TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – Big Bend area veterans had the chance of a lifetime – to fly in a WWII-era biplane above Tallahassee.
It’s all part of a “Dream Flight” sponsored by the Florida Healthcare Association.
Five veterans took off from Tallahassee International Airport Friday morning.
The veterans got an aerial tour of Doak Campbell Stadium, both university campuses, and the state capitol building.
One of the veterans who flew on Friday was Sylvester Jackson, who joined the Army back in 1974.
He reflected on his younger years before heading up in the plane.
“I went on a plane back in my youth days,” Jackson said.
Despite being the first vet to take to the skies, he wasn’t nervous at all.
“I’m just not nervous,” he said. “I’m not afraid at all.”
The Florida Healthcare Association partnered with a group called Dream Flights to bring these folks from their care homes to the tarmac.
“I get tears in my eyes every time we watch a veteran go from their wheelchair up into the biplane,” Emmett Reed, the CEO of the Florida Healthcare Association. “They get a beautiful 15-minute flight around Tallahassee.”
Reed said these flights are a special way to give back.
“So, we make sure that we recognize not only our veterans that are in our care centers as residents or employees, but also their loved ones and their spouses. So, it’s just a little way for us to say thank you,” Reed said.
“If everybody could just do a little bit to honor their veterans, I think the world will be a much better place,” Reed continued.
For more information on how you or a loved one might be able to get up into the sky for your own Dream Flight, visit this website.
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