Via Daily Mail:
A former U.S. Air Force pilot famous for dropping candy to starving children during the Berlin Airlift of 1948 and 1949 has returned to the German capital as a guest of honor 70 years after the end of the crisis.
Gail Halvorsen, 98, received a hero’s welcome as he donned his military uniform, signed autographs, and posed for photos with city residents on Saturday.
Halvorsen became known as the ‘Candy Bomber’ after inventing the idea to airdrop small bags of sweets to children in West Berlin, who were going hungry after the Soviet Union blocked railway, road and canal access to the city.
The blockade lasted from June 1948 until May 1949 and became known as the first crisis in the Cold War.
Western allies – including the U.S. – responded by launching the Berlin Airlift, in which pilots flew food and other supplies to the 2.5 million residents in the city.
The operation lasted non-stop through the harsh German winter, with more than two million tonnes of supplies dropped over the course of 277,000 flights.