Veteran's News

Painter Meets 'Candy Bomber' After 60 Years
By: Lisa West

Horst Bendzulla was just a 10-year old boy in 1948 when following the defeat of Nazi Germany, a new enemy laid siege to the war-torn country. The Soviet grip on Berlin and the blockade of all highways was further crippling those who had managed to live through the bombings by cutting off food, medicine, heat and electricity. But Berlin’s Templehof Airport remained open to both British and American aircraft, which began bringing in life-saving humanitarian supplies. For more than 14 months coal, food and other immediate necessities where airlifted into the city until the Soviets finally gave up.

Col. Gail S. Halvorsen, USAF (Ret) was one of hundreds of U.S. pilots involved in the 1948-49 Berlin Airlift which eventually earned him the title of “The Berlin Candy Bomber”. After meeting some Berlin children and seeing how much they enjoyed the two sticks of gum he shared with them, he began making ‘candy drops’ just before landing at Templehof. By night the Utah native would tie candy and gum to tiny parachutes made out of mens handkerchiefs. By day, he would drop them to the children below. Since planes were landing every three minutes, just before the drop Halvorsen would wiggle the wings of his C54 so the children would know it was him. That earned him the adoration of the children and yet another nickname -- “Uncle Wiggly Wings”.

Bendzulla was one of those lucky children that caught a candy parachute. The news had spread quickly and he remembered he had to hike several kilometers to the place where the children would eagerly wait for treats from the sky. While many of the Berlin children were able to meet their ‘chocolate hero’, Bendzulla never did. And very few people knew that he was a Mormon, including Bendzulla.

Yet Bendzulla joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Germany just five years after the Berlin Airlift – and in 1960 he and his wife, Marcella, immigrated to America. By trade, he had been trained as an artist and worked throughout Europe restoring paintings, antiquing and specializing in gold-leafing and marbleizing. He continued his craft in Southern California and eventually moved to Northern California before retiring to the Auburn area in 1997.

“Painting is still my hobby”, noted Bendzulla who loves to paint landscapes and the ocean. After visiting Pearl Harbor, he was inspired to paint the USS Arizona several times and since then has painted many other military ships. “About three months ago I came across an old black and white photo of the Candy Bomber’s plane dropping candy parachutes to Berlin children. I felt an overwhelming desire to paint it. I started the painting and didn’t like it and started over again. I didn’t know at that time that Col. Halvorsen and I would have a chance to meet. I planned to cherish the painting for myself and hang it in my home, but when I heard he was coming, I immediately knew I had to give the painting to him,” stated Bendzulla.

With the help of donations from Hershey’s and other state-side candy companies and American schoolchildren who made thousands of tiny parachutes, Halvorsen and other pilots dropped over 20 tons of candy to Berlin children. Following his military career and subsequent retirement, Halvorsen became an educator and from 1976 to 1984 was the Assistant Dean of Student Life at Brigham Young University. He and his wife of 49 years, Alta, spent a year serving a mission for the LDS Church in England and later served a second mission in St. Petersburg, Russia from 1995 to 1997.

Over the years Halvorsen has participated in several food re-supply operations including a C-130 night-drop over Bosnia in 1994, and a supply run to Albania in 1999, where he visited Camp Hope, a Kosovo refugee camp to deliver candy, toys, and school supplies to the children there. In 1998 he was a pilot on the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation C-54, the “Spirit of Freedom,” across the North Atlantic for 69 days and 27 air shows in four European countries. In November 1999 he was inducted into the Airlift/Tanker Hall of Fame and into the Utah Aviation Hall of Fame two years later. In June 2001 a new generation aircraft loader (25,000 pound capacity) was named the “Halvorsen Loader” in his honor. There are now more than 300 deployed world-wide. And every year Halvorsen continues to give inspirational speeches and drop candy parachutes to elementary schools, air shows, church and other groups throughout the world.

Deanne Ellsworth of Fair Oaks organized a conference for LDS Church members at the Mormon Center facility in Rancho Cordova and invited Col. Halvorsen to be the keynote speaker and to re-enact the candy drop. He graciously accepted the invitation and with the help of 40 children and several adults from Citrus Heights and Fair Oaks LDS congregations who assembled 250 candy parachutes – the re-enactment was a huge success. “It took three passes over Mormon Center for Col. Halvorsen to get all the candy dropped to conference attendees and children picnicking below,” stated Ellsworth. After landing at Mather Airfield, Halvorsen drove back up to the drop site and there he met Horst Bendzulla for first time. The two exchanged a hearty handshake, hug and many memories.

Following Col. Halvorsen’s keynote address, Bendzulla presented the ‘Candy Bomber’ painting to his hero and the 87-year old retired Colonel was overwhelmed by the gesture. “This is something I will treasure forever,” exclaimed Halvorsen.

Bendzulla, his wife, daughter, son-in-law and several of his grandchildren were part of the crowd scrambling to grab the falling candy parachutes – and he caught one again 60 years after catching the first one in Berlin. Bendzulla reminisced, “It brought back many memories and tears to my eyes to see the parachutes coming down again. It was a very special day.”

Students Make Valentines to Warm Veterans' Hearts
By Joseph H. Fraccola, Veteran

In 1999 as a local area veteran's advocate and WWII veteran, I organized a patriotic community project to honor our nation's veterans at the Sacramento VA Medical Center. I worked with Ellen Burns Gemma, former Principal of St. John the Evangelist Catholic School in Carmichael, to organize a project for elementary students to make Valentine Day Cards and present them to patients at the medical center. Now in its 10th Anniversary the project has been extremely successful with veteran patients, family members, staff and the students.

When I stepped into the eight-grade classroom at St. John the Evangelist Catholic School and called out a greeting, students stopped work on a special Valentine's Day project to greet me in return, "Good Morning Mr. Fraccola and God Bless You." However the interruption was only a temporary one. They continued working on unique valentine cards with complimentary inscriptions,

The project is an annual tradition at the Carmichael parochial school. For years now, students at the school have handcrafted valentines that are delivered to hospitalized veterans.

I got the idea from Ann Landers column over a decade ago in which the advice columnist called upon readers to send a valentine for the National Salute to Hospitalized Veterans week. She wrote that on any given day, there are approximately 50,000 veterans hospitalized in the Veterans Affairs' Medical Centers nationwide. We can never repay these valiant vets for the sacrifices they have made, but we can do something to cheer them up and let them know that they have not been forgotten," Landers wrote. Upon reading Landers' column, I bought 10 boxes of valentines and distributed them to the kindergarten through eight-grade students at St. John the Evangelist Catholic School to sign and combine them their own valentines.

That year, over 500 cards from the students were given to veterans of World War I and II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War who were hospitalized at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Martinez and the Veterans Home of California in Yountville in Napa Valley. I also delivered cards to veterans at the Sutter Oaks Nursing Center Arden, a nursing home, which contracted with the Veterans Administration to care for the ambulatory veterans.

While visiting the school, I asked the eight-grade teacher and Vice Principal, Tosha Tillotson, whether students understood whom they were making the valentine cards for and why. "We talked about it before we started making the cards --- said Tillotson whose husband and grandfather served in the military. Two of her students have older brothers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The handmade, handwritten cards not only include messages of kindness and love, but often thanked the veterans for serving their country and protecting their rights as American. Each grade level used different materials to make their cards, resulting in a variety of colorful creations for Valentine's Day.

For ten years the students at St. John the Evangelist School have enjoyed making cards for the veterans for Valentine's Day and Veterans' Day. School Principal, Nancy Conroy said as a teacher she had the opportunity to accompany the students several times as they distributed the cards to the veterans. She saw first hand the joy on the patients' faces when they received the cards and she saw the joy in the faces of the students as they brought a bit of happiness to the veterans who gave so much for our freedom. As Principal she sees the mission of their school "to have a Christian response to others in action as the students visit the VA Hospital clinic, as well as a manifestation of their philosophy, to emphasize apostolic services which can be carried out in the community".

On Tuesday, February 12th, Sacramento VA Medical Center Chief, Volunteer Service, Juanita De Luna, hosted a Valentine Day visit by twelve elementary students from St. John the Evangelist Catholic School, Vice Principal Tosha Tillotson, staff, parents, and me. Students visited with veteran outpatients and inpatients and presented over 300 handmade Valentine Day cards. Veterans who received the cards included those who served in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.

"I consider Valentines for Veterans project a patriotic community effort that is educational for the children who participate and it enlightens young people as to what transpired in the past and to remember the unfortunate."

MAF Exposes New York Times
New York Times ‘Killer Vet’ Story Exposed as Erroneous by Pro-Troop Group
By Ryan Gill, Move America Forward

SACRAMENTO- Move America Forward the nation’s largest grassroots pro-troop organization, today announced that after vetting the numbers cited by The New York Times in their Sunday, January 13, 2008 story, “Across America, Deadly Echoes of Foreign Battles,” it became clear that the Times had engaged in demonstrably erroneous and false reporting.

It took seven New York Times researchers to find 121 cases in which veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan committed a killing in the United States, or were charged with one, upon returning home to this country.

The Times made the false conclusion that: “Taken together, they paint the patchwork of a quiet phenomenon, tracing a cross-country trail of death and heartbreak.”

The Times documentation of 121 potential killings out of more than 1.5 million veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom (Iraq) and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan), divided by 6 years of conflict results in a murder rate of just 1.34 incidents per 100,000 veterans per year.***

That murder rate is far lower than the murder rate for the general population, demonstrating that the experiences of military service – including having served in Iraq and Afghanistan – actually made it less likely for returning veterans to commit murder once they returned home, than the general population.

Given a census-estimated population of the United States of 300,000,000 persons in this country as of October 2006, and FBI-compiled statistics of 17,399 homicide offenders for 2006, the murder rate of the general population was 5.80 offenders per 100,000 on average – and a rate of approximately 7.67 per 100,000 for men.

Since all but one of the veterans cited by the Times who committed a killing in the U.S. was male, the comparable rate is approximately 7.67 incidents of murder per 100,000 people among the general male population, compared to just 1.34 incidents per 100,000 returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans (of both genders).

“It’s obvious that the New York Times has an agenda of undermining the missions of our troops in the War on Terror, so much so that they are willing to resort to demonstrably false statistics to support their anti-troop bias,” said Melanie Morgan, Chairman of Move America Forward.

“The slander of our troops and veterans by the New York Times is unfortunately all too familiar. We heard this kind of nonsense about our returning veterans from Vietnam. It’s the same insult, different war.

“Perhaps the shameful staff of The New York Times has run out of war-time secrets to publish for America’s enemies to read, because now they’ve resorted to an all-out smear campaign of America’s finest men and women, who have served this country bravely and with distinction,” Morgan said.

In place of hard data to support their premise, The New York Times was instead forced to devote almost the entire portion of 6,321 word hit-piece to anecdotes of wrongdoing by individual veterans.

The New York Times even went so far as to trace back the phenomenon of murderous veterans to Greek mythology to back up their assertions of their report. “The real mythology is the reporting by The New York Times,” Move America Forward’s Melanie Morgan concluded.

Note that the central statistical measure is how many instances of alleged killings take place per 100,000 Iraq/Afghanistan war veterans who returned home. The New York Times might argue that our statistics are incorrect since the 1.5+ million Iraq/Afghanistan veterans have not been home during the entire 6 years of the war (especially since in the early onset of Operation Enduring Freedom troops were just arriving into the war zone).

However, Salon.com reports that as of January 31, 2005 there were 1,048,884 Americans who had fought in Iraq or Afghanistan. One can then calculate statistics from that point onward. Let’s give the New York Times the leeway of saying their alleged 121 incidents of killings by veterans occurred during just the three years that elapsed since that time to the present. The murder rate per 100,000 people would still be approximately 3.5 incidents of murder per 100,000 returning Iraq/Afghanistan veterans.

Connecting 'One World, One Site' for the Veteran Community

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Jan. 24, 2008 -- www.BlackBOOK2.com, the premier International online social and business communication network, today announced a cross-branding partnership with The Veterans Corp (TVC), the international nonprofit organization dedicated to creating and enhancing entrepreneurial business opportunities for Veterans. The global TVC-BlackBOOK2.com alliance is designed to unify, foster and grow the Veteran business community.

"BlackBOOK2.com connects the world through one site and TVC equips our Veteran Community with the best business tools available," said TVC President & CEO Walter G. Blackwell. "For Veterans, the TVC-BlackBOOK2.com alliance provides a communications link that can leverage business and personal communications."

"BlackBOOK2.com has demonstrated outstanding results since its official debut in July 2007 by connecting people and businesses throughout the world," said BlackBOOK2 President and CEO Amy Nalewaik. BlackBOOK2.com offers a FREE robust suite of distinctive tools, such as Health Care Solutions, Free Web Hosting, Video E-Mail (Vmail), Instant Messaging, Comprehensive Learning Tools and bundled Telephony products, just to name a few.

Connecting all Veterans with 21st-century business communication tools is a major goal of TVC. TVC and BlackBOOK2.com are offering free Video email to every Veteran, Service Disabled Veteran, Guard & Reserve and family members, and all active duty military and their families. See statistics: http://tinyurl.com/256urd

"Vmail will make the distances that separate family and business seem shorter, the times away on travel or deployment less lonely and most of all connect the Veteran and service community," said Blackwell. "We can think of no better way to thank those who wore or are wearing the cloth of our nation than to connect each of them to their loved ones, their business, their future, now and for all the days ahead."

Veterans can access the business education and offerings by simply registering at both www.veteranscorp.org and www.BlackBOOK2.com. Simply click the icon on both sites and complete the FREE registration steps

"With this pairing every Veteran has the benefit of a worldwide video communications network at their fingertips," said Nalewaik. "As the daughter of an Air Force family, I know firsthand how important it is to stay connected and in touch with your family, friends and loved ones while on active duty and subsequent transitions into civilian life. BlackBOOK2.com is proud to be working with The Veterans Corporation to deliver a total complete communications, networking and business solution offerings that will build a solid Veteran business community."

About BlackBOOK2.com: Our corporate mission is to be "One World. One Site," a Social and Business Networking community offering a suite of "FREE" services to its members. BlackBOOK2.com focuses on utilizing its proprietary video CODEC's for video-mail, video chat and video streaming, to name a few. Membership is free.

For more information about BlackBOOK2.com, call 954-370-9900, email News@BlackBOOK2.com or go to www.BlackBOOK2.com.

U.S. Naval Institute, 28 Navy Chiefs, ONE Question
Twenty-eight of the world's naval leaders respond to the same question posed by Proceedings Magazine

Annapolis, MD- "How do you explain to your government and fellow citizens why your navy is necessary and worth what it costs?

That is the question editors at the U.S. Naval Institute's award-winning magazine Proceedings posed to the senior naval officer of each of the world's navies.

A total of 28 responded, ranging from the First Sea Lord of Britain's Royal Navy to the Chief of the Naval Staff of Pakistan and Chief of Staff of the Japanese Maritime Defense Force. All 28 responses are featured in the magazine's annual International Navies issue in March.

The answers reflect the diverse issues affecting navies which range in size from coastal guardian groups to deep-water fleets. Several took the question and modified it, answering in terms that served their individual situation.

"Rear Admiral David Ledson, Chief of Navy of the Royal New Zealand Navy, said our question got him to thinking about another question," noted James M. Caiella, Proceedings' associate editor. "He answered his own question, which was spot on to the spirit of ours and should provide his peers-and the rest of the sea service community-with much to consider."

"We believe that the responses from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh are not only interesting, but also significant," Caiella added. "To have responses from all three nations in one of the world focal points with such different navies and needs is meaningful."

Proceedings published its first International Navies issue 27 years ago. The survey of foreign Navy chiefs became part of the editorial package in 1992, reflecting changes spawned by the end of the Cold War.

"International Navies traditionally has been one of our most popular issues, but we also consider it one of our most important," said Robert Timberg, Editor-in-Chief of Proceedings. "No one is more aware of the impact of globalization than the men and women who sail the seas and we like to think this special issue contributes to mutual understanding." Read the full article at www.usni.org

ABOUT THE U.S. NAVAL INSTITUTE
Founded in 1873, the U.S. Naval Institute is a professional membership organization whose mission is to preserve and promote Naval Heritage and to provide an independent forum to address issues critical to national security. USNI hosts conferences, publishes Proceedings and Naval History magazines, and the Naval Institute Press publishes more than 75 professional and Mission-related books a year.

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