"chocolate uncle" news and stories

A North Carolina town, an hour north of the beach where the Wright Brothers completed their first flight, is using thousands of chocolate bars to cultivate a new generation of aviators.

Next week in Elizabeth City, Ret. Air Force Col. Gail Halvorsen will re-enact the famed Berlin Airlift of 1948-49, during which he dropped chocolates wrapped in handkerchiefs to children waiting below. Just as he did last year, the 90-year old flier will release locally-made candy bars affixed to miniature parachutes from a restored 1954 Douglas C-54.

(Unlike last year, the receiving students will be segregated by age: "We found that some of the little kids were disadvantaged by bigger kids who trampled them," says Wayne Harris, director of the Albemarle Economic Development Commission.)

Read more about the chocolate drop.