Families united in grief
Veteran yearned to fly again. 'That was his dream.'
By Emma Graves Fitzsimmons, Antonio Olivo and James Kimberly Chicago Tribune reporters
October 17, 2008
Delbert Waugh wanted to fly so badly that every few weeks he left the comfort of his suburban Indianapolis home to bunk in a Bolingbrook airstrip hangar so he could pilot an Air Angels helicopter around Chicago.
In his late 60s, the veteran Vietnam chopper pilot had found the perfect job: flying again and helping those in need, especially children, said his friend Rick Rector.
"His crew and his patient," that's what mattered to him, said Rector, who gathered Thursday with other pals of the 69-year-old at their hangout, the VFW hall in Carmel, Ind.
Waugh, a recipient of two Purple Hearts in Vietnam, who friends said was recently divorced and the father of an adult son, was piloting the Air Angels helicopter that crashed Wednesday.
His crew, nurse William Mann Jr., 31, and paramedic Ronald Battiato, 41, died along with their 13-month-old patient, Kirstin Blockinger.
Around the VFW hall, friends called Waugh "Colonel" because he retired from the military as a lieutenant colonel, said VFW manager Tammy Lee.
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