'Follow Your Dreams' Halvorsen Foundation Delivering STEM

'FOLLOW YOUR DREAM'

GAIL S. HALVORSEN AEROSPACE EDUCATION FOUNDATION DELIVERING WITH STEM

by David Cordero

for valor magazine

An 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.”

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

Foundation was formed in large part to increase STEM education opportunities for kids.

“Every member of the US Air Force knows the story of the Berlin Candy Bomber and the effect this one airman had on the course of modern history,” Stewart says. “What motivates me is that we can inspire children to pursue STEM education while also developing in them some of Hal’s characteristics: gratitude, service before self, make friends of former enemies, small efforts lead to big outcomes, and so forth. We need a rising generation of youth that know and live Hal’s story.”

PLANNING PROGRAMS

The Foundation’s initiatives include helping educators find quality lesson plans and activities to increase interest in these fields, give lower-income children in South Provo more exposure to STEM activities and provide immersive educational opportunities such as flight ground training—with a twist.

In September 2019, Robert Munson began teaching an Introduction to Aviation Simulation class after school to any interested student at Dixie High School. Powered with laptops and monitors donated by Walmart, along with foot-pedal rudders and joysticks provided by the Halvorsen foundation, high school students get to experience a form of aviation without the inherent danger of crashing.

“It addresses flying in a unique way,” says Munson, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel. “It gets them flying a simulator, which is like a video game. That gets their interest. Most of the skills in the class (half book learning and half simulator) transfers to the airplane.”

With guidance and advice from the State STEM Action Center, statewide school districts, universities and the Civil Air Patrol, the Foundation has begun the preliminary work on developing and delivering STEM introduction sessions for pre-K through 5.

“The lessons will be oriented toward students in the lowerincome community and will use ‘homemade’ equipment and demonstration articles,” said Dan Eliason, retired Air Force colonel and education director for the Halvorsen Foundation.

Eliason says in addition to delivering STEM enrichment presentations, we are in discussions with a local university on how we might also do some research to improve STEM curricula, equipment and presentation methodology.

A donor provided a used school bus that is being converted into a mobile classroom with help from Utah’s STEM Mobility bus and the California CAP STEM trailer. This partnership is relying on the Foundation to complement their on-site visits. In 2019 the mobile unit had 300+ requests for on-site visits and were only able to make 90. “We have very positive about expanding this working relationship.”

The Halvorsen Foundation is building relationships with STEM organizations on developing and delivering STEM introduction

sessions for pre-K through 5. courtesy of the halvorsen foundation

SUPPORTING SUCCESS

Members of the Halvorsen Foundation understand that today’s youth carry that responsibility going forward. The Foundation aims to support them as much as possible.

“The careers of tomorrow—ranging from art history to zoology and each one in between—will have huge components that will be technology-based,” Stewart says. “For our children and grandchildren to be able to succeed and thrive in their careers having an ability to apply STEM to their work is not just necessary—it’s critical.”

The Berlin Airlift proved to be a victory for the United States in the early stages of the Cold War. It also instilled hope for a new Germany partially stifled by the oppressive Soviet Union. Gail Halvorsen and each member of the Air Force who took part in the Berlin Airlift sought to alleviate the suffering of innocent civilians. Their noble spirit resonates to this day.

David Cordero has been a professional writer for more than 15 years. He has won awards on a variety of subjects, including sports, education and military matters. He volunteers to edit the American Legion Post 90 newsletter.