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WW II pilot's dream wish: One more trip to the clouds
Dream Team helps make veteran's dream come true
Posted: September 3, 2013 - 8:43pm

Clifford Junior Everitt, 93, of Topeka, a World War II pilot, listens in pre-flight as instructor Rudy Wrenick shows him around the controls of the Cessna 182. ANN MARIE BUSH/THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL
ANN MARIE BUSH/THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL
Clifford Junior Everitt, 93, of Topeka, a World War II pilot, listens in pre-flight as instructor Rudy Wrenick shows him around the controls of the Cessna 182.
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By Ann Marie Bush
ann.bush@cjonline.com

Clifford Junior Everitt settled into a front seat of Cessna 182 on Tuesday, gripped the flight control column and slipped on his headphones.

The 93-year-old World War II veteran was back in the saddle as he ascended into the sky with flight instructor Rudy Wrenick.

“He is an awesome guy,” said Bonnie Snowden, a social worker at Topeka Presbyterian Manor and coordinator for the organization’s new Dream Team. “It is special just to make them happy.”

Everitt’s flight was part of the Dream Team granting a wish.

Everitt, who was a captain in the U.S. Army Air Corps, is a resident of Presbyterian Manor. When employees decided to start a Dream Team to grant wishes for all of its residents, Everitt said he wanted to fly again.

Snowden wiped away tears as she watched Everitt’s dream come true.

The process to grant Everitt’s dream started when Presbyterian Manor employees were having a bake sale about a week ago to raise money to help the Dream Team. Lee Geary, with Grace Hospice, asked about the bake sale.

“I said, ‘Why the cookies?,’ ” Geary said Tuesday.

Employees told her about the Dream Team and its project. Grace Hospice partners with Presbyterian Manor, and Geary said she wanted to help grant some wishes.

“I just started calling around,” she said.

Within a few days, Geary had made arrangements for Everitt to take a half-hour flight with Wrenick. The two departed shortly after 3 p.m. from Philip Billard Municipal Airport.

Everitt, wearing a hat with several World War II pins and a shirt that read “Proud to be an American, Prouder Yet to be a Vet,” was placed in a front seat next to Wrenick. Talea Hill, a certified nursing assistant with Presbyterian Manor, climbed into the back seat for her first ride in a plane.

Wrenick allowed Everitt to take the controls once they were in the air. Wrenick and Everitt took their passengers over the city of Topeka then east to Lake Perry and over Lawrence.

“He did really good up there,” Hill said after the flight.

Wrenick added, “He had a fun time.”

The Dream Team has granted several wishes, including taking two sisters to a family reunion in Grantville this past weekend. While some dreams are more challenging, others are as simple as taking a resident shopping or serving macaroni and cheese with shrimp for a resident’s birthday dinner.

Everitt was born in Girard in southeast Kansas in 1920. He married his wife, Nadine, in Kansas City, Mo., on April 5, 1941. Everitt enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps to learn to fly and to earn income.

After learning to fly, Everitt was assigned to train other pilots, then shipped to Europe as part of the 442nd Troop Carrier Group, the 304th Troop Carrier Squadron. That unit was part of the 9th Air Force.

He and Nadine had two children, Cyndie Rexer and James Bryan Everitt. James Everitt died in 1976. Nadine died April 3, 1995.

After the completion of his flight Tuesday, Everitt spoke with members of the media and staff members who help care for him.

“Tell him it’s a good airplane,” Everitt told one of the staff members. “It’s a really good airplane.”

Posted:
http://cjonline.com/news/2013-09-03/ww- ... rip-clouds