MEDINA, Ohio — Thursday at Medina Municipal Airport, a large crowd was gathered around a restored World War II Boeing-Stearman biplane.
But the flight wasn't for them; it was for a special group of heroes.
"It was beautiful," 90-year-old veteran James Kuhel said. "Everything that I ever expected appeared."
Kuhel was a corporal in the U.S. Army Artillery, and knows about planes.
"(I) was in the, what they called the anti-aircraft operation center," he told us.
He's used to building these planes, but had never been in one until Thursday, thanks to Dream Flights.
"It's just a wonderful experience all around," volunteer pilot Hunter Stuckey said.
To Stuckey, gifting these Dream Flights is an honor.
"I get to share my passion with these amazing people that have given us the freedoms that we all enjoy today here in the United States, so it's wonderful," he added. "I mean, I'm up there smiling, too."
Carl Heckert, 80, is a U.S. Navy veteran and a former pilot.
"That was 50-plus years ago," Heckert said, through laughs. "When I was in the service, I worked part-time. It was at a small airport like this one as a ramp agent."
That's why taking his flight was so special. He went up and away into the clouds, a ride five decades in the making.
No matter the reasons these heroes were here, they went soaring into grateful skies, where, for just a few moments, nothing else mattered except for the beauty they saw below.
"It's wonderful to do this for us, and these guys travel all over the world," Hackett gushed. "We really appreciate it. It's great."
