90-year-old WWII vet spends birthday wing walking (VIDEO)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxJvN4GAHVE

John Weston, who spent his teens as a rear gunner on an RAF Lancaster bomber over Hitler’s Germany, brought in his 90th in style.

Although he had to lose weight to fit into his old leather and cork flight helmet, Weston took it in stride as he prepared to strap into the top wing of a 1942 Boeing-Stearman biplane and rocket along at 500 feet.

Weston spent the war as a member of the aircrew of a Royal Air Force Avro Lancaster, roughly the British equivalent to the B-17 Flying Fortress. His job was to man a four-pack of Browning  Mark II machine guns and give polite warnings in the form of .303 tracers to German fighters coming up on the big bomber’s tail.

A shocking 3,249 Lancasters were lost during the war, leading to horrible casualty rates among their crews.

When asked how his wing-walking compared to his RAF service, Weston laughed.

“I ain’t got somebody trying to shoot me down,” Weston said with a smile.

Weston made his flight in an effort to raise funds for the Alzheimer’s Society after losing his wife to the disease.

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