Biplane rides rekindle memories for veterans

ROSEBURG, Ore. – A hazy fog covering Roseburg Municipal Airport on a recent morning melted away just in time for Paul Bodenhamer Sr. to spot a red-and-white 1943 Boeing Stearman biplane as it descended from the heavens.

Bodenhamer, 87, of Roseburg, was a pilot in the Army Air Corps during World War II and took his first flying lessons in a Stearman.

Almost seven decades later, Bodenhamer took the controls again on April 12, thanks to a father and son who have spent the last two weeks flying their vintage plane across the country to give aging veterans free rides.

“I have never even dreamt about anything like this,” Bodenhamer said. “It was just like sitting in an old chair.”

Former Oregon senator and one-time Roseburg resident Bill Fisher, 75, has owned the biplane for about 30 years and recently had it restored to its original glory.

Fisher, now of Salem, and his son, Darryl, are two links in a long family line of pilots. The two have long dreamed of traveling the country by way of the biplane. The dream became a reality when they retrieved the plane after shipping it across the country for restoration.

“We picked it up in Mississippi, and we flew it all the way east to South Carolina. Then we have been taking seniors and WWII veterans on rides on the way back,” said 47-year-old Darryl Fisher, who lives in Reno, Nev.

Darryl Fisher said one man told him he could die happy after taking a ride in the Stearman.

“You just don’t understand how important it is (to them). And these people fought for our freedom so that my dad and I could do this,” Darryl Fisher said.