News and Media
Relations contact: Jimmy Hart, 615-898-5131 or Jimmy.Hart@mtsu.edu
MURFREESBORO — Three
veterans returned to the skies Wednesday when MTSU partnered with the Tennessee
State Veterans Home in Murfreesboro to fulfill their wish and honor their
service.
MTSU aerospace professor and pilot Terry Dorris and
professor Tony Johnston met the residents at the Murfreesboro Airport for the
flights on the MTSU Aerospace’s single-engine 1953 DeHavilland Beaver.
State Veterans Affairs Commissioner Many-Bears Grinder and
some of her staff also attended to show support for veterans, who were
accompanied by medical personnel from the State Veterans Home as a precaution.
Veterans on the flight:
• Will Tuttle, 82, served more than 20 years in the
U.S. Air Force as a paratrooper in the Korean and Vietnam wars. Tuttle also
wrote the program for Combat Controller Training.
• Leticia Fort, 72, served in the U.S. Air Force during
Vietnam. Fort served with air emergency evacuation teams to provide medical
care for troops wounded on the battlefield.
• Lynn Holliday, 70, served more than 20 years in the
U.S. Navy in the legal administrative offices. Holliday also served during
Vietnam. He studied to be a pilot but could not afford to get his license. It
had always been his dream to fly.
Johnston, a professor in the Department of Agribusiness and
Agriscience, said he and Dorris have done several of these flights in recent
years, working with Veterans Home activity director Barbara Cochran, who shares
veterans’ requests with them periodically.
“My father was at state VA before and my mother is there
now, so I have a long-standing connection to the facility,” said Johnston, a
National Guard member who has two decades of active and reserve duty.
The flights began after “one of the veterans made comment to
the activity director that he wished he could fly one more time before he
died,” he said.
Johnston said that for some veterans, the flights become a
final check on their bucket lists. He recalled a previous flight where one of
the veterans passed away just two weeks after his flight.
“We’re honored to be able to do this for some of our
veterans,” he said.
About MTSU
Founded in 1911 as
one of three state normal schools for teacher training, MTSU is now the oldest
and largest public university in Middle Tennessee. With an enrollment of more
than 25,000 students, MTSU is the largest undergraduate university in Tennessee.
MTSU remains
committed to providing individualized service in an exciting and nurturing
atmosphere where student success is the top priority. With a wide variety of
nationally recognized academic degree programs at the baccalaureate, master's
and doctoral levels, MTSU takes pride in educating the best and the brightest
students from Tennessee and around the world.
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MTSU is committed to
developing a community devoted to learning, growth, and service. We hold these
values dear, and there’s a simple phrase that conveys them: “I am True
Blue.” Learn more at www.mtsu.edu/trueblue.
For MTSU news anytime, visit www.MTSUNews.com.
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