Gail ‘Hal’ Halvorsen, born in Salt Lake City in 1920, grew up on small farms in rural Utah and Idaho. He worked hard, went to church, and dreamed of learning to fly. In 1941, he earned his private pilot’s license and joined the Civil Air Patrol. In December of that year, Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japan and the U.S. declared war. In 1942, he joined the U.S. Army Air Forces, received military flight training, and was sent to fly supply missions in the South Atlantic. In 1948, after the war, he was stationed in Germany, flying C-54 cargo planes into West Berlin as part of the U.S. effort to…