Candy Bomber - part II

Before Gail offered his two sticks of gum, he was talking with these 30 kids, ages 8-14. They said when winter comes, it will be impossible to land, but please don’t give up on us. We can live without everything we WANT to eat if someday we have our freedom. "These kids had no gum or chocolate for months; not enough to eat,” Gail said. He noticed not one kid held out their hand begging for food. This is what prompted the idea to share with them, but when he reached into his pocket he had only two sticks of gum. After he saw their response, (written in yesterday's post) Gail said he would make a deal with the children blockaded on the other side of the barb wired fence. He said that if they all promised to share, tomorrow before he lands, he’ll drop a small package with enough gum for each of them. In German, they all screamed, “Jawohl, jawhol, jawohl!” (pronounced: ya vol, meaning: yes, of course)

Gail bought all the chocolate and gum that he could. He also asked his co-pilot and engineers if they’d give their rations. He ended up with multiple handfuls! Holding the packages he thought, “These are heavy! I can’t drop these packages from an hundred feet up.” What could he do? Also, with the dozens of planes that landed every hour, how would the kids know which plane was his?

Find out tomorrow how he solved these problems and changed the face of a dark time for thousands of Germans.