'FOLLOW YOUR DREAM' GA I L S. H A LVO R S E N A E RO S PAC E E D U CAT I O N F O U N DAT I O N D E L I V E R I N G W I T H S T E M by David Cordero fo r va lo r m aga z i n e
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n airplane accelerates down the runway before suddenly launching into the sky, the result of lift and thrust taking over. Flying an aircraft carries significant responsibility. It is also exhilarating to almost anyone who has sat in a cockpit. This feeling of freedom is not lost on the high-school-aged student tasked with this plane’s aerial destiny. Yet in this scenario, it is completely without the life-or-death risk that typically accompanies flight. This flight is done in a classroom setting with a computerized horizon, a detachable rudder simulator and a mobile hand control. The class is called Introduction to Aviation through Simulation, taken through the Dixie High School Junior ROTC program. It’s one of many Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) initiatives supported by the Gail Halvorsen Aviation Education Foundation, thecandybomber.org. Halvorsen is known worldwide for being known as the “Candy Bomber” during the famed Berlin Airlift. “Aviation is a springboard into so many other STEM fields. A light airplane is a very dense container of engineering, electronics, mathematics, geography, chemistry and many other fields,” explains James R. Stewart, retired Air Force colonel and chairman of the board for the Halvorsen Foundation. “The future belongs to whatever country is able to have an edge in technology. For us to retain our position as a world leader, we must have a rising generation who is ready to fill leadership roles in these important fields.”
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va l o r : a s a l u t e t o u ta h ’ s v e t e r a n s a n d m i l i ta r y
A native of Garland, Utah, now approaching 100, Halvorsen collaborated with members of the Civil Air Patrol to form his namesake foundation in 2016. It’s just one part of a life spent helping others, most famously in 1948 as darkness enveloped Western Europe amid a threat from communist Soviet Union. After World War II, Germany was split into four occupation zones: Great Britain, France, the United States and the Soviet Union. In the years that followed, disputes emerged over the use of supply routes such as highways, tunnels, railroads and canals within the various occupation zones. Tensions came to a head in June 1948 when the Soviet Union set up a blockade on land and water connections between the non-Soviet zones and Berlin. Food supply and coal were threatened for approximately 2 million West Berliners. Action was needed. Enter Halvorsen and the US and British air forces, who participated in the logistically mesmerizing Berlin Airlift. Utilizing nearly every military aircraft at their disposal, the airmen dropped a variety of items on West Berlin including food and coal. But that was not all. A pilot who entered the service in World War II but did not see combat, Halvorsen flew several of these humanitarian missions. When he wasn’t in the air, he visited children who lived near the runway. He devised a way to drop candy to West Berlin children using improvised parachutes. His actions resulted in a nickname that has stood the test of time. Halvorsen’s story reverberates through the Air Force and continues to inspire seven decades later. At Stewart’s urging, the august
2020
