116th Anniversary First Flight Kitty Hawk

116th Anniversary of Powered Flight Celebration December 17, 2019 at the Wright Brothers National Memorial Park. Admission is free on December 17 and the Anniversary program begins at 9:00 a.m.

THIS IS A MONDAY, so plan early so you don’t miss it!

No longer a hidden figure in the history of NASA and Aviation, Mrs. Katherine Johnson will be inducted into the Paul E. Garber First Flight Society Shrine on December 17th!

ON DECEMBER 17, 2019 THE FIRST FLIGHT SOCIETY HONORS A 99-YEAR-OLD WWII VETERAN, THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BERLIN AIRLIFT AND THE 116TH ANNIVERSARY OF POWERED FLIGHT.

JOIN US AT WRIGHT BROTHERS NATIONAL MONUMENT IN KILL DEVIL HILLS, NC.

The First Flight Society annually honors those individuals and groups that have achieved significant “firsts” in aviation and includes them in our Paul E. Garber First Flight Shrine exhibit at the Wright Brothers National Memorial. This year’s honorees are 99-year-old Colonel Gail Halvorsen, USAF (Ret) “the Candy Bomber” and the Berlin Airlift (June 27, 1948 to May 12, 1949) commemorating the 70th Anniversary of that historic event.

On the morning of December 17, 2019 we will honor the Berlin Airlift 70^th Anniversary with ceremonies on the Wright Brothers National Memorial grounds at Kitty Hawk, NC. The 116th Anniversary Celebration of the Wright Brothers’ first flight will include General Maryanne Miller, Commander, USAF Air Mobility Command as keynote speaker.

Representatives of the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy, as well as representatives from the British and German Embassies are invited. Colonel Gail S. Halvorsen, USAF Ret. – the “Candy Bomber” and 2019 Paul E. Garber First Flight Shrine Inductee – will attend. We expect to have the traditional Flyover of the Wright Brothers Monument in tribute to the First Flight by USN C-40, USAF C-17, and German A400M aircraft, with a static display of the venerable C-54 Spirit of Freedom and C-47 Miss Virginia aircraft used in the airlift.

Colonel Halvorsen has received numerous other recognition and awards over the past decades by both international and domestic organizations since he was first recognized as the “Candy Bomber” of the Berlin Airlift and has become the face of those air crews that did so much in that humanitarian action, so it is truly fitting to honor him along with the amazing logistical success of the U.S., British and French military forces in sustaining the people of Berlin during the Soviet blockade. Despite dire shortages of fuel and electricity, the airlift kept life going in West Berlin for 11 months, until on May 12, 1949, the Soviet Union lifted the blockade. The airlift continued until September 30, 1949, at a total cost of $224 million and after delivery of 2,323,738 tons of food, fuel, machinery, and other supplies.

One of the most poignant stories of the Berlin Airlift was that of 1^st Lt. Gail S. Halvorsen. On July 17, he decided that he would hitch a ride on a C-54 and visit the City he was saving. Noticing a group of kids near the fence watching, he went over to them. During their conversation, the children, unlike others he had met during the War, did not ask him for any candy or gum. This struck him as unusual and as being too proud to beg. He made his decision then which was to become one of the symbols of the airlift. Reaching into his pocket he found that he had only two sticks of gum. Telling them that if they did not fight over it, he would drop some candy to them the next day. They agreed, taking the sticks of gum and dividing it among themselves. Before he left, one asked him how they would know it was him flying over. He replied, “I’ll wiggle my wings.”

The very next day, on his approach to Berlin, he rocked the wings and dropped some chocolate bars attached to a handkerchief parachute to the children waiting below. Every day later, the number of children increased, and he made more drops. Halvorsen didn’t tell anyone about what he was doing for fear he’d get in trouble. Then, he was called into his commander’s office and faced with a newspaper picture of Halvorsen’s plane and tiny parachutes trailing behind. His commander wasn’t happy about it, but General Tunner, commander of the airlift thought it was just the kind of gesture that the operation needed. It was dubbed “Operation Little Vittles”. In the end, over three tons of candy was dropped over Berlin, some even in the Soviet sector. For this simple kindhearted gesture, Halvorsen became the most recognized pilot of the Berlin Airlift.

During his career and for years following his Air Force retirement, he has voluntarily represented the U.S. Air Force and the USA. This has included reenactment of his famous candy drops in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift at the Tempelhof Central Airport with over 40,000 people in attendance, and again in 1989 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the airlift. Colonel Halvorsen did not want to merely re-enact candy drops for peacetime countries but has advocated using candy drops to lift spirits and promote goodwill in other nations. In 1994 he got the USAF to let him drop hundreds of candy bars over Bosnia-Herzegovina as part of “Operation Provide Promise”, and again over Kosovo in 1999. He celebrated the 70^th Anniversary so far this year with appearances at multiple events in the U.S. and Germany. Notably for us in Kitty Hawk, for the past 18 years the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation C-54 “Spirit of Freedom” has done December 17^th flyovers of the Wright Memorial and sometimes done candy drops, often with Colonel Halverson aboard. We are excited to announce that for the first time that C-54 (a genuine Navy Veteran of the Berlin Airlift (VR-3), with its onboard museum to the Berlin Airlift, will land and be on static display open to the public for the 16-17^th of December at the Wright Brothers National Memorial. It will be joined by a C-47 “Miss Virginia” so that both workhorse aircraft of the airlift will be there! This C-47 aircraft also flew Colonel Halvorsen during 70^th Anniversary Berlin Airlift events in Germany this summer.

As a 501(c)3 charitable organization, the First Flight Society welcomes donations to support this annual event which can be made through their website at https://firstflight.org/donate-now/.

The First Carolinians

In a time when scientific study has taught us a great deal about earlier civilizations, we know relatively little about Eastern North Carolina’s original inhabitants.

The indigenous peoples of the region were relatively isolated. Today, sandy soils make archeology difficult. But researchers believe that native Americans arrived in the Cape Fear area by at least 10,000 B.C.

Shell middens found on Bald Head Island, where Indians left the remains of their oystering and shellfishing, have been dated back eight hundred years.

When the Italian explorer Giovanni Da Verrazano visited the area in March 1524, sailing for Francis I of France, he found the natives friendly.

“They go nude of everything,” Verrazano wrote in his report to the king on July 8, 1524, “except that at the private parts they wear some skins of little animals . . . a girdle of fine grass woven with various tails of other animals which hang around the body as far as the knees; the rest nude; the head likewise. Some wear certain garlands of feathers of birds.”

Scholars believe these people were the Cape Fear Indians, who inhabited the river areas in present- day Brunswick and New Hanover Counties.

Like their northern neighbors, the Croatans, the Cape Fear Indians probably relied heavily on coastal estuaries for food, seining the sounds for small fish and collecting oysters and clams.

The Cape Fear Indians might have hunted extensively in coastal swamp- lands, stalking deer, bear, turkeys, and game birds with bow and arrow.

When Capt. William Hilton scouted the area for the English colonists from Barbados in 1662, he visited Necroes, a Cape Fear village in Brunswick County about twenty miles north of the river’s mouth.

The Indians seemed eager to trade, offering a variety of fish and acorns. This festival of friendship climaxed on December 1, 1663, when the chief WatCoosa deeded the river and contiguous lands to the English settlers.

The chief even gave the English two of his daughters to cement the deal.

From this point, however, American history slipped into a pattern it would often repeat. Disease introduced by the white explorers accounted for dreadful loss, and wars between the Indians themselves were made worse by the introduction of the white men’s firearms.

In 1715, Col. Maurice Moore and a force of Tuscaroras, heading to fight the Yamassee Indians in South Carolina, detoured to fight the Waccamaws and the Cape Fear Indians, driving most of them from the region.

The Yamassee War largely finished the native Americans in coastal North Carolina. In southeastern North Carolina, traveler Hugh Meredith reported to Benjamin Franklin in 1730, “There is not am Indian to be seen in this place.”

Not all Indian presence was eradicated, though. Many Native American groups survived, apparently by moving inland through the Green Swamp into counties where their descendants can be found today.

The Museum of Coastal Carolina in Ocean Isle Beach devotes an entire section to the first inhabitants of this region, with many artifacts found in the immediate area. It is well worth a trip to see some of its wonderful exhibits.

The excerpt you are reading is from the book “Tales of the Silver Coast” by author and illustrator Miller Pope and author Jacqueline DeGroot.

Buy it in the Island Life NC Store here!

Vintage Ocean Isle Beach Prints

Do you remember the golden old days of Ocean Isle Beach? We do too! We’ve got a collection of quality giclee prints of some of our favorite landmarks from the glory days of OIB. Take home the memories of Ocean Isle and enjoy the simpler days of our beloved beach.

Available in print sizes 5 x 7, 8 x 10 , 11 x 14, and 16 x 20. All prints are giclee prints printed on acid-free paper, printed with a half inch white border.

Buy Ocean Isle Vintage Prints Here

Available at Islands Art & Bookstore

6885 Beach Dr. SW, Ocean Isle Beach, NC.

910-579-7757 • info@islandsartstore.com

The Old Boundary House

The site of the old boundary house in Calabash is obscured by woods today, however, in earlier times the house marked the state boundary between North and South Carolina.

According to his 1773 journal, itinerant minister Joseph Pilmoor (who had preached the first Methodist sermon in North Carolina in 1772), stopped to eat at the “Boundary House” and indicated that this structure stood exactly on the line between the two Carolinas.

He stated that the Boundary House had been built by twentyfour gentlemen – twelve from each province—as a meeting place. He further noted that the accommodations were extremely good.

The site chosen was a good one; it sits on a rise only a few hundred feet from the Calabash River near Little River Inlet.

It would have been the most convenient place to meet in the 1700s, when most travel was by boat. The site also enjoys a magnificent view.

When the province of Carolina was divided into North and South Carolina in 1712, the boundary between the two provinces was the Cape Fear River. All the land which became Brunswick County was in South Carolina.

In November 1729, the North Carolina General Assembly created New Hanover County and they moved the boundary southeast to Little River Inlet. In 1735 the present boundary was officially established, and the Boundary House was probably built a short time afterward.

Over the years the Boundary House served as a meeting place, a place to hold religious services, a “public house” or tavern, and a place of residence.

On May 9, 1775, a courier from Brunswick Town arrived there, bearing the news of the Battle of Lexington. Justice of the Peace Isaac Marion, an older brother of “Swamp Fox” Francis Marion, was living at the Boundary House. He rushed the message to the Committee of Safety at Little River and other committees southward to Charles- ton and Savannah.

In 1776 The Boundary House briefly paid host to General Nash and his army of nine thousand Continental soldiers who encamped around the building while on the march from Wilmington to Charleston.

It is also sometimes rumored that George Washington slept at the Boundary House on his southern tour in 1791. Though it is not known for certain, since the Boundary House was on his route it’s likely he at least stopped there.

The Boundary House was considered an ideal place to fight duels. North Carolina law forbade dueling, so it was an easy matter to just step over the line if North Carolina officers arrived to break up an illegal fight.

On June 28, 1805, Gen. Benjamin Smith and Capt. Maurice Moore held a duel at the boundary house. Both men fired and missed.

They both took one pace forward and fired again. General Smith fell to the ground with a bullet in his chest. He recovered—going on to fight more duels and to become governor of North Carolina.

An old North Carolina law would not allow the body of a debtor to be released for burial until the debt was paid, and according to a story, when Gen. Smith later died in debt, his family secretly buried the body.

Years later, when family members attempted to locate the body, they were unable to positively identify it. But a local woman told them that that the bullet taken at the Boundary House had never been removed. Using a sifter to sort through the remains, she found the bullet that identified the general.

By the time of the Civil War, the Boundary House was in ruin (a mapping error refers to “Old Boundary House Chimney”). The line was surveyed again in 1928, and the surveyors located the brick used in the house’s chimney and piers.