He made his last really big appearance in June 2019. To mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the Berlin Airlift, the US armed forces garrison is holding a big open house on the tarmac of the Clay barracks in Wiesbaden at Pentecost.

A good 40,000 visitors flock to the military airfield in Erbenheim, which is otherwise closed off.

They marvel at the historical “raisin bombers” and modern Blackhawk helicopters, eat hamburgers and bratwurst at long beer tables and finally cheer for the guest of honour: Gail Halvorsen, the hero of the airlift.

Peter Badenhop

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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For more than 50 years Halvorsen has been the star of all commemorations, hundreds, maybe thousands of times he has told his story, praised "the gift of freedom" that he and his comrades brought to Berlin, countless times he has thumbs up for the Photographers and TV crews posing.

He does the same on this sunny day in Wiesbaden with a charming professionalism and authentic joy that is second to none.

He comes from Frankfurt with one of the old, rattling propeller planes and drives past the enthusiastic crowd in an open jeep.

The audience held up their cell phones and cheered the waving Air Force veteran, and even in a small subsequent press conference in the airfield tower, the then almost 99-year-old pilot in his old uniform received applause.

In front of the journalists, he routinely answers all those questions that he has already answered countless times.

And at the end says a sentence that actually moves everyone in the room.

"You know, it's the little things that make the difference in life."

Not everyone is born a hero.

Gail Halvorsen does.

The former Air Force pilot, who became famous as "Candy Bomber", always lived up to the role like no other.

Born on October 10, 1920 in Salt Lake City, with his broad, winning smile and a mixture of humility and pride, he not only endured the hype that hero status brings, he lives it with charming professionalism and authentic joy downright off.

Stationed at Rhein-Main Air Base

Hardly any event in post-war history has been burned into the collective memory of Germans and Americans as much as the great rescue operation for Berlin, which was sealed off by the Soviets, which ensured the survival and freedom of almost 2.5 million inhabitants between June 1948 and May 1949.

With around 280,000 flights, the American Air Force, together with British, French, Canadian and South African units, brought almost 2.3 million tons of food, fuel and building material to the western sectors of the former imperial capital.

The most important location of the "Big Lift" was the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Air Base.

Halvorsen was also stationed here.

At no other airport in the western zones did so many transport planes take off.

There were also flights from Wiesbaden's Erbenheim airfield, but the large quantities were transshipped to Rhein-Main.

Food in particular – flour, bread, potatoes, milk, coffee and canned food – was flown to Berlin from the two military airfields via the southern of the three air corridors.

Coal, building materials and other goods found their way into the enclosed city mainly from the British occupation zone via the northern corridor.

All machines returned via the middle corridor.

The pilots each flew twice every 24 hours, day and night.