95-year-old WWII vet from Wahoo flies in B-17 for first time since 1945

[COLGATE4]

3. A friend of mine flew ME 109's in WW II until

the Luftwaffe ran out of gas then became a paratrooper until he was finally captured by the US in Italy where he became a translator for the American Army. In later years he got his pilot's license in the US - funny story, they made him take flying lessons! He and his flying instructor did not get along at all. His 'final exam' was to see what he'd do when the instructor turned off the engine, telling him "OK, you've lost your engine - what do you do now?". My friend calmly took the key out of the ignition, threw it out the window of the single engine plane and announced "Vell, now ve are going to crash land!" which he then proceeded to do in a pasture with quite a bit of damage to the instructor's plane. He later told me that since he had already crash landed three times before on the Russian Front this time wasn't any big deal. And no, he didn't get his license (at least not that time!).