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Looking Back at World War II From 3,000 Feet

JOSEPH P. WEISS, 57, said he often fantasized about what it might have been like to be in World War II. So on a recent weekend he paid $600 to turn back the clock and participate in the re-enactment of a “fighter sweep.”

Mr. Weiss, a retired office-electronics business owner from Bay Shore, N.Y., strapped on a parachute and rode shotgun in a North American T-6 Texan fighter trainer, the lead plane of three flying wing to wing, pretending to be headed across the English Channel toward Cherbourg, France, to attack German ground forces.

Playing World War II fighter jockey — actually over Jones Beach — lasted 30 minutes, during which Mr. Weiss got to take the stick and let his imagination as well as the plane soar. “For someone like me it is an emotional experience,” he said.
Read entire article at NYT