22 Sep tember1948 – Operation Little Vittles gets official recognition as a subset of the Berlin Airlift, with US Air Force Lt Gail Halvorsen, AKA the Candy Bomber, dropping treats from his plane for children. He started the project months prior and it grew in both scope and popularity.
Here is the wikipedia page for Halvorsen who retired as a Colonel in 1974. Prior to retirement he served as a commander at Tempelhof, Berlin to which he had flown airlift missions.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gail\_Halvorsen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gail_Halvorsen)
This is one of many articles about Operation Little Vittles, an excerpt “Operation Little Vittles made such a positive impact in defeating the purpose of the Berlin blockade, that the Russian government filed an angry protest with the State Dept. with claims that Operation Little Vittles “violated their propaganda agreement.”
[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/airlift-chocolate-pilot/](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/airlift-chocolate-pilot/)