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"The heroes of the Berlin airlift were not the people who brought food but the people on the ground who were defending themselves" account, at 98Gail Halvorsen.
Berlin celebrates Sunday the 70th anniversary of the end of the blockade of the city in the hands of the Soviet Union, a major episode of the Cold War, with his hero at that time, one of the first pilots to supply the population of the west of the city in pastries and provisions.
Gail Halvorsen smells a flower in front of Berlin's former Tempelhofer airport (AFP).
It is expected that about 50,000 people attend commemorations in the former Tempelhof airport, today transformed into urban park, theater of an unprecedented aerial operation of 15 months, led by the allies.
On this occasion, films will be screened, including original recordings of the time, on giant screens and concerts will be organized, such as the group United States Air Forces in Europe or the singer Susan Wheeler Martosko.
One of the Douglas C-54 Skymaster used 70 years ago to supply Berlin (EFE).
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But, without a doubt, the star of this day is the former pilot of the US Air Force, Gail Halvorsen, nicknamed "Uncle flapping wings" or "flying chocolate" by the local population.
Between June 1948 and September 1949, he participated in the famous "Operation Víveres", the airlift of Berlin.
Thousands of aircraft, mainly British and American, have been able to meet the needs of the More than two million inhabitants of West Berlin subject to the soviet land and sea blockade.
A group of Berliners observe one of the planes participating in the airlift to the city (EFE).
With this measure, the USSR intended to take control of this part of the city, administered by the allies, and thus dominate all of East Germany.
Since then, Halvorsen has become an iconic figure in the Berlin imagination, one of the first pilots of the "Rosinenbomber", the grape bombers.
It was the nickname given to the military planes of the allies who they have thrown candies for children in small parachutes laden with sweets, raisins and chewing gum.
Airplanes fly over Berlin to launch food 70 years ago (AFP).
Gail Halvorsen explained to Berlin children near the airport that he would tilt the wings of his plane when he would fly over the city and that he would let them know that he was going to throw food. This earned him the nickname of "Uncle who beats his wings."
Eventually, he created the school. Parachutes, originally made with handkerchiefs or shirt sleevesthey were perfected and the launches multiplied thanks to the media enthusiasm aroused by the operation in the United States.
Gail Seymour "Hal" Halvorsen with her decorations this weekend in Berlin (EFE).
The 98-year-old American aviator, dressed in his military uniform at the time, returned Saturday in Tempelhof at a first ceremony in his honor, visit a baseball field bearing his name located in the old airport.
He greeted the Berliners of that time. "They were the mainstays of the confrontation with the Soviet Union," he said, accompanied by his daughters Denise Williams and Marilyn Sorensen.
The veteran, who he was promoted to colonel and that in the 1970s, he returned to Berlin as Tempelhof Airport Commander, signed several autographs on vintage photos and distributed sweets to the children.
Gail Halvorsen greets Mercedes Wild, the girl who, seventy years ago, sent her a letter of complaint, as she still had not managed to catch parachutes with sweets. Gail responded with another letter accompanied by chewing gum and a pirulín. Friends forever (AFP).
"I urge young people to keep an open mind to know that some leaders will lead the free people in the wrong direction," warned Halvorsen.
"Freedom is important and sometimes you have to fight to get it", he added.
He continues to be a very popular figure among Berliners who lived at that time, like 78-year-old Mercedes Wild, who was seven when He wrote to the pilot complaining because he had still not managed to catch a parachute with candy.
Gail Halvorsen surrounded by children in Berlin. Living Memory (AP).
To his surprise, he received a letter from the airman, accompanied by chewing gum and a lollipop, in what was the beginning of a long friendship between the two families.
"He has become for me a father figure and he is the best ambbadador we can have to value the friendship between Germans and Americans," he said.
In total, 277,000 flights provided approximately two million tonnes of commodities. The pilots would have traveled 175 million kilometers and 78 people lost their lives.. Finally, the blockade was lifted unconditionally.
AFP Agency.
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