Gail Halvorsen

colonel, US Army Air Corps (ret.)

Colonel Gail Halvorsen is a retired career officer and command pilot in the US Air Force. He is best known for piloting C-47s and C-54s during the Berlin airlift (also known as "Operation Vittles") during 1948–1949. Halvorsen would go on to fill several domestic and overseas assignments during the remainder of his Air Force career. He returned to Germany in the early 1970s, as the commander of Tempelhof Air Base in western Berlin.