Aged Pilot Flies Again

LEE

Posted By: Joey Stark
Date: 9/25/2008 at 15:06:05

"The Fairfield Ledger", Friday, September 19, 2008, Pages 8 and 9
(Farm & Home Weekly, Wednesday, September 24, 2008)

Howard LEE
World War II airman flies again
- Story by Mira Cash-Davis of the
- Golden Triangle News Service

Howard LEE got a wish answered this summer.

LEE, 94, has advanced Parkinson's disease and resides at Parkview Care Center. He can only move one limb very well, and his friend who has his Power of Attorney, Joseph Parr, said LEE usually leans to one side with his eyes closed.

During World War II, LEE flew a troop transport plane in North Africa. He was only shot at once, in friendly fire. He went on to fly a training plane for the armed services in Texas.

One of LEE's wishes was to fly a plane again because, in Parr's words, "He loved to fly, and he was very good at it."

Charity Lovan, a nurse with Hospice of Central Iowa, heard about LEE's wish to fly again at a meeting. Lovan knew Hospice of Central Iowa occasionally gets to grant wishes through Make A Wish, part of its Quality of Life program. Quality of Life is a special program funded each year through donor's gifts.

Quality of Life is about making the best of the time remaining by reuniting family members, making an accommodation or fulfilling a special wish.

Lovan knew a man in Wayland, Neil Reichenbach, a childhood friend of her husband's and hers, with access to a P-19 single-engine acrobatic plane.

"I'm not a full-time pilot by any means," Reichenbach said, "but I do a little bit of flying for the (restoration) company I work for."

There was still another problem. LEE was not able to ride in a car.

"It was really kind of looking impossible when you looked at everything that had to be done to get this man in an airplane," Lovan said.

Lovan said that the town of Wayland has a minibus it allows people to use. She arranged for its use. When the day arrived, Lovan drove the minibus to Fairfield and Parr picked up LEE at Parkview Care Center. Lovan drove the minibus to the Fairfield airport, where Reichenbach was waiting.

"Fortunately the pilot was a very large man. He was able to lift Howard up and place him in the cockpit," Parr said. Parr said he was afraid if more than one of them had to lift LEE they might have hurt him.

The pilot climbed in front on LEE's left. Parr got in back at right, and the nurse got in the back left.

"I tell you what, this is the oldest person I've ever flown," Reichenbach said.

"The (Hospice of Central Iowa) team felt that really a nurse should probably fly with him, knowing his condition and that if something were to happen, a nurse should probably be present," Lovan said. "We just didn't want to put that responsibility on the pilot."

"We took off," Parr said, "And Howard was not very well that day - he didn't have a whole lot of energy." Parr, LEE and Reichenbach had headsets on so they could speak to each other.

"Howard was leaning as he does sometimes to the left and his eyes were basically closed," Parr said.

Parr asked permission for LEE to fly the plane. Reichenbach put LEE's right hand on the steering column. The plane began going into a slow right-hand turn.

"There were times when I was unsure he was actually doing it," Reichenbach said. "He would basically do turns and then level out."

Reichenbach asked LEE to go straight.

Parr told LEE over the radio, "'Howard, show them that you know what you're doing,' and with his eyes closed and with one arm left (in use) he straightened the plane out. It was just as beautiful as could be."

"Almost a quadriplegic, one limb he can move, and for about an hour he got to be up in a plane and fly," Parr said.

"You could just tell that he was probably living back (through his time as a pilot)," Lovan said.

Would Reichenbach do it again?

"You bet. It was a great experience. I had a lot of fun," Reichenbach said. "If this was one of his last wishes, I was happy to be a part of it."

Lovan said, "Even though I might have been the one to go up with him, it's a huge team effort to get this pulled off." She said it took the cooperation of the pilot and of the Hospice of Central Iowa team. "I work with an awesome team," she said.

When Hospice asked afterward what would have made his wish better, Parr reported that LEE said, "Let's do it again!"

*Transcribed for genealogy purposes; I have no relation to the person(s) mentioned.

(Below) - Howard LEE, a World War II airman, recently got his wish to fly again, and Charity Lovan with Hospice of Central Iowa helped make that wish come true. (GTNS photo)

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