver it.

About that time, an airplane flew over my head and landed right on the runway behind me. And I got the idea. I'm coming in tomorrow. I can deliver it to these kids. I can put it in that open place.

And I get enough for everybody. And boy, then the red light came on. I said, you got to have permission for that.

You can't drop stuff out of airplanes unless you get the clearance. And then I rationalized. And that's how you get in trouble. That's the first step getting off the path.

And so I thought, well, starving two million people, not according to oil anyway, what's a few sticks of gum? And so I found myself almost horrified, saying, kids, you come back tomorrow. Stand in this open place. When I come in to land, I'll drop enough out of the airplane two years before I land if you'll share it. You know, you'll vold, you'll vold. We'll share it, they said.

You bet, bouncing up and down. And I started leaving. They called me back.

I said, what's the matter? You got to know what airplane you're in. Every five minutes there's an airplane coming by here. Well, I didn't know what airplane because the airplanes from Alaska had red noses and red tails. They crashed in the snow.

They could find them. And the airplanes from Hawaii had coconut palms and stuff on them. Everybody had a different signal. And I flew whatever airplane was loaded. I don't know what airplane they fought. I'm just sure it was a four engine. There were a lot of two engines. C-47 is still flying.

It's a four engine. They said, not enough. We got to know. Then I told them to wiggle the wings. When I come over to the beacon at first before I go to East Berlin to come around to land, I'll wiggle the wings. Boy, they said, let's get out of here.

Let's start this thing. So I went all over town. Got the movies we've seen and every documentary that every major producer has put out has got my film in it that I took around the city and off of the airlift as it went on. And I took those pictures, went back to several hours where I had to start flying that night. Went to the basic change.

Opened 24 hours a day. Bought all I could on my weekly ration. And I didn't have enough. So I went to my crew and I said, I got to have your ration.

They gave me theirs. Had a big double handful of chocolate. Chocolate bars, Hershey bars, Babe Ruth, Bounds, and a double mint gum and broke it up in three pieces, put three parachutes on it, anxious parachutes. And the next day, flew that night, of course, and the next day, before noon, the weather was good. Looked down there and those kids were right in the open place between the bottom buildings and the barbed wire fences. They hadn't told anybody else.

It was a small group. Wiggled the wings and they went crazy. Still see their arms as they came over the bottom of that building. Right behind the pilot's seat is a flare chute, where emergency flares are pushed out in case you have emergency in flight.

And it's easy for the crew chief standing between the pilots to just access that. So as they came over the head, they just told them, push it out. And he pushed it out. Unloaded 20,000 pounds of flour, the Germans did, and worried that somebody had seen the airplane as parachutes would get me in trouble and lined up to take off.

Or they'd pull the parachutes over the barbed wire where they couldn't get them under the field. We taxied out. There was three Hanks just waving through at all the airplanes. Their mouths were going up and down. We waved and I said, I wish they wouldn't do that, waving at all the airplanes. Well, that's how it started. And you're listening to Colonel Gail Halverson tell the story of how the Berlin Airlift came to be.

Two million people trapped without any means of really supporting themselves. We had bombed many parts of Germany to bits and leave it to American GIs to come up with the idea. Oh, one. As he said, a light bulb went off in my head. But then he realized, quote, you can't drop stuff off out of airplanes without permission.

And then he added, then I rationalized and that's when you get in trouble. More of this remarkable story, the story of the Berlin Airlift, the story of American compassion and ingenuity here on Our American Stories. and professional skateboarder and Olympic athlete Samaria Brevard to highlight their unique talents, inspiring journeys, and how Boost Mobile helped them continue to get after it. Boost Mobile knows the importance of shining a spotlight on the neighborhood kids and showing up for the communities they are in. It's time to join Boost Mobile and get after it.

Switch to Boost Mobile today and get a free Samsung Galaxy A23 5G phone powered by America's largest 5G networks. New customers only. Tax is extra.

One device per line. 5G not available everywhere. Other restrictions apply.

Check out the full offer details at BoostMobile.com. Terms and conditions apply. That time of the year is coming around. The Holiday Classic is back on Christmas Eve. Let's go!

Tune in to NFL Network for an epic primetime showdown. My mental health meds were helping, but they led to uncontrolled movements called TD, Tardive Dyskinesia. It felt like my movements were in the spotlight. Engreza Valbenazine Capsules is a prescription medicine for adults with TD. It's the only TD treatment that's always one pill, once daily, and it's number one prescribed. And people taking Engreza can stay on most mental health meds. Engreza can cause depression, suicidal thoughts or actions in patients with Huntington's disease. Pay close attention to and call your doctor if you become depressed, have sudden changes in mood, behaviors, feelings, or have thoughts of suicide. Don't take Engreza if you're allergic to its ingredients. Engreza may cause serious side effects, including angioedema, potential heart rhythm problems, and abnormal movements. Report fevers, stiff muscles, or problems thinking, as these may be life-threatening. Sleepiness is the most common side effect. Now that treatment has reduced my TD movements, it's nice.

People focus more on me. Ask your doctor about Engreza or learn more at engreza.com. That's I-N-G-R-E-Z-Z-A dot com. www.engreza.com And we continue with our American stories and the story of the Berlin Airlift, how it came to be, how it happened, and the man on the ground then who's now telling us the story is Colonel Gale Halverson.

Let's continue where Gale last left off. After the first drop, let's see, it was about three weeks later when I got called in and chewed out because I didn't have permission by Colonel Hahn. It was about that long ago, and then they said, it's okay, but you've got to report down to Frankfurt, to the press center at Frankfurt. They wanted to know all about it through this news release that came out. So it was then I knew that, boy, something really, somebody really thought this was a crazy idea. So I went in and all the news agencies, of course, were covering the Berlin Airlift. So they were all there in this big press center in Frankfurt. And I was pretty humbled. The first lieutenant guy had a chauffeur and a driver and took me into Frankfurt in a hurry and all these guys waiting for me.

What have I got? What happened? Then I knew.

And then I was crazy. Everybody was talking about it. When the word got out, we came back from Berlin to the beds. There'd be boxes of chocolate bars, gum.

The guys give the ration. And we figured that overall, we must have dropped about 250,000 parachutes during the course of the blockade. We were able to drop. My buddies dropped after I left. They kept dropping and dropped until the end of September 1949.

So it went on that long. What happened is that the American Confectioners Association that represents all the candy makers in America got a hold of me when I was in New York in September 1948 to pick up an airplane. General Tunner had me stay for a week in New York and appear on the early television program We the People and a number of radio talk shows to inform people about what the airlift was like and my operation. And the representative of the American Confectioners Association said, how much of this stuff can you use?

I gave him some ridiculous number. And later they sent 6,000 pounds of chocolate bars by boat and by rail through Bremerhaven down to Rhine Mine. I came back from Berlin one day and an officer met me with a jeep and said come with me at 4 and he said, I'll show you. Went over to the railway spur on Rhine Mine and there was a boxcar with an armed guard. And I said, what's in the boxcar?

And he says, chocolate bars. And it was two shipments of one 3,000 pounds, one 3,500 pounds of chocolate bars. And we couldn't drop that much because we couldn't tie up the parachutes.

We were too busy. So we decided to have a Christmas party in Berlin with that. We got that about the middle of December 1948, those shipments. And we unloaded it and put it in a supply building where there was somebody there all the time to guard it and boy that was enough chocolate to buy King Ludwig's Castle on the black market.

It was an incredible value. And so we accumulated all of it before Christmas. And on the 24th of December 1948, the German Youth Association in Berlin was the youth of West Berlin and the military teamed up and had Christmas parties for the kids all over West Berlin for that amount. So from then on, they said, we can't handle it this way. If we had it ready to drop, then we could drop it all over the city as we came in and so they said, okay. I don't know how they found it, but Elms Junior College in Chickapea, Massachusetts and Miss O'Connor said, we'll handle that project for them.

Just send all the candy dust and we'll tie up the parachutes, put it in boxes ready to drop and ship it. In Chickapea, Mass., they had a fire station, an old fire station that they got a new one. So the city gave it to them. They had a big sign up from Operation Little Biddle and 22 schools with alternate tying up parachutes and sailboat companies donated old sailcloth. They have cut it up parachutes about the size of a man's hand. It's just a little bigger and the twine companies gave them all the twine.

The cardboard companies gave them all the cardboard. They had processed 18 tons through that facility by January 1949 and Westover Air Force Base is right next to Chickapea, Mass. It is one of the big transport bases that supported Rhine Mine and there's airplanes going back and forth all the time. And so I had all my squadron over there organized so that we had a map of Berlin with pens and a map on the best places to drop through the cloud when it was cloudy. We knew where the homing beacons were around the city for navigation and so we knew where the biggest playgrounds or where the children most likely congregated. So we'd bring those boxes in and the pilot would take them out and we quit dropping by the end of the runway because the crowd was too big and concentrated area and I was afraid the kids getting hurt and bigger guys running over them for the stuff. So we started dropping randomly all over the city. So when we come over different parts of the city where we wanted to drop the crew chief would go back and just check this, cut the top of the cardboard box and just chuck it up against the skate patch and the stuff would come out like popcorn and just blow all over the place and scab it all over the countryside.

We'd drop it from 1,000 feet to 2,000 feet and they'd just go all over. We got letters from kids that would see it. One man in 1998, we flew the, I'm still flying the Berlin Airlift, Flying Museum, the Spirit of Freedom, the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation airplane and we make parachute drops out of it a lot. We go to air shows all over the country.

In 1998, we flew across the North Atlantic back to Europe. In 69 days in Europe, air shows and air drops in Great Britain, France, Luxembourg, and Berlin twice. And in Berlin, when the people would come through the airplane, you could tell immediately those who were there during the blockade. They were very emotional about telling you thanks for our freedom.

And with moist eyes, they'd tell you how much it meant to them. And you've been listening to Colonel Gail Halverson tell the story of the Berlin Airlift after that first drop of his, the one where he didn't ask for permission. Well, just a few weeks later, he was hauled in, as he put it, and chewed out. But soon thereafter, he found himself in Frankfurt in a big press conference. He'd stumbled onto something.

By the way, this old adage that my dad taught me, a military adage, better to ask for forgiveness than permission. And boy, is it no better evidence of that than right here. And my goodness, starting the drop in one place created problems. Everybody started to gather. Then the next thing you know, Halverson was worried that the young kids would get trampled by the starving big kids. So then the drop started to get scattered all over Germany. And from 1 to 2,000 feet, can you imagine being starving and waiting for stuff to come out of the sky from American planes that had bombed you only, well, just years before?

It's remarkable, actually. When we come back, more of the story of the Berlin Airlift, Boost Mobile is partnering with people you already know and love, like the artist J.C. Rivera, rapper, singer-songwriter 2C, and professional skateboarder and Olympic athlete Samaria Brevard to highlight their unique talents, inspiring journeys, and how Boost Mobile helped them continue to get after it. Boost Mobile knows the importance of shining a spotlight on the neighborhood kids and showing up for the communities they are in. It's time to join Boost Mobile and get after it. Switch to Boost Mobile today and get a free Samsung Galaxy A23 5G phone. Powered by America's largest 5G networks. New customers only. Taxes extra.

One device per line. 5G not available everywhere. Other restrictions apply.

Check out the full offer details at BoostMobile.com. Terms and conditions apply. That time of the year is coming around. The Holiday Classic is back on Christmas Eve. Let's go!

Tune in to NFL Network for an epic prime-time showdown. Don't take Ingreza if you're allergic to its ingredients. Ingreza may cause serious side effects, including angioedema, potential heart rhythm problems, and abnormal movements. Report fevers, stiff muscles, or problems thinking, as these may be life-threatening. Sleepiness is the most common side effect. Now that treatment has reduced my TD movements, it's nice. People focus more on me.

Ask your doctor about Ingreza or learn more at Ingreza.com. That's I-N-G-R-E-Z-Z-A-E. That's I-N-G-R-E-Z-Z-A.com. Ingreza And we continue with our American stories and with Colonel Gail Halverson, who was there and who, in essence, sort of got the thing rolling, the idea of the Berlin Airlift. Let's return where Gail last left off. One of the men that came through, he's 60 years old, and said to me, 50 years ago I was a boy at 10 going to school and the clouds were very low and it was raining and I knew you were using radar to land because I couldn't see any airplanes. And suddenly out of this cloud came a parachute with a fresh Hershey candy bar and landed right at my feet. And it took me a week to eat it. He said, that's astounding.

I hit it day and night. And he said, it's not the chocolate that's important. What's important was that somebody in America knew I was in trouble and somebody cared. He said, I can live on thin rations, but not without hope. Without hope, the soul dies, he said. And one little boy was going to school and suddenly he'd hear come a bunch of parachutes and it wasn't that bad of weather before and they were picking him up but he was out of the group of ways and he saw that one landed in the duck pond. And he went in the duck pond after it. He got all mucky with duck stuff and everything else. He got the parachute and the chocolate bar and he went on to the school. It wasn't very far from where he caught it. Headmaster.

So I went, what are you doing coming to school? All muddy and all messed up. Show him the thing and the guy says, that's alright, that's okay. So I think he had the same moment to change his clothes. So it was exciting for him.

They never knew where he was going to go. The East Berlin kids wrote to me and said, look, we can't help it where they put the border. We're over here with these Russians. We like the Americans. And we're getting some of that stuff. We come over to West Berlin and we're catching it. And we'd like to have you drop it over East Berlin. There's not so many people over here. It'd be a lot better for us. And so I said, why not?

So I did. And it'd be fun. There are some soccer fields in our pattern as we'd go around East Berlin. And when they'd be playing soccer, that's what I liked the best because we'd save the candy if we got over the kids playing soccer in East Berlin and kick it out. The soccer ball would go one direction, and the kids would chase the parachutes going somewhere else and break up the soccer game.

But that was fun to watch. We'd bank the airplane and get a look at what's going on. So I had to quit in East Berlin because the Soviets complained to the State Department that it's a dirty capitalist trick. They're trying to influence the minds of the young people against us, the Soviets, by giving them chocolate. And they said it was a CIA operation. This government operation has got to stop.

Well, it was never a government operation. And so I came back from Berlin one day, and this officer met the airplane and says, what are you doing over East Berlin? And then I knew I was in trouble. He said, well, you've got to stop.

And he told me why. I've had lots of people in East Berlin that I've met that caught parachutes ask me why I quit. That's politics, not people.

Politics is the problem. It gets addictive. It's the only drug I've ever addicted to, a smile on a kid's face when he got something unexpected. I didn't think I did anything special.

I just gave kids two sticks of gum. I just keep thinking, it's just two sticks of gum. That's all it is. And whatever's made of it, it's somebody else. It's not my doing.

I didn't. Whenever you think that you're causing all the good things to happen, boy, you're in deep trouble. I mean, from then on, you're off the path of life. If you don't give credit for the good lord of what he's made available to us and what other people do for you, then you just as well say, hey, buddy, I'm not a contributor to society anymore. I'm a millstone in the system.

I think the airlift, to me, was a reinforcement of the things my church taught me all my life and my family taught me. Basically, money is not the answer to happiness. The more you get, the more you want.

And there's just no answer, an open-ended chase for the fountain of youth. The only real fulfillment is serving others, service before self. That's one of the Air Force's core values, service before self. And that's what the Savior taught. This is life. If you want happiness, serve others. The Dead Sea is dead because it takes in all the good ideas of fresh water and gives out nothing.

So it's dead. And people are that way. They say, give me, give me all the time and give not of themselves. The Dead Sea's whole.

And that was demonstrated in space. 31, well, Jesus Christ said, greater love than this hath no man than he lay down his life for a friend. And 31 of his buddies gave their lives for an enemy, the Germans that became a friend.

Why? Because the service, the reward you get, you can't buy by helping somebody, especially helping somebody in need. And the enemy is the epitome. If you're able to do that, that's the ultimate, if you're able to forgive and to serve an enemy. So service before self.

That was the perfect demonstration, absolute perfect demonstration. And that indicates what my parents and my church taught me. The other thing is the little decisions you make in life are important, extremely important, more important than big decisions because they put your footsteps and your mindset on a path that leads you to your final destination, your final position. And you're down that path where you're not going to return when the big decision comes. That little decision, there are two sticks of gum, and the whole world changed for me.

There are two sticks of gum. That's about as small as you can get. Where does the little decision come from? Well, we get an impression. Everybody's got a conscience. The spirit, we believe every person has, and the conscience, and you've got a trigger. And it tells you very subtly what you ought to do. And then you argue with it and do something different.

And then you miss out on the good things in life. The gratitude to break down the wall between people. When you're grateful for something and don't think that you've invented the world by yourself and everything that happens to you is because of how smart you are. And give credit to nobody else.

Boy, you're in the dead seat getting in the dead seat again. The gratitude by stopping and telling the lady mop on the floor in the office building on the way out that, boy, you're doing a good job and you sure make this place look better. If you can see that, then be grateful back, and that job is getting better next time. And the other thing I guess, too, is attitude. Ninety percent of the things that happen to us, including the airlift, we can do something about. We can hate the enemy and be mad all the time or we can get on with it enough to get the reinforcement to find out that we're doing something worthwhile. But attitude determines success or failure. In the family, in the home, or in the nation or community, the attitude, how you approach things. Ninety percent of the things I think that happen to us, we can determine how we feel. We have control of that one string on their violin, how we react. That's attitude.

And ten percent we can't. That's been said, God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can't change, that ten percent that you can't change, and the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to tell the difference. So attitude, attitude is, boy, it's about everything. And the airlift had all of them. Attitude, gratitude, service before self, and integrity.

All those things were factored in. This airlift to me. And a great job on the storytelling and production by Greg Hengler. And a special thanks to Colonel Gail Halverson, who celebrated his 101st birthday recently. And thanks to the National Archives for the interview and the Truman Presidential Library. There's also a wonderful children's book, Christmas from Heaven, the true story of the Berlin candy bomber, with Tom Brokaw narrating the story in the book's accompanying DVD.

My goodness, how rich. To bump into a beneficiary of the Berlin airlift decades later and have a grown man say it wasn't the chocolate that was important, it was the sense that someone out there cared. A person can survive thin rations.

One can't survive without hope. And my goodness, 2.3 million tons of supplies were dropped in the Berlin airlift. 2.3 million tons. It was called Operation Vittles and took place over an 18-month period. And I simply love what Halverson said at the end. The Berlin airlift reinforced many of the things my church taught me and my family. Money is not the answer. Real fulfillment comes from serving others, service before self. It's what our Savior taught us. Colonel Gail Halverson's story, the Berlin airlift story, and a story of so much more, including the American spirit and American generosity.

By the way, we did this with the British as well, our compatriots across the sea, here on Our American Stories. Ford F-150 truck includes a ProPower onboard feature with up to 7.2 kilowatts of power. Tap your screen now to learn about the new 2023 Ford F-150 truck, built for duff. Tis the season of making the perfect wishlist and the perfect playlist with Bose QuietComfort ultra earbuds and headphones. Breakthrough immersive audio uses specialized sound to bring your fave holiday classics to life. And world-class noise cancellation ensures a not-so-typical silent night and an epic holiday party of warmth. It's everything music should make you feel taken to new holiday highs.

Visit Bose.com forward slash iHeart this holiday season and shop sound that's more than just a present. That time of the year is coming around. The Holiday Classic is back on Christmas Eve. Let's go! Tune in to NFL Network for an epic primetime showdown.