LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – A nonprofit is celebrating the men who fought to help America reach its 250th birthday with flights in a plane built more than 80 years ago.<\/p>\n
The World War II-era Boeing Stearman biplane now serves a new purpose \u2014 honoring the men it was built for and the ones who came after, like Steve Oien. He is the commander for the Military Order of the Purple Heart South Plains Chapter.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad learned to fly in the Army Air Corps in a Stearman like that one there, so it was quite the experience seeing what he went through,\u201d Oien said.<\/p>\n
The nonprofit Dream Flights was founded in 2011. The Carson City, Nevada-based organization has honored more than 8,000 veterans across 49 states. Its partnership coordinator, Brian Corbett, said the goal is to uplift veterans and thank them for their sacrifices in a unique way.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur mission is giving back to those who gave. And so we\u2019re just saying thank you to so many veterans who didn\u2019t get a proper welcome home, or a proper thank you when they got back… you know, we say we like to take 90-year-olds and make them 19 again,\u201d Corbett said.<\/p>\n
The pilots volunteer their time to command the historic aircraft. Many are active or retired commercial airline and military aviators.<\/p>\n
Lubbock VFW Commander Sarah Weede says the nonprofit\u2019s mission of making the veterans feel young again was accomplished.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see the youth in their eyes that\u2019s coming out, so it\u2019s exciting for them,\u201d Weede said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was awesome. I\u2019d do it again and again and again. It was amazing,\u201d Oien said.<\/p>\n
The journey to the skies is extra special as America celebrates its 250th birthday. Weede said it is a way for everyone to remember how the nation got to this point.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see where we\u2019ve come, and we know what the cost of freedom is, and always remembering that, whether it\u2019s the 250th or the 255th, whenever we\u2019re five years from now, it\u2019s always important. But it\u2019s especially important because this is a huge time in our country, celebrating 250 years,\u201d Weede said.<\/p>\n
The flights were free for the veterans, thanks in part to donations from the community. National partners include Sport Clips Haircuts, American Airlines, Allied Pilots Association, Veterans United Home Loans, Vital Life Foundation and Incite Strategic Partners. <\/p>\n
You can make a tax deductible donation or find more information at dreamflights.org.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 KCBD. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – A nonprofit is celebrating the men who fought to help America reach its 250th…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[168,170,169],"class_list":["post-337769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}