LOGANSPORT — One final flight. It is the only thing a Logansport World War II veteran wanted to do when asked his last wish. This week, Wilbur Trinen got the chance to take to the skies.
On Tuesday morning, the 98-year-old flew with his nurse, Julie and a volunteer pilot over Logansport leaving from the Logansport/Cass County Airport.
Aviation is truly the Army veteran’s passion. During WWII, Trinen worked as a topographer and once he returned back home, he worked at Grissom Air Force Base as a Leader with the Civil Air Patrol.
Trinen said he wanted to fly since he was a child. In 1959, he took his first solo flight and from then on, owned eight different planes. He also served on the board at the Logansport/Cass County Airport.
In a Zoom interview, Trinen said he and his friends pitched in $1,000 each to purchase a shared plane in the ‘50s.
“We were called the ‘Flying Farmers,’“ Trinen recalled.
The Logansport native lives with his 93-year-old wife, Jean, at McKinney Place. The staff there and Physiocare Hospice together granted Trinen’s last wish to fly once again on Tuesday.
“Well, what's not to like? I mean everything came off real good. The weather cooperated and I think God’s on my side,” Trinen said.
West Lafayette-based flight instructor Jason Snow volunteered to be Trinen’s pilot for the trip around Logansport.
“Wilbur and other WWII veterans, as Americans I think we owe them a lot. And then his history in aviation. Those were the years that pilots basically made our airspace and allowed me to be a pilot who can fly safely and efficiently in the sky, so I felt like I had a lot to give back to Wilbur,” Snow said.
