WWII Veteran Gets Special Birthday Gift | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

 Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-08.25.25

Airborne-NextGen-08.26.25

AirborneUnlimited-08.27.25

Airborne-AffordableFlyers-08.28.25

AirborneUnlimited-08.22.25

Sun, Mar 12, 2017

WWII Veteran Gets Special Birthday Gift

Flies In A B-17 For His 99th Birthday

A WWII veteran received a special gift for his 99th birthday ... a ride in a restored B-17 bomber. And Sergeant Eugene Leonard said the experience took him right back to 1941.

Fox News reports that the flight was arranged by Guy Coulombe, who befriended Leonard at a monthly meeting of Pearl Harbor survivors in San Diego two years ago. Leonard had recently lost his second wife, and Coulombe hoped that the B-17 experience would cheer him up.

Leonard joined the Marines in 1936, and later served in the Air Force as a mechanic. During the war, he was shot down and survived, according to the report.

While Leonard said he spent "thousands of hours in the R4D and C46," the birthday ride was his first time in a B-17.

Coulombe said that Leonard was probably indirectly responsible for saving about 40 lives during the war through his work on airplanes and "preventing pilots from making mistakes."

(Image from file)

FMI: Full Story

Advertisement

More News

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (08.27.25)

Aero Linx: The American Society of Aerospace Medicine Specialists (ASAMS) The Society is a non-profit organization created to serve as a voice for and represent the professional ne>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (08.27.25): Class C Service

Class C Service This service provides, in addition to basic radar service, approved separation between IFR and VFR aircraft, and sequencing of VFR aircraft, and sequencing of VFR a>[...]

ANN FAQ: Submit a News Story!

Have A Story That NEEDS To Be Featured On Aero-News? Here’s How To Submit A Story To Our Team Some of the greatest new stories ANN has ever covered have been submitted by our>[...]

Airborne-NextGen 08.26.25: Iran UAV Knockoffs, X-37B Spaceplane, Army Training

Also: ERAU Uses UAVs, P550 Group 2 UAS, Starship’s Florida Launches, NASA Missions Chopped The Air Force has put out a call to commission a one-to-one copy of the Iranian-des>[...]

Classic Klyde Morris (08.25.25)

Classic Klyde Morris From 11.07.16 (and Remembering Bob...) FMI: www.klydemorris.com>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Change Display

Headlines Only | Headlines w/ Teasers | View Everything

Advertisement

Top Videos

Airborne 08.29.25: G800 Delivery, Alaska F-35 Crash, USCG-RCAF Medevac

Airborne Affordable Flyers 08.28.25: Midwest Av Expo, Vickers, Air Race Classic

Airborne 08.27.25: Air Race Tkt Discounts, Europe AvGas, Deportation Flights?

See All

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC