The Time and Place: Last
weekend, September 4th on a pretty Saturday morning, at Branhams
airport, a grass strip outside of Darlington Speedway. We drove out to meet Darryl Fisher, CEO of
Dream Flights and driving force behind Operation September Freedom, a joint
venture with VFW and several other sponsors, including our great friends at
Sport Clips! It was a beautiful crisp
morning, no clouds, no wind…as Darryl noted, “This is a 9.9 out of 10 day to be
flying in a Stearman Bi-Plane!” And he
was so right. Also at the field were
Sport Clips representatives and a lot of VFW members from both North and South
Carolina, to include Department Commanders Russ from NC and Dwight from
SC. It was so nice they turned out to
watch me take the ride of a lifetime!
Operation September Freedom is Darryl’s baby and we have
worked almost a year to bring it to fruition.
Over the months of August and September, the goal was to fly as many
World War II veterans in all 50 states in these historic WWII bi-plane training
aircraft. Lots of logistics of course
but worth every minute of planning over the many months. The first flights started at the beginning of
August and will go through the end of September. To date, we’ve flown almost 500 WWII veterans
in 46 states…our goal is to fly 1,000 veterans from World War II. Many
of these veterans at near or over the age of 100!! For many it was the thrill of a lifetime and
they opened up about their wartime experiences for the first time since the
1940s. We are fortunate to have had so many
family members and VFW members turning up at local airports all over the
country to cheer these heroes from yesteryear on to their planes and into the
skies. It’s an awesome tribute to the
greatest generation!
The plane Darryl chose for my flight had special meaning for
him! It was built in the 1940s as a
training craft and his grandfather purchased it as war surplus in 1946. It had been in the family for years and then
was sold. Later, the person who bought
it from his grandfather wanted to sell it and Darryl said YES before the
conversation went any further. What a
great back story about this particular plane and how special it is to
Darryl. After getting instructions on
how to get my rather large frame into the front seat [I have no idea how
centenarians managed to do this with the grace they have shown!], I climbed up
the side of the open cockpit aircraft and got belted in. Donning the obligatory leather hat, I was
ready to go!
As we taxied down the small grass airstrip I once again
realized how fortunate I am to do the things I do as the VFW Commander in
Chief. Thank you everyone for your faith
in me to do this! Darryl and I talked
over the intercom and the fun soon began.
As we zoomed down the grass I looked left and saw the VFW and Sport
Clips folks waiving and cheering and we were up in the air! “Oh I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth….!” Flying at just over 1000 feet and an average
speed of 100 mph, with an open cockpit, it truly was flying. And yet, not a bump, no wind, beautiful
temperature and blue skies all around.
It felt like being in a glider as we flew all around the local
area. We flew over the Darlington
Speedway several times and it was pretty neat thinking that later in the
afternoon I’d be in the middle of that infield doing my thing with the Sport
Clips Help A Hero 200 race!
Thirty minutes later, much later than anticipated because it
was just so darn wonderful up there, we came back for a landing. Circling the airstrip we came in for the
smoothest landing on the softest grass you can imagine. My cheeks still hurt from smiling so
much! Marcus the flight engineer and
youngest pilot in the Dream Flights team at 24, hopped up and unstrapped
me. It really was just a web belt
harness keeping me in that thing. I was
concerned we would need a small crane to pull me out of the front seat but I managed
to climb out without losing too much of my dignity. Then again, who cares how you look when
you’ve just had the thrill of a lifetime, right? Lots of pics and videos have already been
around social media, but I was just happy to savor the moment and think how
wonderful this must be for the great World War II veterans who are experiencing
Dream Flights as part of Operation September Freedom all over the country.
After climbing out, Darryl and I stood by the plane and made some remarks to the nice crowd that stayed the whole time, sharing thanks and stories. Darryl said he had something for me and presented me a really cool Operation September Freedom/Dream Flights ball cap, complete with a nice message and autograph on the bill. In turn, I had a little something for him: A $10,000 donation from the VFW to Dream Flights so they can continue the awesome work they do. Darryl immediately asked if anyone had another hat! You can see the check presentation [I'm already wearing my hat!] at
https://www.facebook.com/1437604953/videos/pcb.10227922516275102/2657682957872902
What a thrilling start to a great day! Check out Dream Flights and Operation September Freedom on the many platforms they have. If you see a flight coming near you, I encourage you to take the time to see our Greatest Generation having the time of their lives! You can also make a donation to keep these planes in the skies with our World War II veterans! https://dreamflights.org/ and FB @DreamFlightsOrg
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