m4a1-shermayne:

tilthat:

TIL that during the Berlin Blockade in 1948 a pilot who was doing supply drops for the civilians became known as ‘Uncle Wiggly Wings’ after he started dropping candy and chocolate from his plane and wiggling his wings so people knew it was him.

via reddit.com

The Pilot’s name is Gail Halvorsen and he’s age 97. He retired from the USAF in 1974. He was assigned to Berlin in 1948 and was set to be an air lifter. 

During that time he founded “Operation Little Vittles”, an effort to raise morale in Berlin by dropping candy via miniature parachute to the city’s residents. Halvorsen began “Little Vittles” with no authorization from his superiors but over the next year became a national hero with support from all over the United States. Halvorsen’s operation dropped over 23 tons of candy to the residents of Berlin. He became known as the “Berlin Candy Bomber”, “Uncle Wiggly Wings”, and “The Chocolate Flier”.He was awarded the

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of German and several other medals.