‘Back in time’: Wasilla senior veterans’ dreams take flight at Wasilla Airport

WASILLA — Several senior veterans from the Primrose Retirement Community of Wasilla got the chance to venture out of their bedrooms and take to the skies.

“My favorite’s seeing the WWII veterans go from being 90 years to 17 all of a sudden. This inner child just comes out of them,” Karl Gratriex, mechanic for Ageless Aviation Dreams Foundation said.

On Tuesday, the national nonprofit Ageless Aviation Dreams Foundation gathered with seniors and Primrose staff at the Wasilla Airport. The long retired veterans living under long-term care were loaded into a Boeing Stearman Model 75 biplane and took off on their Dream Flights.

“It just never gets old,” Darryl Fisher, Ageless Aviation Dreams Foundation founder/president and pilot said.

Fisher has been doing this for nine years in the Lower 48. Alaska is the 42nd state they’ve done and he’s working to mark off all 50 states. He said that as a volunteer, he gets paid in satisfaction.

“You can see the joy and beauty of what we’re doing,” Fisher said.

The Boeing Stearman Model 75 was used extensively by the U.S. military during WWII as the primary trainer aircraft.

Tyson Whittock owns the Stearman used during the Dream Flights at the Wasilla Airport. He bought and restored it three years ago. He said this plane was the “perfect element” to stir up feelings of nostalgia and step back into the 1940’s.

“I think it’s a wonderful thing… Some of these old guys, their ambitions reoccur,” Whittock said.

Whittock said that Ageless Aviation is a wonderful program and he will likely offer his plane to Fisher again next year, perhaps in Anchorage.

“I think it’s very important. These people sit around with nothing to do and this brings them back in time and they realize they can get out and do it again,” Whittock said.

Walter Fergus is the only living veteran in Alaska who was a POW during WWII. He’s 94 years old and was one of several Primrose veteran residents that got to fly that day.

“It was like the coolest thing ever,” Primrose Sales and Marketing Director Dana Travis said. “I think continuing to be part of the community and have memorable experiences like that is something that will be important forever.”

Fisher circled around the area for a while, giving Fergus a rare visual treat in addition to the hits of nostalgia from flying in a familiar plane.

“I saw things I hadn’t seen before. I didn’t know we had so many lakes” Fergus said.

Fergus was an air gunner in the U.S. Army Air Corps, shooting at enemy fighters in Italy. During his Dream Flight, he wore a leather pilot’s cap and aviation goggles that looked as if they came straight from his old cockpit. When they landed, he had a big smile on his face.

“I think Walt’s addicted,” Fisher said.

Fergus’ plane was shot down over Italy and he was taken to a German POW camp. He spent the duration of the war in the prison camp until the U.S. and Allied forces shot through a lock and busted him out of there.

“The man almost gave his life for our freedom,” Fisher said. “This is just our way of saying, ‘thanks, Walt.’”

For more information about the Ageless Aviation Dreams Foundation, visit: agelessaviationdreams.org

To learn more about the Primrose Retirement Community of Wasilla, call: 907-268-3611.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com