FORT DODGE, Iowa (KWWL) – A WWII veteran took to the skies over Fort Dodge Thursday in the flight of a lifetime. It was organized through Dream Flights, an organization giving veterans free flights in a fleet of WWII-era biplanes.
It was all waves and smiles at the Fort Dodge Regional Airport as 95-year-old Donald Patz was helped into the Boeing-Stearman biplane, a plane that is 18 years younger than he is.
Dream Flights operates a small fleet of the Boeing-Stearman planes. These planes were used as training aircraft for pilots in WWII.
“It was wonderful. That was really wonderful,” said Patz. “I was never in nothing like that, other than a Piper Cub and that was in the 40s.”
Patz served in the Army from 1942 to 1946. After his basic training in Texas, he was sent to the Pacific and spent most of the war in the Philippines. After the war, he said they were sent to Japan for about six months.
Like many men and women of his time, the war is a memory kept inside. “He never really talked aboout it. Once and a while, my kids would get him to talk about it. He would talk about the boat trip and how awful the food was,” said Carol Stocking, Patz' daughter.
The flight lasted all of about 20 minutes on a chilly morning, but it was certainly enough to make a difference to Patz and his family.
“They flew by his lake. I don't know if he's ever seen it like that,” said Stocking.
“It looked like a little puddle down there,” said Patz.
Patz' daughters noted how special this was and that it was a unique way of saying “thank you” to people like their father and that people do care about veterans. His three daughters did not have a hand in setting up the flight. Instead, this was the doing of his care home in Manson, Iowa.
This year, Dream Flights has limited its tour to just WWII veterans. Of the 16 million men and women who served in the war, there are just an estimated 100,000 still with us.
After the flight, Patz was honored with a quilt from the Quilts of Valor Foundation for his service in the war.
More information on the Dream Flights and their upcoming schedule can be found here.
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"It was really wonderful," Fort Dodge-area veteran gets a special flight - kwwl.com
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