Lt. Gail Halvorsen arrived in Berlin expecting to haul coal and flour. Instead, he met thirty kids at Tempelhof’s fence who asked him not to leave when the weather turned bad. Touched, he handed over his last two sticks of gum; the children tore them into slivers and shared them without fighting. Halvorsen promised to return with more, and told them he’d wiggle his wings so they’d know it was him. The next day, handkerchief parachutes weighted with candy rations fluttered down over West Berlin. By January 1949, some 250,000 parachutes had fallen. Gen. William Tunner turned a blind eye, then made it official as Operation Little Vittles. For Berliners, it wasn’t chocolate—it was hope.