ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 Ten Lehigh Valley veterans took to the skies Thursday in a World War II-era biplane as part of a national program honoring military service.<\/p>\n
For 90-year-old Chuck Jackson, the experience was something new despite a 46-year military career that included service in Korea and Vietnam.<\/p>\n
Jackson served as an Army Ranger, as well as in airborne and infantry units.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never been on an airplane like that, so that was delightful,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cI\u2019ve jumped out of a lot of airplanes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot this one today,\u201d Koltnow joked.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot that one today,\u201d Jackson replied.<\/p>\n
Jackson was one of 10 veteran residents from Country Meadows who participated in flights out of Queen City Airport.<\/p>\n
The group also included 100-year-old Navy veteran Leonard Glazer and National Guardsman Richard Bohner.<\/p>\n
The approximately 10-minute open-air flights gave the veterans a view over Allentown and surrounding communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a great time,\u201d Bohner said. \u201cThe pilot takes you places that you sort of recognize.\u201d<\/p>\n
The flights were provided by Dream Flights, a national nonprofit organization that honors veterans and seniors through rides in vintage military aircraft.<\/p>\n
Founder and pilot Darryl Fisher said the experience is meaningful for those giving the flights as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s priceless,\u201d Fisher said. \u201cBeing able to do this for them at this point in their life is just a beautiful thing. I\u2019ve said many times, I get more out of it than they do.\u201d<\/p>\n
For veterans whose extraordinary lives once included military service and war, the flight offered a chance to see familiar places from a very different perspective.<\/p>\n
Jackson said the route took him over places that have shaped his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe flew over our house in Allentown, flew over the high school that I spent a lot of money supporting,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cI flew over Country Meadows. We just saw everything. I took a lot of pictures.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Jackson and the other veterans, the short flight provided more than a ride in a historic aircraft \u2014 it offered a new view of home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 Ten Lehigh Valley veterans took to the skies Thursday in a World War II-era biplane…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[214,119,121,120,232],"class_list":["post-273607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-allentown-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}