Going from 90 to 19. WWII vets fly again to commemorate their service

The 1944 Boeing-Stearman’s propeller revs up and the biplane races down the runway before ascending over Puget Sound.

In that moment, many World War II veterans go from 90 to 19.

“It’s beautiful to see them transform,” said Lynn Sommars, crew chief with the Ageless Aviation Dreams Foundation, which gives senior veterans free rides in restored World War II-era aircraft.

“All of a sudden they forget their walkers and canes and become teenagers again,” she said. “It helps them remember things they have almost forgotten.”

Sommars and others from the non-profit based in Carson City, Nevada, spent the July 11 at the Tacoma Narrows Airport with seniors from Harbors Place at Cottesmore. About 10 veterans were given the chance of a lifetime to fly one more time.

For Harbor Place executive director Nicole Roberts, seeing the smiles on her residents’ faces was an emotional experience.

“They have just given so much to us,” she said. “This was an opportunity we wanted to take for them. Some of these residents have been with us for five to seven years. When I saw our first resident fly, he didn’t stop smiling. It was beautiful. It gave me goosebumps.”

Many of the veterans suffer from dementia and have physical restrictions. Sommars said seniors have told her the pain goes away while they’re in the air.

“They reach down in their heart while in the sky and pull out a lot of memories,” Sommars said. “They go from being pillars in the community to having just a small room with a dresser. But seeing their transformation after the flight, it’s incredible.”

For Elmer Hart and his son, Wes, flying wasn’t something new.

“This is a bit emotional for me because, growing up, my dad was a pilot,” Wes Hart said.

During World War II, Elmer Hart was a medic and became a full-time physician in Crescent City, California, after the war. He flew a Piper Cub for fun and to transport patients with medical emergencies to bigger hospitals in the state.

“My plane was encased, so you couldn’t feel the wind,” Elmer Hart said after his ride in the open-cockpit biplane. “But this was all the wind. It was great fun.”

Wes Hart remembers “flying around with Dad,” making many, many flights as a 6- or 7-year-old in his father’s little plane.

This time the son was in control.

“He’s a meek, 95-year-old-man,” the younger Hart said of his dad. “He told the facility he didn’t want to do this. But I was like, ‘You’re kidding me.’ So I went and picked him up and told him he didn’t have a choice.”

Elmer Hart was happy to be in the plane, fitted out with a cap and radio so he could speak with the pilot, Mike Sommars.

“It’s really neat what (Ageless Aviation) does for these veterans,” Wes Hart said. “There’s not many of these World War II vets around. It’s a neat, neat thing.”

One couple spent the day together, flying and remembering their time in the Navy.

John and Juanita “Nita” McVeigh have been married more than 60 years, having met on the East Coast at the end of the war.

She was a Navy nurse. He was an oral surgeon for the Navy and training to be a pilot. He said he met Juanita on the base and knew he needed to marry her before anyone else did.

Then he was sent to flight training.

“I was sent to camp to learn to fly,” John McVeigh said. “But then we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and the war was over, so I was told to turn back around.”

Now, 73 years later, he enjoyed watching his wife go first in the biplane, laughing as she took her cap off and exposed her wind-blown hair.

“That was a bit scary,” she said. “But I am glad I did it. It was beautiful, beautiful scenery — when I could open my eyes.”

Ageless Aviation began in 2011 and has flown more than 3,300 veterans in restored World War II planes across the country. The U.S. military used Boeing-Stearman biplanes to train new pilots before they were sent overseas.

For Sommars, sharing a sunny day in the Pacific Northwest with the seniors was special.

“This is living history,” she said. “Spending a day with them, you learn things you never learned in history class. This is a great way to repay them.”