I’ve always had a fascination with WWII as one of my grandfathers was a chaplain in the US Army, and my Mom grew up in postwar Germany. You’ll often find a book about WWII or people from that time period on my nightstand. One of the books I’ve read during this quarantine is called “The Candy Bombers: The untold story of the Berlin airlift and America’s finest hour” by Andrei Cherny.

To briefly summarize the story, after the war ended, Germany was decimated and humiliated due to the loss of the war and the utter moral tragedy of the Nazi regime. In the spring of 1945, American and Russian soldiers met at the Elbe river congratulating each other on their allied victory and rejoicing that their common enemy had finally been defeated. But as post-war decisions were made, and Berlin was divided between the British, Americans, French, and Russians, Berlin became the new focal point of global politics in an effort to help Germany recover without making the mistakes of the treaty of Versailles just a few decades earlier.

By 1948, there was growing tension in Berlin. Stalin’s forces wanted to force the capitulation of the people of Berlin to adopt communism and force their previous allies out of this key location. This culminated with the Russians establishing a blockade of Berlin in July of ’48 which was their effort to force the hand of their former allies.

Desperate to not capitulate to communism or trigger another major war so soon after WWII, President Truman had his back against the wall without a clear path before him. The American commander in Germany at the time, Lucius Clay, and others proposed what seemed a hair-brain idea that was initially only intended to buy a bit of time: an airlift to provide food and necessities for the people of Berlin. But with a population of well over 2 million people, this was a monumental task. At first, it was haphazard and poorly organized. Pilots and other crew were exhausted as they struggled to provide even the basics necessary to keep the population of Berlin alive — and it was only July which was the relatively easy time of the year for this operation before the weather would turn and the needs would increase. The world was on edge, and it appeared that the airlift would fail as the Russians hadn’t budged and the blockade seemed to be working.

But then two things happened that had a massive impact.

First, an air force officer who had dedicated himself to understanding how to organize an effective airlift and practiced that in the Himalayas a few years before was brought in to organize the logistics. While at first he was unpopular because of his exacting standards, after a few weeks the pilots and everybody else were grateful because there were fewer accidents, pilots had adequate time to rest and weren’t falling asleep at the flight controls anymore, and the amounts of supplies being delivered were slowly increasing.

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A major problem still existed, however, in that the German people still didn’t trust the Americans and for the most part lacked hope. Their lives had been devastated, and some started capitulating to the offers of the Russians and moved to East Berlin.

One day pilot Hal Halvorsen had a few minutes between flights and met a group of German kids who were close to the airport. He saw how malnourished and threadbare they were and gave them a couple of sticks of gum out of his pocket. Their reaction to this sweet taste they had never before experienced overwhelmed him. He communicated to them, through charades, that he would drop some candy to them from his plane the next day. He wanted them to look for the plane that ‘wiggled its wings’ to know which one was his.

That night he realized that a chocolate bar dropped from an airplane could injure a child, and likely wouldn’t survive the fall in decent shape, so he fashioned a small parachute out of a handkerchief to safely carry his presents. The next day, despite the reservations of his co-pilots, as he made his approach to the Templehop airport in Berlin, he wiggled his wings and dropped his weekly ration of candy out of the bomber window to the children below. He saw the kids run with delight to the candy and was surprised a few days later when he heard there were letters being delivered to the airport for “uncle Wiggly Wings”. Not wanting to draw attention to himself knowing he was breaking the strict procedures he was supposed to follow, he stopped making drops for a few days. But his desire to show kindness to these kids grew, and, to his surprise, his co-pilot and navigator also saved their candy rations. Together they decided to make ‘just one more drop’ for the growing troop of children hoping to get their first taste of chocolate.

Not long after making that ‘last’ drop, he was summoned to the office of the commander who had been at the airport, had seen the growing group of kids, knew about the letters, and had seen Halvorsen’s tail number that fateful day when he dropped the handful of candy bars they had collected. Halvorsen reported as instructed, certain he would be court marshaled for his breach of protocol. To his surprise, however, he was commended by William Tunner who had the foresight to understand something critical: The people of Berlin didn’t simply need food to eat and coal to keep them warm, they needed HOPE, and Lieutenant Halvorsen was dropping it in small bundles out of his airplane. He was re-humanizing these children who were suffering from all of the impact of the war by showing them kindness through his simple actions.

As the people of Berlin saw the resolve of the Americans in bypassing the Russian blockade through the air, and the kindness started by one pilot from Utah who had energized the children of Berlin, they grew in their determination to refuse the advances of the Russians. Despite the fact that the Russians were ever-increasing their offers to the people of West Berlin who would turn in their ration cards and take the relative bounty they were offering, few west Berliners capitulated even throughout the long difficult winter months. Finally in May of ’49, after more than 277,000 flights had delivered over 4.6 billion pounds of food and supplies, the Russians lifted the blockade and the people of Berlin had earned their freedom.

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As I have been reflecting on this book I see a few important lessons we as leaders can be reminded of through this remarkable story:

1) People who are isolated often need outsiders to take the initiative to reach out and support them — especially if there are additional mitigating circumstances making life really hard at the moment.

2) The necessities are important, equally important is hope — people need hope — to know that somebody wants them to succeed and flourish. This gives them a reason to press on.

3) Perseverance is important. Sometimes it might take more energy than we might initially anticipate. We need to be prepared to not give up but to press on in supporting others.

4) Take care of your people. Just as the operation would have failed if changes hadn’t been made to care for the pilots, we need to take care of the people laboring beside us.

Joel Vermillion is the Director of Wilderness Ministry Institute. He has been leading outdoor trips with youth in different parts of the world for more than 20 years.  Joel is also the author of, “The Importance of Experience (Essays from the Backcountry: Reflections on Christian leadership, Outdoor Ministry & Missions)