GAINESVILLE - Approximately fifty friends, family, and comrades-in-arms were on the tarmac at Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport Friday morning waving American flags as Verl Fisher boarded his aircraft.
Many years ago Fisher had flown two dozen successful missions over Germany for the Army Air Force during World War II until the bad weather of a day known as Black Thursday led to his B-17 being shot down over Axis territory.
Capt. Fisher spent the next 19 months at Stalag 3, as a prisoner of war.
Friday, Fisher prepared for what is likely his final flight.
Fisher is moving from Dogwood Forest Assisted Living in Gainesville to Fairview Nursing Home in Decatur, Ill., where he will be near family. Fisher is 91 years old and has been under Hospice Care for the past several months.
Lisa Fry, Hospice Nurse with the Northeast Georgia Medical Center, said that Fisher had made many friends during his stay at Dogwood Forest, and because of one of those friendships he is the beneficiary of the use of a twin-engine aircraft.
Among the others present were two members of Gainesville's Charlie Company, 48th Infantry, Georgia Army National Guard, thanking Fisher for his time in the military.
Just before taking his seat on the aircraft Fisher was given restored photographs of his B-17 crew. "Four of those guys died. There was nothing I could do,"
Thursday
April 25th, 2024
5:43AM
