Lt. Halvorsen looked out of the airplane and saw the children of Berlin watching the airplanes as they came in to land. So, he took his Hershey bar candy ration, tied it to a handkerchief and he threw it out the window like a parachute, he said.
“He started telling other pilots what he was doing, and they started doing it. Then, the Air Force got involved, and they started supplying the candy bars and the parachutes, and it just became a public relations snowball, where it kept building,” Epperhart said. “That’s one of the things people remember from the Berlin Airlift.”
Inspired by the famous Berlin Candy Bomber, the candy drop is weather-permitting. However, the event will take place regardless of the weather with festivities and candy in the hangar.
“We are going to recreate that, and we will throw candy out of one of our World War II airplanes to the kids below. We did it the first year, and it was remarkably successful. Kids had a blast. We only did 100 candy bars that year, and last year, we did 650 candy bars. It’s become a popular event,” said Epperhart.
The Butler County Warbirds Candy Bomber event will be from 2-4 p.m. Oct. 26 at the Middletown Regional Airport/Butler County Warbirds headquarters at 2351 Wedekind Drive in Middletown. Children will be separated into groups by age. Guests are encouraged to wear Halloween costumes as they learn about history.
The Butler County Warbirds Museum, headquartered at the Middletown Regional Airport’s historic “City Hangar” aims to give visitors a look at World War II history through historic aircraft and memorabilia. The City Hangar, located on the eastern corner of the airport, was built in 1938.
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