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-06.10.24

Airborne-NextGen-06.11.24

 Airborne-Unlimited-06.12.24 Airborne-FltTraining-06.13.24

Airborne-Unlimited-06.14.24

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

ANNouncement: Now Accepting Applications For Oshkosh 2024 Stringers!!!

An Amazing Experience Awaits The Chosen Few... Oshkosh, to us, seems the perfect place to get started on watching aviation recover the past couple of years... and so ANN is putting>[...]

Aero-News: Quote of the Day (06.13.24)

“NBAA has a tremendous responsibility to the business aviation industry, and we are constantly collaborating with them. Our flight departments, professionals and aircraft own>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (06.13.24): Dead Reckoning

Dead Reckoning Dead reckoning, as applied to flying, is the navigation of an airplane solely by means of computations based on airspeed, course, heading, wind direction, and speed,>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (06.13.24)

Aero Linx: Vertical Aviation Safety Team (VAST) We are a public–private initiative to enhance worldwide flight operations safety in all segments of the vertical flight indust>[...]

ANN FAQ: How Do I Become A News Spy?

We're Everywhere... Thanks To You! Even with the vast resources and incredibly far-reaching scope of the Aero-News Network, every now and then a story that should be reported on sl>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Change Display

Headlines Only | Headlines w/ Teasers | View Everything

Advertisement

Top Videos

Airborne 06.14.24: Air Race Classic, Bong's P-38, Powered Lift Regs

Airborne-Flight Training 06.13.24: Abandoned Students, Nolinor C172, Simming

Airborne 06.12.24: Stupid Heli Trix, Seaplane v Boat, Aussie NIMBY

See All

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2024 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC