Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot : A True Story of the Berlin Airlift and the Candy That Dropped from the Sky

After serving as a pilot for the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49, Lt. Gail Halvorsen settled back to Utah. Not long after, having felt the lessons his father taught about how the little things you do in life will make big things happen, Gail decided to make candy drops via airplanes. By 1949, he and his squadron had dropped over 250,000 candy-loaded parachutes and twenty tons of chocolate and gum to West Berlin's 100,000 children. He received thousands of letters from children, and only the most important were translated and given to him for his personal reply. This is the true story of a little girl named Mercedes, who waited anxiously for candy drops from Lt. Gail, known as the Chocolate Pilot.