A World War II veteran celebrated his 95th birthday Saturday with a tandem skydive in Whiteville, a small town about 60 miles east of Memphis.
Roy Angin lives in Hernando, Mississippi, at the Wesley Meadows Retirement Community. He attended the U.S. Army Airborne School in 1940 and served overseas as a paratrooper in the war, said Alex Coker, a skydiver instructor and DeSoto County Sheriff’s deputy, reports WREG News Channel 3.
Angin and Coker flew to 14,500 feet above Tennessee for the tandem skydive. The skydive was arranged through West Tennessee Skydiving.
Angin hadn’t jumped in more than 60 years, according to Karen Hill, program director at the retirement community. But Angin told her it was on his bucket list and that if former President George H.W. Bush could do it, so could he. In 2014, Bush, also a WWII veteran, celebrated his 90th birthday by skydiving. Bush also went skydiving when he turned 75, 80 and 85.
Angin is already thinking about jumping again on his 100th birthday.
He is currently the star of the retirement community’s Facebook page. He is pictured in the center’s profile photo wearing a t-shirt reading, “Skydiving@95.” There are also several posts featuring news coverage of his feat.
