Lakewood Ranch veterans take to the skies during Dream Flight

Melanie Gutierrez sat in a World War II era open cockpit biplane feeling anxious. 

Gutierrez, a U.S. Air Force veteran who served from 1976 to 1982, is scared of heights. She was focused on not crying or stopping the plane from taking off because she wanted to overcome her fear for this honor flight. 

“No loop de loops, right?” Gutierrez said with a laugh to Darryl Fisher, the founder and president of Dream Flights.

Dream Flights is a Nevada-based organization that honors veterans with a free flight in a Boeing-Stearman biplane. 

Photo by Liz Ramos

Gutierrez, who is a resident at Cypress Springs Gracious Retirement Living, gave a thumbs up after Fisher put a World War II era pilot hat on her. She was ready to take off. 

After taking off into the clouds, Gutierrez’s nervousness melted away. She was amazed as she saw Sarasota thousands of feet below her. 

“It took off nice and slow,” Gutierrez said. “There was this peace, and I know God gave me that peace. It was a gift. It was the most beautiful thing.”

Gutierrez was one of nine Cypress Springs Gracious Retirement Living residents and veterans to go on Dream Flights April 27.

Other than a commercial airline flight, Gutierrez had never been in any other type of plane, but she has flown in a helicopter before during her time as an intensive care unit nurse in the Air Force. 

As an ICU nurse, Gutierrez helped re-acclimate airmen returning from Vietnam. 

“They were so isolated,” Gutierrez. “That was the hard thing. The human touch and stuff is what was missing (for the airmen). If you could give them that, they would sometimes come back.”

Photo by Liz Ramos

Before becoming a member of the Air Force, Gutierrez actually protested the Vietnam War while in college at Kent State. But she said she had a choice to make: be a “party girl” or build a life. 

Little did she know, her time in the Air Force would lead her to her husband, Mario Gutierrez, whom she met in Officer Training School in 1976. After 20 days, Mario and Melanie Gutierrez were married. 

Leading up to the Dream Flights, Gutierrez and Cypress Springs resident Albert Perna, who served from 1951 to 1953 in the Army, were teasing each other about the plane stunts they would do on their flights. 

But as soon as Gutierrez landed, Perna was ready to go for his turn. 

“He’s going to have a blast,” Gutierrez said about Perna. 

Perna loved his time in the sky. When he landed, he thanked Fisher for the opportunity.

“He had me strapped in so tight, I couldn’t wing walk,” Perna said with a laugh. 

Perna’s wife, Lillie, walked over to him as he talked to Fisher about his time in the Army. The Pernas watched as Fisher signed a hat for Albert Perna, or as Fisher now knows him, “Big Al.”

Photo by Liz Ramos

The Dream Flight was extra special for Ted Kimball, who served in the Army from 1967 to 1970. The flight was a birthday gift for Kimball, who celebrated his 74th birthday April 27.

Cypress Springs residents surprised Kimball with signs wishing him a happy birthday as he walked onto the tarmac to prepare for his flight.

After landing, Kimball described his trip in the sky with two words: “totally awesome. 

“I listened to all the communications with the tower, and when that engine kicked over, wow, I was just bouncing off the walls,” Kimball said. “The view was just amazing. You can see all the water, boats, hotels and houses from a birds-eye view, and you don’t often get to do that.”

Kimball said he was a “political pawn” during his time in the service. He didn’t want to be recruited to fight in Vietnam, but the recruiter, who Kimball nicknamed “Mr. Sunshine,” gave him a book of military occupational specialties. Kimball chose to specialize in nuclear weapons, but he needed to pass a test first. He said Mr. Sunshine told him he wouldn’t be able to pass the test. 

“I passed the test, and I got in and went through school,” he said. “Fifteen of us were earmarked for Vietnam. They were going to put tactical nuclear weapons in Vietnam. They sent us on a 30-day leave, and one evening when the peace talks were announced, the next morning, I had new orders. We became political pawns, if you will, in the process, but it worked. I went to Korea instead.”

During his time in South Korea, Kimball recalled a time an infiltration team was only a mile away from his base. His team provided the weapons that were loaded into missiles pointing into North Korea. He said a battery was pointed at his base in case the base was overrun and his team couldn’t destroy the weapons. 

Photo by Liz Ramos

Although it was war, Kimball always wanted to look on the bright side. 

“The people were amazing, the food was amazing, totally different than what I was used to,” he said. “There were good times and bad times, but I always try to find the good in situations like that.”

One of his favorite memories was when he walked into the mountains. He was told not to drink the water because it could cause him to get sick, but he went to a monastery that had a natural spring. 

“The water was incredible, and we didn’t care if we came down with something, which we didn’t,” Kimball said with a laugh.