Like candy falling from the sky

It was a flash of inspiration that turned Col. Gail Halvorsen into one of the most famous pilots ever.

He says it was the Holy Spirit who whispered to him that he could do more to help some poor German kids be themselves in the face of possible starvation.

When the Russians prohibited over-the-road deliveries of food and supplies to Berlin after World War II, the United States and its allies organized a massive airlift, in which they flew supplies into Berlin to keep 2 million people from starving.

Halvorsen, who now lives in Provo, was one of the airlift pilots, and one day in 1948, after meeting some of the children who watched the deliveries, he came up with a plan to bring them a little something extra: chocolate.

Fast forward to 2009, last week. Halvorsen spoke to a group of kids at the Hill Aerospace Museum and told them the story of how he became known as the Candy Bomber.

It was his plan to drop candy -- equipped with parachutes -- out of his plane to the masses of children watching planes land every day. Parachutes were necessary, he said, because he didn't want to hit kids with candy flying at 110 mph.

Word spread about the pilot dropping candy from his plane and a humanitarian effort was born. By January 1949, more than 250,000 pieces of parachuting candy had been dropped.

At the museum, Olivia got a small "taste" of what it was like for those German kids 60 years ago as Halvorsen and some helpers re-enacted a candy drop.

And she managed to strike a pose as a future candy bomber.