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-12.08.25

AirborneNextGen-
12.02.25

Airborne-Unlimited-12.03.25

Airborne-FltTraining-12.04.25

AirborneUnlimited-12.05.25

AFE 2025 LIVE MOSAIC Town Hall (Archived): www.airborne-live.net

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

Aero-News: Quote of the Day (12.07.25)

“This vote sends an undeniable message to Air Transat management: We are unified, resolute, and have earned a contract that reflects today’s industry standards, not the>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (12.07.25)

Aero Linx: Beech Aero Club The Beech Aero Club (BAC) is the international type club for owners and pilots of the Beech Musketeer aircraft and its derivatives, the Sport, Super, Sun>[...]

NTSB Final Report: Lafferty Jack Sea Rey

While Landing In The River, The Extended Landing Gear Contacted The Water And The Airplane Nosed Over, Resulting In Substantial Damage Analysis: The pilot of the amphibious airplan>[...]

Classic Aero-TV: The B29 SuperFortress ‘Doc’ - History in Flight

From 2022 (YouTube Edition): Carrying the Legacy of The B-29 For Generations to Come We had a chance to chat with the Executive Director of B-29 Doc, Josh Wells, during their stop >[...]

Airborne 12.08.25: Samaritan’s Purse Hijack, FAA Med Relief, China Rocket Fail

Also: Cosmonaut Kicked Out, Airbus Scales Back, AF Silver Star, Russian A-60 Clobbered A Samaritan’s Purse humanitarian flight was hijacked on Tuesday, December 2, while atte>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

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