Lonesome Pine Airport, and I, the
chairman of the Cumberland Airport
Commission, had after seeing the
Spirit of Freedom at the 2008 Sun ’n
Fun Fly-In at Lakeland, Florida.
During the plane’s visit, local
schools were given a tour of the plane
by Timothy Chopp, the founder and
president of the Berlin Airlift Historical
Foundation. On Saturday, October
18, a re-enactment of the candy drop
made by 1st Lt. Gail S. Halvorsen
at Tempelhof airport in Berlin was
made at Lonesome Pine Airport with
100 Hershey’s candy bars released, all
attached to parachutes.
The big surprise came Sunday during
the last few hours of the museum tour.
Ingrid Carter (then Ingrid Pfeiffer)
lived in Berlin and was 9 years old
at the time of the airlift. She struck
up a conversation with Timothy, and
Timothy Chopp drops a parachute with a Hershey’s candy bar attached for Ingrid Carter out
of the Spirit of Freedom. This time, there’s no one to take her candy!
he discovered that during the candy
drops over Berlin, Ingrid had gotten
close to the candy but was never able
to reach it because the boys had gotten
there first.
Tim instructed Ingrid to stand outside
the C- 54 window as he proceeded to
drop a parachute with a Hershey’s
candy bar attached. He said he wanted
her to have her candy bar even if it was
60 years late. He signed the parachute
and gave it to Ingrid.
