Capi Lynn

(Salem, Ore.) Statesman Journal

SALEM, Ore. — Her first childhood memory, growing up in Berlin during World War II, is of people jumping out windows because their houses were on fire. She was 2 1/2.

Christel Jonge Vos of Keizer also remembers being cold, hungry and afraid. Her mother was part Jewish and her father a first lieutenant in the Germany army. Her family was forced to evacuate not once, but twice.

Through all the uncertainty and the chaos, there were symbols of hope that Vos clung to.

There was her doll, Peter, a gift from her father during one of his visits home from the war. Peter was not just a childhood plaything. He was a source of comfort, especially in the bunker.

"We went through all the bombing nights together," Vos said. "My mother was a nervous wreck, and my father wasn't there. I just hugged my Peter."

And there was her hero, 1st Lt. Gail "Hal" Halvorsen, an American pilot who melted the hearts of German children after the war. He dropped candy from his airplane to children behind a barbed-wire fence at the end of the runway of a West Berlin airport.

Vos, 11 at the time, was one of those children.

"We went there every day after school and waved like crazy," she said. "It was our daily event, because we didn't have very many good events. We had nothing. Berlin was still in ruins."

Vos is traveling to Arizona this week, 66 years later, to meet the man she affectionately refers to as Uncle Wiggly Wings. He earned the nickname because he wiggled his wings in flight so the children would know it was him. He also has been called the Candy Bomber and the Chocolate Pilot.

"It's a dream come true," Vos said. "I will probably cry when I see him."

Max Marbles, a Salem bookbinder who helped Vos publish her memoir trilogy, was so moved by the details of the Candy Bomber and how he gave hope to the children of Berlin that he persuaded Vos to track him down. And now that Vos and Halvorsen have been corresponding for two months, Marbles, whose given name is Frank Lindholm, thought the story should be shared.

Halvorsen was among the American pilots who participated in the Berlin Airlift, also known as Operation Vittles, from June 1948 to May 1949. He delivered planeload after planeload of food and supplies, such as flour and coal, to the more than 2 million people in West Berlin who were cut off by the Soviet Union.

The candy boosted morale and symbolized hope for the children.

It started with two sticks of Wrigley's Doublemint gum, which Halvorsen gave to a group of kids at the end of the runway at Tempelhof Airport. It was all he had in his pocket, and he promised to drop some candy the next day if they didn't fight over it. One child asked how they would know it was him flying over, and he told them he would wiggle his wings.

True to his word, he rocked his aircraft on approach and dropped chocolate bars, from his personal rations, tied to handkerchief parachutes. His efforts soon caught worldwide attention and support, and more than 20 tons of candy were delivered through the air during the mission, dubbed Operation Little Vittles.

"The small things you do turn into great things," Halvorsen said by phone from his home in Arizona.

Halvorsen, who turned 94 in October, has returned to Berlin many times, first to serve as a commander at Tempelhof, and then to attend anniversary events and receive various honors.

Halvorsen has been contacted countless times by children, now in their 70s, wanting to thank him for what he did.

"It's crazy," he said. "I'm just a farm kid that didn't have inside plumbing until high school.

"They always want to tell me, with tears in their eyes, how they caught a parachute."

Vos never did. She was a timid child, and she said the boys were always faster to reach the candy.

"But I saw it, and it was fun," she said.

For one visit to the runway, she made a small wreath out of wild flowers to give Halvorsen. There were so many children she couldn't get close enough to give it to him.

"I went home and cried and then gave it to my mother," she said.

Vos has a surprise for Halvorsen when they meet this week — a replica of that wreath.