Veterans catch a ride in the wild blue yonder
For eight Texarkana, Texas, senior adults, the sky proved to be no limit when it came taking a day out for adventure in the wild blue yonder Friday.
The Texas-side based Cornerstone Retirement Center offered four military veterans as well as the spouses of four deceased military veterans the chance to fly in vintage World War II military pilot training plane
Friday just outside the Truman Arnold Companies Air Service stationed out at the Texarkana Regional Airport.
The idea to offer these veterans and veterans’ spouses the chance to fly the inside the vintage 1942 Boeing Stearman, happened recently when Anita Hicks, life enrichment director for Cornerstone, saw an E-mail advertisement put out by the Carson City, Nev.-based Ageless Aviation Dreams Foundation, a nonprofit volunteer organization dedicated to honoring both seniors and U.S. military veterans living in retirement centers across the country.
“When I saw this add, I thought I would go ahead and ask some our our seniors if they were interested, and several were so, we filled out an application,” Hicks said, “I never dreamed this foundation would come to Texarkana, but they did and we’re sure glad to have them here.”
For Darryl Fisher, who pilots the 1942 Boeing Stearman, the chance serve military veterans with the chance to take free flights in the trainer, was to him a life long dream come true and this prompted him to for eventually form the foundation which started these flights across the country March 29, 2011.
“Our mission is to give back to those veterans who have given us and our country so much,” Fisher said. “We are a volunteer group of pilots with three airplanes and the foundation relies on 100 percent donations from people and businesses that like to see things like this happen. Right now, we are flying from the south to the north part of the U.S. as the weather gets warm.”
During the flights, Fisher takes the seniors up for a free, 15-minute flight about 1,000 feet up, just high enough to get a pleasant few of the country side and city.
For Cornerstone resident Jackie Rehkopf, getting chance to fly in the Stearman giver her the best way to celebrate her 92nd birthday coming up May 1.
“My husband, Albert “Bubba” Rehkopf (now deceased) was trained to be a gunner in a B-29 Superfortress,” she said.
For Bernice Embrey, 86, she said the chance to fly in a Stearman is a good way to pay tribute to her late husband Wallace Embrey, who served as a U.S. Army Air Force Technical Sergeant during World War II.
“We are also a group that just likes to have fun, ”she said.