WWII glider pilots sail into Fairborn

[Copper]

J. Curtis Goldman always wanted to be a fighter pilot, but his eyesight kept him out of the jet cockpit, but it didn't keep him out of the sky.

Goldman piloted a glider during World War II and silently landed three times behind enemy lines in Europe.

"I always said I was a fighter pilot in a glider pilot's body," Goldman said. "I flew that glider like a fighter pilot. I did maneuvers and things no other glider pilot would. They thought I was crazy."

Goldman joined about 50 of the surviving glider pilots at a Holiday Inn in Fairborn on Saturday, Sept. 27 for the National WWII Glider Pilots Association 38th reunion.

"We had a real big turnout," said the 85-year-old from Houston. "There's not many of us left, but a lot of family members were there too."

During the war there were 6,000 glider pilots that participated in every major invasion, according to the organization's Web site. One veteran is quoted on the site describing the experience of piloting a glider "like flying a stick of dynamite through the gates of Hell." The Defense Department ended the glider program in the 1950s.

Goldman's wartime experiences are chronicled in a new book he penned called "Silent Warrior." While in Dayton he toured the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson and left some photos and mementoes celebrating glider pilots along with copies of his book at the museum.

"They never had anything from glider pilots," Goldman said. "I'll have a special place there at the Air Force museum."

Goldman worried this would be the last time he saw many of his fellow glider pilots.

"There's not many of us left," he said.