This Thursday, former B-17 pilot Harold Rochette, 89, will set foot inside a Flying Fortress again—more than 60 years since his last bombing mission—and ride as an honored passenger in a flight from Stewart International Airport, in Newburgh, N.Y., to Waterbury-Oxford Airport, in Oxford, Conn. The Record-Journal of Meriden, Conn., reported Sept. 1 that the flight is sponsored by the Massachusetts-based, non-profit Collings Foundation that restores World War II-era aircraft and displays and flies them at airfields across the country. A B-24, B-25, and P-51 will accompany the B-17 for the heritage flight. Two other World War II veterans will join Rochette: Frank Petrillo, 90, a former B-17 bombardier from Waterbury, and Walter Hushak, 85, a former B-24 pilot from Southington, Conn., who organizes Connecticut events for the foundation. “I never thought 60 years later that I’d have a chance to fly in one of these aircraft again,” said Hushak.
Army Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli, head of U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe, warned that Russia would remain an enduring threat to NATO and global security, regardless of the outcome of the war in Ukraine.